Zeitschriftenartikel zum Thema „Biblical Cosmogony“

The history of controversy over evolution and the bible is a history of confusion between biblical and scientific approaches to origins. Taking some cues from John Calvin who, in the 16th century, addressed the emerging controversies over cosmology, the paper examines a variety of differences between biblical and scientific types of literature as they deal with cosmogony. Biblical uses of phenomenal observation, analogical reasoning, numerology, and theological critique are distinguished from the approaches to origins used in modern scientific and historical investigations. Their respective models of origins are not in conflict unless they are mistakenly seen as mapping in the same way and for the same purposes.

Abstract After some preliminary remarks on Cyril’s two works on the Pentateuch, De adoratione and Glaphyra, as well as the σκοπός of the biblical text, this contribution deals with Cyril’s reading of the biblical account of the creation of the universe and creation of man. In contrast to other interpreters, e. g., the Cappadocian fathers, the Alexandrian patriarch does not show interest in a detailed explanation of cosmogony based on natural philosophy. He rather emphasizes the limits of the human mind in understanding the details of the act of God’s creation of the world. According to Cyril’s understanding of the goal of Moses’ writings, his exegesis of Genesis focuses especially on the creation of man. Convinced that Moses wrote his books as moral instruction to lead men to God, Cyril interprets selected parts of Genesis in a typological way in order to show man’s journey from the fall into sin to the restoration of a holy life.

The article shows a comparison between two ideas or ‘models' of community, Tönnies Gemeinschaft, reworked by Schmitt, and the Latin American indigenous peoples' Comunidad. A comparison that starts from the respective origin myths (the biblical Genesis on one hand, and the Maya cosmogony narrated in the Popol Vuh on the other) and arrives at the reflections on the subject of rights and freedoms that these narratives still produce today, in contemporary intercultural societies. The study focuses in particular on how the element of identity and belonging to a community can be used to motivate policies and laws oriented to the exclusion or inclusion, to discrimination or emancipation.

Наиболее фундаментальным и типичным видом мифотворчества осетин являются космогонические мифы. Космогонические мифы повествуют о происхождении космоса в целом и его частей, связанных в единой системе. Основным начальным сюжетом творения мира в осетинской космогонии является происхождение космоса из хаоса. Часть космогонии составляют антропогонические мифы, в том числе о сотворении человека, первой человеческой пары или первых людей. Осетинская мифология, восходящая к индоиранскому наследию, испытала влияние христианства, ислама и кавказской культурной общности. Актуальность исследования мотива творения человека заключается в том, что изучение антропогонических мифов составляет значимое звено по осмыслению целостной мифологической картины мира осетин. На основе типологического сравнения в статье рассматриваются сюжеты, восходящие к библейским мифам о творении человека. Осетинские мифы об Атане и Амане, об Арыге и Магре, несмотря на использование фольклорных традиций осетин при их пересказе, в своей основе сохраняют библейские рассказы об Адаме и Еве, потопе и Ноевом ковчеге. Однако большинство вариантов с мотивом творения человека, хотя имеют типологические схождения в мировом фольклоре, не выходят за рамки традиционного мифотворчества. Сюжет про нартовского героя «Сауасса» представляет интерес тем, что инициатором его сотворения выступает Солнце. В целом, все варианты антропогонических мифов расширяют понимание мифологической картины мира осетин. Для анализа сюжетов с мотивом творения человека были применены историко-культурный, символический и семиологические подходы в рамках типологического и сравнительно-исторического метода. Несмотря на многочисленные работы по мифологии осетин, антропогонические мотивы остались вне поля зрения ученых, что определяет новизну настоящего исследования. The most fundamental and typical type of Ossetian myth-making is cosmogonic myths. Cosmogonic myths tell about the origin of the cosmos as a whole and its parts connected in a single system. The main initial plot of the creation of the world in Ossetian cosmogony is the origin of the cosmos from chaos. Part of the cosmogony consists of anthropogonic myths, including the creation of man, the first human couple or the first people. Ossetian mythology, which dates back to the Indo-Iranian heritage, has been influenced by Christianity, Islam and the Caucasian cultural community. The relevance of the study of the motive of human creation lies in the fact that the study of anthropogonic myths constitute a significant link in understanding the holistic mythological picture of the Ossetian world. Based on a typological comparison, the article examines the plots dating back to the biblical myths about the creation of man. The Ossetian myths about Atan and Aman, about Aryga and Magra, despite the use of Ossetian folklore traditions in their retelling, basically retain the biblical stories about Adam and Eve, the flood and Noah's Ark. However, most variants with the motif of human creation, although they have typological similarities in world folklore, do not go beyond the traditional myth-making. The plot about the Nart hero "Sauassa", although it has typological similarities, is of interest because the Sun acts as the initiator of its creation. In general, all variants of anthropogonic myths expand the understanding of the mythological picture of the Ossetian world. Historical-cultural, symbolic and semiological approaches within the typological and comparative-historical method were used to analyze the plots with the motive of human creation. Despite numerous works on the mythology of the Ossetians, anthropogonic motifs remained out of sight of scientists, which determines the novelty of this study.

