TheoRhema 4.2.

TheoRhma 4.
2 (2009)
CUPRINS
CUPRINS ................................................................................ 1
SDA SPIRITUALITY AND BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION
Zoltn Szalos-Farkas ................................................................................. 2
PAUL DE TARSE: QUELQUES LMENTS EXGTIQUES
ET HISTORIQUES DE BIOGRAPHIE
Gabriel Golea ........................................................................................... 40
CUCERIREA CANAANULUI N TENSIUNEA DINTRE
DEPOSEDARE I ANIHILARE
Barna Magyarosi ...................................................................................... 45
REGISTRELE CERULUI: UN STUDIU EXHAUSTIV AL
DOCUMENTELOR CARE SE AFL N CER.
Laureniu Mo .......................................................................................... 57
ARHITECTURA CMPURILOR SEMANTICE DIN IOV 28 I
IMPORTANA ACESTEIA N TRADUCEREA LUI IOV 28:28
Laureniu Gabriel Ionescu ...................................................................... 78

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009): 2-39
SDA
1
SPIRITUALITY AND BIBLICAL
INTERPRETATION
Lect. univ. dr. Zoltn Szalos-Farkas
Institutul Teologic Adventist, Cernica, Romnia
Abstract
What is argued for in this article is that The Millerite Great
Disappointment was not caused by extrinsic factors, economic, social or
political, pertaining to life in nineteenth-century United States of America.
Rather, it was the result of the Millerite historicist biblical hermeneutic. It
is also argued that it was historicism that solved the puzzle of The Great
Disappointment thus engendering the spirituality of Seventh-day
Adventists. This was a historicism that Sabbatarian Adventists came to
enrich by vertical typological exegesis and The Great Controversy Theme.
Not only did historicist biblical hermeneutic help them understand and
thus make sense of what had been religiously experienced on October 22,
1844, but it also helped them reach the truth of their distinctive doctrines
which came to underlie their apocalyptic spirituality. This last point has
not been dealt with in detail in the current article. Therefore, it will be the
subject matter of a forthcoming article to be published in the next issue of
Theorhema.
INTRODUCTION
The aim of the third article of a series of four to be published in
this journal
2
is to enquire into the question of whether there is
some sort of mutuality between spirituality and biblical
hermeneutic. How do they impact each other? The answer is
looked for by investigating the rise and development of Seventh-

1
SDA stands for Seventh-day Adventist or Seventh-day Adventism.
Sabbatarian/ism is another term used here to denote SDA.
2
See my first and second articles entitled, From Personal and Private to
Communal and Public Spirituality (2008) 3/2:2-35 and Prophetess and
Remnant Spirituality, Theorhema (2009) 4/1:2-38.

SDA spirituality and biblical interpretation

3
day Adventist spiritual life. Having said this, one has to admit that
the factors responsible for the basic characteristics of a certain
social entitys spirituality may be extremely complex and varied.
This is especially true with respect to the religious life of Seventh-
day Adventists. The fact is that SDA spirituality originated and
matured within the extremely dynamic socio-economic and political
context of nineteenth-century North America. But this does not
automatically mean that its distinctive identity was determined by
the American social, economic or political factors. These we call
extrinsic factors. Our thesis is that Sabbatarian Adventists seem to
have responded, to a great extent, to the influences of extrinsic
factors on the basis of the worldview provided by their way of
reading the Bible. This statement, however, is very general and,
therefore, irrelevant without a thorough inquiry into the question of
biblical hermeneutic applied by Seventh-day Adventists. But first let
us consider a short diachronic review of biblical hermeneutic to see
the background.
Hermeneutical Background
We start with a study of the history of biblical interpretation,
leading up to the nineteenth century.

From Spiritual to Literal Exegesis
In order to obtain a reliable picture of the relationship between
biblical hermeneutic and the spiritual life of Adventists, the current
investigation reaches back to the hermeneutical theories and
exegetical practices of Christian Antiquity. These hermeneutical
antecedents will then be contrasted with relevant exegetical
developments that occurred at the Reformation and in subsequent
Protestantism. A discussion of how the hermeneutical traditions of
the Reformation and of later Protestantism relate to the Millerite
hermeneutical methodology will conclude this section.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

4
Christian Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Interpreters in the Middle Ages approached Scriptures with
what is known as spiritual exegesis. This exegetical method had as
its ancestor Origens interpretation of Scripture according to the
anthropological model of Plato. Thus, as the human being was a
composite of body, soul and spirit, so was the sense of the Bible.
3

Hebrew (Jewish) history was the literal sense, or the body of
Scripture. The soul stood for the typological or moral sense,
applicable to the individual. Finally, the spirit pointed to the
spiritual sense which was the foreshadowing of the new covenant
in the old.
4
Origens heavy allegorising exegesis
5
tended to
dominate the Alexandrian school of biblical interpretation,
established on Philos hermeneutical tradition.
In the transition from Origens three-sense exegetical formula to
the four-sense biblical exegesis of western Middle Ages, Augustine
of Hippo (354-430 A.D.) was the key figure. For Augustine, the
major aim of any interpretative task was to grasp the spiritual sense
of Scriptures,
6
so much so that whenever a phrase allowed a literal
interpretation, it was to be expected to refer to spiritual truths to
enhance the purity of life or soundness of doctrine.
7

3
Origen, On First Principles, IV, 2.4, (London: Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, 1936).
4
Sandra M. Schneiders, Scripture and Spirituality, in McGinn and Meyendorff,
eds., Christian Spirituality: Origins to the Twelfth Century, [henceforth: Christian
Spirituality, vol.1], (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986), p. 12.
5
Origens term for his Platonist-Philonic allegorical exegesis is spiritual
explanation; see On First Principles, IV, 2.6.
6
Schneiders, Scripture and Spirituality, in Christian Spirituality, vol. 1, p. 14.
7
Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, III.10.14, in Robert Hutchins, ed., Great Books of
the Western World (London: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1952). Exegesis, for
Augustine, was to be governed by regula fidei, i.e., the doctrines of the Catholic
faith; see III. 10.15.


5
In order to identify the spiritual sense, Augustine epitomised his
exegetical method in one general principle. He stated that Scripture
enjoins nothing except charity, and condemns nothing except lust,
and in that way fashions the lives of men.
8
But, to charity, in
Augustines opinion, different exegetes could attain through the
multiplicity of senses a particular word in the Scriptures may have.
Thus the western Middle Ages testify to the development of an
essentially Origenist-Augustinian biblical interpretation, looking for
four senses of a word or passage in the Scriptures. This exegetical
method underlay mainly medieval monastic spirituality.
9
Thus,
besides the literal sense there were the allegorical, tropological, and
anagogical senses. These three were basically the spiritual senses,
often referred to as deeper, mostly veiled or secret. It was the
grasp of these three, that is, the doctrinal, the moral and the
eschatological senses that nurtured the spiritual life of the
interpreter-reader. Medieval spiritual exegesis, in order to lead to
the apprehension of the mystical depths of meaning in the text,
presupposed divine illumination, besides the scholarly work of the
exegete.
The Reformation and Beyond
The radical shift from spiritual to literal exegesis came with
the sixteenth-century Reformation. The Reformers exegesis relied

8
Ibid., III. 10.15. For Augustine, the Scriptures contained mainly spiritual
language, whereby ones charity was nurtured in the form of the affection of
the mind which aims at the enjoyment of God, and the enjoyment of ones
self and ones neighbour. When charity, as love and sound doctrine, is not
referred to in a biblical phrase, then, in Augustines view, that phrase is to be
interpreted figuratively. See III.10.14; and III. 10.16.
9
For a study of the relationship between medieval biblical hermeneutic and
spirituality, see McGrath, Christian Spirituality: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell
Publishers Ltd, 1999), pp. 82-84; and Schneiders, Scripture and Spirituality, in
McGinn and Meyendorff, eds., Christian Spirituality, vol. 1, pp. 14-19.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

6
on a crucial interpretative principle, which did away with earlier
hermeneutical traditions. The principle was first defined and
applied by Martin Luther. Exegetes should take the pains, wrote
Luther, to have one definite and simple understanding of
Scripture.
10
The stress on one definite sense, rather than four
senses, of Scriptures moved the post-Reformation exegetes
interests away from the spiritual, deep, secret, mystical or
hidden meaning of Scriptures.
The new interpretative centre became the literal, rather than
the allegorical, sense of biblical texts. Luther made it clear that the
Christian reader should make it his first task to seek out the literal
sense because allegory was too often uncertain unreliable and
by no means safe for supporting faith.
11
This was a move that led
to a hermeneutical revolution to impact spirituality for centuries to
come. Reformation biblical hermeneutic lay the foundations of the
grammatical-historical method of biblical interpretation. This is
interested in the investigation of The import of each word, and
phrase, and passage in a manner perfectly accordant with the
laws of language, and with the actual [historical] circumstances of
the writer.
12

More than anything else, the Reformers literal exegesis implied
the fundamental presupposition of Reformation hermeneutic: sola
Scriptura. This underlay the Reformers two fundamental
hermeneutical principles: Scriptura est sui ipsius interpres and claritas

10
Luthers Works, vol. 8, p. 209,.Jaroslav Pelikan, ed., (Saint Louise: Concordia
Publishing House, 1966), (henceforth: LW, vols. 8, 9, etc.).
11
Ibid., vol. 9, p. 24, Jaroslav Pelikan, ed., (Saint Louise: Concordia Publishing
House, 1960).
12
Patrick Fairbairn, Hermeneutical Manual: Or, Introduction to the Exegetical Study of the
Scriptures of the New Testament (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1857), [henceforth:
Hermeneutical Manual], p. 67; see also pp. 68-69, where Fairbairn comments on the
hermeneutical renewal of Luther, Melanchthon and Calvin.


7
Sacrae Scripturae. The survey of the historical development of the
Reformation literal exegetical tradition begs the question of
whether literal exegesis could be applied to prophetic texts,
especially apocalyptic Scriptures. This leads us to the crux of the
matter under discussion in this section. Namely, how did the
Reformation hermeneutical tradition contribute to the formation of
what is known as the historicist method of prophetic interpretation.
Development
13
and Definition of Historicism
The historicist hermeneutic of apocalyptic prophecies had
established itself as an interpretative tradition among Anglo-
American Protestant exegetes from the early seventeenth century to
the first half of the nineteenth century.
14
Developments in
historicism in this period, leading up to the time of William Millers
private biblical research (1816-1831), highlight the noteworthy
contributions of a number of Protestant exegetes belonging to this
era.
A study of Joseph Medes (1586-1638) Clavis Apocalyptica
15

quickly convinces one that Mede was rightly considered to have

13
LeRoy Edwin Froom, a Seventh-day Adventist scholar, has produced a
monumental, four-volume, research which traces historicism from Millers time
back to the exegetes of Christian Antiquity. See Froom, The Prophetic Faith of Our
Fathers: The Historical Development of Prophetic Interpretation, vols. 1-4, (Hagerstown,
MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1950-1954), [henceforth:
Prophetic Faith].
14
Kai Arasola has conducted an extensive study of the historicist school of
prophetic exegesis, with an express focus on William Miller as the last
Protestant representative of the tradition. Arasola has argued in his doctoral
work that historicism had flourished in Protestantism from the late seventeenth
century to the early nineteenth century, when it came to its end with the demise
of the Millerite Movement. See Arasola, The End of Historicism: Millerite Hermeneutic
of Time Prophecies in the Old Testament (Sigtuna: Datem Publishing, 1990),
[henceforth The End of Historicism], especially p. 24.
15
Medes Key of the Revelation was published in the nineteenth century under the

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

8
caused a Copernican revolution in the interpretation of
prophecy.
16
The methodology of prophetic interpretation he
established became referential, and still dominated apocalyptic
hermeneutic in the nineteenth century.
Medes method rests on a fundamental assumption: that the
prophecies of the book of Revelation, and of Daniel for that
matter, predict sequences of events to unfold and be fulfilled
during very extended periods of historical time. In fact, the
Apocalypse, in his view, unfolds the historical sweep, over many
centuries, of the Christian Era, from the time of the biblical author
to the Second Coming. Thus, the two pivotal elements in his
hermeneutic are the terminus a quo and the terminus ad quem of the
series and orders of events
17
predicted in the Revelation. The
former is the time from which predictions must be calculated, and
this is the authors time. The latter indicates the climax of history,
the glorious advent which is the ultimate boundary of the
Apocalyptic course.
18

The key to his calculations needs special mention. The way
Mede interpreted references to time in the prophecies of Daniel
and Revelation constitutes another fundamental element of the
historicist hermeneutic of apocalyptic prophecies. This element is
known as the year-day hermeneutical principle.
19
Thus, Mede first

title R. Bransby Cooper, trans., A Translation of Medes Clavis Apocalyptica (London:
Gilbert & Rivington, 1833). This work has been used in this study, and it will be
referenced as Medes Clavis Apocalyptica.
16
Arasola, The End of Historicism, p. 33. On the significance of prophetic
interpretation within English Puritanism and hence in Protestant orthodoxy, see ,
Ball, W. B., The English Connection: The Puritan Roots of Seventh-day Adventist Belief
[henceforth: The English Connection], (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 1981, pp.
193-212.
17
Medes Clavis Apocalyptica, p. 66.
18
Ibid.
19
The exegetical rule of a symbolic day standing for a literal year did not originate


9
interpreted the phrase time, times, and half a time (Dan 7:25; 12:7,
Rev 12:14), to mean three and a half years,
20
which further
transformed into days led him to 1,260 days.
21
Then the 42 months
(Rev 11:2; 13:5), of 30 days each, he also equalled with 1,260 days
(Rev 11:3; 12:6).
22
Finally, Mede interpreted a day to be a symbolic
expression standing for a literal year. Thus, the aforementioned
three different apocalyptic time-prophecies denoted, according to
Mede,
23
the period of domination of the Antichrist for 1,260 years,
from the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 A.D. to 1736.
Medes historicist hermeneutic was further refined and
augmented with new features by British apocalyptic interpreters of
the later seventeenth century to the time of William Miller. These
hermeneutical developments influenced Miller, and through him
the Sabbatarian Adventist apocalyptic exegesis. Added
developments, in the meantime, resulted from the works of such
contributors as Isaac Newton (1642-1727),
24
Thomas Newton
(1704-1782),
25
John Gill (1697-1771)
26
and George Stanley Faber

with Mede. The principle was first upheld and applied in Christian
apocalypticism by Joachim of Fiore (c. 1135-1202).
20
His calculation is simple: time denoted a year; times equalled two years,
while half a time stood for half a year, which signified a total of a year, two
years, and a half. Mede counted 360 days a year and 30 days a month. Medes
Clavis Apocalyptica, p. 298.
21
Ibid., p. 2.
22
Ibid., p. 3.
23
The terminus a quo, 476 A.D., and the terminus ad quem, 1736, are specified in
Medes letter to Archbishop Ussher, May 22, 1628, in Medes The Works of the
Pious and Profoundly Learned Joseph Mede, vol., 2, p. 896, cited in Arasola, The End of
Historicism, p. 35.
24
Besides being a well-known scientist, Sir Isaac Newton is known for his keen
interest in interpreting biblical prophecy. See Ball, The English Connection, p. 194.
25
Bishop of Bristol, Thomas Newton was also dean of St. Pauls in London. His
seminal work is Dissertations on the Prophecies, Which Have Remarkably Been Fulfilled,

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

10
(1773-1854).
27
Kai Arasola has produced a cogent study of their
contributions to the method, which has been used here to identify
new elements. Such added elements to round up historicism were
as follows. The book of Daniel was to be regarded as the key to all
other prophecy.
28
In consequence, the 2,300-day prophecy of
Daniel 8:14 equalled 2,300 years, and as such was not to be applied
to Antiochus Epiphanes.
29

Beyond the books of Daniel and Revelation, the whole Bible
came to be viewed as a harmonious chain of prophecy on the two
advents of Christ.
30
Both Isaac Newton and Thomas Newton
believed in, and practised, what they viewed as scientific exegesis,
underlain by precise mathematics. Such an exegesis was able to
unfold the harmonious chain of prophecy and thus outline the
history of the world, which would not exceed 6,000 years from the
Creation to the parousia.
31

and at This Time Are Fulfilling in the World (Edinburgh: Morison and Son, 1743),
[henceforth: Dissertations on the Prophecies].
26
Gill was a Baptist scholar, known for his familiarity with Hebrew and Rabbinic
literature and biblical commentaries. See Arasola, The End of Historicism, p. 40.
27
As one of Millers contemporaries, Faber was the most voluminous religious
writer of his generation, dealing with prophetic interpretation. See Froom,
Prophetic Faith, vol. 3, p. 339.
28
This is Isaac Newtons thesis, in Arasola, The End of Historicism, p. 36.
29
Unlike Mede, who applied Daniel 8:14 to Antiochus Epiphanes, Isaac Newton
interpreted it as a long period of 2,300 years based on the year-day principle. See
Arasola, Ibid., p. 37.
30
For the identification of the harmonious chain of prophecy throughout the
Bible, the books of Daniel and Revelation held the keys, in Thomas Newtons
view, according to Arasola, see Ibid., p. 38.
31
Ibid., pp. 35, 38-39. Mede also spoke of 6,000 years as the total sweep of world
history. See, Ibid., p. 34.


11
Definition of Historicism
Having surveyed the development of the historicist school of
prophetic exegesis, a core definition of the method is now possible.
The main premises and characteristics of the method are the
following.
First, the apocalyptic books of Daniel and the Revelation
contain prophecies, the fulfilment of which span and outline
human history from the biblical authors time to the End of the
world. Second, the chronological decoding of apocalyptic time-
prophecies leads the exegete to the literal sense of such Scriptures,
that is, literal historical periods, events, persons and institutions.
Third, human history is divinely foreseen and its periods are,
therefore, outlined and thus controlled by God. Fourth, the literal
sense of apocalyptic prophecies was not intended primarily to
address the biblical authors contemporary readership. Rather, the
meaning of apocalyptic prophecies regarded first and foremost a
later, in some cases End-Time, audience. Fifth, the year-day rule is
the cornerstone of historicism. It is the key to establishing the exact
duration of extended prophetic time periods.
Sixth, non-temporal apocalyptic symbols and types were also to
be interpreted to refer to historical realities, events and personal
entities. Seventh, historicism identified the Papacy as the
Antichrist.
32
Eighth, At the foundation of the method, its
distinguishing feature was the creation of a coherent system of
interdependent synchronizations between prophecies. The method
included a desire to place every prophecy into an elaborate

32
Besides the Papacy, historicism saw Islam as an eastern antichrist. See, for
instance, Medes interpretation of the fifth and sixth trumpets (Rev 9:1-21) as
being Mohammedism or Islamism and the Ottoman empire, in Medes Clavis
Apocalyptica, pp. 173 ff.; cf. Fabers reference to the Papacy and Islam as the
western and eastern antichrist; see Arasola Ibid., p. 41.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

12
millennial timetable.
33
Ninth, historicism could, at times, extend
chronological exegesis beyond the strictly apocalyptic texts in the
Bible. The reason for this was the view that non-apocalyptic
Scriptures could provide the key for interpreting certain apocalyptic
terms and passages. Conversely, the books of Daniel and
Revelation were the key for dating the whole span of human
history to 6,000 years.
In sum, the historicist method delineated above was built upon
the hermeneutical presupposition and principles of the
Reformation literal exegesis: Sola Scriptura, The Scripture is its own
interpreter and Perspicuity of the Scriptures. And this was also the
historicism William Miller inherited and applied in his
interpretation of the Bible.
Immediate Background
In this section, it is intended to survey the hermeneutical
tradition which bore directly upon the shaping of Seventh-day
Adventism religious life. This was the Millerite way of reading the
Bible, especially the prophecies.
Millerite Historicism
Once this matter is made clear, the Sabbatarian method of
exegesis and historicism will be easier to assess and describe. The
current investigation will, therefore, enquire into the question of
the crucial features of Millerite historicist hermeneutic. This is
necessary because these features played a decisive role in bringing
about Millerite spirituality. However, Millerite historicism and
spirituality are only the concern of the present study inasmuch as
they are related to the main issue under discussion. That is, to see
how Sabbatarian biblical hermeneutic and historicism bore upon

33
Arasola, Ibid., p. 29.


13
the mode in which Seventh-day Adventists came to make sense of
their religious experience and thus live out their faith in the context
of nineteenth and early twentieth century America.
Millers Hermeneutic
William Miller (1782-1849) was a Baptist lay person (from Low
Hampton, New York State). He turned to Deism before becoming
an apocalyptic revivalist. Millers re-affiliation
34
with his Christian
tradition, but most importantly, his turning to apocalyptic
revivalism was occasioned by a fifteen-year (1816-1831), private
search of the Bible.
35
The numerous sources give a reasonably
detailed account of the development, during this period, of his
hermeneutical method. This allows one to state that Miller became
a self-trained lay exegete, with a considerable degree of rigour and
consistency in his biblical interpretation. As such, he launched his
lectures on apocalyptic prophecies in 1831, which resulted, by the
late 1830s, in the Second Advent Movement, with a corresponding

34
Miller had been a Deist from about 1804 to 1816, and was an avid reader of
Voltaire, Hume, Paine, and Ethan Allen; see William Miller, Wm. Millers Apology
and Defence (Boston: Published by J. V. Himes, 1845), [henceforth: Apology and
Defence], pp. 3-5. On his reliance on Scottish Common-Sense realism in his
methodology of biblical interpretation, see Malcolm Bull and Keith Lockhart,
Seeking a Sanctuary: Seventh-day Adventism and the American Dream (New York:
Harper & Row, 1989), [henceforth: Seeking a Sanctuary], pp. 23-24.
35
Autobiographical and biographical sources have fairly detailed accounts of his
early years, his military career in the 1812 War with Britain, and subsequent
abandonment of Deism and turning to Christianity, as well as his role in the
Second Advent revival of 1831-1844. See Miller, Ibid; also Joshua Himes,
Memoir of William Miller, in Himes, Views of the Prophecies and Prophetic
Chronology, Selected From Manuscripts of William Miller With a Memoir of His Life
(Boston: J. V. Himes, 1845). The most comprehensive biographical work on
Miller written by Sylvester Bliss, one of his principal ministerial associates in the
revival, has not been available for this research.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

14
form of apocalyptic piety and devotion.
36
The hermeneutics
underlying this form of spirituality needs, therefore, scrutiny in
order to identify its precise relation to the spiritual life of the
community it engendered.
The survey of Millers fourteen exegetical rules has highlighted
three very important points regarding his manner of studying the
Bible.
37
First, it has made it clear that Miller formulated all his
exegetical rules within the framework of the earlier- mentioned
Reformation literalism, with its two foundational hermeneutical
principles and presupposition. Second, his exegetical method was
employed to interpret what, for Miller, seems to have been of
unequalled importance for human beings to understand. This was
biblical prophecy, especially apocalyptic. Third, proof-text exegesis
served Miller to identify sufficient scriptural evidence to support
his rules of biblical interpretation, especially of apocalyptic
prophecies. As such, his exegetical method was the result of an
inductive mode of reasoning. This, in turn, lay at the root of
Millers historicism. What this historicism meant for him and how it
shaped his spirituality is best expressed by what I call:
Teleological View of History
From his various expositions of apocalyptic and non-
apocalyptic texts it becomes clear that Miller was deeply concerned
with what he perceived as time-related biblical passages. The way
he interpreted them allows one to conclude that Miller perceived
human history in teleological terms. That is, history marched
towards its telos. This was a divinely ordained goal whose precise

36
For an overview of the essential features of Millerite spirituality, see Szalos-
Farkas Zoltan, The Rise and Development of SDA Spirituality: The Impact of the
Charismatic Guidance of Ellen G. White (Cernica: Editura ITA, 2005), [henceforth:
The Rise and Development], pp. 115-119.
37
Miller, Apology and Defence, p. 6.


