Lions and birds as literature. Some notes on Isaiah 31 and Hosea 11

Abstract

A certain combination of animal metaphors found in two different texts, Isaiah 31 and Hosea 11, has caused considerable scholarly confusion. Additional similarities as well as dissimilarities between the texts are presented, but the intertextual question is left open. Instead an attempt is made to analyze the metaphors in their context. The analysis is based on modern metaphor theory and the concept of genre allusion (in relation to the theophany Gattung). It is suggested that the metaphors in Isaiah 31 are related to the symbol of the cherubs, while Hosea 11,10–11 contains deliberate reversals of other Hosean passages.     

Psalm 1 als Tor zur Tora JHWHs. Wie Ps 1 (und Ps 2) den Psalter an den Pentateuch anschliesst

Wahrend Bezugnahmen von Ps 1 auf Passagen aus dem Korpus der “Nebiim” allgemein anerkannt sind, gilt dies nicht in demselben Masse im Blick auf die “Tora” (Pentateuch). Dass dem aber so ist, will dieser Essay nachweisen. Die Analyse der Eroffnungsverse zeigt, dass der Tora-Bezug namentlich uber Anspielungen an Passagen aus dem Deuteronomium hergestellt wird. Ein besonderer Stellenwert kommt dabei Dtn 6,4-9 (v.a. V. 7) zu—ein Text, der wie kaum ein anderer im Fruhjudentum bekannt war und damit als Verstehenshintergrund von Ps 1,1-2 entsprechend wiedererkannt werden konnte. Affinitaten ergeben sich ferner zu Dtn 17,14-20 und Dtn 33,29, die noch verstarkt werden, wenn die Verklammerung (Makarismus- Inclusio) des weisheitlichen Ps 1 mit dem koniglichen Ps 2 mitbedacht wird. Mit Ps 1(-2) als bewusst gesetzter “Bucheroffnung” wird nicht nur eine Lesesteuerung in den Psalter hinein (Innenraum), sondern zugleich eine Anbindung an bereits vorliegende autoritative Schriftgestalten bezweckt (“Aussenraum”). Insofern kann in kanontheologischer Perspektive hinsichtlich Ps 1 vom “Tor zur Tora JHWHs” gesprochen werden, da er nicht nur die Funfbucher Davids (Psalter) einleitet, sondern diese zugleich an die Funfbucher Moses (Pentateuch) zuruckbindet.     

Isaiah 1,4–9, Isaiah,and the events of 701 BCE in Judah

Abstract

The title of this paper points to the relationship between the Israelite cult as cultural performance and current trends in modern interpretation of the Psalms. The first part includes a review of the wellknown “spiritualisation” of cultic language which is compared to a new approach that describes this phenomenon as a “transformation” of cultic patterns. The second part intents to demonstrate how such transformations could have worked. The “liturgical” text of Ps 24 may serve as an eloquent example of this. Here, a fragment from the ancient temple cult is quoted in order to demonstrate the close connection between the secrets of the inner temple and everyday life. Ps 24 now appears to be an erudite text used for educational purposes.     

Le “serviteur” et “élu” d’Is 42,1 et ses disciples en Is 54,17ss

Abstract

En Is 41-48 le terme “serviteur” est appliqué à Israël selon le principe du transfert sur la descendance des Patriarches des titres davidiques du Ps 89 conformément à ce que propose le Ps 105. Les exilés effectuant un voyage semblable à celui d’Abraham sont appelés à jouer un rôle important dans la reconstruction. En Is 42,1 et 49-53 après de premières désillusions, le “serviteur” apparaît comme un individu qui doit servir de médiateur pour assurer le renouveau d’Israël en permettant particulièrement de lever les malédictions d’Is 6. En Is 54-66 le terme “serviteur” apparaît uniquement au pluriel, ces “serviteurs” se présentent comme les disciples du “serviteur.”     

Formgeschichtliche und sprachliche beobachtungen zu psalm 57

Usually, Ps 57 is seen as formcritically mixed, but the exact interrelation between personal lament und thanksgiving song has not yet been established. Philological observations (especially, verbal forms and sentence structures) and formcritical deliberations make it clear, that 2-6 is a lament and 7(!)-12 a thanksgiving song. Therefore, 7 is interpreted as a retrospect of the trouble (7ab) and as a report of the deliverance (7cd). The tricola 8abc and 9abc have the same structure: a citation of a song (ab) followed by a speech-action (c). The structure of the psalm with its two stanzas and the closing refrains support this interpretation. By means of different poetic elements (refrain, the word "heaven" etc.) the two genres are interrelated, resulting in an organic whole.     

Photius,Phlegon, and Virgil

Abstract

In his Bibliotheca, codex 97, Photius passes under review the Compilation of Olympic Victors and Chronicles by Phlegon of Tralles, a freedman of Hadrian. This work was dedicated by Phlegon to an imperial official, P. Aelius Alcibiades. Neither the official nor the book are mentioned in the Historia Augusta or the extant Byzantine epitomes of Dio Cassius, or indeed in any literary source. The name Aelius, however, might have helped the HA to create one of its many bogus sources, to wit Aelius Maurus, a supposed freedman of Phlegon himself and supplier of an anecdote about Septimius Severus on his deathbed.     

