General

General Christopher T. Begg, Fred W. Guyette, Thomas Hieke, Brian J. Meldrum, and Isaac M. Alderman 1. [Noah's Ark; Genesis 6–8; Exod 2:3] Bartosz Adamczewski, "Noah's Ark and the Ark of the Covenant," ColT 91 (2, 2021) 5-19. The similarities between Noah's ark and the saving boat in the Mesopotamian flood accounts are widely known, as are those between the former and the boat in which the infant Moses is released into the Nile (Exod 2:3). However, the connections between Noah's "box" and the "box (ark) of the testimony" have not received adequate scholarly attention hitherto. My article explores these connections on both the linguistic and the conceptual level. It likewise investigates the function of these connections as hypertextual links of the Genesis flood account to earlier Israelite writings, the Books of Deuteronomy and Joshua in particular. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] *2. [Childlessness among Nigerian Christians] Solomon Ademiluka, "Taking a Holistic View of the Biblical Perspectives on Childlessness: Implications for Nigerian Christians and the Church in Nigeria," HTS 77 (4, 2021) 1-10 [see Editor's Notes, p. 367]. Some Christians believe God's plan is for everyone to have children. They are tempted to conclude that barrenness is a punishment from God. Perhaps this view can be found in the OT, but that does not give us the whole picture of what the OT teaches about the meaning of marriage. God does give children as a blessing, but God does not necessarily give children to every husband and wife. In the ANE, when a woman became a mother, a high degree of honor was conferred upon her. Abraham and Sarah were childless for many years. Sarah perceived this as such a serious matter that she wanted her maidservant Hagar to bear a son for Abraham, whom they named Ishmael. Later, however, Sarah did have a son of her own. They named him Isaac, and he became Abraham's heir (Genesis 16 and 21). Hannah also wanted children, and she was vexed until she gave birth to Samuel. See A. Abasili, "Hannah's Ordeal of Childlessness: Interpreting 1 Samuel 1 through the Prism of a Childless African Woman in a Polygynous Family," OTE 28 (3, 2015) 581-605. However, when we look at the account of creation (Gen 2:4-25), God identifies Adam's problem as loneliness, and that is why God creates the woman—for companionship. When he sees Eve, Adam exclaims, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!" Nowhere in Scripture does it say that the woman was created to bear children for the man. See also K. T. Magnuson, "Marriage, Procreation and Infertility: Reflections on Genesis," Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 4 (1, 2000) 26-43; and the book by C. Moss and J. Baden, Reconceiving Infertility: Biblical Perspectives on Procreation and Childlessness (2015).—F. W. G. 3. [Proust and Prophets; Samuel–Kings] A. Graeme Auld, "Of Proust and Prophets: Samuel, Elijah, and Charles Swann," Expository Times 133 (4, 2022) 154-58. The recent discovery of a much shorter draft of Marcel Proust's multivolume novel À la recherche du temps perdu (1913–1927) might suggest a partial analogy with the composition-history of the Books of Samuel and Kings in the Hebrew Bible as I envisage it. Thus, while Proust's draft makes no mention of the novel's main character in its final version, my [End Page 1] proposed earlier version of Samuel–Kings is silent about the figures of Samuel and Elijah, who dominate the text we know today. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 4. [Death by Stoning in the Hebrew Bible and Post-Biblical Traditions] Shaul Bar, "Death by Stoning in the Hebrew Bible and in Post-Biblical Traditions," OTE 34 (3, 2021) 789-805. Different modes of death appear in the Hebrew Bible, among which we find stoning as a form of execution. Since the person is already dead, why does the Bible go to such lengths in describing this manner of death? In proposing an answer, I begin by examining the cases which describe...