The Bible and Leo Strauss

According to Leo Strauss, the Hebrew Bible is to be regarded as being in “radical opposition” to philosophy and as its “antagonist.” This is an influential view, which has contributed much to the ongoing omission of the Bible from most accounts of the history of political philosophy or political theory. In this article, I examine Strauss's arguments for the exclusion of the Bible from the Western tradition of political philosophy (i) because it possesses no concept of nature; (ii) because it prescribes a “life of obedient love” rather than truth-seeking; and (iii) because it depicts God as “absolutely free” and unpredictable, and so without a place in the philosophers' order of “necessary and therefore eternal” things. I suggest that Strauss's views on these points cannot be accepted without amendment. I propose a revised view of the history of political philosophy that preserves Strauss's most important insights, while recognizing the Hebrew Bible as a foundational text in the Western tradition of political philosophy.     

The Bible at the Local Level

In spite of the papal permission to translate the Bible into Chinese that the Jesuit China mission received in 1615, there was no complete Catholic translation of the whole Bible in China until the 20th century (1954). The task of translation was considered too difficult and tedious and, in addition, somewhat dangerous and superfluous. A prerequisite for the translation of the Bible was the arduous linguistic work of various missionaries, who faced difficult work indeed with dictionaries, questions of grammar, and the challenges of establishing a Christian terminology. It was only by the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century that Catholic missionaries in China again focused on the idea to combine the Bible with catechism. The translations from and works on the Bible published by the Divine Word Missionaries in Shandong (1882–1950) were without any doubt a partial, but important contribution to the complete Chinese translation of the Bible. This project can be understood as a distinctive achievement in the Bible apostolate at the local level. This article focuses on a wide variety of aspects and levels of this apostolate. Readers find here that the translation of the Bible accomplished much in the dissemination of Biblical knowledge, certainly not only in South Shandong.     

Egyptology and the Bible

Abstract

A dozen Roman engraved gemstones (intaglios) dating from the first century B.C.E. to the third century C.E. were found during the excavations below the southern and western enclosure walls of the Temple Mount (1968–78). Diverse figures are depicted on the gemstones, such as gods, goddesses, heroes, animals and religious symbols. Some of the images are unique and represent the substantial contribution of glyptics to research of antiquity. The intaglio that depicts Tyche of Aelia Capitolin a is the sole representation of the city-goddess in any medium other than city coins. The snake coiled around an altar, a representation of the Genius of the wearer of the gem, has parallels only on wall paintings. The depiction of Telemachos, son of Ulysses, riding a quadriga is the first known depiction of that scene. A finely carved gemstone is the Dionysiac combination of four masks arranged in a form of a grape cluster. Several gems have a strong association with the Roman army, such as the one depicting Mars or the gemstone carved with an imperial eagle. The study of these intaglios provides a glimpse into the personal world of a dozen inhabitants of ancient Jerusalem and illuminates the character of the region revealed at the excavations.     

The messiah epithet in the Hebrew Bible

Rather than a reference ''to a present, political and religious leader who is appointed by God, applied predominantly to a king, but also to a priest and occasionally a prophet'' as proposed in 1985 by the first Princeton Symposium of Judaism and Christian origins, the term 'MSH' in the Hebrew Bible is an epithet or title which functions within a literary and mythic but not an historical context. The role of the messiah as played in the Hebrew Bible is not uniquely Jewish, but functions within the symbol system of ancient Near Eastern royal ideology and functions within a theology of divine transcendence and immanence. The coherence of the mythic role of the messiah is identified in relation to concepts of messianic time, as in the functions of expiating and mediating transcendence, of maintaining creation through war against the powers of chaos and the establishment of eternal peace. David's role as messiah in the Psalter is described in his role as ideal representative of piety, and as ruler over destiny bringing the good news expressed in various forms of ''the poor man's song.'' Finally, the role of the messiah myth is integrated with utopian concepts of a new Israel.     

译名之争与早期的《圣经》中译

在早期的《圣经》中译史上,“译名之争”是一个影响颇为深远的事件。这个争论的起源可以追溯到清代前期的“礼仪之争”,直到现在也还没有形成统一的意见。这场围绕着God或Theos等基督教核心名词如何中译而产生的争论,在1843—1851年来华基督教新教传教士集体合作修订《圣经》中译本期间达到高潮。在这期间,英国传教士与美国传教士各自坚持己见,展开长期的论战。“译名之争”导致了早期新教传教士合作译经事业的结束,但也促使多种《圣经》中译本相继问世。它不仅在中国近代基督教传播史上留下深刻的印记,而且波及近代中西化交流的其他方面。     

Nationalism and the Hebrew Bible*

Abstract. The Hebrew Bible, though generally seen mainly as a religious document, has also provided models of secular national identity. A number of biblical motifs have been revived in modern cultural nationalism: for example, the importance of moral regeneration, attacks on internal and external enemies of the nation, and the unification of disparate groups despite geographic dislocation. The Hebrew Bible also anticipates various forms of conflict in modern national identity: between the individual and the group, chosenness and egalitarianism, the narrowly national and the universal. In the two centuries after the invention of printing, the Hebrew Bible in vernacular translation had a decisive influence on the evolution of nationalism, particularly in Britain. The Bible was essential in the culture of empires but also, paradoxically, inspired defeated, suppressed and colonised people to seek freedom. A number of modern national poets, notably Whitman and the Hebrew poets Bialik and Greenberg, adopt a free verse neo‐prophetic mode of expression. The Hebrew Bible can, therefore, be read as the archetypal, and most influential, national document from ancient times to the rise of modern nationalism.     

Philosophy Across the Lines: Or Why I Love Arthur Melzer's Book and Remain a Progressive

Abstract

Arthur Melzer's outstanding book decisively proves the historical prevalence of esoteric writing and persuasively identifies four main types. It also provides reasons why the worldviews that long made esotericism seem necessary should not be dismissed, reasons that should give pause to proponents of progressive reform agendas. There still remain, however, good reasons to think that such agendas can and should be prudently pursued.     

The British and Foreign Bible Society in Port Said and the Suez Canal

The Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson visited the Hawaiian Islands from January–June 1889, in the middle of one of the most turbulent periods in its history. While staying on the islands he became associated with King Kalakaua's royalist faction, which was then involved in a struggle for power against the Reform Party, whose members were responsible for leading Hawai‘i first to republican rule (1893) and then to American takeover in 1898. This article examines Stevenson's encounter with the Reverend Sereno Bishop, author of a pamphlet enquiring into the causes of indigenous depopulation, within the context of significant social and political change on the islands. While evidencing the growing politicisation of Stevenson's later years, his experience also bears witness to the development of Americanism in the Reform Party, who prepared the way for annexation by aligning themselves ideologically with sympathetic elements in the United States.