. This article shows the meaning of the concept of “nothing” in the history of European philosophical cosmogony. The author considers positive natural-philosophical emanationism in early antiquity, the category of “nothing” in the context of emanationism and demiurgism in the Platonic tradition, the Gnostic concept of creation and its correlates in church heterodoxy, as well as the idea of creation from nothing in biblical Christian creationism. The ratio of Gnostic, Platonic and Church cosmology is shown in the context of the interpretation of the category of nothing in these currents. The article provides a critical analysis of the concept of “creation from nothing”. Particular attention is paid to the interpretation of “nothing” in the Gnostic tradition and church heterodoxy. The author shows the interaction of the emanative and demiurgic models in Christian orthodoxy.

The parable has received little attention as a form in Zoroastrian Pahlavi literature. Taking a first step to correct this deficit, this article examines an extended parable that appears in the Škand Gumānīg Wizār, the ninth century theological and political treatise. The parable likens Ohramzd’s conflict with Ahriman and his creation of the world to a gardener’s attempt to keep hungry vermin from his garden by means of a trap. Borrowing tools developed in the study of rabbinic exegetical parables and poetics, the article argues that the garden parable not only aims to make a theological point as part of its immediate context in the Škand Gumānīg Wizār, but also it itself is an interpretation of the Zoroastrian account of creation. The article shows how the parable reinterprets inconsistencies and contradictions in that cosmogony, relating to the account of creation just as rabbinic parables relate to the gaps in canonical, biblical narratives.

Paul Veyne wrote a book entitled,Did the Greeks Believe their Myths?Regarding rabbinic Judaism, one might similarly ask: Did the rabbis believe their imagery? Rabbinic literature is so replete with fanciful images of God and humans and anecdotes of epiphanies involving both, that one naturally wonders whether the midrashic authors believed that their imagery reflected some actual moment in the world's history. Some scholars have chosen to view the literature as containing parables and images that were composed as mere metaphors, sometimes used for political purposes, and other times to spawn further associations and religious teachings. The question is, can one differentiate true statements about happenings in the material world from symbolic statements whose relationship to that material world is more vague? The tension is especially acute when one considers cosmogony, the story of human origins, and other moments in primoridal history. Yet it is no less present in those simple midrashic “biblical scenes” that are not actually part of the Tanakh, but which the sages readily ascribe to the text. Does a given rabbinic image convey literal beliefs about material happenings or metaphorical metaphysics?

