In recent years a variety of exegetical methods have appeared, emphasizing many forms of literary analysis for biblical texts. In fact, it is well known that some scholars have a growing interest in an approach to the scriptures through the possible connections of the texts, that is to say, connections between early records and later allusions. From this perspective, two known approaches have emerged; these are intertextuality and inner-biblical exegesis. This paper will attempt to review some methodological assumptions of these two approaches.

This article proposes to address the relationship between the narrator's point of view and the rhetoric of narrative discourse, within the scope of the Hebrew Bible. Biblical exegesis, over several centuries, has not given due attention to the question of the pragmatic configuration of the narrative argument. It is assumed here that the artistic-literary arrangement of the biblical text not only reveals the narrator's point of view about the thematic unit of the narrative, but also constitutes an important tool for dialogue between the narrated world and the world of the modern-day listener-reader of the Scriptures. Therefore, as an empirical exercise, this presupposition will be demonstrated through a brief analysis of the LORD's speech on Mount Sinai, in Ex 19:4-6a, when he gave the preamble to the legislation of Ancient Israel. Therefore, it is proposed that the narrator's point of view about the thematic unity of the exodal narrative is established by the rhetoric of the narrative discourse, which asserts that the legitimacy of the power of the sovereign of Israel is proven by the fair behavior of the speaker.

Well-written narratives communicate more than information. What a story communicates is as important as how the story communicates. The narrative flow of a story engages the reader in the action. Narrative conventions assist the reader in connecting prior knowledge or experience with the story. Authors also make linguistic decisions as to how the story is conveyed. The syntax of clauses, sentences, paragraphs and whole documents conveys the story to the reader in expected, and at times unexpected, ways. This study merges narrative and text-linguistic exegetical methods in the reading of Exodus 2-4. Text-linguistics, the primary method employed, examines the syntax of the story in an effort to understand how the language has been employed in the communicative act. These observations are then combined with narrative observations: characterization, plot, type-scenes, and connections with other stories within the same work, in this case the Pentateuch.

Quite often (especially with the Old Testament), biblical anthroponyms may be described as dynamic names, since they contribute to the construction of a text's content, and are active elements in the process of transmitting that meaning towards a different cultural space or cultural time. Consequently, the way in which translators of the Bible deal with them, intentionally or accidentally, affects a target-reader's chances to grasp the originally intended message of the text. The present paper follows the avatars of Job's daughter's names (cf. Job 42: 14) from Hebrew, to Greek and Latin, and, late on, to vernaculars such as Romanian, and suggests that-while equally explainable contextually and/or pragmatically-different translating options achieve different levels of relevance, or representativeness, relative to the original text, and, in fact, to the multileveled and intricate translative intentions. Resumo: Muitas vezes (especialmente com o Antigo Testamento), antropônimos bíblicos podem ser descritos como nomes dinâmicos, pois contribuem para a construção do conteúdo de um texto e são elementos ativos no processo de transmissão desse significado para um espaço cultural ou tempo cultural diferentes. Consequentemente, o modo com o qual os tradutores da Bíblia lidam com eles, intencional ou acidentalmente, afetam as chances do leitor-alvo de captar a mensagem originalmente pretendida no texto. O presente trabalho segue os avatares dos nomes da filha de Jó (cf. Jó 42:14) do hebraico, ao grego e ao latim e, em seguida, aos vernáculos, como o romeno, e sugere que-embora igualmente explicáveis contextualmente e/ou pragmaticamente-diferentes opções de tradução atingem diferentes níveis de relevância, ou representatividade, em relação ao texto original e, de fato, às intenções tradutórias complexas e em múltiplos níveis. Palavras-chave: Tradutologia. Textologia. Hermenêutica bíblica. Antropônimos.

The present paper shows subsequent methodological steps to discover the division of the Book of Exodus into basic literary units according to the thought of its final writer-redactor, the one who arranged the text under to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. In the first step, one ought to make a list of the more essential means of dividing this book, which occurred from the very beginning to our times. It concerns, of course, the version in the Hebrew language, and also its translations into different languages, including the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate. One must take into account also the contribution of the contemporary biblicists done through their translations and scientific discussions and analyses resulting in books or articles in specialized magazines. The comparative material collected in this way will answer the question about the criterion for the division of the text: is there visible an original logic in the contemporary editions of the Bible according to which the last editor-writer finally shaped this holy text? What is this original logic? Can this be discovered with scientific credibility? The second step of the methodological looking for the original division of the Book of Exodus will be a throughout reading of the Hebrew text. For providing the fulfillment of the requirement to read the text profoundly, one will involve the principle of theocentrism as the essential criterion for this task. Namely, to understand the sacred text, one should look especially for those places where יְהוָה, God of Israel, appears as the subject (dynamic center) of acts and simultaneously the grammatical subject of the biblical sentence. As a result of such reading, one will discover the six-element literary structure of Ex 1-18 as the first main part of the Book of Exodus; its second part-Ex 19-40-will not be analyzed in the present publication. This paper is the translation of the first chapter of the doctoral dissertation: W. Kosek, The original rite of the Passover in the light of the literary scheme of the Book of Exodus 1-18, Kraków 2008, p. 53-198.

