Browsing by Author "Lamberti, Walter"

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    Wealth at the end of the age : a comparative study of the function and nature of wealth and possessions in selected Pauline letters and Dead Sea scrolls
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2024-03 ) Lamberti, Walter; Punt, Jeremy; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Old and New Testament.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this thesis I seek to determine how and why two first century communities differ in their economic expressions of a shared apocalyptic worldview within their respective social contexts? The two communities in question is the Pauline community represented by 1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians and the Qumran Community represented by The Damascus Document and The Community Rule. In neither case do I view the communities mentioned as monolithic but, instead regard them as sharing enough of a conceptual identity so as to be treated as a whole for the purpose of this analysis. The rationale for the comparison is driven by their contemporaneity and their shared apocalyptic outlook on the world. The relevance of an apocalyptic worldview is that within the apocalyptic perspective wealth tends to be viewed with suspicion and calumniated as that which is held within the grasp of evil and utilized within a fallen world system—a perspective is epitomized in the writings of 1 Enoch. I therefore explore the ways in which such an apocalyptic or Enochic tradition is worked out in the contexts of these two communities. I determine that significant differences are observable in the way wealth is viewed and handled both intra-communally and with regards to the outside world. These differences extend beyond the mere outworking of differing social contexts and are primarily the result of differing controlling paradigms which serve to imbue their respective apocalyptic outlooks with their unique characteristics. This controlling paradigm in the case of the Qumran community is covenant fidelity and in the case of the Pauline community, the Christ-event. The result is not only a differing view of wealth simpliciter but consequently also a distinct approach to wealth and possessions in terms of praxis.