Joshua Joel Spoelstra
Biographic Data
| ID | 3521612 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Joshua Joel Spoelstra |
| GIVEN NAMES | Joshua Joel |
| FAMILY NAME | Spoelstra |
| SIGNATURE | SPOELSTRA J J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Stellenbosch University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5702-1046 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 7 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 7 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Judith and Jehu
The beheading of Holofernes is the most iconic scene in Judith . Since the author of Judith plays loose-and-free with history which renders an ahistorical situation and saturates the novella with inner-biblical echo and allusion, this investigation seeks to determine whether the author of Judith was inspired by Jehu in 2 Kings 10 as a plot-structuring template. There, Jehu beheads King Ahab’s seventy sons and places their heads in a basket. The e…
Courts, Banquets, and Bedchambers
There are many stories in the Hebrew Bible that depict prominent Jews in the epicentre of a foreign imperia, and biblical scholarship essentially classifies every such narrative as court tales in terms of genre. Notwithstanding nuances and sub-categorisations (e.g., court contest and court conflict, wisdom court legend, success story of the wise courtier), to have one catch-all genre designation is imprudent and amorphous. This paper argues, usin…
Truth Concealed
In the books of Judith and Tobit, a main character repeatedly employs deception as they interact with other players in the respective compositions. This deception is expressed in half-lies, part-truths, and intentional misdirection or double meaning. Since the prohibition against false testimony is one of the laws of the Decalogue, it is problematic that Judith, the paragon of piety and virtue, and Raphael, one of the seven archangels of God disg…
Reading Esther for race relations in a multi-ethnic faith community in the American South
Racism and racial terrorism are still prevalent in the United States (US). This article relates the experience of a multi-ethnic faith community in the American South that read together the Book of Esther to improve race relations. Based on a contextual Bible study (CBS) methodology, the Scripture was read with cultural and contextual sensitivity and hermeneutical creativity for racial justice, racial reconciliation, and racial unity. By reading …
Sanctuary schematics and temple ideology in the Hebrew Bible and Dead Sea Scrolls
The temple schematics in the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS), that is, New Jerusalem and Temple Scroll , has often been comparatively examined with the sanctuary structures in the Hebrew Bible (HB) (Ezk 40–48 and Num 2). Typically, in scholarship, the irreconcilable differences between all accounts (regarding the size, shape, name-gate ordering, etc.) is underscored, thus rendering a literary conundrum. This article argues that New Jerusalem and Temple Sc…
The Flood as Sabbatical Rest
Jacob Milgrom once juxtaposed the flood (Gen 6–9) and Babylonian exile (Lev 26), with the Sabbatical Year as its crux. This article expounds upon the parallels between the Flood Narrative (Gen 6–9) and the law concerning the Sabbatical Year (Lev 25:1–7). The directionality of composition between the Priestly source (P) and Holiness Code (H) is examined, as well as the appropriation of alternate source material to bolster the theological propositi…
Hebrew ×aÖ1⁄4Öμ×‘Ö ̧×”
×aבה , the term designated for the vessels of Noah (Gn 6-9*) and Moses (Ex 2*), has been a conundrum for biblical scholarship on several levels, namely the identification of the source language and its definition, and translation variation amongst daughter versions. After these aforementioned issues are surveyed and expounded, a redactional construction is proffered which attempts to legitimise the majority consensus that ×aבה is Egyptian in orig…
No prominent works on this page.
Hebrew ×aÖ1⁄4Öμ×‘Ö ̧×”
×aבה , the term designated for the vessels of Noah (Gn 6-9*) and Moses (Ex 2*), has been a conundrum for biblical scholarship on several levels, namely the identification of the source language and its definition, and translation variation amongst daughter versions. After these aforementioned issues are surveyed and expounded, a redactional construction is proffered which attempts to legitimise the majority consensus that ×aבה is Egyptian in orig…
The Flood as Sabbatical Rest
Jacob Milgrom once juxtaposed the flood (Gen 6–9) and Babylonian exile (Lev 26), with the Sabbatical Year as its crux. This article expounds upon the parallels between the Flood Narrative (Gen 6–9) and the law concerning the Sabbatical Year (Lev 25:1–7). The directionality of composition between the Priestly source (P) and Holiness Code (H) is examined, as well as the appropriation of alternate source material to bolster the theological propositi…
Sanctuary schematics and temple ideology in the Hebrew Bible and Dead Sea Scrolls
The temple schematics in the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS), that is, New Jerusalem and Temple Scroll , has often been comparatively examined with the sanctuary structures in the Hebrew Bible (HB) (Ezk 40–48 and Num 2). Typically, in scholarship, the irreconcilable differences between all accounts (regarding the size, shape, name-gate ordering, etc.) is underscored, thus rendering a literary conundrum. This article argues that New Jerusalem and Temple Sc…
Truth Concealed
In the books of Judith and Tobit, a main character repeatedly employs deception as they interact with other players in the respective compositions. This deception is expressed in half-lies, part-truths, and intentional misdirection or double meaning. Since the prohibition against false testimony is one of the laws of the Decalogue, it is problematic that Judith, the paragon of piety and virtue, and Raphael, one of the seven archangels of God disg…
Reading Esther for race relations in a multi-ethnic faith community in the American South
Racism and racial terrorism are still prevalent in the United States (US). This article relates the experience of a multi-ethnic faith community in the American South that read together the Book of Esther to improve race relations. Based on a contextual Bible study (CBS) methodology, the Scripture was read with cultural and contextual sensitivity and hermeneutical creativity for racial justice, racial reconciliation, and racial unity. By reading …
Judith and Jehu
The beheading of Holofernes is the most iconic scene in Judith . Since the author of Judith plays loose-and-free with history which renders an ahistorical situation and saturates the novella with inner-biblical echo and allusion, this investigation seeks to determine whether the author of Judith was inspired by Jehu in 2 Kings 10 as a plot-structuring template. There, Jehu beheads King Ahab’s seventy sons and places their heads in a basket. The e…
Courts, Banquets, and Bedchambers
There are many stories in the Hebrew Bible that depict prominent Jews in the epicentre of a foreign imperia, and biblical scholarship essentially classifies every such narrative as court tales in terms of genre. Notwithstanding nuances and sub-categorisations (e.g., court contest and court conflict, wisdom court legend, success story of the wise courtier), to have one catch-all genre designation is imprudent and amorphous. This paper argues, usin…
Archaeology and Historical Studies (5 works) · Biblical Studies and Interpretation (5 works) · Narrative (4 works) · Scholarship (4 works) · Art (3 works) · Hebrew (3 works) · History (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Literature (3 works) · Philosophy (3 works)