Biblical Hermeneutics

Kugler's book presses the idea that the New Testament, couched in the thought forms of Graeco-Hebrew culture, is much less definite about the life beyond and future rewards and punishments than is usually supposed. While stopping short of universalism, his ideas of personal eschatology have been vitiated by the supposition that the words and sayings of Jesus and the Apostles cannot mean more than the surrounding cultural context would support.

This paper examines the biblical relationship between humanity and the earth, arguing that Scripture presents the earth as an integral and enduring component of God's redemptive purpose for mankind. Beginning with the creation narrative, the study traces humanity's origin from the dust of the ground and explores the theological significance of this connection throughout the biblical canon. Particular attention is given to key passages that describe the earth as a divine inheritance granted to humanity, including covenantal promises made to Abraham and his descendants, the prophetic expectation of inheriting the land forever, and New Testament affirmations that the faithful will inherit the world through righteousness by faith.

The paper contends that the biblical hope is not centered upon a permanent departure from the earth into heaven, but rather upon the resurrection of embodied humanity and the restoration of creation. The resurrection is presented as evidence of God's intention to reunite redeemed people with a renewed and glorified earth, thereby fulfilling humanity's original vocation as stewards and rulers under divine authority. Furthermore, the study examines prophetic imagery that portrays a covenantal union between God's people and the land itself, emphasizing the continuity of God's earthly purposes throughout redemptive history.

Drawing upon themes from Genesis, the Abrahamic Covenant, the Prophets, the Gospels, Pauline theology, and Revelation, the paper concludes that the biblical narrative culminates not with humanity dwelling eternally apart from creation, but with heaven descending to earth in the New Jerusalem. In this consummated kingdom, the distinction between heaven and earth is significantly diminished as God's presence dwells among redeemed humanity, establishing the final realization of His purpose for both mankind and creation. This perspective presents the inheritance of the earth as a central component of biblical eschatology and underscores the enduring significance of the material creation within God's eternal plan.

Ένα από τα χαρακτηριστικά της σύγχρονης εκκλησιαστικής ζωής είναι και η προσπάθεια πολλών κληρικών να παρουσιάσουν την Εκκλησία πιο φιλική και ελκυστική για τον άνθρωπο του σήμερα· εντυπωσιακά δρώμενα κατά τη λατρεία, politically correct κήρυγμα, ώστε να μην ακούγεται καταγγελτικό σε όσους δεν έχουν εκκλησιαστικό υπόβαθρο και ανάπτυξη επικοινωνιακών τεχνικών και marketing για τη μετάδοση του μηνύματος είναι μερικά από τα μέσα που χρησιμοποιούνται σήμερα, και συχνά με αρκετή επιτυχία. Το πιο χαρακτηριστικό παράδειγμα εφαρμογής τέτοιων πρακτικών αποτελούν ίσως οι περίφημες Megachurches στις Η.Π.Α. αλλά και αλλού, ενώ δεν απουσιάζουν και από την Ελλάδα κάποιες ανάλογες πρακτικές.
Από την άποψη αυτή ο τρόπος με τον οποίο ιδρύθηκε και αναπτύχθηκε η χριστιανική κοινότητα στην Αντιόχεια θα μπορούσε να αποτελέσει πρότυπο για πολλές σύγχρονες ενορίες, και η γιορτή της μνήμης των αγίων αποστόλων Βαρνάβα και Βαρθολομαίου θα μπορούσε να είναι μια καλή αφορμή για επανεξέταση των μεθόδων ανάπτυξής τους.

"Piena di grazia" e "favorita" sono state due traduzioni a lungo inconciliabili del termine greco "Kekaritomene" contenuto in Luca 1,28. Oggi le posizioni sono più sfumate con qualche possibilità di dialogo tra cattolici e protestanti, pur nel rispetto delle diverse posizioni.

