(No) Sympathy for the Devil?

As a successor and strong supporter of Origen, though not an uncritical one, Didymus the Blind has long been presented as advocating controversial theological views, notably the apokatastasis. Along with Origen and Evagrius, Didymus’ views on this were condemned by the Fifth Ecumenical Council in 553 CE. In order to better understand Didymus’ theology, it is important to consider his notion of spiritual conflict and its ramifications for the friends and enemies of God. The purpose of this paper is to examine Didymus’ theology of enmity with God, in particular his interpretation of key biblical passages that indicate certain characters as enemies of God, namely Satan, the demons, and Judas Iscariot. The paper will address such questions as should Christians have any sympathy for Satan and the demons? Was Judas’ betrayal merely the selling out of Jesus based on greed, or was there a deeper betrayal of the teacher-student relationship? How do God’s enemies contrast with Didymus’ understanding of the friends of God? In addition to considering Didymus’ exegesis of these characters, the paper will examine his treatment of the New Testament command to love one’s enemies. Didymus’ doctrinal and exegetical texts will both be considered to establish his theology of spiritual conflict. Finally, these considerations will be contextualized within Didymus’ own theological milieu, where the blind scholar seems to be aware of mounting criticism of his theology, perhaps by his own students, and even possibly the conflicts swirling around several of his prominent former students (Evagrius, Jerome and Rufinus).

OPPOSING VIEWS IN WEBBER’S JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR: A DECONSTRUCTION ANALYSIS

Opposing Views in Webber's "Jesus Christ Superstar" is the focus of the analysis inthisskripsi.The approach is applied to analyze the data since the data is needed the primary source. "Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Webber Opposing views in the drama can be observed through all the characteristics of Judas Iscariot. In this drama, there are some things that are contrary for Christian because some scenes are not the same as the real story. As a result of Judas's view that made Jesus's role different, giving rise to contradictory things, Judas was one of the followers who disliked the personality of Jesus, so there was no existence of Jesus to heal, a sense of compassion, and other powers that looked ordinary. Writers use deconstruction analysis to find out the opposition the drama. Through this skripsi, the writers can find things that are contrary to Christian faith and can also be used as a moral message in everyday life, whether in religious life, moral messages for teachers, and what can be taught things that can be used as moral values to students in school as character education. Keywords: Opposing views, Deconstruction, Jesus Christ, and. Judas Iscariot.

Judas in Films

This chapter tracks the evolving and changing interpretations of filmic portrayals of Judas Iscariot from 1902 to 2017. Variations depicting Judas’s motives, his sinister behavior, his status in the apostolic band, his relationship with Jesus—and Satan—and his suicide are identified and discussed. The focus is on Judas’s characterization through appearance, dialogue, external action, internal action, reactions of other characters, dramatic foils, caricature and leitmotif, name typing, and music. Through a century of films the Judas character progressively transforms from the demonized Jew to being the mouthpiece for the oppressed and becomes the instrument of humanity’s salvation. The films analyzed are more than adaptations of the gospel account. They also reflect the social, political, and cultural concerns of their time and stand as artifacts of pluralistic and diverse societies.

The Judas Iscariot Syndrome and Its Implication for Accounting Educators

The study is qualitative and applied the appreciative inquiry approach to address the "Judas Iscariot syndrome" of misappropriation and wrong assumptions among accountants and treasurers. It is believed that Seventh-day Adventist universities integrate faith and learning in their educational curriculum to cause a behavioral change. There seems to be a gap between knowledge, values, and the practice of accounting and financial management. From the biblical perspective, Judas Iscariot was the treasurer among the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ, but he was said to be a thief (see John 12:4-6). This study utilized a semi-structured, self-developed, open-ended questions in interviewing ten accounting educators at Valley View University, Ghana from the Oyibi and Techiman campuses and based on the triangulation method and the 5-D cycle approach of appreciative inquiry (Define, Discover, Dream, Design, and Delivery). The study revealed that in order to generate positive change, self-discipline, truthfulness, and conscience to duty must be inculcated into the current accounting education to make the student dream to have contentment. The achievement of contentment is based on a design of biblical and ethical discussion, sharing of examples and personal experiences, truth writing and telling, and audiovisual presentation. The study recommends that accounting educators must live an exemplary life, mentor students, use ethical simulations and debates to instill self-discipline, truthfulness, and conscience to duty. A roadmap of Christian Behavior Change for Accounting Educators is developed.

Tragical Mimesis and Biblical Interpretation II

This chapter, following on the last, expands to other case studies of dramatic interpretation and tragical mimesis in patristic exposition of tragic narratives in the Bible beyond Genesis, in Old and New Testaments alike. The horrific story of Jephthah’s fateful vow and the “sacrifice” of his daughter (Judges 11), perhaps the best single example of tragedy in the Hebrew Scriptures, vexed its patristic interpreters by its ostensive moral senselessness and resistance to theological redeemability. The flawed character of other tragic heroes such as Samson and King Saul added to the hermeneutical perplexity, while the story of Job was largely taken as a testament of pious endurance of tragic circumstances. The New Testament meanwhile presented, to its patristic interpreters, the proto-Christian “tragic heroics” of the Holy Innocents and John the Baptist, and the “tragic villainy” of Judas Iscariot and Ananias and Sapphira, each story prompting its own questions about freedom, determinism, and divine justice. Early Christian interpreters consistently put forward and even amplified the elements of tragedy in these stories in order to educate their own audiences in confronting irrevocable evil and suffering.

Judas Iscariot’s Semiotic Image in Ukrainian Literature at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century

The article under consideration is devoted to the semiotic analyses of the bib­lical apostle Judas Iscariot, one of the most contradictory religious characters. The article demonstrates the semiotic paradigm of Judas, including portrait semiotics (paleness, timidity, secrecy and slouch), gesture semiotics (abrupt movements) and symbolic semiotics (hopelessness, suicide). The research stresses the aspect of venality. It is proved that Judas Iscariot became the arche­type of venality not only in literature, but in art generally. The article’s sum­mary will be used for students learning literary criticism and philologists.