Because the gnostic heresy is a social construction imposed by the early Catholics on religious people they identified as transgressors of Christianity, scholars are entertaining the idea that ancient gnostics were actually alternative Christians. While gnostics may have been made into heretics by the early Catholics, this does not erase the fact that gnostics were operating in the margins of the conventional religions with a countercultural perspective that upset and overturned everything from traditional theology, cosmogony, cosmology, anthropology, hermeneutics, scripture, religious practices, and lifestyle choices. Making the gnostic into a Christian only imposes another grand narrative on the early Christians, one which domesticates gnostic movements. Granted, the textual evidence for the interface of the gnostic and the Christian is present, but so is the interface of the gnostic and the Greek, the gnostic and the Jew, the gnostic and the Persian, and the gnostic and the Egyptian. And the interface looks to have all the signs of transgression, not conformity. Understanding the gnostic as a spiritual orientation toward a transcendent God beyond the biblical God helps us handle this kind of diversity and transgression. As such, it survives in the artifacts that gnostics and their opponents have left behind, artifacts that help orient religious seekers to make sense of their own moments of ecstasy and revelation.

The development of medieval Christian thought reveals from its inception in foundational authors like Augustine and Boethius an inherent engagement with Neoplatonism. To their influence that of Pseudo-Dionysius was soon added, as the first speculative medieval author, the Carolingian thinker Johannes Scottus Eriugena (810–877ce), used all three seminal authors in his magisterial demonstration of the workings of procession and return. Rather than a stable ongoing trajectory, however, the development of medieval Christian (Neo)Platonism saw moments of flourishing alternate with moments of philosophical stagnation. The revival of theTimaeusand Platonic cosmogony in the twelfth century marks the achievement of the so-called Chartrian authors, even as theTimaeusnever acquired the authority of the biblical book of Genesis. Despite the dominance of scholastic and Aristotelian discourse in the thirteenth century, (Neo)Platonism continued to play an enduring role. The Franciscan Bonaventure follows the Victorine tradition in combining Augustinian and Dionysian themes, but Platonic influence underlies the pattern of procession and return — reflective of the Christian arc of creation and salvation — that frames the thought of Thomas Aquinas. Echoing the interrelation of macro- and microcosmos, the major themes of medieval Christian Platonic thought are, on the one hand, cosmos and creation and, on the other, soul and self. The Dominican friar Meister Eckhart and the beguine Marguerite Porete, finally, both Platonically inspired late-medieval Christian authors keen on accomplishing the return, whether the aim is to bring out its deep, abyss-like “ground” (Eckhart) or to give up reason altogether and surrender to the free state of “living without a why” (Marguerite), reveal the intellectual audacity involved in upending traditional theological modes of discourse.