15
identity lay revealed in Scriptures and, consequently, calculable.
Chronological exegesis, therefore, was to seek for the goal of
history, which Miller found to be the Second Coming to mark the
End of human history.
38
A major interest for him represented the
time-prophecies of the book of Daniel and the Apocalypse. But he
also could find chronological predictions in the Pentateuch and
other non-apocalyptic books of the Bible. Miller, thus, found
fifteen different ways
39
to prove that the End as Second Coming
was the purpose of human history and that its time could be
calculated.
The point that is extremely obvious from the analysis of
these fifteen proofs is that they indicate the year 1843 to be the year
of the parousia. Everything else that takes place in human history is
judged from the vantage point of the End. Thus, the chronological
interpretations identify important years and periods, with their
respective events, that took place within history, leading to the year
of the End to occur in 1843. These years that feature as crucial
moments in the divinely outlined human history are 508 A.D., 538
A.D., 1798 and 1840. The crucial importance of the first three dates
resided, for Miller, in their marking either the beginning or the end
of the western, persecuting power of the papal Rome. The year
1840 also indicates the demise of the eastern religio-political power,
the Turkish Ottoman Empire. These religious and political entities,
historical events and dates also feature in the traditional Protestant
interpretations, as noted in my doctoral thesis.
40
All that is new here
is Millers chronological exegesis that lay at the foundation of his

38
Miller, Apology and Defence, pp. 11-13; and Miller, Time Proved in Fifteen
Different Ways, an original document entirely reproduced in Appendix V of
Arasolas, The End of Historicism, pp. 222-25.
39
Miller, Time Proved in Fifteen Different Ways, in Ibid., p. 222.
40
See footnote no. 38 in my The Rise and Development, p. 102.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

16
teleological perspective of history, which lent such tremendous
importance to the doctrine of the End as Second Coming.
The fact that besides the books of Daniel and Revelation, the
Pentateuch, the major and minor prophets, the epistolary literature
of the NT, as well as the gospels contained time-prophecies
41
for
Miller, leads to the following conclusion. Such an approach to the
Scriptures is indicative of the crucial role and implications of
Millers historicist hermeneutic would have for the spirituality of
the Movement engendered by it. This was a role whose magnitude
must be judged from the unprecedented social scale of the hope for
Gods promised future to be installed by Christ at his imminent
return. In other words, his chronological exegesis resulted in a
spirituality of hope. And also, the force of this sort of biblical
exegesis is to be appreciated from the massive interest in the
apocalyptic prophecies outlining the sequential order of history
until the End. How could historicism be so effective? Partially, the
answer is to be found in Millers and the Millerites revivalist
techniques. The enquiry into these techniques has led to the
following crucial discovery which may explain the public appeal of
their spirituality.
The Public Nature of Exegesis
It is of tremendous significance to note that Millers exegetical
practice was not restricted to the workshop phase. Worded
differently, exegesis extended beyond Millers private study room.
One specific dimension, then, of the Millerite revival tends to be
often overlooked by scholars. Namely, that Miller did not consider

41
Such time-prophecies to prove that the End will occur in 1843, were: Exod.
31:13-17; Lev. 25:8-13; Deut. 15:1-2; Jer. 34: 14; Hosea 6:1-3; Luke 13:32; Heb.
4:9-11; however, most of Millers chronological exegesis targeted time-
prophecies from the apocalyptic books of Daniel and Revelation. See Miller,
Apology and Defence, pp. 222-23.


17
exegesis as a private practice of ones private spirituality. Following
in his footsteps, the Millerites, and later the Sabbatarians, viewed
historicist exegesis as a public spiritual exercise. It had to serve the
public. This public dimension of exegesis, however, was not merely
the message it engendered. Rather, the Millerite exegesis behind the
Millerite message dominated the pulpit phase of his revival.
Millerite revivalist preaching was, therefore, also a lay instruction in
exegesis and historicist hermeneutic.
Thus, message and hermeneutical method cannot be separated
in Millerism. Being inherently interwoven, both came to expression
during the Millerite public lectures. Consequently, both appealed to
the public. This fact must have its weight when one studies the
relationship between spirituality and biblical hermeneutic when it
comes to either Millerism or Seventh-day Adventism. The
tremendous import of the Millerite chronological exegesis comes to
the fore in its potential to translate biblical time-prophecies,
apocalyptic and otherwise, into the most effective spiritual
nourishment. We need, at this stage, to remind ourselves of the
definition of spirituality used in our study. Spirituality is the longing
of the human spirit for God. It is search for God. Millers
exegetical practice fulfilled this desire in that it brought into
perspective the imminent encounter with God in the person of
Christ at his Second Coming. This is how historicist exegetical
practice nourished, sustained and shaped a form of spirituality that
was the antecedent of:
Sabbatarian Historicism and Spirituality
One would have expected Millerite exegesis to be brought into
utter disrepute by the October 1844 Great Disappointment since
this was caused, in a way, by the failure of the historicist method.
But this did not take place. At least it did not fall into disrepute

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

18
within certain circles of Shut-Door Adventists, such as the
Sabbatarians.
42
Therefore, Ellen White could state, in 1884, that
Those who are engaged in proclaiming the third angels message
[Rev. 14:9-12], that is, the Seventh-day Adventists, are searching
the Scriptures upon the same [hermeneutical] plan that Father
Miller adopted.
43
As will become clear below, White had her share
and assumption of responsibility for the Millerite historicisms
survival after 1844.
The reasons for the survival of the historicist hermeneutic are
varied and complex. One reason, however, stands out. This is the
indispensability of the method for a particular form of the Christian
spiritual life. It needs mention that the great bulk of the
disappointed Millerites had abandoned key aspects of their
historicism after The Great Disappointment. They had been
gradually assimilated into the mainstream of American
Protestantism. But those who were not willing to renounce their
teleological view of history continued to make sense of their
religious experience. This is to say that they continued to search for
explanations of The Great Disappointment by the use of historicist

42
The thesis Arasola argues in his doctoral dissertation is that the historicist
method did come to an end within Protestantism at large with the demise of
Millers Movement after October 1844. He seems to maintain his thesis in spite
of the fact that Seventh-day Adventism, as a denomination of Millerite origin,
still relies heavily on the historicist hermeneutic of biblical prophecy. His thesis,
logically, raises the question of whether Adventism can be considered Protestant.
The present dissertation has found sufficient evidence to uphold the thesis that
Adventism belongs to the Protestant tradition precisely on account of the fact
that historicism did not come to an end with the demise of Millerism. For the
conclusions reached here with regard to the spiritual identity of Seventh-day
Adventism, considering also the developments beyond 1915, see my The Rise and
Development, pp. 267-301. For Arasolas thesis, see The End of Historicism, pp. 1-2.
43
White, Notes of Travel, Review and Herald, November 25, 1884, p. 738; cf.
Damsteegt, (1993), Ellen White on Theology: Its Methods, and the Use of
Scripture, Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, 4/2:115-36.


19
exegesis. It is reasonable to say that historicism established itself as
the interpretative means for making sense of religious experience.
And by making sense, it became relevant to the Millerites particular
circumstance of extreme anguish and disillusionment. Historicism
eased their spiritual crisis by the responses it offered. How these
responses shaped their spiritual life makes the survey of
Sabbatarian biblical hermeneutic a necessity.
White and her associates, mostly lay exegetes, were the ones to
take over Millerite historicism. They also developed it into a
specific hermeneutical system with two major dimensions, not
present in Millerism. These were vertical typology and The Great
Controversy Theme.
Vertical Typology
A definition of vertical typology will be given having in view of
two things pertaining to the Sabbatarian context. First, the Seventh-
day Adventist understanding of vertical typology is only definable
in relation to its Millerite horizontal counterpart. Second,
Sabbatarian Adventists defined vertical typology from the book of
Hebrews. Thus the book of Hebrews rendered the Levitical
sanctuary structures and sanctuary services, along with the Mosaic
religious festivals, highly meaningful for the Seventh-day Adventist
spiritual life. In fact, the exegesis of vertical types became the nub
of Adventist historicism. This had become well established by the
time of the official organisation of the church in 1863, and
provided the lifeblood of their religion, devotion and piety ever
since.
As evidenced in my doctoral research, in Millerite terms,
horizontal typology, applied to apocalyptic prophecies, outlined a
continuous historical sweep until the End as Second Coming. Of
outstanding importance was the historical sweep delineated by the
Levitical spring and autumn festivals. These brought into focus the
First and the Second Coming of Christ. Structured between the two
Comings were the respective historical periods and events that were
predicted by Daniel and the apostle John. Vertical typology, on the

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

20
other hand, emerged in Sabbatarianism as a hermeneutical device to
complement horizontal typological exegesis. What this
complementation meant will be presented below.
A final remark is necessary before giving a definition of vertical
types. Vertical typology occupied the centre stage of Sabbatarian
exegesis throughout the period under investigation in my research
project, that is, 1844-1915. Initially, vertical typology assisted
Sabbatarians in their accounting for The Great Disappointment.
Soon after, it assumed an additional, crucial role and function.
Vertical typology became the exegetical basis of their distinctive
articles of faith known as the Present Truth. This features in the
next and final article of the series.
Definition of Vertical Types
Sabbatarians identified, in the OT Scriptures, cultic structures,
rituals and personnel as pointers to an earth-to-heaven
directionality. Expressed differently, vertical types prefigured, and
also reached their fulfilment in antitypical facts and realities located
in heaven.
44
These facts and realities were heavenly persons,
structures and events.

44
The form of typological exegesis in general and vertical typology in particular,
that had been practised from the Reformation to the mid-eighteenth century,
came under the criticism of, and was rejected by, J. D. Michaelis and S. S. Semler.
This form of exegesis was revived in the first half of the nineteenth century just
to decline again by the end of that century. In nineteenth-century Lutheranism,
Franz Delitzsch (1813-1890) was one to uphold vertical typology. See Rad,
Typological Interpretation of the Old Testament, in Claus Westermann, ed.,
Essays on Old Testament Interpretation (London: SCM Press, 1960), pp. 22-23. Rad,
along with other representatives of critical scholarship, has rejected vertical
typology, on the grounds of its being a sort of mythological-speculative
typology almost entirely foreign to ancient Israel (p.19). He also dismissed
Delitzsch for working with vertical typology that was untenable because of its
underlying philosophy of history; see Arasolas quoting Rad in footnote entry no.
53, The End of Historicism, p. 163. Recent Adventist scholarship has argued against


21
Sabbatarian Hermeneutical Synthesis
James White, Uriah Smith (1832-1903) and John Nevins
Andrews (1829-1883) scriptural expositions are to be seen as the
synthesis of the Sabbatarian historicist hermeneutic.
45
However,
Ellen Whites contribution led to its final shape. The whole process
of hermeneutical synthesis took place in a highly polemical context,
and had been completed by 1863. The Sabbatarian Adventist
interpreters polemics with two other ex-Millerite groupings
engendered a considerable number of articles. These were
published in the main organs of the three respective Adventist
groupings. The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald
46
was the
Sabbatarian representative periodical. The other two non-
Sabbatarian publications were the Advent Herald and the Worlds
Crisis. Both displayed a certain degree of departure from the

the modern idea that vertical typology in the book of Hebrews is an expression
of the Platonic-Philonic dualism of the eternal and material worlds. Vertical
typology, according to Adventist studies, instead of being Hellenistic, or a
foreign vestige of mythic cosmic analogy, must be seen as an integral part of
Israels understanding of the relationship between earthly and heavenly
sanctuaries within the unfolding linear-historical plan of God. See Richard M.
Davidson, Typology in the Book of Hebrews, in Frank B. Holbrook, ed., Issues
in the Book of Hebrews (Washington, D.C.: Biblical Research Institute, 1989), p.
148.
45
The present author has drawn heavily on Damsteegts historical survey of the
formation of the Sabbatarian doctrine of the Sanctuary, entitled Continued
Clarification (1850-1863), in Holbrook, ed., Doctrine of the Sanctuary: A Historical
Survey (1845-1863) (Silver Springs, MD: Biblical Research Institute of Seventh-
day Adventists, 1989), [henceforth: Doctrine of the Sanctuary], pp. 57-117. All the
works of the Sabbatarian exegetes referenced in the footnotes of the present sub-
section have been cited in Damsteegts above-mentioned survey. Beside the
three main Sabbatarian expositors, other exegetes will also be considered in this
section.
46
All references to this publication in the current dissertation use its shortened
title: Review and Herald. For a detailed discussion on the importance and history of
Sabbatarianisms main organ, see my The Rise and Development, pp. 183-85, 190-97.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

22
Millerite historicist hermeneutic. However, the interest here is the
Sabbatarian position that can be summed up in a number of points
as follows.
First, the basic elements of the historicist hermeneutic of earlier
traditions, those presented above, constituted the foundation for
the Sabbatarian exegetes. Specifically, the view that the apocalyptic
prophecies delineated a continuous sequence of historical periods
and events spanning from the time of the biblical author to the
Second Coming was strongly upheld. The year-day exegetical
principle proved to have been the yard stick for their
chronological calculations based on the apocalyptic time-
prophecies.
47

In the Sabbatarian expositors opinion, to account for The
Great Disappointment one needed to retain the Millerite
hermeneutical tradition. Thus, especially significant were the
interpretative data of the 70-week and the 2,300-day prophecies
(Dan. chs. 8 and 9) furnished by the late Millerites, like Samuel
Snow and George Storrs, and the early Sabbatarians, in the person
of O. R. L. Crosier and Hiram Edson. Based on the Millerite
tradition, the 8
th
and 9
th
chapters of the Book of Daniel, with their

47
Andrews articles on the sanctuary within the context of the 70-week and 2,300-
day prophecies of Daniel 8 and 9 are convincing examples of historicist
hermeneutic based on the year-day key to the chronological interpretation of
these prophecies. See Andrews, Reply to Mary A. Seymour, Review and Herald,
March 2, 1852; and The Sanctuary, Review and Herald, December 23, 1852.
However, an exhaustive and standard work in Seventh-day Adventism, published
in the late 1860s and early 1870s, of applied historicist hermeneutic is U. Smiths,
The Prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation, rev. ed., (Hagerstown, MD: Review and
Herald Publishing Association, 1944), [henceforth: Daniel and the Revelation]; for
his argument on the year-day principle, Smith appeals, beside the biblical proofs
of Miller, to such authorities as Joachim of Fiore and Sir Isaac Newton, see p.
144. Joseph Mede, Isaac Newton, and Thomas Newtons historicist method was
also at the heart of Smiths interpretation of prophecy; see pp. 54, 121-22, 151-
53, 362-63.


23
respective prophecies, were held to be complementary, with the
initial period of 490 years being cut off
48
(Dan. 9:24) from the
2,300 years. The respective termini (a quo and ad quem) were also
retained. These were 457 B.C. (terminus a quo) and October 22, 1844
(ad quem).
49

Second, without vertical typology, however, there was no
adequate interpretation of the Great Disappointment. Vertical
typology was the key to interpreting the crucial element of the
2,300-year prophecy, that is, the cleansing of the sanctuary. Thus,
the earthly tabernacles of Moses, Solomon and Zerubbabel, with
their services, were types of Gods sanctuary in heaven, as well as
of Christs ministry therein. Andrews repudiated the idea of the
Levitical sanctuary being a metaphor rather than a vertical type to
denote the existence of a real (literal) antitype in heaven.
50

Third, thus vertical typology became the quintessence of
Sabbatarian literal exegesis. That is, the earthly, typical sanctuary
pointed in detail to the architectural structure of the antitypical
tabernacle in heaven. Sabbatarians, therefore, could speak of a real

48
Andrews employs earlier Millerite references to the different Hebraists
rendering of the Niphal of the Hebrew root hatak, used in Daniel 9:24, with cut
off, rather than determined of the English versions of the time. See Andrews,
The Sanctuary, Review and Herald, December 23, 1852, pp. 122-23; cf. J. White,
Sanctuary, Review and Herald, July 21, 1863, p. 60.
49
Andrews, Reply to Mary A. Seymour, Review and Herald, March 2, 1852, p. 102;
also The Sanctuary, Review and Herald, December 23, 1852, pp. 122-23; and
Sanctuary Question, Review and Herald, May 12, 1853, p. 204; cf. his Under the
Necessity of Choosing, Review and Herald, November 8, 1853, p. 141.
50
Andrews, The Antitypical Tabernacle, Review and Herald, July 7, 1853, pp. 25-26;
also Andrews, Sanctuary, Review and Herald, January 6, 1853, pp. 129-31. Cf.
Smith, History of the Worldly Sanctuary, Review and Herald, August 21, 28;
September 4, 11, 18, pp. 124, 132, 140-41, 148, 156, 160. The crux of their
exegetical argument is that the Mosaic sanctuary was a figure, pattern or
image, which they understood in typological terms as pointing to a real celestial
sanctuary as the antitype.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

24
structure in heaven, with two apartments: the Holy Place and the
Most Holy Place. There were two categories of sacerdotal services
of the typical Aaronic priesthood, linked with the two respective
holy places. The daily ministration took place throughout the year,
involving the ordinary priests services in the Holy Place. The yearly
ritual occurred on the Day of Atonement. It involved the high
priests ministering within the Most Holy Place. These structures
along with their respective priestly services, and the Aaronic
priesthood itself, were also vertical typologies.
51

Fourth, the typologically (exegetically) founded earth-to-heaven
directionality had a significant impact upon the overall spirituality
of Adventists. This impact is best understood from the manner in
which vertical typology was found to explain the remission and
removal of sins in the Christian Era. Levitical rituals explained for
the Sabbatarians the transfer of sins from the Israelite sinner to the
wilderness sanctuary. Transfer occurred through the blood rituals
of the daily services. This made the cleansing of the wilderness
sanctuary a necessity. The cleansing ritual on the Hebrew Day of
Atonement was an act of removal, or blotting out, of sins. Both
the transfer of sins and their yearly removal were vertical types, for
the Seventh-day Adventist exegetes. These vertical types prefigured
the antitypical transfer of sins from repentant sinners to the
heavenly sanctuary through the ascended Christs priestly
ministration of his own blood. Therefore, as Sabbatarians viewed it,
the antitypical transfer of sins made the cleansing of the celestial
tabernacle relevant and necessary.
This cleansing involved Christs high priestly service on the
antitypical (eschatological) Day of Atonement. Thus the
Sabbatarian interpreters spoke of Christs two-phase ministration
involving the two compartments of the celestial tabernacle. Starting

51
Andrews, Sanctuary, Review and Herald, February 3, 1853, pp. 145-46; also
Smith, Sanctuary, Review and Herald, March 28, 1854, pp. 77-78.


