Liber Annuus

The focus of this inquiry is the use of the metaphor of the “hiddenness of God” in the Hebrew Bible. A review of the rich Hebrew vocabulary in the semantic field of “hide” leads to some very theological conclusions. The idiomatic expression, “to hide the face,” basically belongs to the wisdom literature (i.e. Psalms, Proverbs, and Job) and shows to have more a mysterious significance rather than a rebuke. In other words, the expression usually does not refer to a condemnation or abandonment. The main point lies with reading the often misunderstood text of Is 45:15, where the verb satar is used, not in the passive form, i.e. the hidden God, rather in the reflexive form, i.e. a God who hides Himself. Certainly, God is always free to hide Himself, in order eventually to reveal Himself again. If we know that He is actually hiding, it is because of His revelation.

The author assumes that the Book of Qohelet comprises, after the superscription 1:1, two main parallel sections - 1:12-7:14 // 7:15-11:6 - with 11:7-12:7 as its central section and 1:2-11 (prologue) // 12:8-14 (epilogue) as its frame. First, the ideal world of the Sage in Qoh 1-3 is outlined; then, the seven proclamations of (with indicative verb forms) and invitations to (with volitive verb forms) joy in the Book are analyzed in their respective contexts. They are as follows: 2:24-26, 3:12-13 + 22, 5:17-19, 7:13-14, 8:15, 9:7-10, and 11:7-12:7. Human work and experience in the world is ambivalent; it always gives double answers - negative and positive from human perspective - both coming from the only God. The fear of God allows human beings to live according Godʼs dispensation, enjoying when God sends goods in life and reflecting on His message when He sends pain. Joy is at the same time “part” of man, i.e., fruit of his effort, and a gift from God.

A contribution dedicated to the Book of Ruth appeared in the last number of our journal. This article offers an easy way to read and understand the notes, massorah parva (Mp) and massorah magna (Mm) of the book of Jonah. Starting with the printed biblical text (BHS) the marginal notes of Mp are explained at first. Afterwards references in the list of Mm of the monograph published by G. Weil are examined.

It is characteristic in Mark 14:36 to invoke God as “Abba, Father”, but also frequent in the Synoptic Gospels is “the Father who is in heaven”. Jesus proclaims the imminent sovereignty of God, which establishes itself among peoples by means of the merciful caring of the sick, the possessed, and sinners. Added to this is the personal fate, which occurs when He reveals His identity and in so doing, He proves the nature of God as Father.

This paper presents some annotations on the book of the Acts of the Apostles, carried out along a “continual reading” of the text, and with the aim of verifying a historical-literary hypothesis. The problem of the sources used in the Acts of the Apostles cannot be resolved with the two models normally proposed, i.e. that of the “written sources” (particularly the Antiochian Source for chs. 6-15, and the Diary of the Journey for chs. 16-28) and that of the “tradition sources”, for the most part oral ones, handed down by the Churches and the local communities. This fact invites us to formulate a simple hypothesis, namely, that the author of the Acts reconstructed or restored the history by gathering direct or indirect information about the characters of his narrative. Among them are to be mentioned not only eyewitnesses, but also their friends, relatives, disciples, and collaborators. The present “annotations of reading” testify an effort to retrieve the “direct information” that Paul used as the basis for his historical-theological project. The problems we met are many, because it is not always easy to distinguish an actual event from the work of the historian who narrated it. Wherever possible, solutions are proposed, also keeping in mind the opinions available in notable commentaries of the Acts. In some cases, however, it is practically impossible to reach a satisfying solution.

This paper takes into consideration some comments on the Acts of the Apostles published among the most publicized series in the last decade without prejudice to the value of others commentaries. For each one of them, a fundamental characteristic is highlighted by means of a subtitle and a respective critical presentation: J. Jervell: The Jewish Tendency of Acts; C.K. Barrett: The Acts as a Historical Work; C.H.Talbert: The Acts in their Cultural Context; B. Witherington III: The Acts as a Rhetorical and Historiographical work; J. Taylor: The becoming of the Acts; M.-É. Boismard: The Western Text of Acts. All these comments are characterized by a reinstating of Acts as a historical document, useful for the reconstruction of the history of primitive Christianity. This is a novelty, if we consider that the prevalent tendency in some influential works of the past was to doubt whether the accounts of Acts could be treated as historical or not.

“Rabbinic Literature as a historical source for the background of the Gospels”. Biblical scholars know P. Billerbeckʼs Commentary of the New Testament in the light of Rabbinic Literature, published in 1936. Most New Testament scholars know the book of J. Jeremias, Jerusalem in the time of Jesus, which quotes the Talmud as its main source. But very few scholars know the books of S. Krauss, Talmudische Archäologie, where they could find a lot of historical information. If talmudic literature is important to study the linguistic, the economic, the geographical, the sociological, the liturgical, the hermeneutical and theological background of the New Testament, it has a historical value and should be integrated in the ratio studiorum of the Christian Faculties of theology and Scripture.

This study concentrates on issues concerning the identification of Qumran and the source of the scrolls discovered in the caves adjacent to the site. It is customary to maintain that Qumran was the religious and ritual center of a sect which was akin to the Essenes, whose members lived in the caves and engaged, inter alia, in copying scrolls at the site itself. In recent years, a growing number of scholars support the thesis that the scrolls originated in Jerusalem and were hidden in the caves near Qumran on the eve of Jerusalemʼs destruction. A study of the archaeological evidence lends support to this claim.

