Liber Annuus

Spirit-rûa˙ is the force of life coming from God. It plays different functions: in the cosmos, in animals, in humanity and in God himself. As such, it generates a certain “con-naturalness”, or congruousness, among the different worlds — divine, animal, human, and the cosmos as a whole. There results a vision of reality that is biblical but reflects in a special way the wisdom movement. With the help of relevant biblical texts, the paper traces a quick overview of the different functions of the term rûa˙ in the Old Testament while leaving aside the functions of the Spirit of God in the prophets, the judges and the heroes of Israel, the king, and the Messiah, which are most frequently dealt with by scholars. It illustrates the Spirit in the cosmos, in the living creatures, in the human being; God’s Spirit in humanity, spirit of humanity; Spirit and flesh, Adam and Christ; Spirit and new creation; Spirit as hypostasis?; Spirit-rûa˙ for a theology of the feminine; Spirit and ecumenism. More and more, Rûa˙ is a term impossible to define exactly and at the same time able to take on ever new and superior connotations.

Jer 24 announces the return of king Jeconiah and of those who were exiled in Babylonia in 597 B.C. By contrast, Zedekiah and the other survivors of the catastrophe in 587 B.C. are destined to extinction and perpetual loss of identity in the dispersion. The text reveals a conflict between these two groups of Jews. The conflict is resolved in favour of Jeconiah’s group, because this group has had the privilege of experiencing the exile. To explain this result, the text omits any reference to the exile of Zedekiah’s group in 587, and considers it together with those who remained in the Land or went to Egypt. This point of view recalls the way in which the Chronicher presents the relationship between the returnees and those who remained in Judah during the exile. Only the community of those who returned from Golah can be identified as the true Israel, the object of Yhwh’s faithfulness. All the rest are to be excluded from this community.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the land. The second beatitude is a quotation of Ps 37. To understand the meaning of the beatitude it is necessary to verify how the pluralistic Judaism of the first century read Ps 37. In the Apocalyptic milieu, in Qumran Pesher, in hellenistic Judaism and even in Pharisaic texts Psalm 37 had a symbolic meaning. The Land was symbol of wisdom, eternal life and heaven. Matthew's Gospel is closer to rabbinic Judaism than to the other trends of Judaism. Insisting on the future: ´They shall inherit the land, Jesus gives to the land an eschatological meaning which is close to the Kingdom.

In this essay I have investigate again the most important traditions on “the Last Supper” (or the Eucharist) in the New Testament (Jn 6,51c-58; 1Cor 11,17-34; Mk 14,22-25; Lk 22,14-20; Acts 2,42-47 and 20,7-11). The purpose is to answer some open questions, especially (a) the relationship between the Eucharist and communal meal, and (b) between the Eucharist and Passover meal; further, (c) the Eucharist and pardon of sins, (d) conditions of participation. Concerning the first two questions, I show that there is a clear distinction between what we call the Eucharist and the “conditions” of its institution, i.e., the Last Supper, which was a real meal (1Cor 11,25) or a Passover meal (Mk 14,12 and Lk 22,15). Concerning the third question, I suggest that pardon of sins is implied in the celebration of the Eucharist that is the memorial of the death of Christ, the Lord (1Cor 11,26), who died for our sins (1Cor 15,3c). Concerning the fourth question, the most sensitive one, I try to show that, even if the Eucharist is for the forgiveness of sins, public sinners are excluded by implication (cf. 1Cor 5,9-13).

After an introduction outlining the “status quaestionis” and proposing intertextuality (inter-dependence of texts) as a method of research the author divides the article in three parts. First, “The Gospel tradition and the book of Revelation” in which inter-textual relations of the book of Revelation with Synoptic and Johannine traditions are analysed. Then the author passes on to examine the single syntagma, ‘the testimony of Jesus” as an expression of tradition of the historical Jesus. He arrives at the symbolic apocalyptic representations of Jesus, viz., lamb, bridegroom and eshatological prophet and concludes that the truth of the revelation, a present reality with a view to fulfilment in future, is indeed based on the tradition of the historical Jesus.

The basic symbolic numbers in the book of Revelation are number 7 and 12, but number 3, 4 and 10 also have some relevance in it. All these numbers are here reviewed first in relationship to God and the Christ, and then the Triad, i.e., the Dragon, the Beast coming from the sea and the Beast coming from the land. This survey shows how numbers describe sometimes the identity of the main characters in Revelation and other times their way of behaving and acting. Besides, the numbers in Revelation can be harmonised into a unitary and coherent system, which helps us not to decipher, as many have attempted to do, but in some measure to understand the number 666 of 13,18, the most mysterious and famous number not only of Revelation but also of universal literature.