25
in the Holy Place on his ascension, Christ continued his
intercessory ministry for repentant sinners until October 1844. The
second phase commenced within the Most Holy Place on October
22, 1844, and was to be continued until the Second Coming.
52

Fifth, the nature of Christs second-phase ministry was both
intercessory and judicial, for the Sabbatarians. They reasoned in
terms of vertical typology, as follows. On the typical Day of
Atonement, the Aaronic high priest wore the breastplate of
judgement with the names of the Israelites written on it. Similarly,
Christ, the Mediator, represented Gods people within the context
of the judgement. Adventist expositors associated this judgement
with the apocalyptic Son of Mans being taken before the Ancient
of Days to participate in the judgement (Dan. 7:9-10, 13) during the
antitypical Day of Atonement, that is, the Time of the End starting
on October 22, 1844. The same judgement they associated with the
apocalyptic message of the first angel: Fear God and give him
glory, because the hour of his judgment has come (Rev. 14:7a).
53

This judgement, which targeted only the house of God (1 Pet.
4:17), according to the Sabbatarian understanding, was described as
an investigation, or a final review, of the lives of the children of
God who will have ever lived during human history.
54
The
purpose of such a judgement was the cleansing of the celestial

52
Andrews, Sanctuary, Review and Herald, February 3, 1853, pp. 146-48; Smith,
The Sanctuary, Review and Herald, January 9, 1855, p. 157; March 28, 1854, p. 78;
Smith, Synopsis of the Present Truth, Review and Herald, February 25, 1858, p.
124; cf. J. White, Sanctuary, Review and Herald, August 25, 1863, pp. 100-101.
53
The two most important Sabbatarian expositors of the judgement theme are
John. N. Loughborough (1832-1924), evangelist and writer, and J. White. See
Loughborough article, The Hour of His Judgement Come, Review and Herald,
February 14, 1854, especially p. 30; The Judgement, Review and Herald,
November 19, 1857, pp. 9-11; Smith, The Cleansing of the Sanctuary, Review and
Herald, October 2, 1855, pp. 53-54.
54
Smith, Ibid., p. 53.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

26
tabernacle by the final removal of the sins of the repentant sinner
through Christs ministration of his atoning blood. What one is
here faced with is a pre-Second Coming (pre-Advent), preparatory
judgement, different from the final, executive, judgement of the
wicked.
55
The preparatory judgement came to be articulated, in
1857, by James White, and became the doctrine of the Investigative
Judgement, a correlate and integral part of the doctrine of the
Sanctuary.
56

Finally, the synthesis of vertical and horizontal typological
exegesis was conducive towards a strong sense of denominational
identity. That is, horizontal typological exegesis applied to the festal
ritual of the Hebrew Day of Atonement aided the Sabbatarians to
acquire their strong sense of ecclesiastical identify. Their exegesis
looked at the community of the Israelites, while this was gathered
around the typical sanctuary on the Day of Atonement, as being a
horizontal type. Also typological was the Sabbatarian approach to
the Israelites being requested to display a spirit of solemn self-
examination and contrition during the Day of Atonement. The
rationale for the Israelites solemnly to examine themselves on this
particular day also proved important for the Sabbatarian exegetes.
The rationale consisted in the Israelites knowing that the Aaronic
high priests atoning cleansing targeted both the defiled sanctuary
and the repentant individual. As stated above, cleansing was
interpreted to mean judgement.

55
Loughborough, Is the Soul Immortal?, Review and Herald, December 11, 1855,
p. 82. It was Roswell F. Cottrell (1814-1892), a Sabbatarian writer and minister,
who made a distinction between the preparatory judgement, calling it judicial
judgement, and the final one which he called, executive judgement. See
Damsteegts footnote entry 105, in Continued Clarification (1850-1863), in
Holbrook, ed., Doctrine of the Sanctuary, p. 86.
56
J. White, The Judgement, Review and Herald, January 29, 1857; see p. 100, where
J. White uses the term investigative to denote the preparatory judgement to take
place from October 22, 1844 to the Second Coming.


27
Taken as horizontal typology, Sabbatarian exegetes viewed the
people of Israel, participating in the feast of the Day of Atonement,
as typifying the Seventh-day Adventist community. It was this
community, for the exegetes, that had been constituted to rally, in
faith, around the heavenly sanctuary, while Christ would participate,
as their Mediator, in the Investigative Judgement. The spiritual
condition of the Sabbatarian community had become, by the mid-
1850s, such as to offer justification for J. White to identify the
community with the church of Laodicea (Rev. 3:14-21).
57
He stated
that Laodicea signifies the judging of the people ,
58
and fitly
represents the present state of the church, in the great day of
atonement, or judgment of the house of God, while the just and
holy law of God is taken as a rule of life.
59
Thus, both the Levitical
Day of Atonement and the apocalyptic imagery of the Laodicean
church featured as types to meet their fulfilment in the horizontal
realm of ecclesiastical history, from October 22, 1844 to the
Second Coming.
The Consequences on Spirituality of Sabbatarian Historicism
At this stage, the following conclusion may be drawn. The
Sabbatarian exegetes approach to the Scriptures, especially to
apocalyptic prophecies, had contributed to the emergence of a
fixed historicist hermeneutic by 1863. From early on until the death
of Ellen White in 1915, one can find evidence of strong
commitment to this hermeneutical tradition. Accordingly,
Adventist expositors worked with a parallel typological scheme.
Such parallelism gave priority to heaven where Adventists

57
See the discussion on Laodicea in my The Rise and Development, pp. 84-86.
58
J. White referred to a loose translation of the Greek Laodikea as either the
judging of the people, or a just people. See his, The Seven Churches, Review
and Herald, October 16, 1856, p. 189.
59
Ibid.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

28
envisioned a real, literal sanctuary structure and a real (literal)
sanctuary ministry therein.
Thus, vertical directionality fixed ones eyes on what was
predicted to take place in the supra-historical, celestial realm.
Things of human history and society in general and of the
antitypical Laodicea, that is, the Sabbatarian community in
particular belonged to the horizontal realm. Vertical typology was
thus indicative of what was to transpire in heaven. Horizontal
typology, in turn, predicted the occurrence of terrestrial events
along a historical continuum. Certainly, for Seventh-day Adventists,
there was a mutual and reciprocal relationship between the celestial
and the terrestrial realms. The very emergence of the Sabbatarian
community after October 1844 was the most powerful evidence, in
Adventist thinking, of such a relationship between heaven and
earth.
What becomes also very obvious from the above survey is that
this sort of exegesis brought about a strong consciousness of Gods
being in control in the parallel worlds of heaven and earth.
Apocalyptic prophecies thus gained a renewed interest among
Sabbatarians. Their interest was triggered by the awareness of a new
dimension of the apocalyptic: the existence of parallel worlds in
communication. It was a dimension that came to the fore through
the decoding of what was deemed to be horizontal and vertical
types in the Pentateuch and the book of Hebrews. The exegetical
method that brought this awareness of the new dimension of
biblical apocalyptic became the hermeneutical norm among
Seventh-day Adventists.
From the perspective of their spirituality, the significance of the
above hermeneutical norm was enormous. In the light of our
survey of data, it is quite reasonable, therefore, to say that the
American socio-economic and political factors to impact upon the
identity of Sabbatarian Adventist spirituality are only secondary in
importance. Their hermeneutical practice proved itself to be the
primary factor to make the transition from experience to
understanding of what has been experienced. Thus, the study of


29
Sabbatarian biblical interpretation is necessary if one aims at an
objective assessment of the making and shaping of the spirituality
of Seventh-day Adventists.
This is so because as soon as Adventists made sense of the
Great Disappointment through their exegetical practice, the
distinctive tenets of their faith also appeared. These epitomised the
End-Time will and purposes of God. The question arises: how did
Adventists pursue Gods End-Time will and purposes in their
subsequent history? For a cogent answer one needs to assess the
manner in which believers sought to live up to the demands of the
End-Time will and purposes of God expressed in their distinctive
doctrines. For this aim, the study of the hermeneutical factor has
continued to be a decisive point of departure. It has helped to
confirm my initial hypothesis that the socio-cultural and politico-
economic factors accumulated their notable significance for their
spiritual life through the application of the historicist method of
prophetic interpretation. How this is to be understood warrants
further discussion.
Hermeneutic and Spirituality
Spirituality, from a Sabbatarian perspective, came gradually to
be defined as the lived experience of the distinctive beliefs of their
faith community. One of such beliefs was that history had been
outlined, with precision, in biblical prophecy in order that one may
come to know Gods will and purposes. This belief was
foundational for the spirituality of Seventh-day Adventists. And
this was so because they developed the idea that Gods will and
purposes were such as to fulfil the spiritual needs of people living
in a certain segment of human history outlined in apocalyptic
prophecy. Such an understanding featured the Time of the End,
rather than the End itself, the segment of history to retain the full
attention of the Sabbatarians.
They believed that Gods End-Time will and purposes had
become accessible through a historicist hermeneutic of biblical
prophecy. They also believed that American Protestantism had lost

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

30
its interest in biblical apocalyptic. Therefore contemporary
Protestants could not claim accessibility to Gods End-Time will
and purposes. Furthermore, there were doctrines that later
Adventism believed to have been overlooked by contemporary
Protestantism, but which the world needed to know. As will be
noted in the forthcoming article, these doctrines constituted the
matrix of Sabbatarian spirituality. The doctrinal matrix of their
spirituality was derived from biblical apocalyptic through the
application of their specific historicist hermeneutic.
The hermeneutical specificity itself may be viewed as
responsible for the Adventists particular view of history, which, in
turn, could revive the corporate desire for a face-to-face encounter
with God at the parousia. Stated differently, history, in its unfolding,
contained for them the portents of hope for an unmediated and
literal encounter with the Divine. These portents might have been
adverse economic, social, political, or even natural phenomena.
These were signs of the times which retained their importance in
that they could validate the correctness of their findings via the
historicist interpretation of apocalyptic prophecies.
But these phenomena (signs) in themselves were powerless to
raise Sabbatarian interest in, and concern for, serious issues
pertaining to the social, political, economic or natural
(environmental) spheres. What they did succeed in doing was to
gather potential for inflaming, at times, the Sabbatarians
anticipation of the imminent and cataclysmic End as Second
Coming. However, the initial intensity of the Sabbatarian spiritual
longings and eschatological aspirations for an unmediated
encounter with the Divine tended to fade with the passage of time.
A new concept appeared in their theological language by the end of
the nineteenth century. And this was the delay of the Second
Coming.
All that has been concluded above, points to one crucial
characteristic of the relationship between hermeneutic and
spirituality in Seventh-day Adventism. From the perspective of the
prophecies of biblical apocalyptic, exegesis pointed the believers to


31
a continuous historical-chronological unfolding of the will and
purposes of God. Thus the divine will and purposes testified to the
divine control over the realms of the natural and supernatural, the
historical and supra-historical, the earthly and heavenly. The same
historicist exegesis whereby Sabbatarian expositors approached
apocalyptic was also applied to other biblical corpuses in the Old
and New Testament. As a consequence, then, of their hermeneutic,
the Pentateuch and the book of Hebrews, along with the
apocalyptic corpus of the Canon, became foundational to
Sabbatarian spirituality. Moreover, the historicist method accounts
for the placement of the celestial sanctuary at the very heart of
Seventh-day Adventist spiritual life. The connection is obvious.
Sabbatarian exegetes added vertical types to the Millerite historicist
hermeneutic. Their new way of reading apocalyptic texts
determined the heaven-ward directionality of their spirituality. In
other words, it was in heaven rather than on earth that the
Adventists identified the sacred space of their spirituality. This was
the celestial sanctuary where the ascended Christs mediation took
place.
The foregoing brings one to the last aspect of the present
enquiry into the development of the Sabbatarian hermeneutical
tradition and its impact on the churchs spiritual life within
contemporary America. In the centre stage of the next part of our
discussion will, therefore, be the second major augmentation of the
Millerite hermeneutical method by the Sabbatarians.
The Great Controversy Theme
Ellen Whites hermeneutical contribution has not been dealt
with so far. The aim here is therefore to analyse and describe her
hermeneutical contribution and the way this impacted the spiritual
life of the believers.
The most significant evidence of Whites hermeneutical import
was the development of The Great Controversy Theme. A core
definition of the Theme would state that the Bible presents a
divinely inspired account of a cosmic conflict between good and

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

32
evil, that is, between Christ and Satan. Moreover, human history
and society has become the stage where this cosmic battle unfolds
from the Fall to the End. Therefore, the study of the Scriptures
would only give reliable results if one applied a historicist biblical
interpretation, especially to the prophetic texts.
The term historicist does not feature in her vocabulary.
Nevertheless, her hermeneutical references clearly imply this
terminus technicus. She stated that In the history of nations the
student of Gods word may behold the literal fulfillment of divine
prophecy.
60
In references to the apocalyptic texts of the book of
Daniel and Revelation, her historicism emerges even more clearly.
She interpreted the symbol of the apocalyptic scroll with seven
seals of Revelation chapter 5
61
to mean Christs revelation of the
prophetic history of nations and the church and the history of all
ruling powers in the nations.
62

White also asserted the sequential nature of historical fulfilment
of prophetic periods. Accordingly, the sequential view of history, in
her thought, allows the exegete to trace in the Bible Gods outline
of the history of salvation. This was human history per se within
which the confrontation between Christ and the Devil unfolds.
Thus, White could speak of the Great Controversy in terms of
Millers idea of the age of the earth, lasting 6,000 years. To cover
the entire history of The Great Controversy, from the Fall to the

60
White, Prophets and Kings (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing
Association, 1993), p. 501.
61
White interpreted the symbolical scroll with seven seals of the book of
Revelation to mean the apocalyptic book of Daniel, which was unsealed by
Christ and thus made accessible, along with the book of Revelation, to end-time
readers. See White, The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 7, (Washington,
D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1980), p. 971.
62
White, Letter 65, 1898, pp. 6-9, 12, in White, Manuscript Releases, vol. 9, (Silver
Spring, MD: E. G. White Estate, 1990), p. 7; cf. White, Letter 65, 1898, in
Manuscript Releases, vol. 12, (Silver Spring, MD: E. G. White Estate, 1990), p. 296.


33
Second Coming, White produced an extended interpretative corpus
in five volumes, generically entitled The Conflict of the Ages Series. Her
strong belief in the teleological nature of history is strikingly evident
in these writings. Christs final victory, at the End of history, will
cause Satans power eventually and definitely to be broken.
63

The most influential version of The Theme to impact Adventist
spirituality is that which White expounded from a specifically
apocalyptic perspective in the last volume of her Conflict of the Ages
Series. The fifth volume White considered her magnum opus. Entitled,
The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan: The Conflict of the Ages in
the Christian Dispensation,
64
the book appeared at the top of Whites
ratings of all her works. That she appreciated it above silver and
gold
65
was justified on her part with the remark that in The Great
Controversy the last message of warning to the world was given
more distinctly than in any other of my books.
66

Hermeneutical Breakthrough
The nub of her argument in The Great Controversy is that the
Reformation itself laid the groundwork for a radically new
exegetical tradition in Christianity. As a consequence of this, Christ
won a decisive battle over Satan in The Great Controversy. It was a
victory grounded in the new biblical hermeneutic at the foundation
of which lay the hermeneutical axiom: sola Scriptura.
67
The human

63
White, The Great Controversy, (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing
Association, 1993), p. 673.
64
In bibliographical references, this book is always cited as The Great Controversy.
65
White, Letter 56, 1911, in White, Colporteur Ministry (Hagerstown, MD: Review
and Herald Publishing Association, 1993), p. 128.
66
White, Letter 281, 1905, in Ibid., p. 127.
67
White asserted the sole authority of the Bible when she called her own writings
the lesser light which God gave to the Adventists to lead them to the greater
light. These metaphors affirmed the derivative and secondary authority of her

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

34
instrument behind this victory, Luther, is of immense interest for
White. Her perception of the Reformation as being hermeneutical
before it was doctrinal and ecclesiastical in nature, needs also to be
noted. Only if this aspect is properly considered can one account
for Whites unusual pains to trace the historical antecedents of this
hermeneutical breakthrough. Her backtracking reached pre-
Reformation movements such as the Waldenses.
In her assessment, the greatest contribution of the Reformation
to Adventist spirituality was its groundbreaking hermeneutical
principle, which reached them via the Millerites. This principle, as
she worded it, was as follows: The language of the Bible should be
explained according to its obvious meaning, unless a symbol or
figure is employed.
68
White demurred at the idea of an allegorico-
spiritual exegesis of the Bible. She appears to have criticised the
spiritual exegesis
69
of the Middle Ages on the grounds of its
presuppositions regarding the Scriptures. One of these
assumptions, she claimed, was the idea of the Scriptures having a
mystical, a secret, spiritual meaning not apparent in the language
employed.
70

own works in relation to the Bible, in Review and Herald, January 20, 1903, cited in
White, Selected Messages, book 3, p. 30.
68
White, The Great Controversy, pp. 598-99.
69
It is difficult to give an accurate assessment of whether White was familiar with
the Platonist grounds of the exegesis of Augustine of Hippo. However, judged
on the basis of the close literary context of her hermeneutical statements in The
Great Controversy, it may be argued that she repudiated the allegorical exegesis for
the same reasons she so radically opposed, although not explicitly identified as,
the Platonist idea of the immortality of the human soul. See Whites critical
assessment of the doctrine of Hell and of Spiritualism, which she argues to have
been based on the concept of mans possessing an immortal soul, in The First
Great Deception and Can Our Dead Speak to Us?, in The Great Controversy,
pp.531-6; cf. The Scriptures a Safeguard, in Ibid., pp. 593-602.
70
Ibid., p. 598.


35
For White,

the obvious was the literal or grammatical sense
of a word or of a passage. This principle was equally to be applied
to the interpretation of apocalyptic prophecies in the Bible.

Symbols, metaphors and typological language were first to be
decoded in order that one may identify their true meaning. Thus,
figurative language in apocalyptic prophecy always pointed to
literal events or realities either in human history or divine supra-
history. Literalism and historicism thus lay at the basis of the
exegetical method that sustained Adventist spirituality in its
complexity.
In sum, Whites contribution in establishing the method should
not be underestimated. She considered literalism, as did Luther and
Miller,
71
as well as historicism to be the only sound principles of
interpretation applicable to Biblical research, in general, and to
the study of apocalyptic prophecies,
72
in particular. In fact, by
thus arguing, White viewed Adventist spirituality as an outgrowth
of the Reformation, on hermeneutical basis.

The Time of the End: Whites Evaluation of Millerite Hermeneutic
In this section attention will be given to Whites evaluation of
the Millerite hermeneutical tradition. The aim here is to highlight
her role in rooting Adventist spirituality in Millerite historicism
which she modified by elaborating on The Great Controversy
Theme.
She argued that after the hermeneutical revolution of the
Reformation came, as its consequence, another crucial
interpretative breakthrough, that of the Sabbatarians. This marked

71
On the literalism of Luther and Miller, see my The Rise and Development, pp. 96-97
and footnote no. 54 on p. 107.
72
White, The Great Controversy, p. 411.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

36
the very final phase in the history of The Great Controversy
between Christ and Satan. The survey of Whites appraisal of
Millers revivalism in its relation to the Sabbatarian Movement has
relied on her book The Great Controversy. The survey has furnished
enough evidence to support the following points.
73

First, White contended that Millers historicism was to be
preserved as a Reformation heritage in Seventh-day Adventism.
Second, with the demise of the Millerite Movement, the conditions
for a new exegetical breakthrough were created. It was the
Sabbatarian exegesis of horizontal and vertical types that White
considered as being this major hermeneutical breakthrough. Third,
the results of the breakthrough were to be seen, according to
White, in both the emergence of Seventh-day Adventism and its
Present Truth doctrines. The detailed discussion of these doctrines
on her part has evidenced the fact that White reinforced the
Sabbatarians conviction that typological parallelism was an
appropriate way of interpreting certain biblical types and antitypes.
Furthermore, parallelist typological exegesis, in her view, was an
integral part of historicist and literalist hermeneutic.
Fourth, one outstanding result of the above-mentioned
exegetical method was the new understanding according to which
The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan entered its final
phase after October 1844. It was the phase of the antitypical Day of
Atonement, denoting a linear extension of history viewed as the
Time of the End. During this Time, according to White, the human
race was granted a final period of probation, to be confronted with
the Remnants Present Truth message and mission.
A final word is due before concluding this article. The above-
described two hermeneutical contributions to the historicist

73
These points have been made here based on an analysis of The Great Controversy,
pp. 317-678.

Conclusions

37
exegesis bore powerfully on the spirituality of Seventh-day
Adventists. They engendered a specific type of End-Time
spirituality, both on a personal and collective level. The church was
taught that they lived in a solemn period of time. In other words,
the Time of the End was a sobering period of human history. This
was the time of the Investigative Judgement. Christ, as High Priest,
ministered his saving blood for the benefit of those living on earth
and who in faith would decide to become part of the Remnant
during the Time of the End.
CONCLUSIONS
From our study it has become clear that The Millerite Great
Disappointment was not caused by extrinsic factors: economic,
social or political. Rather, it was the result of the Millerite historicist
biblical hermeneutic. It has also become clear that it was
historicism that solved the puzzle of The Great Disappointment.
This was a historicism that Sabbatarian Adventists came to enrich
by vertical typological exegesis and The Great Controversy Theme.
Not only did it help them understand what has been experienced
on October 22, 1844, but it also helped to reach the truth of their
distinctive doctrines.
Based on the above, it is reasonable to say that the all-
determining factor underlying the distinctively apocalyptic identity
of SDA spirituality is historicist hermeneutic. The Sabbatarians
regarded the Bible as the authoritative source of both their
hermeneutical principles and the doctrines arrived at by the use of
such hermeneutic. The study suggests that it was Ellen Whites
contribution that led Sabbatarians to acquire a conviction of the
appropriateness of the historicist method for their spirituality. What
is meant here is as follows.
The Sabbatarian Adventists were in dire need of re-affirmation
and re-assurance that they still could count on Gods favour and
that God was still in control of their destiny and of human history
in the aftermath of the 1844 Great Disappointment. Historicist

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

38
exegesis of vertical types along with apocalyptic prophecies,
especially of the books of Daniel and Revelation, proved fully
effective in providing them with the needed re-assurance, thus
dissipating their acute sense of uncertainty. White positively
supported the findings of such exegetical practice. Thus,
historicism forcefully assisted Seventh-day Adventists in the
accumulation of a strong perception and conviction of their
prophetically pre-ordained destiny. Destiny came to be viewed in
close connection with the Adventist mission and message.
In the final analysis, the historicist biblical interpretation
unilaterally underlay their spirituality of hope for a face-to-face
encounter with God in the imminent, but indeterminate, future. So,
it was due to historicism that SDA came gradually to understand
spirituality as the pursuit of the End-Time will and purposes of
God in the hope of an unmediated encounter with him at the
parousia. The End-Time will and purposes of God Adventists
believed to be prophetically outlined. Society, secular and religious,
also needed, in their view, to know the prophetic outline of the
divine will and purposes. As such, the End-Time will and purposes
of God were historically to be actualised in the spirituality of the
Remnant church. The idea of actualisation came increasingly to
inform their mission strategies in a way which prompted Adventists
to raise social consciousness as to the truth of the so-called pillar
doctrines underlying Adventist spirituality.
Finally, it follows from the current investigation that spirituality
for the Sabbatarians increasingly became a matter of living out their
own message while also proclaiming it to the world. It also follows
that Seventh-day Adventism may best be characterised as a lay
spirituality that thrived on a generalised historicist reading of the
Bible by its clergy and lay members. Historicist reading was applied
prevalently to interpret biblical apocalyptic along with sanctuary
typology, vertical and horizontal. This, in turn, led to the
crystallisation of the Adventist concept of message, and of its
correlate, the Adventist mission. The message comprised four

Conclusions

39
basic Sabbatarian articles of faith: the matrix of Seventh-day
Adventist spirituality.
This doctrinal matrix will constitute the concern of the last
article of this series to be published in the forthcoming issue of the
current journal.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009): 40-44
PAUL DE TARSE: QUELQUES LMENTS
EXGTIQUES ET HISTORIQUES DE
BIOGRAPHIE
74

Dr. Gabriel Golea
Pastor Frana
Abstract
The purpose of this brief article is to identify the main stages in the life of
Paul of Tarsus for a better understanding of the apostles personality.
These bibliographical lines are necessary for an introductory research on
Paul. The first source available for the exegete and the modern historian is
Pauls own letters that were written before the destruction of the Temple
(70 A.D.) and other corpus belonging to the period subsequent to 70 A.D.
The main stages of the apostles life (his youth as a Pharisee, his calling to
the apostolate, his martyrdom in Rome) are comprised mainly within the
time span of his mission in Antioch (crucial to the formation of its
theology), Corinth and Asia Minor, to which the controversy with
Judaizers in Galatia and the ultimate confrontation with the Judeo-
Christians in Jerusalem belong.