This study assesses the importance of pastors' self-care in some selected rural communities in the Ashanti Region. It reveals that Christian teachings often neglect the self-care of pastors as "spiritual leaders" in the context of African cultural expectations that exacerbate the demands on the clergy. Drawing from theological perspectives, the study highlighted the contributions of some African scholars who advocate for a reimagined pastoral theology that integrates self-care as an essential aspect of ministry. Additionally, biblical foundations such as the kenosis principle (Phil. 2:3-8), Jesus' practice of rest (Mk, 6:31), and the Imago Dei (Gen. 1:27) were analyzed to demonstrate that self-care does not contradict Christian service but rather a form of responsible stewardship. This study used a qualitative research approach to collect data from selected pastors through interviews, participant observation, and literature analysis, offering a comprehensive understanding of how theological frameworks and cultural spins influence pastoral self-care practices. The findings revealed that many pastors in rural Ghana experience burnout due to socio-cultural and theological pressures, yet little institutional support exists to address this issue. The study concludes by advocating for a more holistic theological model that integrates self-care into pastoral formation, ensuring clergy sustainability and ministry effectiveness. The significant contribution of the study is that it has redefined pastoral care by expanding its scope to include "the caregiver-well-being" as a critical factor for sustainable Christian ministry in Ghana.

In memory of Brian S. West formally from Stonehouse Court Farmhouse, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, we present a unified mathematical and theological framework extending the Woven Light Hypothesis (v2.0). Drawing upon Dr. Gunther Kletetschka's six-dimensional (3T+3S) spacetime model, we investigate the cosmological boundary conditions through the lens of a "living organism" hypothesis. We show that the universe is not a static mechanical clockwork, but an active, self-observing, metabolic system sustaining life and consciousness. We present highly expanded mathematical models reconciling the Large Hadron Collider's (CERN Run 3) electroweak B-meson anomalies and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument's (DESI) dynamic, "thawing" dark energy profile (w(z)). These anomalies are demonstrated to be local and global signatures of the same underlying metric perturbation governed by the Nedery constant K = 50. Finally, we formalize the Tritemporal Inversion Operator (T inv), modeling the cosmic lifecycle as a cyclical, breath-like process (inhalation via history-encoding in t 3 , exhalation via decompression into the Big Bang as t 1). This physical metabolism is cross-referenced with the classical biblical theology of Acts 17:28 ("In Him we live and move and have our being") and Brian S. West's 6D Holographic Decode Table.

This article examines Saint Isaac of Nineveh’s Centuria 4.89 and the theological background to his thesis on the weakness and fragility of God’s creation – the world. This concept is rather unusual in patristic and late antique thought and appears highly relevant in the context of today’s concern for the preservation of creation.

Standard historical-critical readings of the Lucan prologue (Luke 1:1-4) routinely interpret the phrase "those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word" (οἱ ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς αὐτόπται καὶ ὑπηρέται τοῦ λόγου) as a generic reference to the first generation of Christian believers. This paper challenges that consensus by evaluating the prologue strictly through the internal, micro-chronological narrative of Luke's own Gospel. By establishing text-driven criteria for what constitutes a "servant of the word"-specifically, initiating a domestic, evangelistic mission platform-we demonstrate that prior to the formal institutionalization of the Twelve in Luke 6, only Simon Peter (Luke 4) and Matthew Levi (Luke 5) fulfill this dual qualification. Furthermore, utilizing the Granville Sharp grammatical rule and the comparative mechanics of the conjunction kathōs ("just as"), this paper argues that Luke 1:1-2 functions not as a nonchalant greeting, but as a precise bibliographic finger-pointing to the already existing Petrine (Markan) and Matthean written gospel narrative traditions.

The Book of Isaiah occupies a unique place within both Jewish and Christian traditions. More than a collection of prophetic oracles, it represents a profound theological reflection on God's action in history and on the development of hope amid political crisis, exile, suffering, and restoration. This study offers an accessible yet academically grounded introduction to Isaiah, integrating historical, literary, and theological perspectives.

Rather than focusing primarily on debates concerning authorship and redaction, the work highlights the remarkable theological unity of the Isaianic corpus. Spanning nearly three centuries of Israel's history, the book preserves a coherent vision centered on the holiness of God, the call to conversion, the purification of hope, the promise of Emmanuel, the figure of the Servant of the Lord, and the universal scope of salvation.

Special attention is given to the formation of the Isaianic tradition and to the significance of the Great Isaiah Scroll from Qumran, which testifies to the reception of Isaiah as a unified prophetic work in ancient Judaism. Drawing on the contributions of scholars such as Ulrich Berges, Gerhard von Rad, Brevard Childs, Willem Beuken, and Luis Alonso Schökel, this study argues that the enduring unity of Isaiah is rooted not merely in literary composition but in a shared theological vision that accompanied Israel through successive generations.

