Browsing by Author "DeConick, April D."

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    Biblical Interpretation in the Book of Daniel: Literary Allusions in Daniel to Genesis and Ezekiel
    (2013-09-16) Kim, Daewoong; Henze, Matthias; DeConick, April D.; McGill, Scott
    This dissertation investigates the use of biblical interpretation in the Book of Daniel. It demonstrates the spectrum in which Daniel uses older scriptural texts such as Genesis and Ezekiel in order to accomplish the theological concord with the earlier scriptural traditions of ancient Israel. Methodologically, the dissertation embraces the theory of literary allusion. The allusions in Daniel to Genesis 10-11 characterize Daniel as a literature of resistance to human imperialism. The motif of universal language, absolute dominion, symbolic construction for imperialism, collective power of human politics, and divine triumph over Babel, resurface to highlight the strong consonance between Genesis and Daniel. The allusions in Daniel to Ezekiel demonstrate that Ezekiel 1-3 is the greatest source of apocalyptic texts in Daniel 7 and 10-12. The anthropomorphic manifestation of God in Daniel’s apocalyptic vision harks back to that in Ezekiel’s prophetic vision. Both magnificent characters in Daniel 7 (the one like a son of man) and 10 (the heavenly revealer) are portrayed as liminal figures. The son of man figure alludes to the Glory of YHWH (Ezekiel 1), Israel (Daniel 7), the maskilim (Daniel 11-12), and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1-3). The heavenly figure in Daniel 10 alludes to Ezekiel 1, evoking the Glory of YHWH (Ezekiel 1), the maskilim (Daniel 11-12), and the four cherubim (Ezekiel 1). The links between the maskilim and Prophet Ezekiel show how Daniel 10-12 reshapes Ezekiel 1-3 to portray the critical period under Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
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    Christ Incarnate: How Ancient Minds Conceived the Son of God
    (2014-04-25) Adamson, Grant; DeConick, April D.; Henze, Matthias; Mackie, Hilary
    The idea of Jesus’ pre-existence was developed circa 30-50 CE, and it did not necessarily differentiate believers in him from other Jews. The idea of his virgin birth was developed circa 70-90 CE as a defense against reports of Mary’s early pregnancy. Parthenogenesis was itself novel within Second Temple and early Judaism, and its harmonization with the previously developed idea of Jesus’ pre-existence differentiated proto-orthodox Christians from Jews. It also differentiated them from other Christian groups. Historical-critical methods cannot get at the details of this harmonizing thought process. Blending theory explains how the two separate ideas of Jesus’ pre-existence and virgin birth were harmonized and how the doctrine of Incarnation through parthenogenesis emerged: blended spaces have emergent structure and meaning that are not reducible to input spaces. Incarnation through parthenogenesis is not reducible to the ideas of Jesus’ pre-existence and virgin birth, any more than it is reducible to Paul and John, Matthew and Luke, Jewish or pagan literature. It was a new idea that emerged from the blending of two separate ideas in the second century and has since been taken for granted as it became proto-orthodox and then orthodox Christian doctrine. Furthermore the cognitive theory of minimal counterintuitiveness suggests why the doctrine was historically successful: concepts that violate one or two expectations, such as the concept of a pre-existent Jesus who is incarnated through virgin birth, have mnemonic advantage over other concepts that violate no expectations or too many of them.
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    Corrections to the Critical Reading of the "Gospel of Thomas"
    (Brill, 2006-05) DeConick, April D.
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    The "Dialogue of the Savior" and the Mystical Sayings of Jesus
    (Brill, 1996) DeConick, April D.
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    The Gospel of Judas: A Parody of Apostolic Christianity
    (T&T Clark, 2008) DeConick, April D.; Foster, Paul
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    The Gospel of Thomas
    (T&T Clark, 2008) DeConick, April D.; Foster, Paul
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    How the Mother God Got Spayed
    (The Biblical Archaeology Society, 2012) DeConick, April D.
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    Jesus Revealed: The Dynamics of Early Christian Mysticism
    (Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2010) DeConick, April D.; Arbel, Daphna V.; Orlov, Andrei A.