In this article titled “The Time of the End of Times in the Apocalyptical Literature” the author presents the study about the biblical vision of the final time which concern two domains christological and ecclesiological. This patristic study pertains to several subjects set forth in section and sub-section titles, such as: Christ as the Eternal Day of God, the Parousia as the Second Coming of Christ, the Day of Judgement, the Great Tribulation or Persecution (Mt 24: 21; Mk 13: 19; por. Dan 12: 1), “the great distress” (Rev 7: 14), the time of Pagans persisting for forty two months, the fall of Jerusalem (Mt 24: 1-3; Mk 13: 1-4; Lk 21: 5-7. 20), “abomination of desolation” (Dan 9: 27; 11: 3; 12: 11), Gog and Magog from the vision of Ezekiel (Ezek 38-39) and Apokalypse (Rev 20: 8), a great apostasy will be a prelude to the Second Coming of Christ, “a hundred and forty-four thou­sand who had his [Lamb’s] name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads [and] who had been ransomed from the earth” (Rev 14: 1. 3), Antichrist (1Jn 2: 18. 22; 4: 2-3; 2Jn 7) and his time three and a half years (Rev 11: 9. 11) or forty-two months (Rev 11: 2; 13: 5). The Antichrist refers to the ruling spirit of error, the enemy of the Gospel, and the opponent of Christ who will precede His Second Coming and the end of the world. He is the incarnation of wickedness, pride, and hostility toward Christ’s redemptive work. This section delves into the number 666 (Rev 13: 18; 15: 2), false prophets (2Pet 2: 1), false teachers (2Pet 2: 1). In the biblical apocalyptic literature we can find a few visions of the cosmic catastrophes and cataclysms such as “earthquakes” (Mt 24: 7; Mk 13: 8), “famines” (Mt 24: 7; Mk 13: 8). In this study, appeared the theory of Millenarianism (from Latin mille) or chiliasm (from Greek c…lioi) based on a literal interpretation of Apocalypse (Rev 20: 2-7) which interpretation teaches that the visible personal rule of Christ on earth will last for a duration of a thousand years before the end of the world. Two themes are given special study in this article. First is the distinction of the interpretation of time. Second, is the interpretation of the prophetic announce­ments and eschatological visions from the Bible, and the potential influence of the ancient apocalyptic stories and writings in the redaction of the Bible. As to the first theme, the application of Greek distinction of concept of time as duration (crÒnoj) from time as fulfilment and accomplishment (kairÒj) to the Hebrew conception of time is problematic. Substantial biblical concept of time is an event which pertains to time, otherwise as time having specific event, more then a time extending indefinite time. In the theological perspective, perception of time is therefore an action of God. From the very beginning to the end of Biblical History, time is the means of God’s deeds of salvation. Thence for the biblical author, the historic-redemptive (salvation) concept of the world appears before his metaphysical conception. This concept is also readily apparent in the description of the seven days from the ancient Semitic cosmogony well-known from the Book of Genesis. This topic contains an important christological and messianic aspect. The his­tory of the world become conditioned and dependant, defined and designated by the existence of the Word of God, Creation and Incarnation by the birth of the Son of God, fulfilment of time by the second coming of the Son of Man siting at the right hand of God (Mk 16: 19; Heb 12: 2), the end of time by the judgement of God. One can speak of christological concept of time and also of christological concept of the world. The discussion of the second theme revolves around the interpretation of the Fathers of the Church on apocalyptic writings. This analysis of the meaning of the apocalyptical symbols is presented according to the interpretation of the Fathers of the Church, starting with all commentary of the Book of Revelation written from the beginning to the 12th Century. Outstanding among Greek and Latin writ­ers from the ancient time through the Middle Ages are: Papias of Hierapolis, Jus­tin Martyr, Hippolytus, Irenaeus of Lyon, Origen, Tertullien, Lactance, Eusebius of Caesarea, Didymus of Alexandria, Victorinus of Pettau, Gregory of Nyssa, Je­rome, Augustine of Hippo, Quodvultdeus, Primasius, Caesarius of Arles, Gregory the Great, Isidore of Seville, Raban Maur, Bede the Venerable, Ambroise Autpert, Beatus of Liébana, Rupert of Deutz, Joachim of Fiore, Richard of Saint-Victor. It is well known that, between the years 200 B.C. and 150 A.D., prophetic writings appeared in certain Jewish or Christian circles. These prophetic writings were called Apocalypses. After a careful analysis, this article hypothesizes that the Bible is influenced by this ancient apocalyptic literature. The Biblical Apocalyptic Literature was dependent upon formularies and ex­pressions used in the ancient Apocalyptic Literature. Some symbols or apocalyptic numbers were accepted from the ancient Literature, sometimes diminishing and sometimes enlarging their meaning. On the basis of formularies and symbols from Biblical Apocalyptic, the Fathers of the Church built their own historical-theolog­ical interpretation of eschatological events. In the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, there are prophetic announcements and eschatological visions. The New Testament is a repetition of those visions and those announcements made in the Old Testament. The Book of Revelation is the conclusion of those announcements and the accomplishment of those visions. An example of this use of the apocalyptical symbols in the theological and historical contexts by the Christian writers is found in the interpretation of the vi­sion of Gog and Magog. The vision of the Gog and Magog was usually interpreted in the historical context. They were identified with Goths, Barbaric people who invaded and conquered most of the Roman Empire in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries. Yet this epic figure is reinterpreted with the turn of each new century. In the new historical context, the writers give a new interpretation, but the theology of these symbols remains the same.