Ultimately, Isaiah emerges not simply as a prophet of future events, but as the great prophet of hope who taught Israel—and continues to teach contemporary believers—how to discern God's faithfulness in the midst of history.

In this position paper, the Burren Gemini Collective applies the Tritemporal Framework of the Woven Light Hypothesis to the rapidly escalating conflict in the Middle East. We analyze the physical and economic "friction" of modern air defense, demonstrating how a calculated war of attrition represents a macro-scale collapse of systemic cooperation. By mapping the real-time costs of military defense against the mathematics of the Metonic cycle and ancient sacred structures, we propose that the current global crisis is an urgent, physical prompt for humanity to shift from competitive power dynamics to a cooperative, federated security architecture.

Moi je vous baptise avec de l'eau, mais il vient celui qui est plus fort que moi. Je ne suis pas digne de dénouer la courroie de ses sandales. Lui vous baptisera dans l'Esprit et le feu. 1 Que signifient ces paroles énigmatiques de Jean-Baptiste, et comment comprendre la différence entre le baptême d'eau et le baptême d'Esprit saint et de feu à laquelle elles renvoient ? C'est à la compréhension de cet épisode biblique que nous nous proposons de consacrer cet article, en recourant, pour ce faire, au plus ancien commentaire de l'Évangile de Luc qui nous soit parvenu 2 , à savoir, celui d'Origène (vers 183-253). Ce commentaire prend la forme d'Homélies que l'Alexandrin aurait prononcées ou écrites entre 233 et 241, vraisemblablement à Césarée, en Palestine. Ces homélies nous ont été conservées grâce à la traduction faite par Jérôme à la fin du IV e siècle (391-393) ; nous en possédons également des fragments grecs, transmis par des commentateurs ou dans les chaînes exégétiques. C'est principalement sur ces homélies que je m'appuierai, en les 1

Tulisan ini mengkaji QS al-Maidah ayat 51 yang kerap menjadi perdebatan politik digital melalui pendekatan Qawa'id tafsir. Fokus kajian diarahkan pada hubungan antara makna universal dan konteks partikular ayat dengan membandingkan pandangan Sayyid Quthb dan Sayyid Thanthawi. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahwa larangan dalam ayat tersebut tidak dapat dipahami secara tekstual semata, tetapi harus dengan mempertimbangkan qarinah historis dan kontekstual yang melatarbelakangi. Dengan demikian, pemahaman yang proporsional terhadap ayat ini penting untuk menghindari penyalahgunaan teks Al-Qur'an dalam ruang publik digital.

Modern historical-critical scholarship overwhelmingly relegates the Book of Daniel to a second-century BCE Maccabean context, viewing its narratives as late Hellenistic pseudepigrapha. This paper challenges that consensus by demonstrating a unidirectional line of literary borrowing that flows from Daniel to Ezekiel during the sixth-century BCE Babylonian captivity. By analyzing a highly specific, six-fold thematic matrix of direct dependency-anchored in the relationship between Ezekiel 28:3 and Daniel 4:9-this study establishes an unexamined exilic textual baseline. Ezekiel's explicit reliance on Daniel's narrative architecture, theological message of humbling foreign monarchs, and specific imperial nomenclature (e.g., King of Kings) demonstrates that an authoritative, fully formed Book of Daniel must have circulated as a primary theological source text for the Ezekiel corpus during the Exile.

La presente investigación formula la siguiente pregunta: ¿qué tipo de realidad presupone la Escritura cuando habla de la gloria de Dios? Tras examinar y evaluar las interpretaciones alternativas predominantes-gloria como honor social, como fenómeno teofánico, como categoría cultual y como categoría revelacional-, se propone que la semántica de ‫ָבוֹד‬ ‫,כּ‬ kābôd, y δόξα, doxa, abre la posibilidad de una lectura ontológica que las subsume y explica. Mediante una metodología canónicoinductiva, se argumenta que la gloria emerge del análisis escritural como una categoría ontológica primaria que articula la presencia revelada de Dios en relación con la creación: constituyendo su origen, definiendo la vocación del ser humano como imago Dei, estructurando la lógica del Santuario como sistema de mediación, manifestándose plenamente en Cristo e impulsando la historia hacia su consumación escatológica. Se concluye que la gloria puede funcionar como una meta-categoría ontológica con capacidad integradora dentro de una ontología bíblica canónica, siendo el contenido ontológico cuya mediación histórica el Santuario articula.