PSALM 136 ALS ZEITWEILIGE SCHLUSSDOXOLOGIE DES PSALTERS

It is shown that Ps 118,1-4 as a ''liturgical instruction'' forms the introduction to Ps 136. Therefore, Pss 118,5-29; 119; 120-134 and 135 must have been inserted between 118,4 and 136,1. The reason why the collection has grown in this way is that Ps 136 was for some time the final doxology of the Book of Psalms as a whole. The present shape of Ps 118 is a patchwork formed from several prayers. The collection Pss 120-134 has been inserted as a unit. Ps 135 is to be understood as the secondary link between Ps 134 and 136 (taking account of 118.1-4). Ps 119 is a late insertion. Ps 115 is secondary in relation to Ps 135.     

Margherita of Cortona: Women,Preaching, and the Writing of Hagiography

Abstract

This article examines Margherita of Cortona (1247–97), who took a penitent habit in the late 1270s. In 1290 Margherita was granted permission to rebuild the church of San Basilio near her cell and a secular priest became her confessor. After her death in 1297, her former confessor, the Franciscan Giunta Bevegnati, composed Margherita's Legenda, which provides an account of her life, conversion and penitence, her conversations with Christ, and her charitable works. In addition to the Legenda, there is also an altarpiece, portraying Margherita and scenes from her life, and the seventeenth-century watercolour paintings that reproduce the frescos which once decorated the church of Santa Margherita, the former San Basilio. Following a short introduction to Margherita's life, and a brief examination of preaching for women in the Middle Ages and its prohibitions, the article examines how the biographer, Giunta Bevegnati, represents the relationship of Margherita to preaching and sermons, in particular focusing on passages in Margherita's Legenda, where her efficacious speech or performance has a clear impact on an audience and her biographer does not use the term 'preach' for her utterances. Finally, the extent to which Margherita's biographer uses hagiography for homiletic purposes is discussed.     

Changing the way we do things: The impact of funding changes on heritage management and site interpretation in late twentieth-century England

Abstract

There is an underlying conflict in the management of historic sites and monuments in the UK between public interest and private property. Such conflict can be recognized in the genesis of the earliest legislation (the Ancient Monuments Protection Act of 1882). This tension remains important and the relative weights given to public and private interest might be seen as a barometer of wider political and economic conditions. This paper seeks to address changes in the funding of archaeology and heritage presentation during the period of the Conservative administration of 1979–97, when the economics of the free market were espoused with vigour in the UK. Funding of fieldwork shifted from direct grants from the central purse, to the support of job creation schemes and latterly to developer funding. Meanwhile heritage presentation has become more aggressively commercial, as English Heritage, the National Trust, the museums and private entrepreneurs seek to maximize financial return to underwrite the conservation and curation of historic places.     

Magnetometer and incoherent scatter observations of an intense Ps 6 pulsation event

In the morning sector of 21 April 1985, during the recovery phase of a geomagnetic storm, a Ps 6 pulsation event was recorded by the EISCAT magnetometer cross in northern Scandinavia. Simultaneously, the EISCAT incoherent scatter radar measured E- and F-region plasma parameters with a latitudinal scanning program. Electric fields and height-integrated Hall and Pedersen conductivities are derived. Two-dimensional patterns of these quantities are constructed for one Ps 6 period. The conductance patterns closely resemble the typical auroral forms of eastward drifting Ω bands with low and high conductances at the northern and southern edges of the scanned area, respectively. From the equatorward region a tongue of high ionization extends poleward into the dark area. The location of the maximum southward current is slightly displaced towards the west from the centre of the conductance tongue. The east-west disturbance electric field points towards the tongue; the north-south fields are enhanced outside and reduced inside the high conductance region. As has been previously suggested, the observations can be explained with a model which superposes currents caused by conductance variations and electric fields. Both effects need to be taken into account for this event. The current structures move within a few degrees in the direction of the background E×B drift, but their speed is about 15% lower than the average F-region plasma drift.     

The Double Movement of Immovable Property Rights in Papua New Guinea

ABSTRACT

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is one of many countries around the world where the relationship between customary land tenure and economic development has been hotly debated for a long time. A commonplace of the debate in PNG is that 97% of the nation's land is held under customary tenure, while only 3% has been alienated, and these proportions have not changed since the country became independent in 1975. This paper shows that the boundary between customary and alienated forms of land or immovable property was already showing signs of instability in the late colonial period, and this instability has been greatly magnified in the post-colonial period. The areas of land subject to some form of partial alienation have increased along with the ways and means by which immovable property has been ‘mobilised’, while a variety of customary claims to previously alienated areas have grown stronger over the same period. Although Karl Polanyi's idea of a ‘double movement’ can throw some light on this phenomenon, the PNG case also reveals a new side to the application of this concept.     

