Browsing by Author "Henze, Matthias"

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    4 Ezra and 2 Baruch: Literary Composition and Oral Performance in First-Century Apocalyptic Literature
    (the Society of Biblical Literature, 2012) Henze, Matthias
    Students of 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch have long noticed numerous thematic, generic, and linguistic parallels that exist between them. Both texts were written in the late first or possibly the early second century C.E., most likely in the land of Israel. The composition of both works was triggered by the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 C.E., as both texts are, in essence, elaborate responses to the host of challenges posted by the Roman aggression. Both stories are set fictitiously during the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in the sixth century B.C.E. 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch are Jewish apocalypses of the historical type, and both make extensive use of the same set of literary genres, such as prophetic dialogue, prayer, public speech, and the symbolic dream vision. Neither author reveals his identity by instead chooses to write pseudonymously in the voice of a biblical scribe of the exilic and early postexilic period: Ezra, who returned the Torah to Jerusalem, and Baruch, the scribe of Jeremiah. What drives the momentum forward is a continuous revelatory dialogue between the seer and God, or God's interpreting angel. By the end of each book both seers have undergone a remarkable transformation, from skeptic to consoler, ideal community leader, and latter-day Moses.
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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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    Covenant Law in the Transformation ofthe Culture of Violence and Revenge: An Interpretation of 2 Kgs 14: 5-6 in the Context of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide
    (2011) Ahimbisibwe, Wasswa Israel; Henze, Matthias
    If a Hebrew Biblical text could motivate eighth century B.C.E Israelite society to move a away from the horrendous practice of violence and blood revenge, isn't it possible that the same text can motivate a twenty first century society to move away from the crisis of revenge and genOCide, especially since the religious beliefs of the latter society are derived from the basic concepts of that particular text? The chief objective of this study is to analyze a Hebrew Biblical text, that is 2 Kgs 14: 5-6 and its basic tenets that are enshrined in covenant law that will prevent future mass atrocity. I support the view that religious inSights that encourage the welfare of people should be embraced not because they are an authoritarian imposition from above, but because they are able to develop a coherent correlation between experience and morals, especially public morals, the relationship between a person and his neighbor. Argued from a context of genocide, the study lays in detail how covenant law is revolutionary in the innovation of justice thereby transforming societies from the impulse of vengeance and violence. In essence, it is a study that combines biblical studies (rooted in biblical theology) and African studies and how it contributes to solving a pressing contemporary problem.
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    Gender and Compositional Choice: Four Songs on a Poem of Heinrich Heine by Female and Male Composers
    (2012-09-05) Piersall, Paul; Citron, Marcia J.; Henze, Matthias; King, Stephen; Lavenda, Richard
    As an accepted genre of female composition, song lies in a unique position among musical genres. This allows it to stand largely outside the area of Claude Steele’s notion of “stereotype threat,” and being absent such weighty pressures, it could then furnish an arena in which female composers can do their best work. As a genre that combines the arts of music and poetry, song is based upon a given set of symbols that provide the composer with inspiration. The study of these symbols and their possible metaphorical meanings can offer a guide to that inspiration. By studying two settings by male composers and two settings of female composers, we can compare their individual and gendered approach to those symbols for elements of a masculine or feminine style. Heinrich Heine’s 23rd poem in Die Heimkehr, analyzed thoroughly in Chapter 2, is the focal text in this study. In Chapters 3 through 6 each of the settings is examined at length using both a standard formal analysis and the “Grundgestalt” concept of Schoenberg. The settings examined are “Ihr Bild” by Franz Schubert, “Ich stand in dunkeln Träumen” and “Ihr Bildniss” (two versions of the same work) by Clara Schumann, “Ich stand in dunkeln Träumen” by Hugo Wolf, and a setting of the same name by Ingeborg von Bronsart. Each discussion focuses on the individual reactions to the specific symbols identified in Chapter 2, as well as the global approach to some well-known literary aspects of paternalistic literary culture of the time. The thesis concludes with a summary of the similarities and differences in the preceding four examinations. Chapter 7 also draws conclusions based on those contrasts, which yields an evaluation of gendered reactions and the possibility of a feminine style in the nineteenth century.
