Biblical Studies

  • Forgiveness and Justice
    • For[e]giveness and justice: Solomon 's wisdom in 1 Kings 3:16-28 Bible study for NSW Synod October 05, 2001 --I fakatapu 'forgiveness ' in this second reflection by inserting an 'e ' between 'for ' and 'giveness ' ' foregiveness. [1] ' Foregiveness has to do with fore-giving, giving in advance, giving what one does not already have, and giving before one is requested. ' To foregive is not just to let go of past wrongs but to let go of future wrongs also, and to let go before one is asked or told to let go.
  • Forgiveness and Reconciliation
    • Foregiveness and reconciliation: Zelophehad's daughters' land in Num 27:1-11, 36:1-12 Bible study for NSW Synod October 06, 2001 I fakatapu ‘foregiveness’ in this third reflection by underlining the word ‘give’ that it contains.’ This is in order to highlight the fact that foregiving is an act, an event.’ In other words, foregiveness contains a gift (Derrida), the gift of giving in advance.’ I ask for your permission to conceive this ‘gift’ not as an object or property but as an event, an act, the act of gifting.
  • Forgiveness and righteousness
    • Tamar 's veil in Genesis 38 Bible study for the NSW Synod October 04, 2001 Tapu ki he kelekele mo e kakai ‘o e fonua ni, pea mo kimoutolu kotoa! ’ I give respects to this land and its people, and to you all. ’ In Tongan, I give fakatapu, which is more than paying respects. ’ Fakatapu means ’to sanctify ’ also. ’ To faka-tapu is to recognize and enhance the tapu (sacredness) in others, which my three reflections aim to do.
  • Resting King
    • [This is an expanded version of a paper read to the Post-Structuralist Research on the Hebrew Biblesection of the Society of Biblical Literature during the joined annual national convention of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature at San Francisco, Nov. 22-24, 1997] **A resting king David: 2 Samuel 7 and [dis]placements **John Havea j.havea, + n1 David’s story has a way of shifting out from under us.
  • Shifting the boundaries
    • [This article was first published by The Pacific Journal of Theology (Ser. II No. 16 {1996}: 55-71), where it took a different form at the hands of the editor, and is posted here by permission of the author.] Shifting the boundaries: house of God and the politics of reading1 j.havea, student of the Hebrew Bible Southern Methodist University In this postmodern age mar(k/r)ed by the death of the autonomous bourgeois subject (Jameson) and the urgent call for change of subject (Fulkerson) to account for the margin(alized), incredulity to legitimizing metanarratives is no longer a luxury (Lyotard).
  • To Love Cain
    • [This is an expanded version of a paper read to the Reading, Rhetoric, and Hebrew Bible and the Semiotics and Exegesis sections of the Society of Biblical Literature during the joined annual national convention of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature at Philadelphia, Nov. 19, 1995] To love Cain more than God, in other words, Nod-y Gen 4:1-16 John Havea j.havea, One's duty regarding the other who makes appeal to one's responsibility is an investing of one's own freedom.