James Alfred Loader

University of Vienna | UniWien · Department of Old Testament Studies and Biblical Archaeology

This article argues that Proverbs 18:4 contains an exceptionally rich use of water as metaphors in sapiential literature. At the same time, the verse illustrates the multivalent applicability of a single proverb. Israel’s natural environment is shortly described as pictured in the biblical texts, suggesting the interplay of water and dry land in th...

This article argues the following thesis: The distinctive characteristics of Philipp Melanchthon’s Explicatio Proverbiorum Salomonis (1525 and following years) and the differences between the several editions or versions of it can only partly be explained by the origins of the book in Melanchthon’s teaching activities during the ferment at German u...

Taking its cue from Rudolf Bultmann’s famous verdict that the Old Testament is a ‘failure’ (‘Scheitern’), the article reviews three influential negative readings of Israel’s history as told in the Former Prophets. It is then argued that awareness of the theological problem posed by Israel’s history enabled the redactors of both the former and the l...

It is shown that the wisdom of the sages represented in the Book of Proverbs pushes at the limits of wisdom's rational basis in such a way as to question its own possibilities. The assumption that the Book of Proverbs represents the affirming side of wisdom whereas the Books of Ecclesiastes and Job represent its critical counter-pole is queried. It...

There are two dimensions to the argument offered in this article, both of them pertaining to methodological issues. The first is that of distinguishing textual criticism from redactional criticism, especially with recourse to the critical apparatus of the Stuttgart Hebrew Bibles. Secondly, the danger of over-emphasising the sound distinction betwee...

This article questions the claim that beauty in the Old Testament has nothing to do with salvation, but exclusively belongs in the realm of the reputedly unrelated idea of »blessing«. The argument is unfolded in three steps: First, it is shown that the logical components of the concepts salvation and blessing are very alike, and from a number of te...

In the OT "remembering" often denotes the experience of reliving special events of the past and thereby making them virtually present. Several texts are advanced in an argument that, where remembering is aided by an external sign or symbol, its function is not necessarily limited to the prevention of forgetting but also to stimulate constructive me...

Following on a study of the perception of human beauty in the Old Testament, this article proposes to extend the topic by enquiring into the perception of what is beautiful in that which humans do. Apart from pictorial art, five spheres of human achievement perceived to be beautiful are considered, namely crafts, music, words, wisdom and food. With...

Speaking of the dark side of beauty implies a bright side as well and therefore points to an ambivalence in the concept of beauty. Whereas this can perhaps be most clearly seen in the nineteenth-century romanticist idea of the beauty of repugnance, ancient Israel never regarded "the ugly" as beautiful. But she could and did consider as straight-for...

This article focused on a single proverb, viz. Proverbs 17:16. The syntax and stylistic features were analysed to demonstrate the extreme polyvalence that can characterise terse aphorisms. Fifteen readings were examined and evaluated, resulting in the distillation of four equally valid clusters of meaning. This informed the argument that the tersen...

The motif from the Exodus story of Moses as a beautiful infant is considered on several levels. Firstly, the immediate context of Exodus 2 in the Hebrew Bible and in the Septuagint is investigated. Exodus 2 is then related to the reception of the tradition in the New Testament and Jewish sources as well as in a patristic reading and one from the Re...

The paradox in the famous declaration of Psalm 19 that the heavens 'narrate' the glory of God and that this message of nature is 'inaudible' prompts the question as to the sense of speaking about a striking divine appearance without words (pun intended). In the light of the equally paradoxical presence of the motif of not-seeing in Old Testament th...

The motif from the Exodus story of Moses as a beautiful infant is considered on several levels. Firstly, the immediate context of Exodus 2 in the Hebrew Bible and in the Septuagint is investigated. Exodus 2 is then related to the reception of the tradition in the New Testament and Jewish sources as well as in a patristic reading and one from the Re...

The essay is based on two observations: First, a single psalm of David (Ps 86) finds itself in the middle of four Korah Psalms, which generates the question as to the meaning of the contextual relationship between one part of a whole and another part of the same whole. Second, a certain form-critical symmetry exists within the group centring on Psa...

This paper shows how Calvin’s ideas about the Old Testament concept of Israel’s election can be dangerous when they are applied uncritically. The main illustration material is drawn from a context the author was himself part of, notably the South African apartheid theology of Calvinist provenance. The paper begins with documenting Calvin’s views on...

This article analyses repetition and variance in God's two commissions to Jonah. The differences do not only concern the fact that the commissions occur at subsequent points in narrated time and that Jonah first disobeys and afterwards obeys, but also entail intertextual references, subtle idiomatic variance, plusses and minuses, and even a curious...

The formal problematic of the concept hebraica veritas Proceeding from the importance of the concept of hebraica veritas in terms of both its original intention and of the opposing positions on Holy Scripture entertained by the Roman Catholic tradition and the emerging Protestant views during the Reformation, a brief discussion of the meaning and...

Starting with a recently proposed thesis that the key to recognizing the coherence of Proverbs’ discourse of wealth and poverty should be seen in an appreciation of the text’s figurative interpretive possibilities, it is here argued that criticism of an “overly literal” interpretation of the Book of Proverbs is not well served by an “overly figurat...

The novelty of the canonical approach is questioned and its fascination at least partly traced to the Reformation, as well as to the post-Reformation’s need for a clear and authoritative canon to perform the function previously performed by the church. This does not minimise the elusiveness and deeply contradictory positions both within the canon a...

The seventh commandment, Calvin and CanticlesTaking the Seventh Commandment (according to the numbering of the Calvinist tradition) as its focus, this article examines the hermeneutical principles of the Reformer, John Calvin, for the exposition of the Decalogue. This is related to a consideration of the ‘theological meaning’ of the Book of Canticl...