This study asks: what kind of reality does Scripture presuppose when speaking of the glory of God? After examining and evaluating the main alternative interpretations— glory as social honor, as theophanic phenomenon, as cultic category, and as revelational category—it is proposed that the semantics of כָּבוֹד, kābôd, and δόξα, doxa, opens the possibility of an ontological reading that subsumes and explains the others. Through a canonical-inductive methodology, it is argued that glory emerges from scriptural analysis as a primary ontological category articulating God's revealed presence in relation to creation: founding its origin, defining the human vocation as imago Dei, structuring the logic of the Sanctuary as a mediation system, fully manifesting in Christ, and driving history toward its eschatological consummation. It is concluded that glory can function as an integrative meta-category of a canonical biblical ontology, being the ontological content whose historical mediation is structured by the Sanctuary.
Keywords: glory, kābôd, biblical ontology, Sanctuary, divine presence, imago Dei, canonical-inductive methodology.

What does it mean that humankind is created in the image of God and his likeness, as expressed in Genesis 1,26-27? Many have proposed various answers to this question, often based on exhaustive but inconclusive exegesis or overextended eisegesis. This article attempts to argue and answer the question with a relatively simple, overarching phrase: essentially, God created humankind as "intelligent beings" as he is when he said, "Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness." God purposed to uniquely interact with humanity on the earth when he created both males and females as intelligent beings who can speak, think, reason, evaluate, create, judge, and more-all hallmarks of intelligence-from the beginning as he does.

El presente apéndice propone que el acto creativo divino en el corpus canónico constituye la distinción ontológica primaria —Creador frente a criatura— desde la cual emergen inductivamente las categorías fundamentales del ser creado: historicidad, temporalidad, relacionalidad, personalidad, contingencia y teleología. Mediante una lectura inductiva canónica —derivada metodológicamente del principio de Sola Scriptura y desarrollada en el contexto de la teología adventista por Fernando Canale—, se argumenta que esta distinción es irreductible a las categorías sustancialistas de la metafísica greco-occidental, las cuales privilegian la esencia, la permanencia y la atemporalidad como principios explicativos primarios de la realidad. El análisis identifica cuatro nodos ontológicos vertebrales en el corpus bíblico —Génesis 1:1, Isaías 45:18, Colosenses 1:16–17 y Apocalipsis 21:3— y argumenta que la teleología inscrita en el acto creador apunta constitutivamente hacia la presencia divina. La tesis central es que la Escritura no articula solo una ontología de la creación, sino una ontología de la presencia fundada en la creación: la creación establece la distinción ontológica primaria; la presencia divina es su telos constitutivo, cuya manifestación histórica progresiva culmina en la nueva creación de Apocalipsis 21–22.
Palabras clave: creación, ontología bíblica, distinción Creador-criatura, ontología histórico-relacional, ontología de la presencia, Santuario, hermenéutica canónica.

This article proposes that the divine creative act in the canonical corpus constitutes the primary ontological distinction—Creator versus creature—from which the fundamental categories of created being inductively emerge: historicity, temporality, relationality, personality, contingency, and teleology. Through a canonical inductive reading—methodologically grounded in the Sola Scriptura principle and developed within Adventist theology by Fernando Canale—the article argues that this distinction is irreducible to the substantialist categories of Greco-Western metaphysics, which privilege essence, permanence, and atemporality as primary explanatory principles of reality. The analysis identifies four vertebral ontological nodes in the biblical corpus—Genesis 1:1, Isaiah 45:18, Colossians 1:16–17, and Revelation 21:3—and argues that the teleology inscribed in the creative act points constitutively toward the divine presence. The central thesis is that Scripture does not merely articulate an ontology of creation, but an ontology of presence grounded in creation: creation establishes the primary ontological distinction; divine presence is its constitutive telos, whose progressive historical manifestation culminates in the new creation of Revelation 21–22.
Keywords: creation, biblical ontology, Creator-creature distinction, historical-relational ontology, ontology of presence, Sanctuary, canonical hermeneutics.