Based on factual and historical elements (admittedly with some degree of hypothetical reconstruction) the author proposes to see traces of a Roman Mithraeum in a cluster of grottoes laying beneath the green lawn of the Independence Park in Jerusalem. This place was part of the Muslim cemetery of the Mamilla and there are remains of a mosque. Throughout the centuries, these grottoes kept some religious significance notwithstanding their being, at different times, under the control of different religions. Countless marks of the Christian tenure in the medieval times are still to be seen on the plaster covering their rocky walls. The caves were then known by the name of “Lionʼs Den.” However, Christians may have inherited the religious background from the previous holders.

The English reader enjoys a whole lot of translations from ancient Christian Writers which are regrettably inaccessible to the Italian public. This is the case also for many of Eusebius of Caesareaʼs literary works and in particular those written before the constantinian discoveries in the Holy Places (ca. 325 A.D.). This article aims just to offer a glimpse on such literature by offering the Italian translation of a chapter from the Demonstratio Evangelica (VI,18,1-53) relating to the Mount of Olives. Before the discovery of the Holy Sepulchre, the Mount of Olives was certainly one of the most important places where Christians kept the sacred memories of our Lordʼs passage through this Land: a place “where his own feet stood”, as Eusebius, together with the Christian tradition, likes to say.

The archaeological excavations conducted in Caesarea over the last 30 years enable us to conceive better the Acts of the Martyrs of Caesarea in the urban context, and to examine several issues pertaining to the urban topography. Much of the new material so far has been published only in preliminary reports; several of the large urban complexes were excavated by more than a single expedition, and the interpretation and chronology of some structures are therefore debated issues. But in spite of these difficulties, pertaining to the availability and interpretation of the archaeological data, there is room for the examination of the topographical details incorporated in these Acts in light of the new archaeological finds.

During the Byzantine period the desert of Jerusalem, known today as Judaean Desert, was flourished with a large monastic activity. Most of the monasteries belonged to the Laura type, in which monks live in solitude most of the time, and get together during Saturday and Sunday. They often went during the forty days of lent into the remote parts of the desert and lived there on the natural vegetation, eating edible plants and roots. Such events were mentioned in hagiographic sources, describing various kinds of natural edible plants. The paper focuses on one of these plants - The Melagria - and suggests to identify it with the Asphodel, which is spread over most of the region in large quantities.

This paper presents the architectural history of a peristyle type mansion that reflects the vagaries of the fortunes of the provincial city of Scythopolis in its latest classical and immediately post-classical phases. One of only nine buildings of this type known within the region from classical times, it appears to be a local variation and its latest exponent. In its earlier phase this rather opulent residence, perched atop a slope above the Jordan River and positioned so as to face the imposing heights of Biblical Gilead to the east mirrors the prosperity of the sixth century CE city. Located outside the city walls, the mansion notably incorporated a family tomb that allows us to identify the owners as Christians. A later phase of the same building, dated to the Umayyad period indicates a rather sharp decline in the cityʼs fortunes following the devastating earthquake of 749 CE. Much of the earlier opulent character of the building was lost and additional rooms were built, causing a reduction in the size of the “public” areas of the house. There is, in addition, the likelihood that the changes wrought upon this structure also reflect the religious persuasion of its owners, now thought to be Moslems. It would therefore seem that the structure that was excavated at Beth Shean marked a local development characteristic of the peristyle court houses from the Byzantine-Umayyad period, evidenced primarily by the reduction in the courtyard area and the conversion of the series of columns.

The Church that was brought to light corresponds with the description made by Tristram in 1872 and with the topographical details saved by Fathers Jaussen and Savignac in 1909. The two Dominican Fathers write that the bilingual description published by them was re-found among the ruins of an ancient edifice identified by the inhabitants of the area as a Church 250 meters to the east of the police station with columns similar to milestones plastered in white. The Church was built re-using architectonic elements of a previous building from the classic era. The bilingual inscriptions of these elements suggest that they probably came from the Temple of Zeus Beelfegor, which Demas, son of Hillel of Filadelfia—Amman had built. The pre-existence of the temple in the same area could explain the anomalous orientation of the Church, which up to now is the only one of its kind in all the vast documentation regarding the Province of Arabia.

The article is the result of an archeological research covering the area between the Church of St. Paul and the Chapel of the Peacocks in the northern sector of the Castrum of Umm al-Rasas. Originally occupied by the portico of the Church, which was connected to a large corridor with the street running East of the complex, the area, in the VII century, witnessed some structural modifications with the construction of a wine-press and other structures attached to it. With the passing of time, however, the use of the wine-press became rare until becoming obsolete along with the abandonment of the city. Also, this sector of the city of Kastron Mefaa - Umm al-Rasas, excavated between 1997-2000, shows a similar history with the sacred buildings unearthed previously. Even more interesting and new is the fact that while the city remained inhabitable, the interior of a space originally attached to the Church, such as the courtyard to the south of the Church of St. Paul, was used for a totally different purpose like the production and preservation of wine. This data of information together with other data acquired until now will help further to understand the life, the development, and above all the progressive decline and forsakenness of the city of Umm al-Rasas.

The site of el-Qatrawani is a common saint-tomb from the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. It is built on the ruins of a Byzantine church dating to the 5th century AD. The Byzantine remains consisting of a church, cisterns and a wine-press belong to a monastery which was occupied apparently for a short period. The monastery is spatially related to the Byzantine settlements of Atara, Tarfin and Birzeit. It is interesting to note that the Christian monastic tradition is kept alive later in another form of Islamic monasticism. The monastery and sanctuary of el-Qatrawani is a living example of the continuity of religious traditions.