Notre brve note se propose didentifier les principales tapes
de la vie de Paul pour pouvoir mieux comprendre la personnalit
de laptre. Ces lignes dintroduction se veulent une fiche
biographique telle que nous pouvons lesquisser partir de ses
propres crits ou dautres tmoignages disponibles.
Daprs certaines sources accessibles lhistorien moderne nous
sommes en mesure de pouvoir fixer quelques repres
biographiques sur la vie de Paul de Tarse. La premire source
disponible est donne par ses propres lettres qui ont t crites

74
Le prsent article est la forme modifie dune partie de notre travail en vue de
lobtention du Diplme dEtudes approfondies de lEcole Pratique des Hautes
Etudes, Paris, 2001-2002.

Paul de Tarse: quelques lments exgtiques et historiques de
biographie

41
avant la destruction du Temple (70 de notre re) auxquelles
sajoutent dautres sources de la priode avoisinante (proche)
75
.
Sur Paul, n Saul, un presque contemporain de Jsus, de par ses
propres tmoignages et partir de quelques sources ds le dbut de
notre re, nous apprenons les informations suivantes
76
:
Paul est n en Cilicie, Asie Mineure (Ac 21,39), dun pre artisan
et qui tait citoyen romain (Ac 22,26-28 ; cf. 16,37).
Sa famille connaissait la pit (1 Tm 1,3) et tait attache la
tradition et aux pratiques pharisiennes (Ph 3,5-6).
Jrme (347-420), De viris illustribus 5 et In epistula ad Philemonem
7,672 ( partir de quelles sources ?) nous dit que les parents de Saul
taient dorigine de Giscala, une bourgade de Galile et quils
amenrent Paul Tarse lorsque Giscala fut capture par les
romains. Certainement ce dtail est un anachronisme, mais lorigine
galilenne de sa famille nest pas improbable.
Appartenant la tribu de Benjamin, Paul reoit, lors de la
circoncision, le nom de Saul. Ce nom tait certainement trs
commun lpoque car il faisait cho la mmoire du premier roi
dIsral (voir Ph 3,5). En tant que citoyen romain, lauteur des
ptres portait galement un autre nom, latin, celui de Paul. A
lpoque il tait de coutume pour les Juifs dassocier les deux noms
(un latin et lautre grec), des noms ayant une certaine assonance et
tant relis la manire dont lauteur des Actes le fait, Ac 13,9 :
Eouo. koi Houo. En mission parmi les Gentils, il tait

75
Voir N. S. Hecht B. S. Jackson S. M. Passamaneck et al., ds., An Introduction
to the History and Sources of Jewish Law, Oxford, University Press, 1996, p. 37.
76
Pour une synthse des indications sur la vie et les crits de Paul, voir, par
exemple, H. Balz, Houo, ou, dans Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament.
Vol. 3, toioce e|cio. Edited by H. Balz and G. Schneider, Grand
Rapids, W. B. Eerdmans, 1993, pp. 59-62.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

42
normal que laptre porte son nom romain
77
(surtout que Saul avait
un sens ridicule en grec).
En tant que Juif respectable, Paul avait appris un mtier : faiseur
de tentes (Ac 18,3) ou, plutt, il fabriquait le mohair partir duquel
les tentes taient tisses.
Elev dans la communaut juive de Tarse, relativement jeune
Paul va vers Jrusalem pour finaliser ses tudes (son ducation )
sous la direction du Rabbi Gamaliel (voir Ac 22,3 ; 26,4). Il est
possible que sa famille rside Jrusalem. Ultrieurement il est
question de la prsence dune de ses surs dont le fils lui sauve la
vie (Ac 23,16).
Plus tard il est impossible de retrouver la trace de Paul jusqu
ce quil prenne part active dans le martyre de Stphane (Ac 7,58-
60 ; 22,20). Prcision de vocabulaire : cette occasion il est dsign
comme tant un vcovio ce qui serait une appellation dont
ltendue smantique est assez lastique pouvant sappliquer
gnralement un jeune homme adulte (entre vingt et quarante
ans). Plus tard, vers 54 de notre re, Paul se dsignera lui mme
comme tant un vieillard (Phm 1,9), tco|utq, qui, daprs

77
Le nom de Paul tait un nom commun en Syrie et dans lAsie Mineure
orientale ; il tait dordinaire quun fils dun citoyen romain porte ce nom. Cf.
larticle qui lui est ddi, Paul, the Apostle, dans Encyclopdia Britannica, 11th
Edition, Cambridge, University Press, 1911, pp. 938-954 (939). Par rapport
cette pratique, nous reprenons une remarque suggestive datant du dbut du sicle
dernier, remarque faite par W. M. Ramsay, Pauline and other Studies in Early
Christian History, London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1906, p. 65 : Il est certain que
sil avait eu un nom romain et sil avait parl le latin, il aurait t un citoyen
romain. Si, par exemple, on pouvait penser lui comme sil son nom tait Gaius
Julius Paulus pour lui donner un nom plausible combien notre image sur lui
aurait t transforme. Beaucoup de ce quil a t crit sur lui [comme tant un
Juif troit et unilatral] naurait jamais t crit si Luc avait mentionn son nom
complet .

Paul de Tarse: quelques lments exgtiques et historiques de
biographie

43
lusage traditionnel du grec de lpoque, dsignait un homme dans
la cinquantaine
78
.
Paul devient un Pharisien prominent. On a aussi suggr quil
aurait t mme, par la suite, membre du Sanhdrin (supposition
base sur Ac 26,5 ; Ph 3,5) remarque prendre avec prcaution,
la documentation pour se faire une opinion dcisive sur ce sujet
manque.
Aux dbuts de lexistence de lEglise, il perscute les judo-
chrtiens. Cest lors de son voyage consacr la perscution de
quelques-uns dentre eux quil a la vision qui transforme sa vie (ce
quon appelle habituellement sa conversion et adhsion
Christ
79
).
Sa mission se concentrera principalement parmi les Gentils et
prendra la forme des voyages dont le point de dpart ainsi que le
point darrive sera toujours Antioche. Il sagit de la priode la plus
active de la vie de Saul pendant 12 ans (entre 45 et 57 notre re) et
pour laquelle le livre des Actes et ses propres ptres gardent la
trace. Ces crits tmoignent galement des dbats thologiques qui
sy associent : la premire mission (Ac 13,1-14,27) ; la deuxime
mission (Ac 15, 36-18,22) et la troisime mission (Ac 18,23-21,26)
de Paul.
Laptre subira une captivit Rome (Ac 21,27-28,31) et la
dernire priode ne fournit gure de dtails. Ainsi nous apprenons
que Paul aurait eu des projets dont nous ne savons rien (par
exemple, daller en Espagne, Rm 15,24.28).

78
Cf. E. Lohse, Colossians and Philemon: A Commentary on the Epistles to the Colossians
and Philemon (Hermeneia), Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1971, pp. 198-199.
79
Une meilleure comprhension, le terme conversion mrite, lui seul, un
traitement spar ce que les limites du prsent article ne permettraient pas.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

44
Des sources apocryphes nous apprenons quil a probablement
t excut Rome, sous Nron, vers 65 de notre re (1 Clment
5,5-7
80
; Les Actes de Paul 14,4
81
).
La question de lidentit de Paul est souleve par son parcours
(sa vie, son instruction, ses liens) en sa qualit de Juif de la
Diaspora, et puis de Pharisien (daprs sa propre dclaration) qui,
par la suite, aura accept la foi en Messie et sera devenu aptre des
Gentils. En ses propres termes, sa perception sur lui mme est
aborde sous la forme de quelques catgories: Juif (Rm 2,28-29 ;
1 Co 9,20-21), (dans le) judasme (Ga 1,13-14), Hbreu et
Isralite (2 Co 11,22 ; Ph 3,4-7)
82
.
En conclusion nous retenons donc les grandes tapes de la vie
de Paul sa jeunesse pharisienne, sa vocation lapostolat des
nations, son martyre Rome en passant par ces tapes que sont :
la mission antiochienne (dterminante pour sa formation de sa
thologie) ; sa mission autonome Corinthe puis en Asie ; la
controverse avec les judasants de la Galatie; et lultime
confrontation avec les judo-chrtiens de Jrusalem
83
.

80
1 Clment 5,6 : charg sept fois de chanes exil, lapid, il devint hraut du
Seigneur au levant et au couchant, et reut pour prix de sa foi une gloire
clatante . Nous empruntons la prsente traduction louvrage Les Pres
Apostoliques. Texte intgral (Les classiques. Foi vivante), Paris, Cerf, 1998, p. 74.
81
Le texte dit : comme je vis pour Dieu et que je laime, je men vais vers le
Seigneur pour que je vienne avec lui dans la gloire de son Pre. Ils lui dirent :
Comment donc vivrons-nous, nous autres, quand tu seras dcapit ? . La
traduction de ce texte est emprunte W. Rordorf, P. Cherix et R. Kasser,
Actes de Paul , dans Ecrits apocryphes chrtiens. I. Edition publie sous la
direction de Franois Bovon et Pierre Geoltrain. Index tablis par Sever J. Voicu
(Bibliothque de la Pliade), Paris, Gallimard, 1997, pp. 1115-1177 (1176).
82
Pour une tude dtaille sur ces notions, voir, J. D. G. Dunn, Who did Paul
think he was? A Study of Jewish-Christian Identity, NTS 45, 1999, pp. 174-193.
83
Pour dutiles informations concernant une reconstitution de la biographie de
Paul, voir, M.-F. Baslez, Saint Paul, Paris, Fayard, 1991 (les premiers chapitres).
TheoRhma 4.2 (2009): 45-56
CUCERIREA CANAANULUI N
TENSIUNEA DINTRE DEPOSEDARE I
ANIHILARE
Lect. univ. dr. Barna Magyarosi
Abstract
The post-Exodus narratives of the Pentateuch are replete with divine
commands that declare war on certain peoples or group of peoples. An
examination of these passages contributes to a better understanding of the
nature of holy war, its aims, objectives and motivation. There are several
terms which reoccur in these texts and describe the way Israel had to be
involved in the battles of the Conquest of Canaan. The present study will
turn now to the analysis of these terms which leads to the conclusion that
the initial plan regarding the Conquest did not necessarily include the
annihilation of the Canaanite population.
INTRODUCERE
Naraiunile VT de dup Exod abund de porunci divine care
declar rzboi anumitor popoare sau grupuri de popoare. O
examinare a acestor pasaje contribuie la o nelegere mai bun a
naturii rzboiului sfnt, scopurile, obiectivele i motivaia acestuia.
Exist numeroi termeni care reapar n aceste texte i descriu
modalitatea prin care Israel trebuia s se implice n luptele pentru
cucerire. Studiul de fa i propune s analizeze aceti termeni i s
descopere planul i intenia divin cu privire la cucerirea
Canaanului.
TERMENI DE DEPOSEDARE
, a deposeda
Termenul , a deposeda, este cel mai des folosit n legtur
cu atitudinea pe care trebuia s o aib israeliii fa de locuitorii

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

46
Canaanului, i n aceste situaii termenul apare la Hifil cu
urmtoarele semnificaii: a deposeda, a alunga sau a lua n
posesie.
84

Primul grup de texte
85
ce conin termenul , constau n
rapoarte sau liste de lupte de cucerire ncununate de succes sau fr
succes. Subiectul acestor ncercri nu este niciodat Dumnezeu. n
dou cazuri este tot Israelul, n restul cazurilor este un grup de
israelii, un trib sau persoane.
86
Obiectul aciunii este n mod clar
popoare, grupuri, regi, teritorii sau ceti.
87

n a doua categorie de pasaje care folosesc forma Hifil a lui ,
verbul este urmat de expresia
88
sau ,
89
din faa, plus un
sufix pronominal sau un substantiv, care se refer ntotdeauna la
israelii. Exist alte dou referine, unde verbul nu este urmat de
aceste prepoziii, dar, din punct de vedere logic, ele aparin aceluiai
grup.
90
Cu cteva excepii,
91
Iahve este subiectul aciunii; cele mai
multe pasaje se refer la viitor i la aciuni ncununate de succes.
92

84
L. Khler i W. Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament
(E. J. Brill, Leiden 1999), 441.
85
Num 21,32; 32,39; Ios 13,12.13; 14,12; 15,14.63; 16,10; 17,12, 13 [2x], 18; Jud
1,19 [2x], 20, 21, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33.
86
Lohfink, , n Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, ed. Johannes G.
Botterweck i Helmer Ringgren (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1974),
374.
87
Ibid.
88
Ex 34,24; Num 32,21; 33,52.53.55; Dt 4,38; 9,4.5; 18,12; Ios 3,10; 13,6; 23,9; Jud
2,21; 11,23.24; 1Rg 4,24; 21,26; 2Kgs 16,3//2 Cr 28,3; 2 Rg 17,8; 21,2//2 Cr
33,2.
89
Dt 11,23; Ios. 23,5.13; 2 Cr 20,7.
90
Dt 7,19; 9,3; Ios 8,7; Jud 2,23; Ps 44,3[2x].
91
n Num 33,52.53.54; Dt 7,17; 9,3; Ios 8,7; Ps 44,3 Israel este subiectul, n timp
ce n Jud 11,24, Chemosh.
92
Lohfink, , 375.

Cucerirea Canaanului n tensiunea dintre deposedare i anihilare

47
Cnd Iahve este subiectul verbului, rezultatul aciunii Sale este
ntotdeauna victoria, doar dac intenionat decide s nu alunge un
anumit grup de oameni, ca pedeaps pentru necredincioia lui Israel
(Ios 23,13; Jud 2,21). Aciunea israeliilor nu este ntotdeauna
ncununat de succes. Succesul lor depinde de ct de credincioi
sunt n mplinirea poruncilor lui Iahve. n special n cartea
Deuteronom, termenul are puternice conotaii morale.
Deuteronom 9,4-6 prezint cucerirea ca un act al judecii divine,
care cade peste fotii locuitori al rii ca rezultat al rutii lor.
93

Lohfink a observat c alungarea, n sens pozitiv, exclude
distrugerea i sugereaz faptul c cei alungai continu s triasc n
alt parte.
94
Totui, el consider c niciunul dintre textele ce conin
verbul n Hifil nu prezint aceast posibilitate.
95
Mai mult, el
este convins c aceste pasaje nseamn distrugere, nu ndeprtare.
96

El are, ntr-adevr, dreptate cnd observ c n majoritatea acestor
texte exist o legtur strns ntre ideea de alungare i cea de
distrugere. Totui, el i fundamenteaz concluzia pe rapoartele a
ceea ce s-a ntmplat deja n timpul cuceririi. Dac existau dou
categorii de oameni printre dumanii lui Israel, cei care pleac
dinaintea lor i cei care i confrunt sfidtor, ar fi normal s se
presupun c, n timpul luptelor din timpul cuceririi, niciunul dintre
cei ce au plecat nainte nu a fost nimicit. A concluziona ns, pe
baza pasajelor referitoare la conflicte ce includ numai a doua
categorie, c verbul implic n mod necesar distrugerea i
exclude posibilitatea de scpare, ar nsemna o nedreptate fa de

93
Christopher J. H. Right, , n NIDOTTE, 2:547-549; McConville, God
and Earthly Power: An Old Testament Political Theology: Genesis - Kings, 99.
94
Lohfink, , 374
95
Ibid.
96
Ibid.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

48
semnificaia acestui termen.
97
Exist numeroase pasaje care vorbesc
despre intenia divin de a-i alunga pe canaanii fr a implica i
distrugerea lor.
98
De aceea, se poate afirma c forma de Hifil al lui
se refer la actul de a lua n stpnire ara Promis prin
deposedarea populaiei anterioare, implicnd, n cazul opoziiei
sfidtoare, distrugerea lor.
, a alunga
Verbul apare, de asemenea, n declaraiile despre modul n
care Iahve a alungat poporul din Canaan naintea lui Israel. Acesta
se refer de cinci ori la o aciune viitoare ncununat de succes a lui
Iahve
99
i o dat la ngerul lui Iahve (Ex 33,2), n timp ce o dat
descrie refuzul din partea lui Iahve de a-i alunga pe canaanii (Jud
2,3). Restul apariiilor
100
relateaz interveniile trecute ale lui Iahve,
care a alungat naiunile dinaintea lui Israel i le-a oferit ara ca
motenire. Ringgren a artat c verbul apare i n alte cazuri, nu
legat de cucerirea Canaanului. Totui, contextul fiecrui caz scoate
n eviden o conotaie special a termenului.
101
Adam i Eva au
fost alungai din Paradis (Gen 3,24), departe de prezena lui
Dumnezeu, ca rezultat al cderii lor. Cain este blestemat i alungat
de pe pmntul locuit (Gen 4,14) n pustiu. David este exilat (1Sam
26,19) din ara lui Iahve, iar Iona a afirmat n rugciunea lui c se
simea ca unul care a fost alungat din prezena lui Dumnezeu (Iona

97
D. M. Howard, Jr., Joshua, ed. E. R. Clendenen, The New American
Commentary, vol. 5, Broadman & Holman, Nashville, TN 1998, 302, n. 26.
98
Ex 34,24; Num 32,21; Dt 4,38.
99
Ex 23,28.29.30.31; 34,11.
100
Dt 33,27; Ios 24,12.18; Jud 6,9; Ps 78,55; Ps 80,9, 1Cr 17,21; 20,11.
101
Ringgren, , 69.


49
2,5). Este clar c termenul , asemenea lui , are un neles
secundar, oferind ideea de judecat, chiar pedeaps.
, a aduce n confuzie
Un alt termen care este folosit n relaie cu rzboaiele de
cucerire este . n forma Qal este folosit de nou ori ca termen
tehnic pentru a evoca panica, subiectul fiind ntotdeauna Iahve. O
parte a apariiilor sunt gsite n raporturile despre rzboaiele
sfinte,
102
n timp ce restul n prediciile despre victorie.
103
Exodul
23,23-29 implic posibilitatea de scpare naintea sosirii israeliilor
n Canaan. Dumnezeu spune c i va trimite teroarea ( , vs. 27)
naintea israeliilor ca s produc confuzie printre naiuni. Ca
rezultat al rapoartelor despre modul n care a lucrat Iahve cu
egiptenii, locuitorii Canaanului vor fugi dinaintea lui Israel i cei
mai muli vor fi fost deja alungai.
104
Prin urmare, rzboiul sfnt
este declarat numai canaaniilor care nu luau n serios semnalul de
avertizare al lui Iahve i se opuneau planului Su.
Cartea Leviticului folosete de dou ori (Lev 18,24; 20,23)
expresia , izgonii dinaintea voastr, referindu-se la
intenia lui Iahve de a-i alunga pe canaanii, ca pedeaps pentru
nelegiuirile lor. Acelai verb se ntlnete n Geneza 3,23, unde este
descris alungarea lui Adam i a Evei din Grdina Edenului, ca
rezultat al neascultrii lor. Evident, termenul nu implic
exterminarea sau distrugerea, de vreme ce aciunea nu ar mai fi avut
niciun obiect de expulzat.