Abstract e notion of plot has a long history of various nuances and uses in literary and biblical studies. Consequently, the practice of plot analysis is quite variable. Although most definitions of plot privilege other elements than the reader, this tendency has recently begun to change. is article argues that plot is more comprehensible and constructive when it is located within the reader’s encounter of the storyworld on the cognitive and affective levels. us, the activities of composition and reception, emplotment and plot are best considered distinct activities. An evaluation of definitions illustrates this necessary distinction and leads to a fresh formulation of plot, especially in relation to narratives purporting to be factual. As a complementary step, ‘explotment’ is proposed as a link between the interpretation of the past and the evaluation of the reader, thus explaining the immersive and emersive exploration of the story’s central question(s). Equipped with this heuristic, the interpreter can investigate various questions in the study of biblical narratives on the macro and micro levels; for example, the narrative’s progressive ideological and pragmatic force and development as well as single plotenhancing elements such as various types of pericopes, literary devices and narrative techniques. With this emphasis on reception theory, this type of plot analysis can be especially beneficial to narrative-critical and reader-response studies. e value of plot theory for biblical exegesis is further demonstrated through illustrations and discussion applied to Luke-Acts.

Possible worlds in fiction L ubomír Doležel claims that the concept of possible worlds " resurrected by contemporary logic and analytic philosophy penetrated into the theoretical discourse of natural, social and human sciences. Treating fictional narratives as possible worlds links literary theory to a dynamic interdisciplinary network and provides it with the model of poiesis we could not find in 'classical' narratology " (Heterocosmica: Fiction and Possible Worlds ix). It is indeed true that since the eighties, when the first attempts were made to draw on the theory of the semantics of possible worlds, critics delving into fictional words have welcomed it as quite promising. The theory was extensively employed in the field of philosophy in the 1950s. Nearly at the same time, in the scientific area of modal logic, the theory of possible worlds allowed a reflection on long-standing issues such as those of the logical laws of non-contradiction and of the excluded middle. In the early sixties, Saul A. Kripke, without referring to Leibnitz, as he was formulating an axiomatic foundation for modal logic and not an argument for " theodicy " (" Semantical Considerations on Modal Logic "), proposed a " model structure " that resulted in reconstructing the whole system The semantics of possible worlds allows us to see an abundance of alternative " independent " worlds that might not even exist. The notion is based on the principle that fictional worlds are not reproductions or representations of the actual world but dominant kingdoms of the possible. Furthermore, it accepts that heroes, locations, and facts that refer to their actual or historical equivalent constitute in a sense a particular semantic order. The present study focuses on the fact that fictional characters and their historical and actual models are both captives of a transworld identity: a fundamental concept of the semiotic theory of possible worlds. As such, the analysis focuses on various European and American plays and the manipulation to which they subject the transworld identity of their dramatic characters. Some fertile hypotheses from quantum physics can be used as additional instruments of this study.

Both ancient and modern apocrypha have already been widely discussed in various fields of academic research, for example in religious, biblical or literary studies. Although such analyses say much about the historical and religious background of apocryphal writings and enable us to discover the depth of the symbolic resources used in such texts, they do not fully reveal the cultural impact of the canon. That is why a broader cultural analysis of both the canon and the apocrypha should be based on different methods of research, such as those that are offered by cultural semiotics. From the standpoint of Lotmanian semiotics modern apocrypha may be viewed as examples of the working of culture. They can be regarded as e.g. creative translation of the canon, tools of cultural autocommunication, memory devices, and meaning-generating mechanisms which dynamize the semiosphere. Semiotic analysis underlines the cultural impact of the canon not only as a set of sacred writings but also as a kind of a "cultural code". The canon as a paradigmatic cultural text (in Aleida Assmann's sense) is a powerful meaning-generating mechanism in which a huge number of texts intertextually relate to one another. In such relations hypertexts point out the symbolic (often archaic) nucleus of culture (thus they illustrate the statics of the semiosphere), at the same time describing and/or provoking some cultural changes (due to which they correspond with the dynamic nature of the semiosphere).