Walking with God: Then and Now
Baruch has been invited to give a mini-lecture at Christ Church:
to tell the journey of how he chose his PhD subject and to
share a few key conclusions from his research.
The reception begins at 19:00 IDT and the talk will be live-streamed
at 20:00 IDT (1PM Eastern Daylight Time).
Watch the livestream here!
Abstract of Baruch B. Kvasnica’s PhD Dissertation:
“Walking with God: Hebraic Metaphor and Halakhah in Jewish Discourse
in Greek during the Second Temple Period”
A key Hebraic metaphor, that of “walking with God” or “walking in the ways of God,” was used throughout biblical literature to describe moral behavior and covenantal faithfulness, and it had a unique character in late Second Temple Judaic Greek writings. As thorough study shows, it was widespread in Judaic Greek writing, reflecting the Hebrew formulation in the Bible, but not natively used in ancient Greek. Additionally, certain Second Temple Judaic Greek texts shifted from the expected use of πορεύομαι (poreuomai, “to go”), as in the Septuagint, to convey the metaphorical use of the root הלך, to a marked preference for the use of περιπατεῖν (peripatein, “to walk/to walk about”). Through linguistic analysis, it will be shown that this preference for περιπατεῖν better conveys the manner of the motion verb (as opposed to directed motion) than πορεύομαι, and thus better reflects the Hebraic conceptual metaphor. The semantic range of הלך when used with certain stems or with certain constituents, as it was in the “walking” metaphor, conveyed a sense of “walking about” (as opposed to its primary sense of “going”).
The change to περιπατεῖν among a variety of Jewish writers in the late Second Temple period, as well as the increased use of התהלך (hithalekh, “to walk/to walk about”) in the Dead Sea Scrolls, suggests that the WALKING metaphor was common and current vernacular in the Jewish communities of the time. The prevalence of this metaphor was likely influenced by the era’s increasing emphasis on covenantal faithfulness and halakhic practice (over and against location and lineage) for the formation of Jewish identity. An important feature of the metaphor that is emphasized by the choice of words in the Hebrew and Greek of the period is the semantic sense of “walking about.” This sense, as conveyed for example in the Israelite wilderness wanderings and in shepherding (which likely provide the source of the conceptual metaphor), places the destination as secondary and the journey as primary. When applied to an understanding of religious and everyday life according to a Jewish understanding this intimated that what was important was the day-to-day or the step-by-step journey, rather than the timely arrival at a destination.
Various Jewish religious groups of the time (and even writers within the same sect) used the walking metaphor with different themes and emphases. Many chose elements of the walking metaphor to express key aspects of their religious terminology and identity, as seen in the shifts in the verb mentioned above as well as in nominal forms such as with derekh (“way”) in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the hodos (“way”) in the New Testament, and halakhah in the Mishnah.
Of the dissertation’s three main chapters, one shows the prevalence of the metaphor in Judaic Greek texts, one shows its absence from Hellenic Greek texts, and one shows its prevalence in the Hebrew Bible and later Hebrew texts, especially Dead Sea Scrolls, and points to the broader historical conclusions suggested by the dissertation’s findings, which can contribute to a better understanding of some aspects of ancient Judaism and early Christianity.