102
Ex 14,24; Ios 10,10; Jud 4,15; 1Sam 7,10
103
Ex 23,27; Dt 7,23.
104
John I. Durham, Exodus, ed. David A. Hubbard i Glenn W. Barker, Word
Biblical Commentary(Dallas, TX: Word, Incorporated, 2002), 336.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

50
4.1.4. , a da la o parte
Mai exist un termen, sinonim cu , care se refer la
expulzarea canaaniilor: , a da la o parte.
105
Este folosit de
unsprezece ori n Vechiul Testament, ntotdeauna n sens negativ,
obiectul aciunii fiind, de obicei, dumanul. De trei ori este legat de
rzboaiele de cucerire (Dt 6,19; 9,4; Ios 23,5) i aproape c devine
un termen tehnic pentru cucerire.
106
Primul i ultimul text doar
reitereaz promisiunea Domnului de a alunga dumanul lui Israel
dinaintea lui. n Deuteronom 9,4 termenul pare s rezume diferitele
acte din timpul cuceririi realizate de Iahve n favoarea lui Israel i
prin Israel cu ajutorul lui Iahve (Dt 9,3). Iahve i va distruge
( ), i va supune ( ), astfel nct Israel s-i poat alunga
( ) i extermina ( ). Aceste serii de aciuni sunt
indicate prin termenul , care sugereaz ideea conform creia
cucerirea Canaanului a implicat, att alungarea din ar pentru cei
care au fugit - , ct i anihilarea lor pentru cei care au rmas.
107

TERMENII ANIHILRI
, a distruge
Termenul cel mai des folosit pentru distrugere n contextul
cuceririi este . Patruzeci i cinci dintre toate apariiile lui

105
Khler i Baumgartner, HALOT, 239.
106
Martin Klingbeil, , n NIDOTTE, 1:1012-1013.
107
Keil i Delitzsch au observat c nu nseamn distrugere complet n
pasajul acesta, ci, mai degrab, explic cum va avea loc distrugerea. Iahve i va
distruge pe canaanii, doborndu-i, umilindu-i inaintea lui Israel, astfel nct s
poat fi alungai i distrui repede. Vezi Keil i Delitzsch, The Pentateuh: Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, 3:335.


51
apar n contexte n care Dumnezeu este subiectul imediat sau
implicat. Exterminarea unei naiuni sau a unei clase de oameni are
loc deoarece au ajuns sub judecata lui Dumnezeu.
108
Dac se
analizeaz numai textele care apar n relaie cu aciunea de cucerire,
de zece ori Iahve este subiectul aciunii.
109
De cinci ori sunt
prezentate alte subiecte dect Iahve.
110
n dou dintre aceste ocazii,
subiectul este Israel i obiectul distrugerii este fr via (obiecte ale
nchinrii pgne i obiecte destinate distrugerii). ntr-o ocazie sunt
vizai regii canaaniilor sau locuitorii cetilor lor. Ultimul text (Dt
33,27) este un imperativ din binecuvntrile lui Moise. Contextul nu
ne prezint cu certitudine identitatea subiectului actului de
distrugere. Dac pstrm imperativul Hifil, subiectul aciunii poate
fi tribul lui Aer ( ), dar poate fi i un Nifal impersonal: s fie
distrus ( ), avnd ca suport LXX.
111
The New American Bible
112

propune un amendament pentru text, citind ) ( , i
el i-a distrus pe amorii, n loc de , i a spus: Distruge-
i!. Dac este citit ca o porunc adresat lui Aer sau ca un strigt
de lupt al lui Iahve, propoziia anterioar i atribuie Dumnezeului
venic rolul decisiv n alungarea dumanilor, folosind termenul
, care, aa cum s-a artat, se refer la activitatea lui Iahve n
luptele de cucerire.
Activitatea distructiv exprimat prin termenul nu implic
neaprat anihilarea fiecrui individ. Deuteronom 28,63 prezint

108
G. H. Hall, , n NIDOTTE, 4:151-152.
109
Dt 2,21.22; 9,3; 31,3.4; Ios 9,24; 11,20; 24,8, 1Cr 5,25. n Dt 7,23 i Dt 12,30
verbul este la nifal, dar contexul arat c subiectul este Iahve.
110
Num 33,52; Dt 7,34; 33,27; Josh 7,12; 11,14.
111
LXX red cu , Pierii!.
112
The New American Bible: Translated from the original languages, with critical
use of all the ancient sources by members of the Catholic Biblical Association of
America (New York: P. J. Kenedy, 1970).

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

52
reversul activitii lui Iahve datorat necredincioiei lui Israel fa de
legmnt. n cazul acesta nseamn exilul i rspndirea
poporului n ri strine (vs. 63). Rezultatul nu nsemna
exterminarea total, ci o reducere drastic a populaiei (cf. Dt 4,25-
27).
113
O astfel de aciune mpotriva lui Israel este vzut ca un
rezultat al aceleiai relaii cauz-efect: cnd israeliii adopt
comportamentul canaanit, sufer aceleai consecine (Lev 18,28;
26,27.u.; cf. Is 57,5; 2Rg 17,15-17; Ier 13,27; 1Rg 15,12; 22,46).
Dac exilul israeliilor este privit ca un revers al cuceririi, se poate
presupune c la cucerire trebuia s existe o cale de scpare pentru
locuitorii Canaanului. n conformitate cu Ieremia 21,8; 38,2; 38,17,
cetatea Ierusalimului trebuia s fie distrus, deoarece se afla sub
judecata divin. Totui, exista o cale individual de scpare pentru
cei care se supuneau babilonienilor. n timpul cuceririi, aceast
ocazie era oferit nu n mijlocul luptei de cucerire a arii, ci nainte
de aceasta.
, a anihila, a cauza pierirea
Distrugerea legat de cucerire este exprimat frecvent prin
formele Qal, Piel i Hifil ale verbului , tradus de obicei cu a
distruge, a anihila sau a cauza pieirea.
114
Dei nu se afirm clar,
forma intranzitiv a verbului n Qal, n cele mai multe cazuri, l are
pe Iahve ca autor al distrugerii descrise.
115
n multe texte cei afectai

113
Eugene H. Merill, Deuteronomy, The New American Commentary(Nashville,
TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001), 370.
114
Ludwig Koehler i Walter Baumgartner, , The Hebrew and Aramaic
Lexicon of the Old Testament electronic ed. (Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninklijke
Brill NV, 1994), 4.
115
Benedikt Otzen, , (bhad), in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament ed.
Johannes G. Botterweck and Helmer Ringgren, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans,
1974), 22.


53
de distrugere sunt israeliii, din cauza neascultrii lor fa de
cerinele legmntului,
116
dar, n general, dumanii lui Israel
mprtesc aceeai soart (Jud 5,31) i n particular: Egipt (Ex
10,7), Sihon i Og (Num 22,30), canaaniii (Dt 7,20). Forma Piel a
termenului este factitiv, deoarece produce o condiie, n timp
ce forma Hifil este cauzal, deoarece produce o aciune.
117
n toate
apariiile n forma Piel legate de cucerire, distrugerea este orientat
spre obiecte fr via, cum ar fi idoli sau imaginile gravate (Num
33,52), locurile pgne de nchinare (Dt 12,2[2x]) sau nume de
astfel de locuri (Dt 12,3). Forma de Hifil a verbului din
pasajele legate de cucerire l au pe Dumnezeu ca subiect de patru
ori,
118
dintre care dou l au pe Israel ca obiect. Deuteronom 9,3
reprezint singurul caz n care subiectul distrugerii, exprimat prin
verb n forma Hifil, este Israel. Niciunul dintre aceste texte nu
exclude posibilitatea salvrii nainte de distrugere. n toate cazurile
dumanii lui Israel sunt dumanii lui Iahve. Ei au pus la ndoial
planul Lui cu Israel i l-au mpiedicat n mod sfidtor, refuzndu-le
trecerea prin teritoriul lor (Num 22,30) sau luptnd cu ncpnare
mpotriva lui Israel (Dt 7,20; 9,3).
, a smulge
Un alt termen care este asociat cu luptele de cucerire este , a
smulge, a demola.
119
n textele legate de cucerire, obiectele

116
Lev 26,38; Dt 4,26[2x]; 8,19[2x].20; 11,17; 28,20.22; 30,18[2x]; Ios 23,13.16.
117
E. Jenni, Faktitiv und Kausativ von zugrunde gehen, n Hebrische
Wortforschung; Festschrift zum 80 Geburtstag von Walter Baumgartner E. J. Brill, Leiden
1967, 143-157.
118
Dt 7,24; 8,20; 28,63; Ios 7,7.
119
Ludwig Koehler i Walter Baumgartner, , The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon
of the Old Testament electronic ed. (Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV,
1994), 736.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

54
aciunii descrise de termenul acesta sunt ntotdeauna fr via:
altare pgne (Ex 34,13; Dt 7,5; 12,3; Jud 2,2; 6,28.30.31.32), turnul
din Penuel (Jud 8,9.17). Este evident c locurile de nchinare pgne
i altarele acestora reprezentau centrul religiei canaanite. Rzboiul
sfnt este orientat n special spre cultura i societatea corupt a
Canaanului. Pentru evitarea contaminrii, Israel trebuia s distrug
toate elementele care o propagau.
Posibilitatea de scpare este sprijinit i de faptul c rzboiul
sfnt era orientat n primul rnd mpotriva cetilor ntrite ca
centre ale nchinrii pgne (Num 21,2-3; 24,19; Dt 2,34; 3,5-6;
20,16; Ios 6,21; 10,37.39; 11,12). Pn la vremea cuceririi, n
contrast cu locuitorii oraelor, cei ce se temeau de Dumnezeu erau
descrii ca nomazi i pstori.
120
De aceea, cetile erau asociate cu
corupia i rutatea (Gen 4,17; 10,10-12; 11,4; 18,16-33).
121
Exist
un singur caz n care sunt menionate orae fr ziduri (Dt 3,5) n
timpul cuceririi. Acestea sunt suburbii nefortificate, aezate lng
cetile mai mari i sub protecia acestora, fiind formate din

120
Ryken, Wilhoit, i Longman III, ed., Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, 151. Cazul lui
Abel este elocvent, dar Enoh este un alt exemplu. Despre el se spune c a
umblat cu Dumnezeu (Gen 5,22, 24). Forma de hithpael a verbului , a
umbla, arat modul de via, care n alt context descrie viaa de pstor nomad
(Gen 13,17; 48,15). Enoh L-a urmat pe Dumnezeu din loc n loc.
121
Z. Herzog, Social Organization as Reflected by the Bronze and Iron Age
Cities of Israel, in Comparative Studies in the Development of Complex Societies 2
(London, 1986); D. C. Benjamin, Deuteronomy and City Life, University Press of
America, Lanham, MD 1983, 39-41; F. Frick, The City in Ancient Israel, Society of
Biblical Literature Dissertation Series Scholar's Press, Missoula, MT 1977; V.
Fritz i P. R. Davies, The Origins of the Ancient Israelite States, Journal for the study
of the Old Testament. Supplement series 228 Sheffield Academic Press,
Sheffield 1996; E. Fry, Cities, Towns, and Villages in the Old Testament,
BibTrans 30, nr. 4 (1979): 434-438; D. W. Gill, City, Biblical Theology of, n
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. G. W. Bromiley, William B.
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI 1986, 4-6.


55
surplusul de populaie.
122
Chiar dac textul este puin obscur,
123

din context reiese foarte clar c satele erau distruse mpreun cu
cetile fortificate. Totui, acesta este un rzboi defensiv, mpotriva
regilor Sihon i Og, acetia nefcnd parte, iniial, dintre dumanii
lui Israel, care trebuiau distrui complet. Rzboiul mpotriva acestor
oameni nu a fcut parte din planul original de cucerire, care
cuprindea cetile fortificate, centre ale culturii canaanite. Fermierii
i pstorii constituiau mai puin de jumtate din populaia unei
ceti. Cei care rmneau acas erau specializai n diferite meserii i
comer.
124
De aceea, cei care triau n afara cetilor fortificate
aveau dou posibiliti: s imigreze i s fie asimilai ntr-o cultur
strin
125
sau s caute refugiu n cetate i s lupte. Aceia care alegeau
ultima opiune erau pasibili de distrugere.
CONCLUZIE
Analiza textelor legate de cucerirea Canaanului arat c
majoritatea termenilor se refer la alungarea naiunilor canaanite
care au posibilitatea de a imigra n alte spaii n afara rii Promise.
ns cei care se opun cu ncpnare planului divin i se rzvrtesc

122
James Orr, ed., City, The Canaanite City, n The International Standard Bible
Encyclopedia: 1915 Edition (Albany,OR: Ages Software, 1999).
123
Expresia + , dei n cea mai mare parte este inclusiv (Ex 12,37; Lev
23,38; Num 29,39; Dt 3,5; 18,8; Ios 17,5; 22,29; Jud 8,26), poate avea i
semnificaie exclusiv (Jud 20,16).
124
David Noel Freedman et al.,ed., Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (Grand Rapids,
MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2000), 258.
125
J. M. Sprinkle, Biblical Law and Its Relevance, University Press of America,
Lanham, MD 2006, 180. Judectori 1,22-26 relateaz cazul unui om, cruat de
israelii pentru c le-a artat intrarea n cetate. Dup distrugerea complet a
cetii, s-a mutat cu familia n ara hitiilor i a construit cetatea Luz. Cazul acesta
poate fi un exemplu a ceea ce se putea ntmpla indivizilor sau familiilor care
alegeau s scape de israelii.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

56
mpotriva Lui sunt sortite pieririi mpreun cu elementele culturii
corupte cu care s-au identificat. Anihilarea apare pe planul
secundar, scopul primordial al rzboiului sfnt fiind n primul rnd
oferirea unui spaiu n care identitatea poporului ales se poate
contura.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009): 57-77
REGISTRELE CERULUI:
UN STUDIU EXHAUSTIV AL
DOCUMENTELOR CARE SE AFL N CER
Asis. univ. drd. Laureniu Mo
Abstract
This article analyses all the biblical data clear references and hints of
any records in heaven and compares the results with the entire testimony
of Ellen G. White about the same heavenly documents. While the Bible
has some specific designations for such records, a close look shows that
there are only three types of documents mentioned: one of the good, one
of the wicked and one exhaustive parchment, alluded to in Rev. 5 which
comprises every detail of human history. Ellen White uses the same
biblical designations more flexibly, not necessarily pointing to a specific
biblical reference. This causes sometimes an appearance of contradiction
between biblical statements and those of White. Thus, the records of the
names written in the Book of Life from the beginning of the world is
referred to in some clear statements belonging to White who speaks of
Christian people whose names had not been recorded there by the time of
her ministry. This needs to be understood in the light of the fact that Ellen
White speaks about a de facto dynamic way of recording data in the Book,
although such a keeping of records is de jure from the beginning of the
world.
INTRODUCERE
Cartea Ta, Cartea vieii, Carte de aducere aminte, Cartea
vieii Mielului, Cartea pecetluit cu apte pecei i alte cri
dup care se face judecata, sunt denumiri ale unor documente
despre care scriitorii bibliei mrturisesc c se afl n cer. Simplul
fapt c aflm n text denumiri diferite, mrturisete c avem i
diferite tipuri de documente? Sau este vorba despre o singur
realitate exprimat n mai multe modaliti? Ce scrie n aceste surse
cereti? Cu ce scop? De cnd sunt scrise aceste cri? Se fac i
operaiuni ulterioare n aceste documente? Adic, se terg anumite
lucruri consemnate i se adaug altele noi? Ce legtur au aceste

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

58
cri cu mntuirea mea? Iat o serie de ntrebri care deschid
subiectul naintea unei mini cercettoare.
ANALIZA BIBLIC
1. Dumnezeu nu uit
Faptul c Dumnezeu este atotcunosctor i c tie att trecutul
i prezentul, ct i viitorul este un fapt recunoscut de Sfnta
Scriptur (Gen. 41:25; Is. 25:1; 46:10; Rom. 8:29; 11:2; 1 Pet. 1:2).
Expresii antropomorfice despre Dumnezeu care uit sau i
aduce aminte (Gen. 8:1; 19:29; 21:1; Ex. 6:5; Ps. 105:42; Apoc.
16:19; 18:5) subliniaz un act voit al lui Dumnezeu i nu o
capacitate a minii Sale. Este vorba despre tensiunea dintre
tcerea/absena lui Dumnezeu i intervenia Sa. Adesea aceasta din
urm este introdus prin cuvintele Dumnezeu i-a adus aminte.
Dar El n mod voluntar a amnat intervenia Sa, fie din pricina unor
pcate ale poporului Su, caz n care, tcerea Sa este o expresie a
dezaprobrii, fie din alte cauze care in de providena i planurile lui
Dumnezeu, nenelese de oameni.
126
Aceast clarificare ne ajut s
nelegem c indiferent ce scrie acolo n ceruri, nu este pentru
memoria lui Dumnezeu.
2. Cte cri exist n ceruri?
Scriptura folosete mai multe expresii cu privire la documentele
care se afl n cer. Cea mai simpl i general expresie este carte
(Dan. 12:1), sau cartea Ta (Ex. 32:32-33; Ps. 56:8; 139:16), fr

126
Pentru primul caz ne putem gndi la Saul, primul mprat al lui Israel, care
cuta pe Dumnezeu, iar Dumnezeu tcea, iar pentru cel de-al doilea la Iov, caz n
care tcerea nu se datoreaz unei neplceri a lui Dumnezeu legat de felul de
vieuire a lui Iov, ci ine de planurile divine care erau deasupra nelegerii umane.
1.

Registrele cerului:
un studiu exhaustiv al documentelor care se afl n cer

59
nici un adjectiv alturat care s titularizeze n vreun fel coninutul
unui asemenea document. Semnificaia acestui document este legat
de cronicile imperiale antice. Acestea conineau faptele notabile ale
regilor dar i consemnri despre cei care au interacionat cu aceti
regi (Ezra 4:15; 6:1). Apare foarte des expresia celelalte fapte ale ...
nu sunt scrise oare n ... cronicile imperiale. Este important totui
s clarificm faptul c aici nu este vorba despre nregistrarea
faptelor lui Dumnezeu. Dei El este mpratul, cronica este despre
cei care au interacionat cu El.
Spre deosebire de formatul cronicilor imperiale antice, Scriptura
ne arat c asemenea nregistrri nu sunt complete fr o concluzie
moral. Astfel c expresii precum a fcut ce este bine, sau a
fcut ce este ru (1 mp. 11:41; 14:19, 29; 15:7, 23, 31; 16:5, 14, 20,
27; 22:39, 45; 2 mp. 1:18; 8:23; 10:34; 12:19; 13:8, 12; 14:6, 15, 18,
28; 15:6, 11, 15, 21, 26, 31, 36; 16:19; 20:20; 21:17, 25; 22:8, 11;
23:2f, 24, 28; 24:5) sunt indispensabile. n acelai fel ar trebui
neleas aceast carte a lui Dumnezeu, ca un document despre
oameni care interacioneaz cu Dumnezeu i care aduce cu
coninutul su o concluzie moral.
Aceast carte conine nume, lucru pe care l confirm att
Moise, ct i Daniel. Ex. 32:32-33 este o dovad c din acest
document unele nume vor fi terse. Dintre documentele cereti
unul singur sufer modificri similare Cartea vieii. tergerea de
nume este o caracteristic a Crii vieii (Ps. 69:28; Apoc. 3:5).
Aceasta este o dovad c termenul generic carte poate fi o
referire la Cartea vieii. O a doua dovad este aceea c la Daniel, cei
scrii n carte sunt de fapt cei care vor fi mntuii, n context, cei
care vor rmne n via, fiind izbvii de atacurile mpratului de la
Nord (Dan. 11:44). Astfel, cei care rmn pn la sfrit n aceast
carte au dreptul la viaa venic (comp. cu Ezech. 13:9).
Termenul carte mai apare i n form de plural, cri n
contextul unei judeci de investigaie (Dan. 7:10; Apoc. 20:12).
Dar simpla schimbare de numr, nu este o dovad c este vorba
despre aceeai realitate. De pild, crile din Dan. 7:10 sunt
i
2.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

60
documente care par a fi probe n favoarea poporului lui Dumnezeu
care este oprimat de cornul cel mic.
127
Dimpotriv, crile
menionate de Ioan n Apoc. 20:12 conin faptele oamenilor
judecai n timpul mileniului (deci a celor ri) i este un document
diferit de Cartea vieii.
O singur dat apare n Scriptur expresia carte de aducere
aminte (Mal. 3:16), dei, trebuie s recunoatem, toate cronicile de
la curile imperiale erau cri de aducere aminte (comp. cu Est. 6:1).
Acest lucru ar nsemna c nu este nici o diferen ntre cartea lui
Dumnezeu, care, aa cum am vzut, este Cartea vieii, i cartea de
aducere aminte. Toate aceste trei denumiri reprezint aceeai
realitate, i-anume, c Dumnezeu are un profil exact al tuturor
supuilor Si care are menirea s dovedeasc starea moral a
poporului Su la judecat.
Dintre acestea, expresia cea mai frecvent este Cartea vieii
(Ps. 69:28; Fil. 4:3; Apoc. 3:5; 17:8; 20:12, 15) i, o variaie a
acesteia, cartea vieii Mielului (Apoc. 13:8; 21:27). Legtura
tematic i frazeologia identic a lui Apoc. 13:8 i 17:8 ne determin
s punem semnul egal ntre cartea vieii i cartea vieii Mielului.
Completarea Mielului alturat crii vieii sugereaz c acest
document se afl n posesia Mielului, sau c i aparine. Cartea
vieii nseamn mai mult dect cartea care descrie vieile
oamenilor. Expresia se refer la cei a cror via le d dreptul la
via. Adic, se refer la cei a cror raport despre cum au trit se
termin cu concluzia s triasc i mai departe ... (comp. cu Apoc.
22:11). Isaia 4:3 spune: i cel rmas n Sion, cel lsat n Ierusalim,

127
Dei Dan. 7:10 este un argument clasic al judecii investigative preadvente,
este necesar s spunem c n contextul imediat, aceast judecat rspunde
atacurilor cornului cel mic. El pare a fi cel judecat. Ca la orice judecat ns, cnd
afirmi c o parte este vinovat, afirmi n acelai timp c cealalt parte este
nevinovat.
3.
4.