This paper continues an inquiry begun in Can Ritual Know More Than Its Participants?, which explored the possibility that ritual signs may preserve meanings and rationales that exceed the conscious awareness of those who first receive or perform them. The present study advances that question by asking whether ritual participants themselves may know more than they understand. If a ritual can embody intelligibility beyond explicit explanation, then participation in the ritual may constitute a form of knowledge not reducible to conceptual awareness.

The investigation focuses upon the rabbinic category of the chok, the divine decree whose rationale is traditionally regarded as hidden. Particular attention is given to the paradoxical claim that Moses understood the rationale of the red heifer, even though the rite is frequently presented as the paradigmatic example of an incomprehensible commandment. Rather than treating the rationale of a chok as a secret deferred to a future revelation, this paper explores the possibility that the rationale is already present within the sign itself and concealed not by time but by interpretation. The question therefore shifts from chronology to hermeneutics: not when the rationale will be revealed, but how it may be known.

To examine this possibility, the paper considers the relationship between legal interpretation and symbolic signification, arguing that a sign may preserve meanings that later explanations fail to exhaust. The discussion culminates in a reexamination of the “tokens of virginity” in Deuteronomy 22, proposing that the narrative may preserve a covenantal rationale obscured by later forensic readings. Whether or not the specific interpretation advanced is accepted, the broader argument suggests that ritual signs function as living structures of meaning whose rationales may be discovered through deeper participation and interpretation rather than through the arrival of a future disclosure. In this sense, ritual participants may indeed know more than they understand.

This paper develops a biblical anthropology rooted in the narrative structure of Scripture, arguing that human identity cannot be understood apart from the relationship between matter, breath, and divine purpose. By examining the Genesis creation account alongside the teachings of Jesus, the study proposes that humanity’s meaning is found not merely in biological existence but in the vocation to bear God’s image through moral agency, relational responsibility, and participation in God’s redemptive work. The paper contrasts modern materialist assumptions with a theological vision in which matter is created good, ordered toward purpose, and fulfilled in Christ, the true image of God.

Este artículo presenta una propuesta de filosofía práctica y expresión estética a través de la pieza poético-musical "Verdad que se aprende al solo fallar". Tomando como eje la antropología existencial de Paul Ricoeur, la composición explora el límite del logos (la razón discursiva) frente al pathos (el sentimiento y la vulnerabilidad humana). Se analiza cómo el error, la herida existencial y el lamento no son meras negaciones del ser, sino los lugares ontológicos donde se revela la verdadera condición humana: una síntesis frágil y desproporcionada. A través de este comentario lírico, estructurado mediante un aparato crítico formal, se propone que la canción de autor de corte folk progresivo y acústico opera como una vía de apropiación reflexiva y consolación ante la opacidad del sufrimiento y la finitud.

Το ευαγγελικό ανάγνωσμα της αφιερωμένης στη μνήμη πάντων των αγίων Κυριακής μοιάζει με σταχυολόγηση των πιο σκληρών χωρίων από το Κατὰ Ματθαῖον Ευαγγέλιον (10:32-33,37-38· 19:27-30), που έχουν ως θέμα τις απαιτήσεις του Χριστού από όσους θέλουν να λέγονται αληθινοί μαθητές του και την αμοιβή τους.
Όμως τα λόγια του Χριστού αποκτούν ιδιαίτερη σημασία σήμερα, καθώς σήμερα οι χριστιανοί καλούνται όπως τότε που ο Χριστός έστελνε τους μαθητές του σε έναν κόσμο εχθρικό και γερασμένο, να γίνουν, όπως και εκείνοι, “φως του κόσμου” και “άλας της γης” που θα ανανεώσει και πάλι τον κόσμο. Καλούνται να διακηρύξουν προς πάσα κατεύθυνση ότι η ευημερία, η δημοκρατία και η ελευθερία από μόνες τους δεν αρκούν, ούτε μπορούν να διατηρηθούν άφθαρτες, αν δεν συνδυάζονται με πνευματική πνοή και οράματα. Και βέβαια τα οράματα δεν μπορούν να έχουν ως περιεχόμενο μια ρομαντική επιστροφή σε ένα δήθεν ιδανικό παρελθόν ούτε να εμπνέονται από ξεπερασμένες αξίες, αλλά θα πρέπει να παρακινήσουν τους χριστιανούς να βγουν και πάλι μπροστά από την εποχή τους, να γίνουν μια φωνή ελπίδας που θα αντιπαραθέσει στα σημερινά αδιέξοδα το όραμα της Βασιλείας του Θεού.