The article analyzes the words-symbols in the artistic and philosophical world of Gryhoriy Skovoroda. Based on the classification of D. Chizhevsky, in the symbolism of the Ukrainian Baroque poet considered concepts-symbols by the following meanings: biblical words-symbols, archetypal symbols, cosmogonic words-symbols, symbols-names of creatures, natural phenomena, to denote the peculiarities of the environment. The poet-philosopher in his works uses such biblical words-symbols as God, Christ, the Bible, the heart, the angel, the prophet, the cross. In the works of G. Skovoroda there are archetypal images-symbols of fire, light, water, blood, circles. In the works analyzed by us, G. Skovoroda uses such cosmogonic words-symbols as: sun, moon, star, star. The word-symbol of the wing in the poet’s works is closely connected with biblical symbols, creates a positive characteristic and means «take-off». In the works of G. Skovoroda the main function of symbolic names of birds, such as: crow, dove, nightingale, eagle and hawk, characterological, it carries an emotional load. In the collection «Fairy Tales of Kharkiv» words-symbols to denote the names of animals represent certain human qualities. Gryhoriy Skovoroda also used symbols-names of natural phenomena in his work, in particular, such as: thunder, lightning, clouds, rainbow. Quite often in the works of G.S. Skovoroda there are such words-symbols to denote the features of the natural environment, such as forest, sea, roads. According to research, Christian symbols were of great importance to Gryhoriy Skovoroda, but a significant part of the symbols came to his worldview from the ideas of the ancient Slavs.

Библейский Шестоднев в настоящее время часто воспринимается исключительно как космогонический текст, что неизбежно порождает попытки его интерпретаций лишь в контексте современной естественнонаучной картины мира (что само по себе неверно, поскольку научные картины мира находятся в постоянном динамичном развитии). Поэтому для библейской апологетики представляется перспективным, не отрицая историчности повествования первой главы Книги Бытия, рассматривать её в первую очередь как особый гимн-благовестие в контексте всего корпуса книг Священного Писания Ветхого и Нового Заветов. Автор попытался показать, что данный вполне традиционный церковный подход к осмыслению первой главы Книги Бытия позволяет избежать не только последствий допущения искусственных упрощений, неизбежных при построении моделей конкорданса библейских текстов и естественнонаучных данных, но и ошибок интерпретации Шестоднева как «случайного», «устаревшего» или «лишнего» фрагмента Книги Бытия. Biblical Hexameron is now often perceived exclusively as a cosmogonic text, which inevitably gives rise to attempts to interpret it only in the context of the modern natural-scientific picture of the world (which in itself is not true, since the scientific pictures of the world are in constant dynamic development). Therefore, for biblical apologetics, it seems promising, without denying the historicity of the narration of the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, to consider it primarily as a special hymn-evangelism in the context of the entire corpus of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The author tried to show that this quite traditional Church approach to comprehending the first chapter of Genesis allows avoiding not only the consequences of making artificial simplifications, which are inevitable in the construction of models of the concordance of biblical texts and natural science data, but also errors of interpreting Hexameron as «accidental», «outdated» or «extra» fragment of the Book of Genesis.

The mythical ʾeven shetiyah, often translated as the “foundation stone,” marks the physical place where the Jerusalem temples once stood in the rabbinic imagination. In its earliest incarnation it identified the place where the ark of the covenant resided in Solomon's Temple. Over the centuries it absorbed cosmogonic and eventually eschatological meaning. In later post-talmudic rabbinic literature, it adopted another mythic trope—the seal on the tehom. I argue that these two separate narrative strands of a seal on the tehomunder the Temple and ʾeven shetiyahin the Temple became intertwined, but only in late (post-talmudic) rabbinic midrash. I trace this evolutionary trend and argue that while the early rabbis both innovated and reinvigorated older biblical and ancient Near Eastern cosmogonic motifs with their ʾeven shetiyah, the later rabbinic texts were influenced by Christian and Muslim competition for spiritual and earthly Jerusalem. The stone that started as a means for rabbinic self-authorization became a reassertion of God's control of history and protection of Israel and the world, but in the process displaced priestly authority.