Apart from the fact that the Palestinian Targum presents the Scripture as actually read in the Synagogue, can we find in them traces of the early Christian community! Since they took written form in the second century AD onwards, especially addressing problems of the Synagogue, one may not expect much to respond to this curiosity. There are polemic aspects, directed rather against particular points in the Scripture from which the “nosrim” - and above all the gnostics - draw hints for their own doctrine than against the Christian community in itself. The polemic is so hidden that only by knowing heterodoxical interpretations of a text is it possible to understand how the Targum means to defend its community. Nevertheless it is during the time of Origen’s residence at Caesarea that we have the greatest number of witnesses for a raport between Christianity and sages of the Synagogue. This Christian master has had enormous gains by contacts with the Rabbis. The whole church benefitted from it in interpreting the Scripture. Importance of Targum for interpretation of the NT is being accepted today. Experience, past and present, invites us to interfaith-dialogue with Judaism for a scriptural exegesis rooted in its native ‘Sitz im Leben.’

The dialectic method, which consists in a parallel reading of the Rabbinic texts and the commentaries of the Church Fathers, have yielded abundant fruit in exegesis. The author of this paper applies this method to the cycle of Gideon, a character already mentioned in the Letter to the Hebrews 11:32-34. Strangely enough, the Church Fathers, more than the Rabbis, assign a great importance to the figure of Gideon. Because of his anti-idolatrous activity, Gideon is presented as a “didaskalos”, an instructor for his contemporaries. For Origen he shows traits of a prophet who announces every kind of mysteries. In this respect, typology guides the reading and allows to perceive in Gideon’s deeds and words a prefiguration of Christian realities. For Ambrose, Gideon pays attention to the mysteries coming from on high; faith is his main virtue, and therefore he merits to be called a saint. Similarly, the Rabbis outline a moral portrait that includes edifying traits. The divine choice was motivated by his filial piety and his dedication to his compatriots. His modesty manifests itself in the fact that he refuses regality, because Yahweh alone should reign over his people. Rabbinic paraenesis underlines Gideon’s humility, which evokes that of Moses, consisting in an absence of any resentment and in a mildness that is fruit of a conciliatory attitude.

The article examines the patristic interpretation of the Johannine expression “bosom of the Father”. Most rich and interesting in the examination are the viewpoints of the pre-Nicaean authors. Taken into consideration are the thoughts of the Judeo-Christians in arriving at a Gnostic point of view. These considerations move onward to the position of Origen and the polemics of the Third Century forum. After the fourth Century, it is most generally recognized as being a theological finality in the exegesis of John 1:18. There are subsequently no new models of interpretation. The positions of the various Greek and Latin Church writers come together completely on this point. John 1:18 constitutes the clear and definitive reference to a consubstantiality of the Father and of the Son. At every point of the discussion in the Greek tradition is found a greater richness and significance of the term “bosom of the Father”, which insists on the coeternal and consubstantial Word inhabiting in God. In contrast, the Latins restrain this significantly more to the underlying identity of the Son with the Father according to substance. This is explained by use of the concept of immanence.

The monastery of Chariton (the Old Laura) was one of the most important in the Judean Desert. The site, known in Arabic as Khirbet Khureitun, is located on the cliff of Nahal Tekoa (Wadi Khureitun), south-southeast of Bethlehem. In 1981-82 the remains of the monastery were surveyed and partly excavated. During the survey the remains of the Hanging Cave, mentioned in the Life of Chariton, were found. The first part of the article describes the remains of the entire monastery: the core with its wall and three towers, the 39 cells scattered over the slopes of Nahal Tekoa, the water supply system and the gardens. The second part is devoted to the description of the Hanging Cave, which became a holy place and a destination for pilgrims in the Byzantine, Early Arab and Crusader periods. The cave comprises a water system on the lower level, a chapel on the intermediate level and the alcove of St. Chariton on the upper level, about 15 m above ground.

“Herod’s praetorium (Acts 23:35), that served as the place and officium of the Roman governors of Judaea, was the site of the two-years’ confinement of St. Paul at Caesarea, and the site of his hearings in front of Felix and Festus (Acts 21:15- 27:1). The suggested chapel of St. Paul is located at a distance of ca. 300 m to the north, in the midst of a 5th c. complex of warehouses associated with a vast, Byzantine palatial mansion. A thick layer of debris containing plaster blocks with frescos depicting large colorful crosses of the crux gemmata type together with Greek inscriptions (presented by Leah Di Segni in the following article), architectural fragments of marble, and other small finds retrieved nearby suggest the existence of a second-story chapel in this location. An eulogia bread stamp and a pottery plate, both bearing the name “Paul” found in this area as well as the painted crosses and a Greek inscription written under one of them suggest that this chapel was dedicated to St. Paul.

