NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion - Volume 44, Issue 3, 1990

Abstract The publication, in 1969, of ‘Atra-ḫasīs. The Babylonian Story of the Flood’, which made an important Mesopotamian myth on primeval history available for study, started a lively scholarly discussion on the interpretation and ‘message’ of the text. In 1980, R.A. Oden (ZAW 93, 1981, 197-216) drew up a preliminary balance of this discussion, also from the Old Testament point of view. This article, again ten years later, Read More

Abstract In this article the question is raised: How were the prophecies now to be found in the Prophetical Books of the Old Testament written down originally and what writing-material was used then? The author draws the attention to two Greek ostraca found near the Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqâra. On these ostraca an Egyptian priest has written down five different versions of a letter containing a prophecy. The tex Read More

Abstract The article discusses the theological context of the discussion started by John XXII in 1331 about the question whether the souls of the saints in heaven are directly admitted to the beatific vision of God or not. It must be noted that John’s opinion in this matter was less extreme than many scholars sofar presumed. It was John’s sincere intention to make a papal decision on this matter, and there is strong evidence that Read More

Abstract Traditionally Spinoza scholars accept a disagreement between Spinoza’s hermeneutics, proposed, demonstrated and exercised in his TTP (1670) and, on the other hand, the exegetical method, as it was explained and practised by his friend and pupil, Lodewijk Meyer in his Philosophia Sanctae Scripturae Interpres (1666). This opinion, so it is claimed, originates from a misreading of a passage in Spinoza’s letter XLIII as Read More