The article intends to draw attention to some of the most significant and telling appropriations of traditional themes of Biblical paradise in medieval Christian dualism (namely, Paulicianism, Bogomilism and related groups in Eastern Christendom and Catharism in Western Christendom) and initiate discussion on the important but presently not always explicable problem of their theological and literary provenance. The significance of this problematic is highlighted by the increasing amount of direct and indirect evidence of the role played by a number of early Jewish and Christian pseudepigraphic works in the formation of medieval Christian dualist cosmogonic, cosmological, satanological, Christological and biblical history traditions. The preliminary survey of medieval dualist conceptions of biblical Paradise shows also once more that the doctrinal evidence for Bogomilism and Catharism is too complex and polyvalent to be defined or ignored apriori as representing medieval heresiological constructs drawing on earlier heresiological texts and stereotypes. The material examined in the article shows that the text-critical treatment of the primary sources to first establish the most plausible literary and theological provenance of the respective teachings attributed to medieval Christian dualist groups or individuals still remains indispensable to the study of medieval heresy and needs to precede the application of models and approaches drawn from contemporary anthropological and sociological theory to the source material.

This article aims to present a detailed analysis of the “Christian natural philosophy” elaborated by the German humanist philosopher and theologian Otto Casmann (1562–1607) in his various works. To this end, Casmann’s general idea of philosophia Christiana is discussed and critically evaluated. Regarding natural philosophy, or physics, attention is paid mainly to topics such as cosmogony and cosmology, which Casmann promised to have developed biblically and independently of the pagan (namely Aristotelian) tradition. However, when Casmann’s natural philosophy is analyzed in detail, his resolute emphasis on the literal reading of the Bible, the cornerstone of his entire concept, turns out to be problematic. Similarly, despite his resolutions, his natural-philosophical views are, to a considerable extent, still dependent on Aristotelian terms and concepts.

The focus of this research is finding and analytical, semiotic-symbolic, theopoetic, and comparative analysis of cosmological and cosmogonic ideas of the origin of the world and human. The field of that analysis includes the ancient cos- mological protology presented in Plato’s Dialogues, the bibliocentric understanding of Genesis in the Six Days of St. Basil the Great and the romantic articulation of the meaning of existence. The romantic pessimistic conception of life, presented through the causes found in the universal principles of creation, is shown primar- ily in Njegoš’s song Luča mikrokozma. The primary goal of the research is to find a poetic-philosophical form of the deepest past of existence, and try to sense a causal sequence in existential development, the latter consequence of which is a pessimis- tic insight into the transience of this determination determined by the inability to know what vibrates outside lethal limitations of being. At the same time, this paper does not focus only on reviewing the historical development of thought about be- ing, but the result of the theopoetically oriented segment of research is reflected in revealing the summarization and transformation of ancient, biblical and romantic cosmological representations in Njegoš’s poetry. Hence, in individual subchapters related to Njegoš’s cosmopoiesis, his philosophical ideas on the source and cause of primordial origin, as well as on the primordial abode of God and being, and its cessa- tion whose cause is the first sin, are presented. In the last segments of the research, the artistic-philosophical concept of the renewal of the primordial embrace with the Creator through song is presented. The research concluded with the presentation of the idea of poetic action as a process of cognition of the primordial origin, and emphasizing that every theopoetically oriented writing represents a new possibility for merging with a transcendental melody. This introduced a new methodology for analyzing texts on metaphysical topics and laid the foundation for future research on the same or similar topics.

