Vol 95 (2014)

Ps 47,6 states that God has 'gone up' but does not clarify where He is ascending to. In recent research this verse is therefore interpreted in many different ways. To be sure, the ambiguity of this verse definitely affects the interpretation of the Psalm as a whole. In this article we argue that V. 6 - when read in the context of Psalm 47 and of Psalms 46-48 - may express the strong belief that God returns back to Jerusalem / Zion after the exile.

The biblical perspective that a receiver of God's promises is not allowed to claim these promises is called non-appropriation theology. Psalm 65 can be read as an example of this non-appropriation theology. The 'I'- character does not claim the fertile Land but can only speak about the abundance of the harvest of their wheat (v. 10). The heading of Psalm 65, identifying the 'I'-character as David, preserves the non-appropriation theology. This non-appropriation theology is retained in the receptionhistory of Psalm 65, as can be found in the Septuagint and the liturgical use of Psalm 65 in the funeral Mass.

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The book of Hosea was composed a short time after the Assyrian conquest of Israel and by a group of Israelites that had fled to Judah. The kernel of the book comes from a series of critical statements about cultic personnel and Israel's society. The book integrated later reflections on national guilt and tried to infuse religious hope to the Israelite refugees in Judah.

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This article explores the problems posed by language due to its imprecision, the disparity between what one says (or means to say) and what is interpreted. Ben Sira warns his readers of the dangers posed by the changing contexts of an utterance. Sensitivity to context reflects other aspects of Ben Sira's teaching, such as his awareness of people's differing perspectives. In addition, Ben Sira is concerned that his readers be aware of the multiple meanings behind words due to the polysemous nature of the words themselves, their morphology, and/or how they are used.

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This article examines the reception-history of Mark 15,39 to shed new light on this pivotal and disputed verse. Mark's earliest known readers emended the text to clarify the centurion's feelings about Jesus and to explain how the centurion came to faith. Copyists inserted references to Jesus' final yell around the same time that patristic commentators were claiming that this yell was a miracle that proved Jesus' divinity, an interpretation which was enshrined in the Byzantine text and the Vulgate. The article concludes that a 'sarcastic' reading is a more adequate description of 15,39 as found in B, NA²⁸ etc.

The Levitical prayer in Nehemiah 9 contributes to the gola-ideology running throughout Ezra-Nehemiah, but scholars have generally recognized that its compositional origins are to be connected to the Homeland communities of the exilic or early Persian periods. The present study identifies features in the prayer which suggest that its authors were Levites associated with the Homeland communities and that these authors crafted the prayer in response to the exclusive and elitist ideology of the gola groups. The prayer testifies to tensions within Levite circles well into the Persian period and possibly even beyond.

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Intertextuality has been used to label a plethora of investigations into textual relationships. During the past few decades, the debate regarding the definition of intertextuality has largely been resolved, yet scholars continue to misuse the term to refer to diachronic and/or author-centered approaches to determining textual relationships. This article calls for employing methodological vocabulary ethically by outlining the primary differences between - and different uses for - intertextuality, inner-biblical exegesis, and inner-biblical allusion.