Mazmur 50 adalah sebuah "Mazmur Asaf" yang unik. Ini bukan sekadar lagu pujian, melainkan sebuah nubuatan penghakiman (prophetic lawsuit). Allah diposisikan sebagai Hakim yang turun dari Sion untuk mendakwa umat-Nya. Namun, dakwaan-Nya bukan karena mereka kurang beribadah, melainkan karena mereka salah memahami siapa Allah dan apa yang Ia inginkan.

Modern critiques of biblical slavery often evaluate the Hebrew Bible through categories shaped by modern race-based chattel slavery, resulting in historical and ethical anachronism. This study argues that Israelite servitude must instead be understood within the socioeconomic realities of the ancient Near East, a world lacking institutional welfare, labor mobility, or state supported relief. Drawing upon Hebrew legal texts, narrative material, and comparative Ancient Near Eastern law codes, the paper contends that biblical slavery functioned primarily as a regulated survival mechanism within a subsistence economy marked by vulnerability, famine, and debt. Particular attention is given to the semantic range of ‫ֶד‬ ‫ֶב‬ ‫,ע‬ the temporal limitation of debt servitude, legal protections against violence, and the integration of slaves within the household economy. When examined within its historical and theological framework, Israelite slavery emerges not as a system of absolute ownership but as a constrained institution shaped by covenantal accountability, divine ownership, and collective memory of Egyptian bondage. While not abolitionist in the modern sense, biblical law consistently limits duration, restricts violence, protects escapees, and subordinates human authority to divine sovereignty. The result is a legal structure aimed at preserving life and restraining exploitation within the constraints of the ancient world.

Leadership in ministry and society often wrestles with the tension between depth and expansion. Some leaders fear that growth compromises faithfulness, while others pursue expansion without theological grounding. This paper argues that true leadership is not about doing everything oneself, but about creating structures where many can flourish under shared values. Drawing from biblical exegesis, systems theory, and historical examples from church history, this study demonstrates that sustainable leadership growth is a theological imperative rather than a pragmatic option. Through the examples of Moses, Jesus, Paul, the early church, and later Christian leaders such as Augustine, Martin Luther, and John Wesley, the paper shows that leadership flourishes when responsibility is distributed, accountability is maintained, and shared theological convictions guide expansion. The study concludes that healthy growth is not opposed to faithfulness but is often the fruit of faithful stewardship.

In Lamentations 3:1–66, the narrator perceives his affliction from God as analogous to God’s punishment of His people for their sins throughout the ages. The voice of the narrator is interchanged with that of Israel as he progresses through his personal lamentation. This dissertation not only critically evaluates the monologue of the narrator but also views his lamentation on behalf of Israel as a means of invoking the community’s repentance. To this end, this dissertation analyzes and evaluates the poetry of lament from the Hebrew Bible to help readers distinguish the voice of the individual from the voice of Israel in a grieving poem about the destruction of Jerusalem.

This paper examines Hebrews 11:1 as a puzzle of interpretive plurality. It is distinct from earlier companion papers that analyzed semantic creep in the word faith and the illicit upgrade from assurance to public evidence. The present argument asks why a verse so frequently treated as Christianity's clean definition of faith produces such divergent interpretive functions. Hebrews 11:1 can be read as confidence, assurance, substance, evidence, conviction, title deed, loyalty, perseverance, or existential commitment. That plurality is not a minor translation inconvenience. It affects how faith is defended, praised, and insulated. The central claim is that Hebrews 11:1 fails as a stable epistemic rule because it is repeatedly made to do incompatible jobs. In devotional contexts it encourages endurance amid unseen hope. In apologetic contexts it is treated as a definition of rational faith. In fideistic contexts it sanctifies belief beyond sight. In evidentialist contexts it is rebranded as confidence based on reasons. In existential contexts it becomes a commitment under uncertainty. Each use may capture part of the text's reception, but the instability itself must be acknowledged. I develop a diagnostic framework for faith-function drift. The problem is not simply that English translations differ or that Greek terms have semantic range. The problem is that Christian discourse often treats the verse as settled while relying on its unsettledness. The paper concludes that Hebrews 11:1 can function as exhortation, poetry, and communal identity formation. It cannot responsibly function as a stand-alone epistemology of faith.