Cosmogonies and mythopoesis in the Balkans and beyondCompared and contrasted in this article are three different types of accounts dealing with the cosmogonic and eschatological themes employed in Slavonic and Balkan oral tradition, para-Biblical literature and modern poetry. The focus of analysis is the cluster of motifs attested in the creation narrative of the apocryphal Legend of the Sea of Tiberias. Two versions are examined: the South-Slavonic one discovered in 1845 by V. Grigorovich in the Monastery of Slepche, and the 18th century Russian account from MS № 21.11.3 (fols. 3a–5b) from the Archaeographic Department of the Library of the Academy of Sciences [Библиотека Академии наук, Рукописный отдел] in St. Petersburg, composed most probably by an Old Believer; this manuscript is published here for the first time. Folklore counterparts of the apocryphal Legend of the Sea of Tiberias are treated, with special emphasis on the oral narratives from the Bulgarian diaspora in Bessarabia (God and the Devil Create the World Amicably but then Fall Out). Finally, a poem of the 20th century Bulgarian intellectual Pencho Slaveykov [Пенчо Славейков] from his anthology “On the Island of the Blessed” is discussed; the poem, entitled How God willed the Earth to come to be and what did Satanail do after that? was designated by Slaveykov himself as “a legend of the Bogomils”, and blended within his lyrics are dualistic themes and motifs attested in vernacular Christianity, with the hallmark of Haeresis Bulgarica. Kosmogonie i mitopoetyki na Bałkanach i nie tylkoW artykule zostały porównane trzy typy narracji zawierających wątki kosmogoniczne i eschatologiczne, które funkcjonują w słowiańskiej i bałkańskiej tradycji ustnej, literaturze parabiblijnej oraz poezji doby modernizmu. Przedmiotem uwagi stała się grupa motywów poświadczonych w narracji o stworzeniu, znanej z Legendy o Morzu Tyberiadzkim. Analizom poddane zostały dwie wersje: południowosłowiańska, odkryta w 1845 roku przez W. Grigorowicza w Monastyrze w Slepče, oraz ruska – z XVIII wieku, znajdująca się w kodeksie MS № 21.11.3 (fols. 3a–5b), przechowywanym w Oddziale Rękopisów Biblioteki Akademii Nauk w Sankt Petersburgu – skomponowana najprawdopodobniej w środowisku staroobrzędowców (rękopis ten jest tu publikowany po raz pierwszy). Następnie przeprowadzona została analiza odpowiedników folklorystycznych apokryficznej Legendy o Morzu Tyberiadzkim, ze szczegól­nym uwzględnieniem narracji ustnych funkcjonujących w bułgarskiej diasporze w Besarabii (Bóg i Diabeł tworzą świat w przyjaźni ale potem stają się wrogami). Na końcu został poddany interpretacji poemat z XX wieku autorstwa bułgarskiego modernisty Penczo Sławejkowa [Пенчо Славейков] z antologii Na wyspie błogosławionych [На острова на блажените]; poemat ten, zatytułowany Jak Bóg zezwolił, aby powstała ziemia i co potem uczynił Satanael?, został nazwany przez samego autora „legendą Bogomiłów”, i skompilowany w jego tekstach z dualistycznymi motywami występującymi w chrześcijaństwie tego regionu, a rozpoznawa­nymi jako haeresis bulgarica.

