Browsing by Author "Rojas Yauri, Benjamin"

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    Cosmogonic presuppositions in Hebrews and its first-century philosophical context
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12) Rojas Yauri, Benjamin; Punt, Jeremy; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Old and New Testament.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation aims to consider the relationship between Hebrews’ cosmogonic presuppositions and its first-century philosophical context. It is a multimethodological research focusing on the historic-grammatical, socio-rhetorical, and content analysis methodologies applied to biblical studies. In addition, this research develops a methodology that allows the discovery of a document’s position on topics other than its main topic, i.e. a methodology that could be termed a “Text-linguistic exclusion” and which consists of four steps. This dissertation comprises eight chapters: Chapters I–III tackle the problem of some of the introductory issues pertaining to Hebrews and analyse the cosmogonic presuppositions found in first-century philosophy. Chapters IV and V analyse Hebrews’ text and provide the foundational analysis of the Greek text upon which the cosmogonic presuppositions in Hebrews were established, i.e. it displays the mechanics of the Greek text, as well as its grammatical, textual, and literary issues. Chapter VI presents the cosmogonic presuppositions in Hebrews, and Chapter VII compares these with the cosmogonic presuppositions present in first-century philosophy by focusing on four main aspects: 1) the literary component; 2) the Creator; 3) the procedure of creating; and 4) the creation itself. Chapter VIII follows as both a comprehensive summary and conclusion of this research. The main finding of this dissertation is that Hebrews embraces a new cosmogonic perspective for its time, built on coherent presuppositions developed mostly in its reading of Jewish literature, among which the Old Testament, and particularly Genesis 1-3, takes a predominant place. This new perspective stands apart from firstcentury cosmogonic presuppositions which were a plethoric mixture of thoughts.