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[German Version] is the central figure in the Old Testament story of the Flood (Gen 6–9), a classic example of Israel’s knowledge and borrowing of material from its ancient Near Eastern neighbors. The Mesopotamian flood narratives (the Sumerian flood story, the epics of Atrahasis and Gilgamesh) resemble the biblical account most closely. Gen 5:29 interprets the name Noah as deriving from the verb נָחַם/ nāḥam and meaning “he will comfort us”; it is more likely, as the Septuagint reading of this passage suggests, that the name derives from נוּחַ/ nûaḥ and means “he will give us rest.” Regardless of the uncertain etymology, the etiology of the name associates the figure of Noah and the story of the flood redactionally with the primordial history. It looks back to the hardship inflicted on Adam and Eve as a result of God’s curse (ארר/ʾ rr) on the ground (3:16f.) and forward to the conclusion of the flood story with the promise that God will never again curse (קלל/ qll) the ground because of humankind (8:20f.). The Priestly Document interprets this to mean that humankind, …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies Examination of repentance from the perspective of religious studies must confront the problem that the term itself has no culturally neutral meaning. Many of the phenomena in other religions that Christians tend to call repentance appear in a different light when viewed in the context of different anthropological presuppositions, …

[German Version] I. Resurrection of the Dead 1. History of religions a. Resurrection as a religious …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Bible – III. History of Doctrine and Dogmatics – IV. Judaism – V. Islam – VI. Buddhism – VII. History of Art and Literature I. Religious Studies The history of the term “paradise” is informative for determining its meaning. The word “paradise” is derived from the ancient Iranian * paridaēza, literally “surrounding wall.” It appears as a loanword in many other languages, for example as the Akkadian pardēsu, the Hebrew פַּרְדֵּס/ pardes…

[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. Greco-Roman Antiquity – III. Bible – IV. Church History – V. Systematic Theology – VI. Practical Theology – VII. Missiology – VIII. Judaism – IX. Islam I. History of Religions “Conversion” denotes the religiously interpreted process of total reorientation in which individuals or groups reinterpret their past lives, turn their backs on them, and reestablish and reshape their future lives in a new network of social relationships. The phenomenon was initially treated historically (Hellenistic religions and Early Church history, missionary history); later, primarily in the context of American and British sociology of religion, it was examined in more depth. The pioneering work was done by Lofland and his colleagues. Since the work of James, a total reorientation toward reality, usually called “transformation” in the technical literature, has been considered the central mark of conversion. Confessional narratives and conversion stories bearing witness to the reinterpretation of the narrator's life are understood as biographical reconstructions (Biography). They describe the unsatisfactory life before conversion as empty and unhappy, life after conversion as meaningful and happy. The reorientation of an entire life involves commitment to the religious community that made conversion possible or even served as its vehicle, matched by an enactment of membership in the community in word and deed. Despite the importance converts often ascribe to an acute crisis or a single event, conversion should be thought of not as a sudden and abrupt change but as a process taking place in a specific milieu that triggers the experience of crisis and influences the active search for a new orientation. Future scholarship must gather and analyze conversion narratives from all religions, with their own characteristic models of conversion, and engage in greater inte…

[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. Old Testament – III. Judaism – IV. Christianity – V. Dogmatics – VI. Islam I. History of Religions The terms messiah and messianism derive from the Hebrew word māšîaḥ, “anointed one.” Under the impact of foreign rule in Israel and Judah beginning in the 6th century bce, the word took on a new meaning: the Messiah was expected to bring deliverance from foreigners and oppressors, and in part to inaugurate the eschatological age of salvation (see II–IV below). The word's meaning was expanded in the 13th century, when it entered the technical language of Christian theology in religious polemic against the Jews. In addition, around 1900 the term messianism was coined as a term of disapprobation applicable to all other religions: messianism…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Dogmatics – V. Practical Theology…

[German Version] The term “Old Testament” reflects the New Testament perspective on the relation of Christianity to the sacred scriptures of Judaism and the tradition common to the two religions, found in the collection of God’s revelations and instructions to Israel, its experiences in history, and its reactions to God’s revealed will, handed down in the three-part canon of Torah, Prophets, and Writings. This triple division is also reflected in the artificially constructed word TaNaK, abbreviated from the initial letters of Torah (…

[German Version] I. Old Testament – II. New Testament – III. Antiquity – IV. Middle Ages and the Modern Period I. Old Testament 1. Terminology and boundaries The terminology used for the land of Israel (cf. Israel), in the sense of the OT view of the land itself, and the definition of its borders varies greatly. The texts appear in the context of particular literary and theological concepts in which “the land” constitutes a thematic focus. Hebrew has two words for land: (a) אֶרֶץ/ ʾereṣ, denoting the earth as a whole and its individual territories from a geographical and political perspective, and (b) אֲדָמָה/ ʾădāmāh, denoting agricultural land in contrast to steppe and desert. But the OT also uses the two terms synonymously, so that either semantic field can absorb the other. This usage includes the terminology for “the land of Israel” (only 29 occurrences, all in late texts), where both words are used (אֶרֶץ/אֲדְמַת יִשְׂרָאֵל/ ʾereṣ/ʾadmat yiśrāʾēl, the latter only in Ezekiel). The phrase usually serves to…

[English Version] I. ReligionswissenschaftlichDie Gesch. des Begriffs P. ist für die Bestimmung seiner Bedeutung aufschlußreich. Die Bez. P., die von altir. *paridaēza, wörtl. »Umwallung«, abgeleitet ist, erscheint als Lehnwort in vielen anderen Sprachen: z.B. als akkad. pardēsu, hebr. פַּרְדֵּס/pardes oder griech. παρα´δεισος/para´deisos. Diese Begriffe bezeichnen einen eingefriedeten Park, eine Gartenanlage (vgl. Xenophon, Anabasis VI 29,4) und in der Achämenidenzeit speziell die königliche Domäne). Erst in der LXX, durch die Verwendung von para´deisos als Übers. von גַּן־עֵדֶן/gan-‘edæn (Gen 2,8), übernimmt »P.« die uns vertraute Bedeutung eines außerordentlichen, schönen Ortes, den Gott für die Menschen vor dem Sündenfall erschaffen hat. Diese Bez. einer göttlichen Sphäre, geschaffen für die Menschen, wird im…

[English Version] ist die zentrale Gestalt der atl. Sintfluterzählung (Gen 6–9; Sintflut), die als klassisches Beispiel für die Kenntnis und Übernahme ao. Stoffe aus Israels Umwelt steht. Dabei weisen die mesopotamischen Fluterzählungen (sum. Fluterzählung, Atramḫası̄s- und Gilgamesch-Epos) die größte Nähe zur bibl. Darstellung auf.Der Name N. wird in Gen 5,29 durch das Verb נָחַם/nāḥam, »er wird uns trösten«, gedeutet. Wahrscheinlicher ist, daß der Name entsprechend der LXX-Lesart dieser Stelle, »er wird uns Ruhe verschaffen«, von dem Verb נוּחַ/nu^aḥ abzuleiten ist.…