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    Judgment in 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, and Apocalypse of Abraham
    (2019-12-03) Ford, Jason; Henze, Matthias
    When the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem’s temple in 70 CE, it altered Jewish imagination and compelled religious and community leaders to devise messages of consolation. These messages needed to address both the contemporary situation and maintain continuity with Israel’s religious history. 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, and Apocalypse of Abraham are three important witnesses to these new messages hope in the face of devastation. In this dissertation I focus on how these three authors used and explored the important religious theme of judgment. Regarding 4 Ezra, I argue that by focusing our reading on judgment and its role in the text’s message we uncover 4 Ezra’s essential meaning. 4 Ezra’s main character misunderstands the implications of the destroyed Temple and, despite rounds of dialogue with and angelic interlocutor, he only comes to see God’s justice for Israel in light of the end-time judgment God shows him in two visions. Woven deeply into the fabric of his story, the author of 2 Baruch utilizes judgment for different purposes. With the community’s stability and guidance in question, 2 Baruch promises the coming of God’s judgment on the wicked nations, as well as the heavenly reward for Israel itself. In that way, judgment serves a pedagogical purpose in 2 Baruch–to stabilize and inspire the community through its teaching. Of the three texts, Apocalypse of Abraham explores the meaning of judgment must directly. It also offers the most radical portrayal of judgment. For Apocalypse of Abraham, the violent judgment of Israel’s enemies serves as Israel’s own reward for their faithfulness. Apocalypse of Abraham’s community gets to avenge their own suffering. Through close textual analysis of judgment in 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, and Apocalypse of Abraham, my dissertation offers a more robust understanding of Early Judaism’s theological development in the years after 70 CE.
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    Living in the Liminal: the Present as a Place of Access in Qumran Sectarian Literature
    (2019-04-18) Harris, Rebecca; Henze, Matthias
    Before the emergence of early Christian notions of liminality or partially realized eschatology, the authors behind the Qumran sectarian literature understood the present as a liminal time-space in which participation with the divine was already possible for certain individuals. Behind this belief lay a calculated approach to the organization of time and space that located the existence of the group on the brink of a transition to the new age. In this study, I argue that the Qumran movement’s constructions of time and space establish the context for its members’ present participation with the divine with the goal that this participation would ultimately lead to permanent incorporation into the eternal realm at the end of the age. Through a robust program of ritual-liturgical activities, the present time and space of the sect became a place of regular communion with the divine, and its rituals a catalyst for the individual’s future incorporation into the ranks of divine beings. Drawing on insights gleaned from temporal and spatial theories, I first demonstrate how the sectarian authors construct the time and place of the movement as a social space in which earthly and heavenly spheres overlap, making human-divine communion possible for the properly aligned individual. Living in the last days provided the temporal alignment and membership in the group the spatial alignment necessary for present communion with the divine through the ritual-liturgical activities of the sect. Additionally, membership imbued the individual with an eternal quality, making him fit to participate with divine beings in the worship of the sect and paving the way for his permanent incorporation into their realm. Finally, considering the significant liturgical texts of the group through the lens of performance theory, I argue that performance of the liturgy functioned not only as a means of achieving present communion with the divine, but ultimately aimed to secure the individual’s place in the eternal realm at the end of the age and even sought hasten its arrival.
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    The Narrative Frame of Daniel: A Literary Assessment
    (Koninklijke Brill NV, 2001) Henze, Matthias
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    Review of "Judaism in the Age of the Second Temple"
    (Koninklijke Brill NV, 2007) Henze, Matthias
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    Review of "The Book of Daniel and the Apocryphal Daniel Literature"
    (Koninklijke Brill NV, 2010) Henze, Matthias
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    Review of "The Other Lands of Israel: Imaginations of the Land in 2 Baruch"
    (Koninklijke Brill NV, 2010) Henze, Matthias
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    Review of Biblical Interpretations in Judaism and Christianity
    (Purdue University Press, 2010) Henze, Matthias
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    Review of Polyglottensynopse zum Buch Daniel
    (the Society of Biblical Literature, 2001) Henze, Matthias
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    Review of The Destruction of Jerusalem and the Idea of Redemption in the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch
    (the Society of Biblical Literature, 2004) Henze, Matthias
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    Review of Theologies in Conflict in 4 Ezra: Wisdom Debate and Apocalyptic Solutions
    (The University of Chicago Press, 2010) Henze, Matthias
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