Registrele cerului:

61
se va numi ,,sfnt``, oricine va fi scris printre cei vii, la Ierusalim.
Cartea vieii i cuprinde pe toi scrii printre cei vii.
Un ultim registru menionat de Scriptur c se afl n cer este
sulul pecetluit cu apte pecei (Apoc. 5:1). Ceremonia din Apoc. 5
aeaz aceast carte n minile Mielului, fie n postura unei cronici
imperiale despre supuii mpriei, Mielul fiind tocmai ncoronat ca
Rege (comp. cu 1 mp. 2:5-9), fie n postura crii legii care trebuia
s constituie fundamentul guvernrii unui mprat (2 mp. 11:12; 2
Cron. 23:11). Seciunea celor apte pecei (Apoc. 6:1-8:1) arat c
acest sul este desigilat treptat. Cu fiecare pecete nlturat naintm
n timp pn dup a doua venire a lui Isus Hristos, menionat n
pecetea a asea. Acest context i forma de sul a acestui document
pecetluit ne oblig s tragem o concluzie foarte interesant. Acest
registru va fi deschis dup desigilarea complet a crii, adic dup
consumarea istoriei. Abia atunci Mielul va citi n carte. Acest
aspect difereniaz documentul cu pricina de toate celelalte cri. n
el par a fi mai multe dect n Cartea vieii n care se opereaz la
sfritul judecii de cercetare din Dan. 7:10, nainte de venirea lui
Isus. De asemenea, momentul de acces n acest document coincide
cu momentul de acces n crile din Apoc. 20:12 la judecata
milenial. Totui nu avem suficiente date care s ateste dac sulul
pecetluit cu apte pecei reprezint aceeai realitate cu crile
judecii mileniale.
Cte cri exist aadar n ceruri? Dei apar mai multe expresii,
dovezile gsite demonstreaz c exist nu mai mult de trei tipuri de
documente n cer: (1) Cartea vieii, exprimat uneori n termeni
foarte generali (carte, cri n Dan. 7:10) i o singur dat drept
carte de aducere aminte; aceasta se refer la poporul lui Dumnezeu
(2) Crile judecii mileniale din Apoc. 20:12; acestea conin
mrturii despre cei ri; (3) Sulul pecetluit cu apte pecei, care pare
cel mai complet. Redus la esene, ideea crilor din cer mrturisete
despre un singur tip de documentare cereasc cu privire la toi
oamenii, i-anume, acela care are ca scop s justifice felul n care
Dumnezeu va rsplti fiecruia la ziua judecii (Ecl. 3:17; 12:14).

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

62
Aceste evidene riguroase vor duce la concluzia c Dumnezeu este
drept, corect i iubitor n felul n care rspltete.
3. Coninutul crilor din cer
3.1. Cartea vieii conine: (1) lacrimi, greuti, suferine trite de
copiii lui Dumnezeu (Ps. 56:8); (2) faptele bune care au avut drept
izvor temerea de Dumnezeu (Mal. 3:16); (3) fiecare zi de via (Ps.
139:16); (4) nume de oameni buni i de oameni ri (Ps. 69:28; Luca
10:20; Fil. 4:3; Apoc. 13:8; 17:8); (5) probe folosite la judecata de
cercetare (Dan. 7:10).
3.2. Crile judecii mileniale conin faptele, cuvintele i
gndurile (inclusiv inteniile i motivaiile) tuturor oamenilor (Apoc.
20:12; comp. cu Ecl. 3:17; 12:14).
3.3. Sulul pecetluit cu apte pecei din Apoc. 5 pare a fi cea mai
complet cronic a conducerii lui Dumnezeu pe acest pmnt.
Suma tuturor acestor lucruri aduce o concluzie greu de imaginat.
Dumnezeu face s se nregistreze toat istoria, att cea vizibil, ct
i cea din spatele cortinei. n cer exist date cu privire la orice s-a
ntmplat vreodat pe acest pmnt fie n manifestare sesizabil, fie
n gnduri, intenii sau motivaii ascunse. Faptul c Biblia arat
preocuparea lui Dumnezeu pentru lucrurile frumoase, nobile sau
pentru cele greu de suportat, suferine, provocri este o dovad c
Dumnezeu nu este un detectiv, ci, mai degrab, un pstor.
4. Care este timpul n care registrele cerului se completeaz?
David spune c zilele sale erau scrise n cartea lui Dumnezeu
nainte de naterea sa (Ps. 139:16).
128
Ioan spune n Apoc. 13:8 i

128
Cornilescu traduce Ps. 139:16 astfel: Cnd nu eram dect un plod fr chip,
ochii Ti m vedeau; i n cartea Ta erau scrise toate zilele cari-mi erau rnduite,
mai nainte de a fi fost vreuna din ele. Astfel, el d de neles c ceea e scris n

Registrele cerului:

63
toi locuitorii pmntului i se vor nchina, toi aceia al cror nume
n-a fost scris, de la ntemeierea lumii, n cartea vieii Mielului, care a
fost jungheat. Topica textului grecesc este diferit. Ordinea
cuvintelor, i fr virgule n plus, este: i toi locuitorii pmntului
i se vor nchina, toi aceia al cror nume n-a fost scris n cartea vieii
Mielului care a fost jungheat de la ntemeierea lumii. ntrebarea
este, la ce aciune se refer expresia de la ntemeierea lumii? Se
refer la scrierea numelor n cartea vieii Mielului, sau la sacrificiul
Mielului? Dac optm pentru varianta a doua care respect ordinea
cuvintelor din textul grecesc, scpm de eventuale suspiciuni de
predestinaie ale primei variante, dar rmnem cu o idee imprecis.
Este clar c aici Apocalipsa nu se poate referi la sacrificiul concret
de pe Golgota, care a avut loc n circumstane exacte de timp i loc.
A fost un act istoric. Dac nelegem sacrificiul de aici n sens de
hotrre n snul Trinitii ca Unul din membrii ei Fiul s-i dea
viaa n eventualitatea cderii n pcat a fiinelor umane,
contrazicem alte afirmaii biblice care plaseaz aceast hotrre n
venicii (Col. 1:26), deci nainte de ntemeierea lumii. Pavel arat n
epistolele sale c nu e strin de gndirea biblic faptul c numele ar
fi fost scrise n cartea vieii de la ntemeierea lumii. Rom. 8:29
spune, Cci pe aceia, pe cari i-a cunoscut mai dinainte, i-a i
hotrt mai dinainte s fie asemenea chipului Fiului Su Ef. 1:4
confirm, n El, Dumnezeu ne-a ales nainte de ntemeierea lumii,
ca s fim sfini i fr prihan naintea Lui. Nu este deci nimic
straniu n a afirma c Dumnezeu cunoate mai dinainte pe cei care
vor fi credincioi i i alege s fie poporul Su deosebit. Asta nu-i

cartea lui Dumnezeu este cantitatea de zile rezervate pentru David. BHS ns nu
conine expresia care-mi erau rnduite. Aceasta dac se altur substantivului
zile este corect doar n sensul c n cartea lui Dumnezeu erau desfurate
zilele lui David i nu doar numrul lor. Cnd ochii atotcunosctori ai lui
Dumnezeu l vedeau pe David nainte de a avea el chip, ntrezreau viaa pe care
David o va tri, nu doar ct de mult sau puin va tri.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

64
scutete pe acetia de libertatea de a alege sau de slbiciunea care
mpinge spre neascultare.
Cornilescu a optat pentru varianta sa de traducere probabil i
prin prisma lui Apoc. 17:8 u.p. a crui topic o respect, de data
aceasta, foarte exact: i locuitorii pmntului, ale cror nume n-au
fost scrise de la ntemeierea lumii n cartea vieii, se vor mira cnd
vor vedea c fiara era, nu mai este, i va veni. Exist aadar, nume
scrise n cartea vieii de la ntemeierea lumii. nseamn aceasta
predestinaie? Sau c nu pot fi terse de acolo n eventualitatea
neascultrii?
5. Operaiuni ulterioare n crile din ceruri
Scriptura este clar n privina faptului c nu toate numele
nregistrate n cartea vieii de la ntemeierea lumii rmn acolo
pentru totdeauna. Apoc. 3:5 spune: Cel ce va birui, va fi mbrcat
astfel n haine albe. Nu-i voi terge nicidecum numele din cartea
vieii, i voi mrturisi numele lui naintea Tatlui Meu i naintea
ngerilor Lui. n timp ce unele nume rmn, altele sunt eliminate,
dup cum Dumnezeu i mrturisete lui Moise n Ex. 32:32-33.
Metafora tergerii unui nume este comun n Vechiul
Testament. Fie c e vorba despre tergerea pomenirii cuiva de sub
cer (Ex. 17:4; Deut. 32:26), fie de tergerea unui nume de pe
pmnt (Deut. 7:24; 29:20; Ios. 7:9; Ps. 21:10; Is. 14:22; Plngeri
3:66), semnificaia este una singur, i-anume, a nu mai tri.
Exist deci scenariul n care nume sunt scrise i apoi terse.
Singurul motiv pentru care cineva este ters din cartea vieii este
pcatul (Ex. 32:32-33). Mai exact, pcatul care nu a fost iertat.
Ieremia folosete un paralelism care confirm: Nu le ierta
nelegiuirea, i nu le terge pcatul dinaintea Ta (Ier. 18:23). Aadar,
ori sunt terse pcatele din crile din cer, ori numele celor care le-
au comis. Pctoii ori sunt iertai, ori sunt scoi din dreptul de a
intra n mpria lui Dumnezeu.

Registrele cerului:

65
ELLEN WHITE DESPRE CRILE DIN CER
Vom constata cu surprindere poate c Ellen White folosete
expresiile cri din cer, cartea vieii, cartea de aducere aminte,
registrele cerului mult mai liber decat ne-am atepta. Adesea,
folosind aceste expresii, ea nu se refer la un text anume, ci
folosete doar expresia n sine, fr s aib n vedere contextul
textelor unde acestea apar. Dac nu nelegem acest lucru,
constatm diferene pe care le vom nelege drept contradictorii
ntre unele dintre afirmaii sale i cele ale scriitorilor Bibliei.
1. Cartea de aducere aminte
Expresia apare de 84 de ori n scrierile ei. De cele mai multe ori,
Ellen White vede cartea ca un catalog de elemente pozitive. De
exemplu, aici sunt notate: (1) biruinele spirituale;
129
(2) faptele i
conversaiile de la ntlnirile sociale;
130
(3) mbogirea reciproc de
la momentele de nchinare.
131
n tandem cu contextul din Mal. 3:16,
ea afirm c cei care sunt necredincioi la capitolul zecimi i daruri
nu sunt scrii n cartea de aducere aminte care conine informaii
pozitive numai despre cei ce se tem de Domnul.
132
Totui, uzul
acestei expresii la Ellen White are i alte faete. Ea spune c orice
cuvnt de batjocur, orice act de ur a fost scris n crile de
aducere aminte.
133

129
COL, 403-404.
130
CT, 338-339.
131
EW, 114.
132
RH, May 16, 1893; GCB, April 8, 1901 par. 44.
133
RH, March 27, 1888 par. 11.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

66
Cele dou aspecte pozitiv i negativ explic urtoarele
referiri pe care le gsim cu privire la coninutul acestul document.
Astfel, el conine: (1) Numele i mrturiile celor care se tem de
Dumnezeu: Domnul cerului, spune Ellen White, S-a prezentat
pe Sine ca privind cu interes pe msur ce numele i mrturiile celor
care se tem de El i-L iubesc sunt scrise n cartea Sa de aducere
aminte.
134
Interesant de remarcat este faptul c Ellen White vede
aceste cri de aducere aminte ca fiind completate constant, pe
msur ce viaa omului se desfoar, i nu de la ntemeierea lumii.
De asemenea, cartea de aducere minte conine (2) pcatele omului
n general: Oamenii pot uita sau nega cursul greit al aciunilor lor,
dar o se pstreaz o nregistrare a acestuia n cartea de aducere
aminte i, n marea zi a judecii, dac oamenii nu se pociesc i nu
umbl umili naintea lui Dumnezeu se vor ntlni cu aceast
nspimnttoare mrturie exact aa cum este ea. Dac se pociesc
i pstreaz teama de Domnul naintea lor, pcatele lor vor fi
eliminate [din carte].
135
Cea mai extrapolat form a expresiei o
gsim atunci cnd Ellen White afirm c n aceast carte se gsete
(3) istoria fiecrui suflet: Ce scen va fi prezentat cnd Isus
deschide cartea de aducere aminte i va citi din paginile ei fr
greeal istoria fiecrui suflet.
136

Concluzia pe care o putem trage este c Ellen White folosete
expresia cartea de aducere aminte fr s se gndeasc exclusiv la
Mal. 3:16. Astfel, ea o suprapune Crii vieii, trecnd chiar dincolo
de ea. Cnd afirm c acolo se afl istoria fiecrui suflet, face ca
aceast mrturie de aducere aminte s depeasc cu mult atribuiile

134
RH, November 12, 1889 par. 3. Aici este clar c aceast carte de aducere
aminte este Cartea vieii.
135
YI, April 4, 1905 par. 6
136
ST, December 21, 1891 par. 5. Aici cartea de aducere aminte pare a fi sulul
pecetluit cu apte pecei.

Registrele cerului:

67
Crii vieii, de data aceasta suprapunndu-se cu Sulul pecetluit cu
apte pecei.
2. Cartea vieii
De departe, aceast expresie este cea mai prezent n mrturiile
lui Ellen White. Cele 419 referine dovedesc acest lucru. Coninutul
Crii vieii este format din: (1) numele mamelor care trudesc cu
contiinciozitate i credincioie pentru educaia copiilor lor: ngerii
cerului vegheaz asupra mamei copleite de griji, consemnnd
poverile pe care le poart zi de zi. Numele ei poate n-a fost auzit n
lume, ns este scris n cartea vieii Mielului.
137
(2) numele celor
care mrturisesc c slujesc lui Dumnezeu: Prin cercetarea de ctre
mprat a oaspeilor venii la nunt, este nfiat lucrarea judecii.
Oaspeii venii la ospul Evangheliei sunt aceia care mrturisesc a
sluji lui Dumnezeu, aceia ale cror nume sunt scrise n cartea vieii.
Dar nu toi aceia, care mrturisesc a fi cretini, sunt i adevrai
ucenici. Mai nainte ca rspltirea final s fie acordat, trebuie s se
hotrasc cine dintre acetia este pregtit s ia parte la motenirea
celor drepi.
138
(3) faptele de generozitate: Hristos apreciaz
faptele de amabilitate fcute din toat inima. De cte ori cineva i
fcea un serviciu, El l binecuvnta pe fctor cu generozitate
cereasc. El nu refuza nici cea mai simpl floare culeas de mna
unui copil i oferit Lui din iubire. Primea darurile copiilor i i
binecuvnta pe dttori, scriindu-le numele n cartea vieii.
139
(4)
cei care sunt ispitii de patimi, dar rmn lng Dumnezeu, se plng
lui Hristos i sunt ntrii;
140
(5) fiecare int nobil i orice fapt

137
AH 244.
138
COL 310.
139
DA, 564.
140
TSB, 47.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

68
bun: Fiecare el nobil i fiecare fapt bun va fi nregistrat n
cartea vieii.
141

3. Cartea morii
Dei nu apare nicieri n textul biblic, Ellen White amintete
despre un document opus Crii vieii, numit Cartea morii: Sunt
deschise crile - cartea vieii i cartea morii. Cartea vieii conine
faptele bune ale sfinilor, iar cea a morii cuprinde faptele rele ale
celor nelegiuii.
142
Este evident c aceast carte neagr este
echivalent cu crile judecii mileniale. Nu este clar de unde a
mprumutat Ellen White aceast sintagm, dar se tie c ea apare n
scrierile deutero-canonice.
143

4. Sulul pecetluit cu apte pecei
Despre acest document gsim puine lucruri n scrierile lui Ellen
White, afar de meniuni generale ale sulului ca obiect, parte a
viziunii din Apoc. 5. Exist ns trei referiri deosebite cu privire la
acest sul misterios. Prima se refer la un element comun pcate:
n acest fel, conductorii iudei au ales. Hotrrea lor a fost
nregistrat n cartea pe care apostolul Ioan a vzut-o n mna
Aceluia care sttea pe tron, carte pe care nici un om n-o poate
deschide. n ziua cnd Leul din seminia lui Iuda va deschide cartea,
aceast hotrre va apare naintea lor, n toat grozvia ei.
144
Acest
paragraf pune cteva probleme. Dac n acest sul sunt pcatele
celor din Israel, pe-atunci poporul lui Dumnezeu, atunci ar avea
aceeai funcie ca i Cartea vieii. La drept vorbind, n viziunea lui

141
3T, 370.
142
EW, 53.
143
Jubilees 30:20-22; 36:10.
144
COL, 294.

Registrele cerului:

69
Ellen White n Cartea vieii sunt numele i viaa (cu bune i rele)
tuturor celor care pretind c sunt copii ai lui Dumnezeu. Exact n
acest rol erau cei care L-au condamnat pe Isus. Totui, aceasta nu
poate fi Cartea vieii, de vreme ce de ea este nevoie la judecata
preadvent, pe cnd acest sul se va deschide dup venirea lui Isus,
aa cum am vzut.
Un al doilea lucru pe care l spune Ellen White despre aceast
carte pecetluit cu apte pecei este: Semnul fiarei este exact ceea
ce s-a proclamat c este. Aceast problem nu a fost neleas i nu
va fi neleas pn nu se va desfura sulul; dar trebuie s se fac n
lumea noastr o lucrare ct se poate de solemn.
145
Despre semnul
fiarei, Ellen White spune c sunt lucruri menionate n sulul care va
fi desfurat i c problema nu va fi nelease pe deplin dect la
consumarea istoriei. Totui, ceea este suficient s fie neles este
scris n Apocalipsa. Cea mai cuprinztoare afirmaie este:
Acolo n mna Sa deschis st cartea, desfurarea istoriei
providenelor lui Dumnezeu, istoria profetic a naiunilor i a
bisericii. Acolo erau coninute declaraiile divine, autoritatea Sa,
poruncile Sale, legile Sale, ntregul sfat simbolic al Celui Venic i
istoria tuturor puterilor conductoare ale naiunilor. n limbaj
simbolic erau coninute n acel sul influena fiecrei naiuni, limbi
i popor de la nceputul istoriei pmntului i pn la sfritul
ei.
146

Acest paragraf descrie sulul pecetluit cu apte pecei ca fiind un
limbaj simbolic. Aceasta nu doar ca s liniteasc logica noastr
care ar obiecta fa de aspectul cantitativ, o istorie att de
cuprinztoare neputnd fi nregistrat ntr-un hrisov att de mic. Ci,
i pentru a sugera c acest document este unul care surprinde

145
8T, 159.
146
9MR 7.2

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

70
informaii foarte cuprinztoare, probabil, aa cum sugereaz analiza
biblic, cele ce se includ att n Cartea vieii, ct i n Crile
judecii mileniale. Astfel, acest document ar putea fi un simbol
pentru tot ce este scris n crile cerului.
5. Completarea registrelor cerului
5.1. Un raport incomplet
Ideea unei scrieri n crile din ceruri de la ntemeirea lumii, nu
este n nici un fel dezvoltat de Ellen White. Ea se rezum s citeze
Apoc. 17:8 i nimic mai mult. Este imposibil s nu observm
repetata imagine a ngerului raportor
147
care nregistreaz cu
credincioie toate roadele fiinelor umane:
Lucrarea fiecrui om este trecut n revist naintea lui
Dumnezeu i nregistrat la credincioie sau necredincioie. n
dreptul fiecrui nume din crile cerului, este trecut cu o
exactitate teribil orice cuvnt ru, orice fapt egoist, orice
datorie nendeplinit i orice pcat ascuns, orice prefctorie
iscusit. Avertizrile sau mustrrile trimise de cer, dar neglijate,
clipele risipite, ocaziile nefolosite, influena exercitat spre bine
sau spre ru, cu rezultatele ei ndeprtate, toate sunt nregistrate
de ngerul raportor.
148

Ellen White d de neles c acest raport este actualizat de
ngerul raportor al fiecruia pe msur ce viaa omului se
desfoar. Acesta este un element foarte important pentru
nelegerea obiectiv a afirmaiei c exist nume scrise de la
ntemeierea lumii n crile din ceruri.

