Ferdinand E. Deist (1944–1997) was a critical scholar and a prolific author, and had an immeasurable influence on Old Testament and ancient Near Eastern scholarship in South Africa during the last quarter of the previous century. Although he never claimed to be working within the new paradigm which dawned in Old Testament studies towards the end of the nineteenth century, it is evident that he was fully at home within this paradigm. The article does not discuss all Deist’s publications in order to vindicate the claim. It only discusses his earliest publications. His treatment of Jonah opened the doors for many of his students to follow in his wake and to acquaint themselves with historical-critical methods of studying the Bible. Willie van Heerden, who is honoured with this essay, is but one of many postgraduate students who benefitted from Deist’s expertise, courage, and wisdom.

Gender discrimination is not a new phenomenon. It has been prevalent in many civilisations through the ages, including those in the ancient Near East. Prejudice against women thus found its way into legal codes, such as the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, which introduced the idea of “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” according to which the killer of a woman was only obliged to pay half a gold mina as punishment to her father or husband, while the punishment for the murder of a nobleman was death. Gender discrimination was also displayed in the moral codes of the Hebrew Bible, including the Deuteronomic Code, the Covenant Code, and the Holiness Code. This article will examine how the Covenant Code relates to gender discrimination. The code, which is presented in Exodus 20–23, is an ancient legislative framework of impressive breadth. Scholars agree that the Covenant Code is an excellent barometer to reveal how women were treated in ancient Israel. While the aim of the article is not to make an in-depth exegetical study of the Covenant Code, it will examine the influence that other cultures in the ancient Near East had on Israel. Appreciating the power that pagan cultures exerted over Israel does not however excuse the negative treatment of women reflected in the Covenant Code. Nevertheless, this investigation will demonstrate how significant this influence was in allowing the negative treatment of women in Israel to persist, especially against the backdrop of Yahweh’s covenant, which stipulated that women were to be treated with dignity and respect.

Translation is centrally important for religion in two ways. First, most religious communities encounter their sacred texts entirely through translations; and, second, religious texts as an object of study are usually read in translation by scholars of religion. The translation of sacred texts is problematic in terms of its nature (translation method/strategy, process, readership) and the status of the product (as authoritative sacred text). When the translation of sacred texts is institutionalised, translations are regulated with strict controls on translators, source texts, translation methods, and readership. On the one hand, regulation may entail forbidding all translation; on the other, regulation may focus on the source text resulting in a literal translation, which keeps the sacred text largely incomprehensible to the masses. When intercultural and interlinguistic comprehension of the text matters more than its linguistic form, more openness towards translation method results to the detriment of the principle that sacred texts should be heard, read, and understood as religious artefacts derived from their ancient cultural context. Furthermore, the future of a religion as a living historical tradition depends on the translation of its sacred texts for new contexts. Where a sacred text is well-known, the continual impulse for re-translation is driven by expanded readership, improvements of earlier translations, and remediation of misinterpretations and outdated language. Focusing on the South African context, examples are presented from the history of religious translation within the Jewish religious tradition, Christianity, and Isl?m, to illustrate the spreading, circulation, shaping and reshaping of religious knowledge by translation.

In this essay the ambiguous afterlife of the character Judith and the eponymous book as cultural artefact is explored. The very rich and extensive impact on cultural and social imaginaries by the narrative and character of Judith provides an entry point by which to consider the social, cultural, and ideological work performed by the text. By drawing on a neglected trajectory in the interpretation of Judith, that of its imperialising force, in which Judith functions de facto like other Greek and Roman female deities who act as city protectresses, and later as the Virgin, it is clear that Judith functions as cypher for imperial symbolisms. By employing new historicism and its attendant theoretical assumptions, the figure of Judith becomes the occasion for an experiment in theory and method, on the borderline between cultural discourses and theories of religion. The text is read as a site for the operation of discourse and ideology, and as agency-medium in the imagining of history. When the text is “read” in light of the reception history of both text and image, the text reading denotes the problematic conceptual relationship between theology, religion, and culture. By bringing such questions to bear on the text, this paper explores the borderlines between culture and religion, particularly when done in connection with a text which itself straddles the border between canonical and extracanonical. Judith, the narrative and the figure, serves here as test case for widening the questions that should be brought to bear on ancient “religious” literature.

Using ecological systems theory to understand the systemic interactions in the context of Islam is not an extensively researched topic. In view of this, ecological systems theory is used in this article to argue that the social interaction of an individual Muslim female deliberately donning the hijab should be interpreted and evaluated in the context of Islam as an ecological system. Islam is analysed as an ecological system in which each part of the system is influenced by all other parts, but in turn also influences all other parts. There are borders between the various parts of the system, but these borders are permeable from the inside and from the outside. These principles are applied to every Muslim female who chooses to don the hijab. She becomes an integral and indispensable part of Islam as a system. She is influenced by every part of the system, and in turn influences every part by her conscious choice to give visual expression to her religious identity. Awareness of the mutual interactions between an individual Muslim female and all other constituent parts of her religion allows for a contextual and holistic analysis of the hijab as religious and cultural phenomenon. The hijab functions as a border of cloth demarcating the Muslim female body as sacred space in space as she interacts with and within her micro-, meso-, exo-, macro-, and chronosystems.

Ethiopian and non-Ethiopian sources agree that there is evidence of a mysterious queen who led an army to destroy the Christian faith in Aksum and put an end to the Aksumite dynasty. The events of Aksum are mentioned in chronicles and on monuments left behind. The latest research shows that there is no longer any doubt about her existence: she was indeed an empress of Aksum. This article re-examines modern scholarship on Gudit’s life, religion, and importance. It also presents a new interpretation and analysis of the most important legends, thereby suggesting how such legends can be integrated into the historical events.

A striking characteristic of Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice is the lack of clarity as to when the participants are human and when angelic. Scholarly opinion has been divided on the question. Fletcher-Louis, for instance, argued for an “angelomorphic” theology in Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice. Scholars regard this text as an example of mysticism at Qumran, but the root of the term “mystic” (to conceal) warns of the difficulties inherent in any analysis of mystical texts because such texts arise from religious experience of a transcendent divine presence only accessible subjectively. In a previous article on ambiguity in the First Song it was argued in support of Fletcher-Louis that the text was deliberately constructed to create ambiguity between angelic agents and sectarian participants for rhetorical purposes. This article resorts to insights from cognitive neuroscience in order to reconsider current scholarly opinion on this matter.

An attempt is made to ratiocinate historical events at Mount Masada in circa 74 C.E. as related by Josephus Flavius. Cohen (1982, 393) clearly sees Josephus as a mostly dishonest historian, one who happily exaggerates and embellishes his accounts. As a consequence of this rhetorical straitjacket that he places Josephus in, Cohen (for one) cannot accept Josephus’s Masada account as being an “unalloyed version of the truth.” The author analyses Josephus’s track record apropos his recording of other historical events and submits that, rhetorical strategies aside, the historian can largely trust Josephus’s accounts.
 

The aim of this paper is to indicate the importance of religion in ancient Egypt and to indicate that this was the foundation for ancient Egyptian law. In order to understand ancient Egyptian law, it is important to understand the role of religion as background to its development. Religion played an important role in the ancient Egyptians’ understanding of their world, specifically the belief in maat. Religion, and specifically maat, influenced everything they did. Their whole life and the way they operated as a society was based on the principles of maat, since living in accordance with maat would ensure eternal life, life after death. It was essentially maat which made law necessary in ancient Egypt.

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