Several Greek inscriptions, accompanying large crosses of the crux gemmata type, were painted on fragments of plaster found among the debris of the second storey of Building I, one of several warehouses in Area KK. The texts included sacred formulas and quotations from the Church Fathers. An eulogia of St. Paul was also found here, as well as many marble fragments of church furnishing. It is suggested that the inscriptions and crosses decorated the walls of a private chapel, possibly dedicated to St. Paul. Though fragments of four epitaphs were also found in Area KK, the writer believes that their presence here was not connected to the chapel, and the latter was not used for burial.

In a letter to Melchior de Vogüe, French Ambassador in Constantinople, Jean- Baptiste Guillemot, an architect, tried to draw the attention of France, which has always claimed to be the patron of the Holy Places, on the poor condition of the Franciscan cloister in Bethlehem. In his letter, now held at the Centre Historique des Archives Nationales (Paris), Guillemot gives an accurate description of the cloister in the years 1870-1875. He also submitted a project for the cloister’s restoration, or rather reconstruction, founded on a complete study of the building and guesses as to its original state. Guillemot’s project did not start before 1948.

This study presents the pottery recovered during excavations conducted in 1995 in and around the large central courtyard E and the sector towards the south of the church, with the aim of completing the topographical picture of the complex and identifying its various stages of development. Special attention is paid to the collection of pottery unearthed by two specimen soundings effected below the mosaic of courtyard E near the northern entrance gate of the monastery (specimen I) and just outside the gate (specimen II), originating from a lone closed stratigraphic context, useful in the dating of the courtyard and, as a result, also of its surroundings. The thick red colour of the mixture and the shape and decorations of the pottery point to VI-VII century, fully agreeing with the period suggested on stylistic basis of the first mosaic of the chapel. Thus the mosaic courtyard and the surrounding wall belong to the same period of the chapel itself. Levels of habitation inherent to this period are identified in section E4. The fragment belonging to the last occupation point to the second half of the VIIIth century. Furthermore, this dating coincides with some coins recovered in a fireplace in E4. It confirms a precise end post quem to the date of restoration of the mosaic in the church (762 AD).

In the Spring 2000, a mosaiced structure was located and excavated at Qastal, at a distance of some 400 m. to northwest of the well-known Umayyad qasr. The core unit of the partially exposed building is a large room opening in the middle of the western side into an apsed alcove with two flanking rooms paved with mosaics. The two square fields are decorated with interlaced scuta generating an octagonal compartment in the centre where a hunting scene is depicted, a lion attacking a bull, and a leopard tearing a gazelle. The two scenes are rendered realistically .

The archaeological findings of the ecclesiastical complex of St. Stephen at Umm el Rasas (Kastron Mefaa) in Trans Jordan, have brought to light two separate churches with floor mosaics of the highest quality made by artisans of the Madaba school. The numerous figures depicted are still visible and preserved rather well in spite of partial destruction by iconophobes. The oldest church, so called of Bishop Sergio (587 AD), displays a carpet of mosaics with a deep symbolical meaning which can be interpreted through the homilies of Cyril and John, both bishops of Jerusalem at the end of the IV century. Represented are symbols of universal meaning to the Church: the earth with its fruits, grapes, symbolic animals: lambs, lions, peacocks, bulls. A pattern frequently met in Trans – Jordanian churches, which in this case conveys a stronger meaning, like the phoenix with the head surrounded by a nimbus with eight rays; a number referring to the Resurrection. The most characteristic element of this iconographical program are the strikingly vibrant scenes of everyday life: a man carrying his own bed remind the Bethesda miracle (Jn 5, 1-9; Mt 9, 1-8, Mk 2, 3- 12, Lk 5, 18-26) and the call of Cyril to his faithful herd to avoid sins. A man carried his son on his shoulders and indicates him the church, the shepherd. These are pictures of strong catechetical meaning, which can be traced to the preaching of the two bishops of Jerusalem.

From the middle of the fourth century, we see Syrian Christians treveling for devotional reasons to the tombs of the martyrs, or setting out for places where celebrated ascetics lived in sanctity. With the pilgrims, also came traders and merchants seeking to sell their products. All were in need of lodging, which they found along the principal roads, but especially in centers of pilgrimage. We find monumental inns which had a certain hotel and sanitary organization. Most of all, we find more modest inns composed of a single, one storey building. At times, the inn is reduced to a single room adjoining the church. The Syrian Church is to be admired for the creation of its own network of inns. Thus, the pilgrim Egeria had reason to be satisfied at her welcome by Syrian monks, “saints and true men of God”.