147
1T, 399; 2T, 422; AH, 235; CG, 217; TSB, 54; 3T, 147; 5T, 594; 1MCP, 300;
2MCP, 586; FE, 31; GC, 487; etc.
148
GC, 482.

Registrele cerului:

71
5.2. Nume scrise ulterior
Vom constata cu destul uimire probabil, c Ellen White afirm
foarte liber c unele nume nescrise n prezent n Cartea vieii sunt
scrise acolo ulterior, n urma ndeplinirii unor condiii. De exemplu,
unor tineri ea le spune: Nu ntrziai s v consacrai pe deplin lui
Dumnezeu, astfel ca numele voastre s poat fi nregistrate n
crile din ceruri.
149
n acelai sens, ea spune: Numele voastre pot
rmne curate, fr s aib de-a face cu ceea ce este necinstit sau
pctos, avnd n vedere i dovedind respect pentru tot ceea ce este
bun i curat, i vor putea fi nscrise n Cartea vieii Mielului, spre a fi
imortalizate printre ngerii cei sfini.
150

Citnd Apoc. 21:27, Nimic ntinat nu va intra n ea; nimeni care
triete n spurcciune i minciun, ci numai cei scrii n Cartea
vieii Mielului," Ellen White scrie condiia suprem a scrierii n
Cartea vieii: Ei bine, poate te ntrebi: Este numele meu scris
acolo? El este scris acolo dac ai un caracter curat i sfnt,
asemenea caracterului Domnului Hristos. Doar credina n adevr
nu ne poate mntui. Noi trebuie s fim asemenea lui Hristos dac
vrem s l vedem ntr-o zi aa cum este.
151
Poi fii sigur c numele
tu este scris, dac poi fii sigur c te asemeni n caracter cu Isus.
ntrebarea este: n ct vreme se obine n mod real un asemenea
carcacter? Desigur, c aceasta nu se refer la obinerea acestui
caracter prin credin, idee pe care citatul o combate.
152
Mai

149
AY, 70.
150
MM, 144.
151
TSB, 134.
152
Unele citate ale Spiritului Profetic par a afirma contrariul: Hristos i-a
desvrit un caracter drept aici pe pmnt, nu pentru Sine nsui, cci caracterul
Su era curat i fr pat, ci pentru omul czut. El ofer omului caracterul Su,
dac acesta l accept. Pctosului, prin pocin de pcatele lui, credina n

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

72
degrab, este vorba despre un caracter care este lucrarea unei viei
ntregi.
153
Astfel, rmne s rspundem la o ntrebare: dac acest
caracter se completeaz abia la sfritul vieii, este numele cuiva
nscris pn la acel moment n Cartea vieii?
Contrar logicii se pare c da. Ellen White afirm: A forma un
caracter pe care Dumnezeu l va aproba, cere un efort perseverent.
Ne va lua o continu rezisten fa de puterile ntunericului pentru
a avea numele noastre reinute n cartea vieii.
154
Aceste cuvinte
descoper faptul c exist nume scrise n Cartea vieii, iar lupta este
pentru a rmne scris, nu pentru a fi pentru prima dat nregistrat.
Chiar aceast rezisten fa de puterile rului dezvolt i
consolideaz caracterul. O alt dovad c nume ale celor a cror
caracter nu este perfect este prezena n Cartea vieii a unora pe
jumtate cretini.
155
Cei care nu vor ajunge la o legtur vie cu
Isus Hristos, ceea ce echivaleaz cu sut la sut cretini, vor fi dai
afar din Cartea vieii n urma judecii de cercetare.
156

Hristos i supunerea fa de Legea desvrit a lui Dumnezeu, i se atribuie
neprihnirea lui Hristos; aceasta devine neprihnirea lui, iar numele su este
nregistrat n cartea vieii Mielului. (3T, 372). Ellen White nu spune ns c acest
caracter este atribuit n urma unui simplu act de credin. La acesta trebuie
adugate pocina i supunerea fa de Legea lui Dumnezeu. Condiia ascultrii i
a pzirii poruncilor apare i n alte locuri la Ellen White (de ex. RH, April 9, 1889
par. 6).
153
CG, 162.
154
HP, 47.
155
Exist muli care sunt, i au fost toat viaa lor, doar pe jumtate cretini.
Numele lor sunt n cartea vieii i, dac se ntorc la Domnul cu toat inima, vor
asculta vocea care le spune: Caut faa Mea ... (ST, March 10, 1898 par. 6)
156
1SAT, 55. Ideea aceast este bine surprins i n urmtorul paragraf: Cartea
vieii conine numele tuturor acelora care au intrat n slujba lui Dumnezeu. Dac
vreunul dintre acetia se ndeprteaz de El, l prsete, i, printr-o ncpnat
rmnere n pcat devine n cele din urm mpietrit fa de influena Duhului
Sfnt, n ziua judecii numele su va fi ters din cartea vieii i va fi dat nimicirii.
(FE, 514.)

Registrele cerului:

73
n Mrturii, vol. I, apare clar ideea c numele nregistrate n
registrele comunitii n urma botezului, nu reprezint o garanie c
ele sunt cuprinse i n Cartea vieii.
157
n vol. V gsim la fel de clar
exprimat aceast idee, i-anume c fr o legtur vie cu Hristos
este imposibil s fim scrii n Cartea vieii.
158
Tot aici, Ellen White
amintete condiia supunerii ca fiind indispensabil nregistrrii n
registrele cerului:
Supunei inima ca s fie curit i purificat, apoi vei putea
deveni prta de natur divin, scpnd astfel de stricciunea care
este n lume prin pofte. Atunci vei putea fi totdeauna gata s
rspunzi oricui v va cere socoteal de ndejdea care este n voi;
dar cu blndee i team. Pacea lui Hristos va fi cu tine. Numele
tu va sta nscris n cartea vieii; titlul tu la motenirea cereasc
va purta semntura regal, pe care nimeni de pe pmnt nu
ndrznete s o pun sub semnul ntrebrii.
159

La botez, spune Ellen White, exist nume scrise n crile din
ceruri, dar nu datorit apei: Ele [Persoanele Trinitii] sunt
prezente la fiecare botez, pentru a-i primi pe candidaii care au
renunat la lume i L-au primit pe Hristos n Templul sufletului.
Aceti candidai au intrat n familia lui Dumnezeu, iar numele lor

157
E nevoie de foarte puin tgduire de sine i sacrificiu pentru a da pe fa o
form de evlavie i de a avea numele n registrul bisericii; ns, pentru a tri n aa
fel nct cile noastre s-I fie pe plac lui Dumnezeu, iar numele noastre s fie
nscrise n cartea vieii, este nevoie de veghere i rugciune, tgduire de sine i
sacrificiu din partea noastr. (1T, 405). Religia doar cu numele nu nseamn
nimic. Numele sunt nscrise n crile bisericii de pe pmnt, dar nu n cartea
vieii. (1T, 504).
158
Una este s te alturi bisericii i cu totul alt lucru este legtura cu Hristos. Nu
toate numele trecute n registrele comunitilor sunt trecute i n cartea vieii
Mielului. Muli, dei par a fi credincioi sinceri, nu pstreaz o legtur vie cu
Hristos. (5T, 278).
159
5T, 333.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

74
este nregistrat n Cartea vieii Mielului. (OHC, 89). Candidaii sunt
trecui printre cei vii dac L-au primit pe Hristos n Templul
sufletului lor, cu alte cuvinte, dac Hristos domnete peste viaa,
preocuprile, posesiunile, ideile, talanii, familia, slujba i planurile
acestora.
5.3. Dinamica scrierii n cartea vieii
Faptul c exist aceast tensiune ntre scrierea n cartea vieii de
la ntemeierea lumii (Apoc. 13:8; 17:8) i unele nume adugate
ulterior ridic ntrebarea ce a neles Ellen White prin aceast
adugare ulterioar? Ea folosete o comparaie cu un pictor: Dup
cum artistul obine pe sticla lustruit o adevrat imagine a chipului
uman, tot aa ngerii lui Dumnezeu aeaz n crile din ceruri o
reprezentare exact a caracterului fiecrei fiine umane. Cnd
devenim copiii lui Dumnezeu, numele noastre sunt scrise n Cartea
vieii Mielului i ele rmn acolo pn la judecata investigativ.
160

Aceasta ne face s nelegem c fiecare lucru bun care este
dezvoltat n caracterul nostru, aduce odat cu nregistrarea sa o
rescriere a numelui nostru n crile cerului. Deoarece aceasta va
duce n final la rmnerea numelui acolo pentru venicie. Astfel,
chiar dac numele a fost scris acolo de la ntemeierea lumii, totui
ele sunt rescrise oridecteori, ngerii adaug ceva la chipul moral
al copiilor lui Dumnezeu.
CONCLUZII
Analiza biblic a documentelor care se afl n cer duce la
concluzia c Dumnezeu adun dou tipuri de probe, care nu sunt
pentru Sine, ci pentru a fi mrturii la judecata final, att a celor
buni, ct i a celor ri. Primul dintre acestea este reprezentat de

160
HP, 360.

Registrele cerului:

75
Cartea vieii, uneori exprimat i n alte cuvinte (cartea Ta, cartea de
aducere aminte, cri, cartea vieii Mielului), registru care conine
date despre cei care se declar a fi copiii lui Dumnezeu. n ea sunt
scrise numele celor pe care Dumnezeu i-a cunoscut mai dinainte.
Totui, acea prim nregistrare nu scutete pe nimeni de lupta
crncen cu pcatul i posibilitatea real de a fi ters de acolo, dac
pcatul nu este iertat i biruit. Al doilea tip de probe l reprezint
crile judecii mileniale, n care sunt reinute toate detaliile care
creaz profilul moral al celor ri. Semnificativ este faptul c la acea
judecat se va deschide i Cartea vieii, pentru a evalua cazurile
celor care au fost scrii acolo, dar care, n urma judecii
preadvente, s-au dovedit nevrednici de via venic i au fost teri
din acest drept.
Scriptura menioneaz i un sul pecetluit cu apte pecei care
este cel mai cuprinztor, n el regsindu-se lucruri care depesc
scopul celor dou registre cereti amintite deja. La El se va avea
acces odat cu nceputul mileniului.
Analiza declaraiilor lui Ellen White arat c ea folosete mult
mai liber expresiile biblice legate de documentele cereti. Exist
totui nite linii generale pe care le putem vedea: (1) Cartea vieii
conine numai informaii despre cei buni; (2) Cartea de aducere
aminte primete funcia Crii vieii, a documentelor judecii
mileniale i chiar a sulului pecetluit cu apte pecei; (3) Sulul sigilat
din Apoc. 5 este documentul exhaustiv, coninnd absolut toat
istoria, o singur dat, fiind folosit cu funcia Crii vieii.
O particularitate a lui Ellen White este felul n care ea vede
operaiunile din Cartea vieii. Scriptura este mult mai succint,
vorbind despre dou momente: nume scrise de la ntemeierea lumii,
nume terse la sfritul judecii de cercetare. Totui Ellen White
prezint aceast includere n Cartea vieii mult mai dinamic, i-
anume ca rezultnd din mplinirea unor condiii, care in de biruina
asupra pcatului, formarea unui caracter ca al lui Hristos, supunerea
sau predarea total a credinciosului lui Dumnezeu. Aici nu este o
contradicie, ci Ellen White subliniaz aspectul real al motenirii

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

76
vieii venice, care l depete pe cel formal, n care cineva este n
Cartea vieii. Astfel, c adevrata lupt nu este s fi scris n aceast
carte, ci s rmi scris n ea. Fiecare biruin, fiecare fapt bun
notate n Cartea vieii ntrete numele scris acolo de la
ntemeierea Bibliei. Dar dac nu se ntmpl acest lucru, ci viaa
celor care pretind loialitate dovedete, de fapt, neascultare, atunci a
fi scris n Cartea vieii de la ntemeierea lumii nu nseamn a fi scris
n Cartea vieii n prezent, sau n final, deoarece exact aceste
consemnri negative vor mrturisi mpotriva celor care ar fi putut
s fie motenitori ai Vieii.

Registrele cerului:

77
LISTA ABREVIERILOR LA CRILE ELLENEI WHITE
AH Adventist Home
AY Adventist Youth
CG Child Guidance
COL Christs Object Lessons
CT Counsel to Teachers
DA Desire of Ages
EW Early Writings
FE Fundementals of Christian Education
GC Great Controversy
HP In Heavenly Places
MR Manuscript Releases
MCP Mind, Character and Personality
MM Medical Ministry
RH Review and Herald
SAT Sermons an Talks
T Testimonies
TSB Testomonies on Sexual Behavior, Adultery and Divorce
YI The Youths Instructor

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009): 78-93

ARHITECTURA CMPURILOR
SEMANTICE DIN IOV 28 I IMPORTANA
ACESTEIA N TRADUCEREA LUI IOV
28:28
Lect. univ. dr. Laureniu Gabriel Ionescu
Abstract
The following represents an exegetical study of Job 28:28 and a new
proposal for the translation of the expression from the
perspective of cognitive linguistic method. The thesis of the paper is that
the context evoked in chapter 28 is the context of the Creation. This
conceptual context imposes a semantic restriction to the term . The
term must be translated as Adam. The aim of the study is to
demonstrate that the methodology of the study of semantic fields,
corroborated with the method of cognitive linguistic, can be a tool for the
study of OT typology in passages pertaining to different literary styles.
INTRODUCERE
Iov 28 este un pasaj controversat, att n ceea ce privete
autorul, ct i poziia pe care o ocup n structura literar a crii.
Unii comentatori l consider o incluziune, iar alii parte
integrant
161
a structurii crii. De altfel, Iov 28 permite diferite
abordri.
162

161
Habel destaca la problemtica del captulo al comentar: Job 28 is a brilliant but
embarrassing poem for many commentators. It has been viewed as an erratic
intrusion, an inspired intermezzo, a superfluous prelude, and an orthodox
afterthought (Norman C. Habel, The Book of Job [London: S.C.M. Press, 1985],
391.
162
O analiz exhaustiv a studiilor crii lui Iov i a capitolului 28 publicate pn n

Arhitectura cmpurilor semantice din Iov 28 i importana acesteia
n traducerea lui Iov 28:28

79
Concluzia poemului, climaxul construciei retorice a capitolului,
se gsete n versetul 28. Traducerea acestuia poate lua diferite
nuane, n funcie de perspectiva exegetic. Exist diferite opinii
asupra posibilelor traduceri ale versetului, ct i despre funcia i
locul acestuia n poem. Acest lucru se observ n comentariile
existente. Exegeza versetului un poate ignora poziia versetului din
perspectiva poemului ca ntreg.
Controversele legate de tematic, autor, locul i funcia
capitolului 28 n cartea lui Iov impun o ajustare metodologic.
Revizia bibliografic demonstreaz c metodologa utilizat de
comentatorii lui Iov 28 a depins de curentul teologic n vog n
perioada n care s-au scris articolele.
SCURT TRECERE N REVIST A ISTORIEI INTERPRETRII
LUI IOV 28
S-au scris multe comentarii i lucrri despre poemul nelepciunii
din Iov 28. Aces lucru i are originea n multiplele
163
dispute legate
de funia i poziia crii lui Iov n Scriptur i n literatura OAA.
Interesul fa de aceast carte un se limiteaz doar la specialitii n

1969 se geste n J. Lvque, Job et son Dieu (Paris: Gallimard, 1970), 11-116.
Pentru detalii asupra tendinelor actale a se vedea Wim Beuken, The Book of Job,
Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium 114 (Leuven: Leuven
University Press/Uitgeverij Peeters, 1994), 4-36.
163
Rainer Alberts, "The sage and pious wisdom in the Book of Job: The friends'
perspective," in The sage in Israel and the Ancient near East, ed. John G. Gammie
and Leo G. Perdue (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1990); Walter Emanuel
Aufrecht, Studies in the Book of Job, Sr Supplements (Waterloo: W. Laurier
University Press, 1985); James Barr, "The Book of Job and Its Modern
Interpreters," Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 54 (1972): 28-46; James Barr,
"Hebrew Orthography and the Book of Job," Journal of Semitic Studies 30 (1985):
1-33.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

80
studii biblice. Filozofi, psihologi i politicieni au scris cri i articole
importante asupra acestui pasaj.
164
Cu o varietate att de mare de
comentatori, nu e de mirare c exist attea opinii n lumea
comentatorilor biblici. Secolul XX a demonstrat c exist o
multitudine de abordri exegetice posibile.
Abordarea literar apare ca reacie la tendinele criticismului
tradiional istoric.
165
Metodele tradiionale ale criticismului istoric au
fost abandonate sau modificate radical i au fost nlocuite aproape
preferenia cu metode de analiz a structurii literare a crii. n
prezent, istoria redactrii crii nu mai trezete niciun inters i este
ignorat n favoarea analizei narative a discursului lui Iov.
Deplasarea dinspre paradigma istorico-critic spre paradigma
literar a constituit o mare contribuie pentru: (a) studiul crii ca
ntreg; (b) analiza capitolului 28; (c) studiul discursurilor lui Elihu (c.
32-37); i (d) al discursurilor lui Dumnezeu (40-41). Din aceast
perspectiv de analiz, Iov 28 a fost considerat o tehnic literar
care servete diferite scopuri, n timp ce perspectiva istorico-critic

164
Katharine J. Dell, The Book of Job as sceptical literature (Berlin/New York: De
Gruyter, 1991); Horace Meyer Kallen, The Book of Job as a Greek tragedy, A
Dramabook (New York: Hill and Wang, 1959); Diane M. Komp, Why me?: A
doctor looks at the Book of Job (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2001); William
Safire, The first dissident: The Book of Job in today's politics, 1st ed. (New York:
Random House, 1992); Tim Shoemaker y Cedric Hohnstadt, Tried and true Job:
The Book of Job for children, Arch Books (St. Louis: Concordia Pub. House, 1999);
J. Alfred Smith, Making sense of suffering: A message to Job's children: A guide to teaching
and preaching the Book of Job (Elgin: Progressive National Baptist Convention
Board of Education, 1988); Samuel O. Trudell, A wonderful discovery in the Book of
Job. Behemoth and leviathan found to refer to the stationary and self-propelling steam engines of
our days (Philadelphia: Avil, 1890), 497.
165
C. A. Newsom y S. E. Schreiner, "Book of Job," in Dictionary of biblical
interpretation, ed. J. H. Hayes (Nashville: Abingdon, 1999), 596.


81
considera Iov 28 ca o adugire trzie care nu se potrivete cu
structura literar a crii.
166

Tema nelepciunii din Iov 28 este un element crucial pentru
interpretarea i stabilirea funciei capitolului. Iov 28: (a) prezint
nelepciunea transcendental, divin, inaccesibil omului i teama
de YHWH, i (b) rspunde provocrilor ridicate de modelul
nelepciunii tradiionale al prietenilor lui Iov. Tema nelepciunii
poate fi concluzia dialogului din capitolele 3 la 27, sau poate fi
interpretat ca o voce distinct, diferit, similar discursurilor lui
Dumnezeu din capitolele 38 la 41.
Majoritatea autorilor care ader la critica literar reflect una din
cele trei opinii legate de funcia capitolului 28 n cartea lui Iov.
Prima poziie este aprat de erudiii care consider Iov 28 ca fiind
climaxul dialogului din capitolele 3 la 27.
167
A doua poziie
consider Iov 28 ca un interludiu care creaz o punte de legtur
ntre capitolele 3 la 27 i 29 la 31.
168
A treia poziie prezint Iov 28

166
A se vedea Samuel Rolles Driver y George Buchanan Gray, A critical and
exegetical commentary on the Book of Job (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1964); Georg
Fohrer y E. Sellin, Introduction to the Old Testament (Nashville: Abingdon, 1968);
Marvin H. Pope, Job, translated with an introduction and notes, 3 ed., Anchor Bible 15
(Garden City: Doubleday and Company, 1973).
167
J. G. Janzen, Job. Interpretation: A biblical commentary for teaching and preaching
(Atlanta: John Knox, 1985).; Roy B. Zuck, "Job's discourse on God's wisdom:
An expository of Job 28," in Sitting with Job: Selected Studies on the Book of Job
(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1992).; Norman C. Habel, "In Defense of
God the Sage", en The voice from the whirlwind: Interpreting the Book of Job, eds. L. G.
Perdue y W. C. Gilpin (Nashville: Abingdon, 1992), 21-38; David Wolfers, Deep
things out of darkness. The Book of Job: Essays and a New English translation (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995); Pieter van der Lugt, Rhetorical criticism and the poetry of the
Book of Job, Oudtestamentische Studin (Leiden/New York: E.J. Brill, 1995).
168
D. J. Clark, "In search of wisdom: Notes on Job 28," The Bible Translator 33, no.
4 (1982): 401-405.; William David Reyburn, A Handbook on the Book of Job, UBS
handbook series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1992); M. Cheney, Dust, wind

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

82
ca o anticipare a discursurilor lui YHWH (c. 38-41). Chiar dac se
recunoate faptul c Iov 28 poate funciona ca un interludiu sau
concluzie a primei pri (c. 3-27), funcia sa principal este
perceput ca un recurs retoric pentru a anticipa sau sublinia
revelaia lui YHWH.
169

Ultimele studii publicate despre Iov 28 subliniaz faptul c
pasajul trebuie citit ca parte integrant a crii. Alison Lo public n
2000 la editura Brill teza de doctorat n care demonstreaz c exist
dovezi solide pentru a integra Iov 28 ca parte constitutiv a
discursului crii. Potrivit ipotezei ei, Iov 28 are un rol retoric n
cartea lui Iov, i n mod special n capitolele 22 la 31.
170

Dac Iov 28 este o parte constitutiv a crii lui Iov, i dac
structura acestui capitol este unitar i se ncheie cu versetul 28,
atunci analiza versetului 28 trebuie s in cont de aceast unitate.
Discuiile legate de localizarea i funcia capitolului 28 au fcut
s fie trecute cu vederea problemele lexicale ale capitolului.
Vocabularul capitolului 28 este complex. Datorit influenei
lingvisticii cognitive i a abordrii manierei n care se organizeaz

and agony: Character, speech and genre in Job (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksel
International, 1994); Yair Hoffman, A blemished perfection: The Book of Job in context,
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement series 213 (Sheffield:
Sheffield Academic Press, 1996); Carol A. Newsom, "Dialogue and allegorical
hermeneutics in Job 28:28", en Job 28: Cognition in context, ed. E. J. Van Wolde
(Leiden: Brill, 2003), 299-305.
169
Francis I. Andersen, Job. An introduction and commentary, Tyndale Old Testament
Commentaries (London: Inter-Varsity, 1976).; Samuel L. Terrien, Job,
Comentaire de l'ancien Testament XIII (Neuchtel: Delachaux & Niestl, 1982);
John E. Hartley, The Book of Job, The New International Commentary on the Old
Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988); Robert Alter, The world of biblical
literature (New York: Basic Books, 1992); E. J. van Wolde, Mr. and Mrs. Job
(London: SCM Press, 1997).
170
From less to more adequate perspective (Alison Lo, Job 28 as rhetoric: An
analysis of Job 28 in the context of Job 22-31, Supplements to Vetus Testamentum
(Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2003), 233.