This article focuses on the pericope Deut 22:1–8, in light of Moshe Weinfeld’s proposal concerning Deuteronomy’s connection to wisdom literature. We examine the laws in this pericope, most of which deal with animals, and point out some thematic parallels to those laws in Mesopotamian wisdom literature. With regard to the law in Deut 22:8, which requires a person to build a parapet around the roof of his house, we point to Mesopotamian parallels suggesting that the aim of this law is prevention of suicide. The principle of a person’s responsibility for his fellow’s life, expressed in this law, is thematically connected to the notions of one’s responsibility for his fellow’s property and for the preservation of nature’s wild species, which underlie the other laws in the pericope under discussion.

This article develops the thesis that characters can operate as a legitimate analytical matrix for knowledge production in People Management. Starting from the previous article on compositional intention, language, and knowledge production, the unit of analysis is shifted from the internal architecture of the work to the relational and organizational function of the character. It is argued that stable narrative figures condense authority, care, conflict, decision, responsibility, negotiation, and use of resources, and may be reread as heuristic operators applicable to the study of leadership, culture, human development, and organizational ethics. The article formulates a twelve-item analytical grid and applies it comparatively to thirteen biblical characters:

This paper presents a formal classification of pulse mathematics within the Seven-Layer Covenant Architecture. Its central claim is that repeated biblical numbers do not all function at the same structural level. Governing anchors, supporting constants, frame numbers, derived indicators, and prophetic or sealed-vision intervals must be distinguished if pulse is to function as a disciplined covenant measurement framework rather than collapse into numerology or symbolic overreach. The governing pulse framework consists of twelve governing pulses: 1, 7, 12, 14, 21, 28, 42, 49, 70, 91, 112, and 144. Within this governing family, Pulse 1 (Echad) functions as the foundational governing pulse, establishing the covenant condition of undivided coherence from which the remaining operative governing pulses function. Pulse 153 remains a true pulse, but
not one of the twelve governing backbone pulses; it functions as a locked specialty pulse governing remnant ingathering and closure. On this basis, the paper argues that pulse is neither predictive magic nor symbolic ornament. It is a covenant measurement system that records how alignment, obedience, pressure, and resolution operate across narrative, law, judgment, restoration, and prophetic sequence.

Se desarrolla una propuesta de ontología bíblica derivada inductivamente del canon de las Escrituras, con especial atención a las categorías ontológicas que emergen de la narrativa bíblica y que encuentran su integración en la consumación escatológica. Frente a las ontologías clásicas fundamentadas en categorías sustancialistas y atemporales, el estudio argumenta que la Escritura presenta una comprensión de la realidad esencialmente histórica, relacional, personal y teleológica. A través de un análisis canónico de las categorías de imagen de Dios, vida como dependencia del Espíritu, fidelidad como modo existencial y nueva creación como consumación de la historia, se muestra que el ser es comprendido en la Biblia dentro de una estructura dinámica orientada hacia el cumplimiento del propósito divino.

La metodología empleada combina exégesis canónica, análisis teológico-sistemático e integración temática, permitiendo identificar patrones ontológicos recurrentes a lo largo del canon. Los resultados evidencian que la realidad creada no posee autonomía ontológica, sino que existe en dependencia permanente de la palabra creadora y del aliento divino. Asimismo, la identidad humana se define vocacionalmente a partir de la imagen de Dios y encuentra su plenitud en Cristo como imagen perfecta y mediador de la nueva creación.

La investigación concluye que la ontología bíblica puede describirse como una ontología histórico-relacional y narrativo-teleológica, en la cual la relacionalidad, la temporalidad, la contingencia y la orientación escatológica constituyen dimensiones esenciales del ser. Desde esta perspectiva, la nueva creación no representa simplemente el final de la historia, sino la clave hermenéutica que otorga significado y coherencia a la totalidad de la realidad revelada. 

Palabras clave: Ontología bíblica; teología sistemática; imagen de Dios; relacionalidad; temporalidad; contingencia; teleología; nueva creación; escatología; canon bíblico.

Publié aux Éditions du Carmel (Toulouse) dans la collection « Retraite spirituelle », ce livre est une retraite par écrit destinée à accompagner une retraite personnelle en compagnie de sainte Thérèse des Andes (1900-1920). Les chapitres puisent abondamment dans le Journal et les Lettres de Thérèse des Andes.