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    John Rivals Thomas: From Community Conflict to Gospel Narrative
    (Westminster John Knox Press, 2001) DeConick, April D.; Fortna, Robert T.; Thatcher, Tom
    This article is not the first attempt to discuss the relationship between the Gospels of John and Thomas. There is already a formidable amount of literature on the subject, most of which tries to establish direct literary dependence between the two books or the use of common sources (see DeConick 2001). The present essay, however, will explore the connection between these two texts on the community level rather than the source level. The Fourth Gospel (FG) and the Gospel of Thomas (Gos. Thorn.), like other religious texts, address the particular needs of their respective communities and express special theological and soteriological positions. As community documents, each has its own Sitz im Leben: its own geographical location, its own community history, and its own religious traditions. Moreover, like other religious texts, both were written with the express purposes of polemicizing, persuading, and propagating a particular belief system.
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    Mysticism and the Gospel of Thomas
    (Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2008) DeConick, April D.; Frey, Jӧrg
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    Occulture in the Academy? The Case of Joseph P. Farrell
    (Acumen, 2013) Stroup, John; DeConick, April D.; Adamson, Grant
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    The Original "Gospel of Thomas"
    (Brill, 2002-05) DeConick, April D.
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    (Re)growing the Tree: Early Christian Mysticism, Angelomorphic Identity, and the Shepherd of Hermas
    (2014-04-08) Trammell, Franklin; DeConick, April D.; Kripal, Jeffrey J.; Mackie, Hilary
    This study analyzes the Shepherd of Hermas with a focus on those elements within the text that relate to the transformation of the righteous into the androgynous embodied divine glory. In so doing, Hermas is placed within the larger context of early Jewish and Christian mysticism and its specific traditions are traced back to the Jerusalem tradition evinced in the sayings source Q. Hermas is therefore shown to preserve a very old form of Christianity and an early form of Christian mysticism. It is argued that since Hermas’ revelatory visions of the Angel of the Lord and the divine House represent the object into which his community is being transformed, already in the present, and he provides a democratized praxis which facilitates their transformation and angelomorphic identity, he is operating within the realm of early Christian mysticism. Hermas’ implicit identification of the Ecclesia with Wisdom, along with his imaging of the righteous in terms of a vine and a Tree who are in exile and whose task it is to grow the Tree, is shown to have its earlier precedent in the Q source wherein Jesus and his followers take on an angelomorphic identity with the female Wisdom of the Temple and facilitate her restoration. Hermas’ tradition of the glory as a union of the Son of God and Wisdom is also shown to have its most direct contact with the Q source, in which Wisdom and the Son are understood to be eschatologically united in the transformation of the people of God. Included are two sections on how Hermas describes this union to occur presently within the bodies of the righteous through moral purity, adherence to the commandments, and baptism. The last chapter focuses on the continuity between Q source and the Shepherd of Hermas, along with overlaps between James, Q, and Hermas. It is concluded that Hermas is transmitting a tradition that can be substantially traced back to the Jerusalem church.
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    Stripped before God: A New Interpretation of Logion 37 in the Gospel of Thomas
    (1991-06) DeConick, April D.; Fossum, Jarl; Brill
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    The Gospel of Thomas
    (Sage, 2007) DeConick, April D.
    This article views the Gospel of Thomas as the product of an early Eastern form of Christianity, most probably originating in a Syrian context. The text should not be seen as representing some Gnostic or marginal sapiential form of Christianity, rather it reflects a trajectory in “orthodox” Christianity that valued mystical or esoteric teaching. Such traditions have been found in mainstream Christianity throughout its history. The text of the Gospel of Thomas is understood to be a rolling corpus, or aggregate of sayings that represent different moments in the life and history of the early Thomasine community.
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    The Yoke Saying in the "Gospel of Thomas 90"
    (Brill, 1990-09) DeConick, April D.
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    The True Mysteries: Sacramentalism in the "Gospel of Philip"
    (Brill, 2001) DeConick, April D.
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    What is Early Jewish and Christian Mysticism?
    (Society of Biblical Literature, 2006) DeConick, April D.; DeConick, April D.
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    Who is Hiding in the Gospel of John? Reconceptualizing Johannine Theology and the Roots of Gnosticism
    (Acumen, 2013) DeConick, April D.; DeConick, April D.; Adamson, Grant