83
realitatea prin intermediul conceptelor asistm la o renatere a
interesului fa de lexicul din Iov 28.
n 2003, Brill public concluziile celei de-a doua conferine a
Academy Colloquium of Amsterdam organizat de grupul de cercetare
KEJ (Knowing and Experiencing Job). Rezultatul este o colecie de
articole centrate pe lexicografie. Job 28: Cognition in Context, editat de
E. van Wolde,
171
redeschide discuia asupra lui Iov 28.
Ultimul verset al poemului este analizat din perspectiva
terminologiei cognitive. Dei studiul se concentreaz pe
terminologia versetului i legtura cu alte cmpuri semantice ale
metaforei poemului
172
descriind legturile intertextuale cu alte
pasaje din Vti literatura Orientul Antic Apropiat,
173
rmnt termeni
importani neanalizai. Aceast lips de exaustivitate a studiului
deschide drumul cercetrii prezente.
FORMULAREA PROBLEMEI
Traducerea versetului 28 poate lua diferite nuane n funcie de
modul n care se integreaz versetul n discursul capitolului 28.
Trecerea n revist a lucrrilor publicate pe aceast tem

171
E. J. van Wolde, ed., Job 28: Cognition in context, Biblical Interpretation Series
(Leiden: Brill, 2003).
172
David J. A. Clines, "The fear of the Lord is Wisdom (Job 28:28): A semantic
and contextual study," in Job 28: Cognition in context, ed. E. J. van Wolde, Biblical
Interpretation Series (Leiden: Brill, 2003).
173
James K. Aitken, "Lexical semantics and the cultural context of kowledge in
Job 28, ilustrated by the Meaning of hqar," in Job 28: Cognition in context, ed. Ellen
van Wolde, Biblical Interpretation Series (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2003). Vase
tambin Edward L. Greenstein, "The Poem of Wisdom in Job 28 in its
conceptual and literary contexts," in Job 28: Cognition in context, ed. Ellen van
Wolde, Biblical Interpretation (Leiden/Boston: E. J. Brill, 2003).

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

84
demonstreaz c opiunile traductorilor sunt diferite, uneori
contradictorii, dei majoritatea studiilor contemporane militeaz
pentru localizarea versetului n poziia actual.
Majoritatea studiilor se concentreaz pe expresia frica de
Domnul i implicaiile lingvistice i teologice ale acesteia.
174

Complexitatea problemei nu const doar n unica ocuren a
termenului n cartea lui Iov. Lucrurile se complic prin
prezena termenului . Schkel i Daz sunt singurii care
comenteaz ambiguitatea termenului. Ei menioneaz doar c
textul consonantic este ambiguu: i-a spus omului/i-a spus lui
Adam
175
fr s dea alte explicaii.
n ncercarea de a traduce cuvntul , exegetul sau
traductorul sunt confruntai cu o situaie exegetic complicat.
Problema nu este nou. Poate fi observat i n felul n care
traductorii din antichitate au rezolvat dificultatea termenului .
Targumul traduce astfel: "i a zis fiului omului" ( )
176
.
LXX prefer o redare literal: "i a zis omului" (
). Soluia oferit de LXX este o interpretare nu o
traducere n sensul propriu. Se poate observa o inconsecven
inexplicabil n felul n care LXX traduce termenul aa cum
reiese din urmtorul exemplu din cartea Genezei:

174
Este singurul loc din carte lui Iov n care se ntlnete termenul . Prezena
acestui termen a primit diferite explicaii. Driver i Gray neag originalitatea
acestei pri a versetului. Driver y Gray, A critical and exegetical commentary on the
Book of Job, 1:244. Clines remarc doar prezena neobinuit a expresiei n
contextul discursului lui Dumnezeu. David J. A. Clines, Job 21-37, Word Biblical
Commentary 18a (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2006), 924.
175
L. Alonso Schkel and J. L. Sicre Daz, Job. Comentario teolgico y literario, 2 ed.
(Madrid: Ediciones Cristiandad, 2002), 497.
176
Expresie idiomatic traductibil prin a zis omenirii.


85
LXX TM Vers.

2:15
i l-a luat Domnul pe om

2:16
i i-a poruncit Domnul
Dumnezeu lui Adam

Inconsecvena de traducere este uor de observat i nejustificat
n dou versete consecutive. n primul caz a fost tradus cu
om, n timp ce n cel de-al doilea a fost tradus cu
Adam.
Problema pe care i propune s o rezolve acest articol este
aceasta: Cum se traduce sintagma din Iov 28:28a din
perspectiva contextului discursului capitolului 28?
IPOTEZ
Ipoteza de la care se pleac este c Iov 28 evoc contextul
Creaiei att prin modul n care organizeaz discursul ct i prin
terminologia folosit.. Chiar dac din punct de vedere semantic
expresia din Iov 28:28 are cel puin dou variante de
traducere, contextul evocat de discurs impune o restricie semantic
asupra termenului . Aceast restricie favorizeaz interpretarea
termenului ca substantiv propriu (Adam) i nu ca substantiv
colectiv (om, omenire).

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

86
METODOLOGIE
Pentru a verifica ipoteza formulat se va utiliza o metodologie
centrate pe trei axe: (a) analiza lexical; (b) analiza arhitecturii
relaiilor cognitive ale discursului i (c) metoda comparativ.
Analiza lexical se va realiza n dou etape: prima faz o
constituie analiza exegetic a lui Iov 28 pentru a identifica
problemele de semantic ale pasajului. n a doua faz vocabularul
lui Iov 28 va fi redus la cmpuri semantice de baz. Teoriile care
stau la baza reducerii n cmpuri semantice vor fi prezentate ntr-un
numr viitor al revistei.
Etapa de organizare a arhitecturii relaiilor cognitive ale
discursului are ca scop identificarea ierarhiei existente ntre
diferitele cmpuri semantice. Baza metodologic o constituie teoria
Gestalt-ului formulate de Lakoff
177
.
Comparaia are ca scop s verifice ipoteza de lucru.
Se pare c domeniul semantic principal al poemului este cmpul
semantic al metalurgiei, al metalelor i materialelor preioase
conform taxonomiei lui Swanson.
178
Legtura ntre acest domeniu
semantic i domeniul sapienial nu este accidental i nici unic. n
textele literaturii extrabiblice, n special n mitologia greac,
179

177
George Lakoff y Mark Johnson, Metaphors we live by, 2 ed. (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 2003).
178
James Swanson, Dictionary of biblical languages with semantic domains: Hebrew (Old
Testament), electronic ed. (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, 1997).
179
A se vedea mitul lui Hefaistos i Prometeu n H. J. Rose, "The younger
olympian gods and goddesses," in The Routledge handbook of Greek mythology: Based
on H.J. Rose's handbook of Greek mythology, ed. Robin Hard (New York: Routledge,
2008). Se poate observa abundena termenilor metalurgici n mitul lui Hefaistos.
Conform legendei, Hefaistos a fabricat toate aceesoriile i podoabele zeilor. Lui i
se atribuie forjarea tuturor obiectelor care dein puteri miraculoase i care apar n
mitologia greac: coiful i sandalele naripate ale lui Hermes, efigia lui Zeus,


87
contextul metalurgic este "leagnul civilizaiei. umane.
180

nelepciunea se gsete n dominarea secretului focului i a
prelucrrii metalelor. Relaia dintre vocabularul capitolului 28 i
contextul sapienial nu este arbitrar. Ea se bazeaz pe
cosmoviziunea care st n spatele poemului. Identificarea aceste
scheme de gndire este important pentru traducerea ultimului
verset.
n cercetarea prezent se va aplica metoda comparativ pentru
identificarea similitudinilor de Gestalt ntre Iov 28, Geneza 2 i
Ezechiel 28 n care se ntlnesc cmpuri semantice comune i se va
demonstra c momentul temporal evocat de poemul nelepciunii
din Iov 28 este Creaiunea.
Studiul va fi expus n trei numere ale revistei. n primul numr
vor fi prezentate date legate de textul capitolului 28 din Iov, n cel
de-al doilea se vor prezenta teoriile lingvistice ale metodologiei
studiului cmpurilor semantice, iar n cel de-al treilea rezultatele
aplicrii acestor metode asupra textului din Poemul nelepciunii.
VERSIUNI CONSULTATE
Analiza textual acoper majoritatea versiunilor existente n
prezent. S-au folosit diferite familii de manuscrise i variante
descrise n urmtoarea seciune.

faimoasa centur a Afroditei, armura lui Achile, ctuele de aram ale lui
Heracles, carul lui Helios, arcul i sgeile lui Eros, coiful invizibil al lui Hades. cf.
C. M. Stibbe, The sons of Hephaistos: Aspects of the Archaic Greek Bronze Industry
(Roma: L'Erma di Bretschneider, 2000).
180
Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, On the traditional doctrine of art (Golgonooza
Press: Ipswich, 1977), 15.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

88
MARTORI AI TEXTULUI MASORETIC
Pentru textul din Iov 28 au fost consultate cele dou codexuri
principale: Codex Aleppo
181
(925 A.D) i Codex Leningradensis (1009
A.D).
182
Ultimul codex consituie textul de baz pentru ediia critic,
diplomatic a Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia,
183
editat de K. Elliger y
W. Ruholph. Calitatea textului codexului Aleppo este superioar, aa
cum recunoate Moshe H. Goshen-Gottstein:
Comparison showed the two codices for what they are: the
Codex Aleppo the perfect original masterpiece which
authenticates itself by internal criteria; the Leningrad Codex a
none-too-successful effort to adapt a manuscript of a different
Tiberian subgroup to a Ben Asher Codex. The very attempt of
the harmonizing massorete of the Leningrad Codex is the most
telling proof one can imagine that Aaron ben Ashers text was
used as a model a few decades after his death. No scribe in his
right mind would go to the trouble to adapt an existing
manuscript to another model unless he recognized its
superiority.
184

Textul din Iov 28 es identic n manuscrisele Aleppo i
Leningradensis, cu o singur excepie ortografic minor n versetul 8.
n Aleppo avem , n timp ce versiunea Leningradensis este

181
O reproducere a codexului Aleppo se gsete n ediia lui Moshe H. Goshen-
Gottstein, The Aleppo Codex. Provided with masoretic notes and pointed by Aaron ben
Asher. The codex considered authoritative by Maimonides. Part one: Plates (Jerusalem:
Magnes, 1976). Pentru textul din Iov 28 s-a folosit versiunea digital a imaginilor
manuscriselor publicat la http://www.Aleppocodex.org.
182
Reproducerea fotografic a Codex Leningradensis a fost obinut de la Societatea
Biblic Unit.
183
K. Elliger y W. Rudolph, Biblia Hebraica Suttgartensia (Stuttgart: Deutsche
Bibelgesellschaft, 1997).
184
Moshe H. Goshen-Gottstein, "The Aleppo Codex and the rise of the
Massoretic Bible Text", Biblical Archeologist 42, n 3 (1979): 150.


89
mai conservatoare . Coincidena este notabil dac lum n
calcul faptul c cele dou codexuri prezint diferene ortrografice.
Aleppo e mai conservator ca Leningradensis.
185
Ortografia lui Iov 28 n
manuscrisul de la Leningrad este probabil cea corect, sau cea mai
veche. Ortografia cu scriptio plena este tendina tradiiilor trzii nu a
celor timpurii. Din punct de vedere practic n lucrarea de fa nu se
va face nicio distincie ntre textul codexului Aleppo sau
Leningradensis. Sigla M denot ambele manuscrise, fr distincie.
Au fost consultate i lecturile manuscriselor ebraice existente n
Vetus Testamentum Hebraicum cum Variis Lectionibus,
186
editat de
Benjamin Kennicott, i Variae Lectiones Veteris Testamenti ex Immensa
MSS,
187
editat de Johannes B. de Rossi.
Diferenele sunt de natur ortografic. Majoritatea sunt
alternane ntre scriptio defectiva y scriptio plena. Cnd e necesar se va
indica numrul manuscrisului. Manuscrisele folosite de Kennicott i
de Rossi sunt trzii,
188
de aceea nu au aceeai valoare ca textelde din
codexul Aleppo i Leningradensis.

185
Moshe H. Goshen-Gottstein, "The authenticity of the Aleppo Codex", Text 1
(1960): 28.
186
Benjamin Kennicott, Vetus Testamentum Hebraicum cum Variis Lectionibus, faximil
ed., 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1776-1780).
187
Johannes B. de Rossi, Variae Lectiones Veteris Testamenti ex Immensa MSS
(Parmae: Ex Regio Typographeo, 1784).
188
Vezi comentariile lui Zuckerman n Bruce K. Zuckerman, The process of
translation in 11QtgJob: A preliminary study (Disertacin doctoral en Teologa,
Yale University, New Haven, Estados Unidos, 1980), 20-21.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

90
MARTORI AI VARIANTELOR GRECETI
Citatele din Septuaginta provin din ediia critic eclectic a lui
Joseph Ziegler din Gttingen Septuagint Series.
189
Textul lui Iov 28
publicat n aceast ediie este acelai care apare n versiunea lui
Alfred Rahlfs, cu mici variaii neimportante ( vs.
[v.6] i vs. [v.16]. Textul grecesc al
acestor versiuni este marcat prin sigla G.
Pentru diferitele revizuiri ale textului G prezervat n tradiia
greac s-a folosit ediia lui Frederick Field.
190
ncercarea lui Origen
de a alinia textul grecesc cu cel ebraic s-a realizat prin intermediul
acestei tradiii greceti. Tradiia trzie atribuie aceste adiii lui
Teodosius , ns studiile lui Peter Gentry au confirmat c Teodosius
a folosit ca surse principale scrierile lui Origen.
191

Contribuia textului G pentru restaurarea textului crii lui Iov
este controversat.Specialitii contest valoarea G datorit
caracterului parafrastic al traducerii greceti. Traductorii G
preferine teologice i stilistice care i influeneaz n maniera de
traducere. Fr ndoial ns, textul G este util pentru identificarea
caracteristicilor textului Vorlage ebraic care a stat la baza traducerii
din limba greac. Pentru Iov 28 Natalio Fernndez Marcos afirm
c traductorii G au avut un Vorlage ebraic nu foarte diferit de

189
Joseph Ziegler, Hiob, Septuaginta: Vetus Testamentum Grecum; Auctoritate
Academiea Scientiarum Gottingensis editum XI/4 (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, 1982).
190
Frederick Field, Origenis Hexaplorum quae supersunt: sive, Veterum interpretum
graecorum in totum Vetus Testamentum fragmenta: post Flaminiun, Nobilium, Drusium, et
Montefalconium, adhibita etiam versione syro-hexaplari, 2 vols. (Hildesheim: G. Olms,
1964).
191
Peter John Gentry, The asterisked materials in the Greek Job, vol. 38 (Atlanta:
Scholars, 1995).


91
varianta din Textul masoretic.
192
Dac Vorlage care s la baza G este
aproape identic cu textul masoretic, atunci diferenele de traducere
care se ntlnesc G sunt rezultatul interpretrii sau perspectivei
traductorului i nu rezultatul diferenelor de lectur.
MARTORI AI TEXTELOR DE LIMB LATIN
Citatele din Vulgata V sunt preluate din ediia diplomatic a lui
R. Weber, Biblia Sacra Iuxta Vulgatum Versionem.
193
Importana V
pentru traducerea lui Iov rezid n ncercarea lui Ieronim de a
corecta traducerea latin antic Vetus Latina L a textului din G.
Ieronim suspecta c traducerea latin fost corupt cu trecerea
timpului. Din acest motiv, n 390, Ieronim iniiaz traducerea V din
hebraica veritas cu scopul de a nlocui Hexapla lui Origen n Apus.
Chiar dac Ieronim nu s-a putut elibera pe deplin de influena
Hexaplei, V rmne un martor important al textului crii lui Iov.
194

TEXTUL TARGUMURILOR
Referinele la textului Targumurilor sunt utile att din punct de
vedere textual, ct i din punct de vedere al filosofiei traducerii.
195

192
Natalio Fernndez Marcos, "The Septuagint reading of the Book of Job", en
The Book of Job, ed. W. A. M. Beuken, Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarum
lovaniensium 114 (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1994), 254-255.
193
Weber, Biblia Sacra Iuxta Vulgatum Versionem, Tomus I: Genesis-Psalmi.
194
Eva Schultz-Flgel, "The Latin Old Testament tradition", en Hebrew Bible. Old
Testament: Its history of interpretation, ed. Magne Saebo (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, 1996), 1:642-662.
195
John Gray, "The Massoretic Text of the Book of Job, the Targum and the
Septuagint version in light of the Qumran Targum (11QTarg Job)", Zeitschrift fr
die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 86 (1974): 241-250.

TheoRhma 4.2 (2009)

92
Targumurile sunt n acelai timp i traduceri i interpretri. Astfel,
ele sunt o surs important pentru reconstrucia cosmoviziunii
traductorilor din antichitate.
Pentru textul Targumurilor s-a consultat ediia lui David M.
Stec, The text of the Targum of Job.
196
De asemenea a fost consultat i
versiunea electronic ce apare n programul Libronix sub
nomenclatura Targum Job.
197

David Shepherd subliniaz fidelitatea traducerii din
Targumuri pentru capitolul 28 din Iov n urmtoarea afirmaie: Ca
traducere, Targumul lui Iov este foarte fidel surselor ebraice i
foarte scrupulir n prezervarea formei i ordinii cuvintelor din textul
masoretic al lui Iov.
198
Acest tendin literal a traductorilor
rabini este foarte util n reconstruirea versiunii Vorlage ebraice.
Conflaiile aramaice ofer studiului prezent informaii desrep
contextul interpretrii lui Iov 28. O parte din aceste conflaii sunt
predictibile i explicabile (v.7 ammael, v.22 ngerul morii,
nelepciunea=Torah, v. 27 ngerii.) Este foarte interesant c n
versetul 6, contextul identificat de traductori este Grdina Eden,
ceea ce demonstreaz nc odat validitatea ipotezei articolului.
199

196
David M. Stec, The text of the Targum of Job: An introduction and critical edition
(Leiden; New York; Kln: Brill, 1994).
197
Stephen A. Kaufman, ed., The late Jewish literary aramaic version of Job from the files of
the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project (CAL) (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union
College, 2005).
198
David Shepherd, "Targum and translation: A reconsideration of the Qumram
aramaic version of Job", en Studia semitica neederlandica, ed. W. J. van Bekkum
(Assen: Koninlijke Van Gorcum, 2004), 280 (traduccin propia).
199
Cline Mangan, "The Targum of Job. Translated with critical introduction,
apparatus, and notes", en The Aramaic Bible: The Targums, eds. Kevin Cathcart,
Michael Maher, y Martin MacNamara, The Aramaic Bible 15 (Collegeville:
Liturgical Press, 1991), 267-280.


93
Siglele utilizate n aceast lucrare pentru identificarea versiunilor
citate sunt urmtoarele: Q pentru versiunea Targumurilor de la
Qumran, i T pentru celelalte texte ale Targumurilor. Pentru a
diferenia versiunile din Libronix s-au folosit urmtoarele sigle:
T
1
,
200
T
2
,
201
i T
3
.
202

n numrul viitor se va prezenta traducerea critic a textului
Poemului nelepciunii din Iov 28, traducere ce va furniza materialul
necesar pentru analiza cmpurilor semantice. Scopul acestei seciuni
este s prezinte textul Poemului nelepciunii i problemele lexicale
specifice. Traducerea nu se concentreaz pe dimensiunea stilistic,
ci are ca scop identificarea sensului cuvintelor dificile.

200
Libronix identific astfel textul acestei variante: Variants marked
1
are
selections found in both Bombergs 1517 Venice.
201
2
are
selections from the Antwerp Polyglot of 1570 and/or Zamora (Madrid).
202
3
are
selections from a source exclusive of
1
and
2
.

TheoRhema 4.2.

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

TheoRhema 4.2.

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

TheoRhma 4.

You might also like