The title, a parody on Ruth 4:15bb and Proverbs 31:28, counterposes the motif of praise in the final scene of what is probably the opus classicum for the foregrounding of women in the Old Testament with the same motif in a text notorious for praising women into subservience. After a short presentation of the text of Ruth 4:13-17, its main ideas and...

This article questions the simplicity with which not only Old Testament specialists, but theologians in general – especially in the Protestant tradition – usually identify the Hebrew text as printed in the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (and its predecessors) as the “real” Old Testament. The relevant questions are grouped into four clusters: What i...

Proceeding from the importance of the concept of hebraica veritas in terms of both its original intention and of the opposing positions on Holy Scripture entertained by the Roman Catholic tradition and the emerging Protestant views during the Reformation, a brief discussion of the meaning and early context of the concept is given. The formal proble...

This article proceeds from the tenet that the Old Testament is, in various different ways, a layered text, to argue that the interpretation of the so-called 'final' text can only be done if the intertextual influence of the various pre-texts on the final text is taken into consideration. The different levels of intertextuality between a text and it...

Taking the Seventh Commandment (according to the numbering of the Calvinist tradition) as its focus, this article examines the hermeneutical principles of the Reformer, John Calvin, for the exposition of the Decalogue. This is related to a consideration of the 'theological meaning' of the Book of Canticles (Song of Songs), an Old Testament book whi...

Both the structure of the overarching literary blocks in the Pentateuch (primarily containing either narrative or legal material) and the unfolding of its story line attest to the fact that the legal sections in the Pentateuch are subsumed under the narrative material in light of the flexibility of the concept of "theme", the article argues that th...

Downstream - On Biblical hermeneutics in the context of the recent Anglo-Saxon debateThis paper, delivered at the 2000 meeting of the Rudolf Bultmann Society at Hofgeismar in Germany, offers a survey of recent developments in literary criticism in the English-speaking world. Contributions to the systematic reflection on issues relevant for theology...

The house of Eli and the house of David: how God can go back on God,s word. The interpretation of the rejection of Abiathar in terms of the Eli tradition offers an important indication of the intention of the Succession Narrative. The work does not only have a positive as well as a negative tendency as far as the Davidic dynasty is concerned, but t...

On the basis of the evidence of publications daing from the eighteenth century, this paper argues that the orthodox doctrine of the verbal inspiration the Bible caused extreme views on the language of the Old Testament which could maybe transferred to the "heathen" language of the New Testament. The resulting void was filled by focussing on the Jew...

In die Nederduitsch Hervonnde Kerk van Afrika is die odium theologicum geen vreemdeling nie. Daar is verskeie illustrasies van moontlik. Ben verskyningsvonn daarvan is die heftige polemiese trant van talle publikasies van S P Engelbrecht2, J G M Dreyer3 en andere. Dit staan in 'n ou Transvaalse tradisie, soos onder andere gesien kan word in die laa...

The Lord’s way in the desert or: God’s highway in the Wilderness. On A Story of two Ways This paper contends that the history of the study of the Old Testament in South Africa, written by Professor J. H. le Roux, is a very important work, although flawed in certain respects. It is argued that the author himself reads his texts too ‘immanently', tha...

In this paper it is argued that the motif of the matriarch is not only present in the Book of Ruth, but that it also fulfils an important role. Several motifs and clusters of motifs established in the patriarchal narratives, especially that of the protection of the matriarch, are shown to be used in such a way that Ruth is portrayed as a typical ma...

The use made of the Sodom and Gomorrah theme by the pre-exilic prophets is investigated first in the book of Osiah, where most of the ‘Sodom passages’ occur, after which oth er eighth-century prophets as well (as later pre-exilic prophets) a re in corporated into the investigation. Finally, the complex of prophetic motifs is related to the Sodom st...

Environmental education is described as an enterprise aiming at a philosophy of life and therefore as a matter of life. This suggests the concept of life as a natural foundation for an approach to environmental education. Therefore a reflection on the phenomenon of life is offered in which the 'philosophy of life' or vitalist philosophy i...

Establishment and first period of the Hervormde theological training at the University of Pretoria In this study the establishment of the Hervormde theological training at the University of Pretoria is researched with the purpose of identifying the ecclesiastical, religious and theological factors that influenced the emergence and development of a...

Tertium datur - on the conception of truth in Dutch 'Ethical Theology' In this article the 'third option' on the Dutch theological scene of a century ago is examined. The 'Ethical Theology', as this option is known, is explained on the basis of its characteristic conception of truth as something that cannot be encapsulated in propositions but which...

JJP Valeton Jnr was one of the main founders of the theological current in nineteenth century Holland called 'the ethical theology'. Some of the most prominent members of this current were, like Valeton, Old Testament specialists. One of the main characteristics of the ethicals was their distinction between scientific knowledge and the knowledge of...

Wanneer ons ons aan hierdie geweldige onderwerp waag, is daar teoreties verskillende maniere waarop ons te werk kan gaan. Ons sou in die kerklike tradisie kon nagaan watter gedeeltes van die Ou Testament gewoonlik as Christusprediking opgevat is en vervolgens ’n eksegetiese toetsing van die tradisionele menings kon onderneem. Ons sou ook dié gedeel...

The house of Eli and the house of David: how God can go back on God's word The interpretation of the rejection of Abiathar in terms of the Eli tradition offers an important indication of the intention of the Succession Narrative. The work does not only have a positive as well as a negative tendency as far as the Davidic dynasty is concerned, but th...

On the one hand, the often held thesis is challenged that Calvin, contrary to his rejection of allegorical exegesis, himself supported an allegorical understanding of the Song of Songs. On the other hand, a proposal is put forward as to how his clear elimination of the "natural" or erotic sense and his distinctive use of the "spiritual" sense can b...