Biblical exegetes from Antiquity and the Middle Ages continuously confronted the cosmogonic narrative offered in Genesis with the scientific cosmological theories of their times. Besides addressing theological questions raised by the text, most exegetes of the past were occupied with harmonizing the biblical cosmogony with current scientific knowledge or dealing with their manifest discrepancies. Reviewed by: David Lemler, Published Online (2021-04-30)Copyright © 2021 by David Lemler Article PDF Link: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/aestimatio/article/view/37667/28671 Corresponding Author: David Lemler, Sorbonne UniversitéE-Mail: david.lemler@sorbonne-universite.fr

Abstract The paper explores the doxologies in the book of Amos, arguing that they articulate a polemical viewpoint distinct from prevailing biblical and ancient Near Eastern notions about the formation of the sea, mountains, wind, and God’s abode. Central to the comprehension of this cosmogony is the recurring phrase in Amos 5:8d and 6:9c, “(He) who summons the waters of the sea and pours them on the surface of the earth.” While previous scholars have understood this phrase as referring to the primeval Flood, a tsunami event, or Levantine torrential rain, the present paper suggests a cosmogonic interpretation, in line with its context. Subsequent elements in the same series of texts are interlinked with this portrayal, emphasizing the unified—and polemical—perspective of the doxologies. This new explanation also has ramifications for the dating and composition of the doxologies in the book of Amos.

Religion does not play a major role in Norwegian Nobel laureate Knut Hamsun’s work. The one brilliant exception to this detached and seemingly cavalier attitude toward religion or, should I say, Christianity, is Hamsun’s masterpiece, Growth of the Soil (1917), which won him the Nobel Prize in literature in 1920. In this mythic novel, Hamsun draws upon a plethora of biblical motifs to create a heroic cosmogony that proposes an alternative to the rapid social and economic transformation under way in Norway in the second half of the nineteenth century and a vision of Norway founded on the cultivation of the land through hard labor and the populating of the earth.Numerous critics have remarked on the Biblical allusions in the novel (e.g., Per Thomas Andersen, Nettum, Rottem, Storfjell, Øyslebo); however, only Rolf Steffensen and Andreas Lødemel have studied the role of religion in Growth of the Soil in any depth. I will expand upon their work to examine whether Biblical allusions are part of a rhetorical strategy that aims at a coherent worldview. Biblical motifs cleverly interspersed throughout the novel suggest that it is always gesturing toward a world outside its pages through a dialog with pre-existing texts, in this case the Bible, absorbing and transforming voices from culture and society, historical memory and national identity. I will reexamine not only the place of Christianity in this important novel but also the foundational myth that undergirds it, that is, the idea that Isak is the founder not so much of a new civilization as a biblical exemplum of a traditional way of life and old values based on the cultivation of the land.That said, upon closer examination, Growth of the Soil does not amount to a faithful adaptation of the Old Testament; the novel is fraught with contradictions and the narrator also subverts its biblical framework by promoting an ambiguous reading of key scenes and motifs. Isak is not a bona fide practicing Christian and the novel should not be seen as an apology for Christianity in any way, shape, or form. Hamsun’s Isak is no biblical patriarch, even though he, too, at first appears to be divinely chosen to bring about a new beginning for humankind; instead, Isak turns out to be just another human being—albeit an exceptional one—who works hard to make his life dream come true. Moreover, it “er tvilsomt om MG var tenkt som en ‘agrarisk opbyggelsesbog’” (Rottem, Hamun og fantasiens triumf 167); however, an intertextual reading does enrich the novel’s narrative as well as moral authority by drawing on Biblical persona and antecedents.Finally, I feel compelled to address a postcolonial perspective if for no other reason than that an insistence on a Biblical reading of the novel largely ignores the import of the Samí, who ultimately pay the price of Isak’s colonization of the land, which prefigures the conquest of Northern Norway by homesteaders like him as well as the advance of what is euphemistically called “civilization.”

En esta investigación, se analiza la cosmogonía Embera-Katío y la importancia de traducir la Biblia a su lengua vernácula. Para ello, se analiza su ubicación geográfica, su desarrollo en los últimos cincuenta años y la trasmisión oral de la historia en Colombia. Por otra parte, se menciona el relato cosmogónico lo cual permite entender algunas prácticas espirituales que realizan habitualmente. Finalmente, se analiza la influencia que ha tenido la Biblia desafiando el pensamiento de eruditos en torno a quitar las costumbres y creencias de los Embera-Katío.