Book reviews

Frontiers

Poststructualist geographies: the diabolical art of spatial science. Marcus Doel. Pp. ix + 229. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999. Price: £45.00 (hbk), £14.95 (pbk). ISBN 0 226 48720 2 (hbk), ISBN 0 226 48721 0 (pbk).

Sleight‐of‐hand

New works in geography

Geography and enlightenment. Edited by David N. Livingstone & Charles W.J. Withers. Pp.viii + 455. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1999. Price £17.50 (pbk), £36.50 (hbk). ISBN 0 226 48721 0 (pbk), ISBN 0 226 48721 2 (hbk).

Secure from rash assault. Sustaining the Victorian environment. James Winter. Pp. xi + 342. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. Price: £ 24.95 (hbk). ISBN 0 520 21609 1.

Perspectives on British rural planning policy, 1994–97. Andrew W. Gilg. Pp. viii + 154. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999. Price £35.00 (hbk). ISBN 1 85972 641 0 (hbk).

Exploring contemporary migration. Paul Boyle, Keith Halfacree & Vaughan Robinson. Pp. 272. London: Longman, 1998. Price £18.99 (pbk). ISBN 0 58225 161 3.

Focus on Scotland

Urban highlanders: Highland‐lowland migration and urban Gaelic culture, 1700–1900. Charles W.J. Withers. Pp. 271. East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 1998. Price £20.00 (pbk). ISBN 1 86232 040 5.

Girls in trouble: sexuality and social control in rural Scotland, 1660–1780. Rosalind Mitchison & Leah Leneman. Pp. viii + 144. Edinburgh: Scottish Cultural Press, 1998. £10.95 (pbk). ISBN 1 898218 89 7 (pbk).

Girls in trouble: sexuality and social control in urban Scotland, 1660–1780. Rosalind Mitchison & Leah Leneman. Pp. viii + 164. Edinburgh: Scottish Cultural Press, 1998. £12.95 (pbk). ISBN 1 898218 90 0 (pbk).     

SEISMIC DESIGN REGULATION CODES: CONTRIBUTION OF K-NET DATA TO SITE EFFECT EVALUATION

The purpose of this study is to compare the site effect section of building codes (EC8 and UBC97) with the set of data provided by the Kyoshin network. In order to obtain a set of site coefficients and spectral shapes, we have first deduced an attenuation law for both horizontal and vertical motion. Site conditions are represented by the shear velocity averaged over the upper 30 m (V _s ³⁰). Our site classification (4 categories similar to those proposed in the new ECS and the UBC97) is based on borehole investigations at every station. This classification has permitted to distinguish clearly four response spectra which demonstrates the efficiency of V _s ³⁰ as characterising site conditions. Our law is then used to test site coefficients and spectral shapes of building codes ECS and UBC97. Concerning spectral shapes and site coefficients, our results are found to be in good agreement with EC8 and UBC97 only if category B (400<V _s ³⁰<800 m/s) is taken as reference. We also conclude that a site which is characterised as “rock” on geological criteria can not generally be classified in category A (V _s ³⁰>800 m/s). This suggests that classification in category A should be based only on field measurements. Concerning vertical motion, our analysis of the K-NET data shows that the ratio av/ah (vertical peak ground acceleration over horizontal peak ground acceleration) is between 0.50 and 0.68.     

The Work of Hans Aarsleff: A Brief Introduction

SUMMARY

The essay provides an overview of the main lines of argument that run through the work of Hans Aarsleff. The emphasis is on the history of language theory as an integral part of intellectual history.     

Michel Henry: The Affects of Thought

BLANCHOT, M. Awaiting Oblivion translated with an introduction by John Gregg University of Nebraska Press, 1997 85 pp., no price indicated, ISBN 0 8032 1257 7

CENDRON, J.‐P. Le Monde de la protection sociale Nathan, 1996 189 pp., no price indicated, ISBN 2 09 190135 0

CHAVANCE, B. Marx et le capitalisme Nathan, 1996 191 pp., no price indicated, ISBN 2 09 190100 0

MARCEL, B. and TAIEB, J. Le Chômage aujourd'hui Nathan, 1997 (2nd edition) 190 pp., ISBN 2 09 190140 0

La ville des sciences sociales Enquête, 4, 1996, pp. 1–280 Parenthçses, ISSN 1245 2084     

Gowin's Knowledge Vee and the Integration of Philosophy and Methodology: A Case Study

This paper reflects upon the five case studies that comprise the collection on the theme of 'teaching geography to non-geographers'. Key themes are discussed and an agenda for pedagogic research is outlined.     

Situated Creativity: A Way out of the Impasse of the Heidegger-Cassirer Debate

Summary

This paper criticizes the dualism of “thrownness” and “spontaneity” in Peter Gordon's interpretation of the Heidegger-Cassirer debate and shows that American pragmatism and other currents of thought offer an alternative in the form of a conception of situated creativity.     

Studieren in den USA Als Austauschstudentin in Denver

Im Rahmen des Austauschprogrammes der Universit?t Oldenburg studierte Claudia Weiermann für ein Jahr an der “University of Colorado at Denver” und testete die amerikanische Uni-Realit?t.