Preaching, the city, and the saints: an analysis of the civic-liturgical context of the Venit in civitatem suam sermons (1304) by Giordano da Pisa (c. 1260-1311)

ABSTRACT This article explores the civic-liturgical context of three sermons by the friar Preacher Giordano da Pisa, delivered during a same week of 1304 in Florence (two on Sunday and one on Thursday), all of them from the verse of Matthew 9, 1 (Venit in civitatem suam). Based on considerations regarding the choice of the biblical verse, as well as the examination of other documents of the Dominican Order and two liturgical books of the Florentine cathedral, I argue that the friar deliberately chose not to follow the liturgical customs of sermon composition in these preachings. Thus, it is concluded that this procedure was made to establish a reflection on the city (the quintessential human environment, both on Earth and in Heaven) in view of the civic-religious feast of Saint Reparata, Florence’s patroness saint, which took place on Thursday.

“One Should Finally Learn How to Read This Breath”: Paul Celan and the Buber-Rosenzweig Bible

This article examines Paul Celan’s use of the terms cola and breath-unit in his notes for the 1960 “Meridian” address. In the 1920s, Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig developed their “colometric translation” of the Bible, using the breath-unit to capture, in German, the spoken qualities of the Hebrew Bible by allowing the human breath to dictate line divisions. Celan repurposed the breath-unit for his post-Shoah poetics: it registered, for him, a further disruption of the Hebrew-German translational link, following the demise of the Jewish community of readers. Celan’s breath-unit became a measure of silence, marking the pauses between poetic lines as sites of interrupted breathing, which entail a painful encounter with deformation and murder. Furthermore, if Buber and Rosenzweig used their breath-inspired cola to bypass the traditional line divisions of biblical verse, Celan’s radicalized breath-unit can be understood as a response to the musicality attributed to his earlier poetry; he drew on the singularity of the breath to forge ever shorter lines and vertical, severed poems that culminate in the lost or buried word.

Isaiah 10:34 and the “Ambiguous Oracle” in Josephus, Bellum 6.312–313 (Part One)

One of the most disputed passages in Josephus is found only late in his account of the Jewish war against Rome, 66–70 CE. After relating numerous phenomena he considered portents of the destruction of Jerusalem with the Temple, he notes two oracles. The first, in Bell. 6.311, has never been traced back to a specific scriptural passage or Judaic tradition. The second, in 6.312–13, is the object of this study, in which I argue that Isa. 10:34 is the biblical verse behind the “ambiguous oracle.”

Developments in the Syntax and Logic of the Talmudic Hermeneutic Kelal Uferaṭ Ukelal

The purpose of this study is to show that the logical content of a Tann’ayitic hermeneutic changed and developed as it passed into the hands of the ’Amor’ayim, the Tann’ayim’s successors, and then into the anonymous stratum of the Babylonian Talmud. This hermeneutic was based on a very specific syntactical order in a biblical verse, which was formed by an initial inclusive clause, followed by a list of specifics, and then followed by a second inclusive clause. This hermeneutic is called in Hebrew kelal uferaṭ ukelal. In the Tann’ayitic period the hermeneutic required that the second inclusive clause had to be more extensive than the first one. It appears that this new degree of extensiveness suggested that the list of specifics was not definitive of the initial inclusive clause and that other things might be implied by the second one. The way that the rabbinic interpreter determined what these things might be was by seeking the common characteristics that the items in the specifics clause shared. By the time of the late Tann’ayim and early ’Amor’ayim the requirement for the two inclusive clauses had changed. The formal syntax of the hermeneutic remained, but inclusive clauses had to be equal in their degree of inclusivity. The change in logic seems to be the result of viewing a second, more inclusive clause as a distinct element that could be disconnected from the first inclusive clause and the specifics that follow it. If the two inclusive clauses were, however, the same or similar, the rabbinic interpreter could argue that they belonged to the same categories and thus formed a legitimate kelal uferaṭ ukelal. In the final period of the Talmud’s creation neither the syntactic nor logical requirements were any longer needed to form a kelal uferaṭ ukelal. Two artificially constructed inclusive clauses and some specifics could appear in almost any order within a biblical verse and be considered a kelal uferaṭ ukelal. It appears that the desire of the rabbinic interpreters of each era to connect their halakot to the Torah was the force behind the changes we have described.

Cultivar e guardar a criação: Estudo exegético de Gn 2,15

Resumo: O lema, ou seja, o versículo inspirador da Campanha da Fraternidadedeste ano, Gênesis 2,15, que nos apresenta a missão dada por Deus ao ser humano,recém-plasmado do solo. O Senhor Deus o estabelece no jardim do Éden,com a missão de “cultivá-lo e guardá-lo”. Sem pretender tratar exaustivamentedo tema, o artigo faz primeiro um breve estudo do texto original, hebraico, doversículo, e de suas versões grega e latina, para a seguir apresentar algumasamostras de interpretação, desde Santo Agostinho até o Papa Francisco, naLaudato Si’, concluindo com algumas propostas.Palavras-chave: Campanha da Fraternidade. Lema bíblico. Exegese. Ecologia.Abstract: The slogan, that is, the inspiring biblical verse for the Fraternity Campaignof this year, is Gn 2.15, which presents God given mission to the humanbeing, recently formed from the soil. The Lord God establishes him in the gardenof Eden, with the mission of cultivating and caring for it. Without pretending tothoroughly study the theme, the paper first examines briefly the original Hebrewtext of the verse, and then its Greek and Latin versions and secondly presentssome samples of interpretation, since Saint Augustine until Pope Francis, in hisLaudato Si’ encyclical, concluding with some practical proposals.Keywords: Fraternity Campaign. Biblical slogan. Exegesis. Ecology.

Calling, is there anything special about it?

Within the Reformed tradition, ‘calling’ is a core concept. Often, this biblical verse is cited when a pastor is installed or a new candidate is ordained, ‘The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it’ (1 Th 5:24 NIV). It is also confessed within this tradition that all Christians are called to be faithful ministers of the graces of God in whatever profession they may serve. In some Presbyterian congregations, it is a practice to say at the baptism of a child, ‘This is your ordination to ministry’. This article focuses on what is meant by calling when we use it in so many ways and with so many meanings. The first part explores the use of the concept in church history by different scholars and leaders – like in the Reformation. The second part briefly explores the implications and impact of the calling of someone into full-time congregational ministry.