https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/32025 2026-04-05T05:11:26Z 2026-04-05T05:11:26Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/32219 2018-07-25T01:32:16Z 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Acts 4, 25a : recognizing a concentric arrangement Abstract: Scholarship's approach to this verse has always been text critical and grammatical but never literary and rhetorical; this explains why this verse has always been experienced as a crux by both 'tradents' of textual traditions I as well as by exegetes and translators. "The text of this verse is in a very confused state. The reading ofthe old uncials is anomalous both grammatically (how is the phrase 1GU JWTpOS; ~IlWV to be construed?) and theologically (where else does God speak through the Holy Spirit?). Many attempts have been made to account for the confusion in the manuscripts."2 In their A Translator s Handbook on the Acts of the Apostles3 , Barclay M. Newman and Eugene A. Nida comment that the Greek text of this verse "is not strictly grammatical nor entirely clear." Ernst Haenchen qualifies the text of verse 25 as "the most ancient attested in manuscripts, even though grammatically impossible."4 In his commentary on Acts Professor Joseph A. Fitzmyer writes that "The text of this introductory clause in the Alexandrian text is garbled"5 and cites M. Dibelius's description of it as "one of the most impossible clauses in the entire Book of ActS."6 The solutions offered to date were text critical and translational. By the fonner we mean those attempts made in view of understanding the text by adding or subtracting components from the current version as we find it in Nestle-Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece7 ; by the latter we understand most old and modem translations which approach the text ad sensum without accounting for its syntax. Why has Acts 4, 25a become a crux interpretum? One should first keep in mind that this is not a simple 'introductory clause' to direct speech8 notwithstanding the participle drrwv marking the beginning of a citation from the Greek text of Psalm 2,1-2. It forms part of what Cynthia L. Miller would call a 'quotative frame'9 by which she means 'the speech of a reporting speaker', and distinguishes this discourse genre from 'quotation' which is the' speech of the reported speaker' .1 0 It consists of one of two declarative, very emphatic statements appended as qualifications of the specifying personal pronoun 11 OD in verse 24 which, in turn qualifies the sentence initial vocative Ll£orroTa that refers to God. 12 The other statement is found in verse 24b.

2005-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/32217 2018-07-25T01:32:38Z 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Towards a more democratised Church Abstract: As argued in my previous articles, there are various elements in the Church's past and present that can be described as democratic. However, when one speaks of democracy in the Church, very often one meets a chorus of objections. In this article I am going to discuss the main arguments brought against the idea of democracy in the Church. I will then outline my arguments in favour of greater Church democratisation and make some proposals as to how this can be achieved faithful to the true spirit of the gospel.

2005-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/32216 2018-07-25T01:32:36Z 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: The meaning of Sunday as the Lord's day Abstract: The meaning of Sunday as the Lord's day as found in: a. the early Church; b. the Sacrosanctum Concilium, constitution on the sacred liturgy; c. the Dies Domini, an apostolic letter of the Holy Father John Paul II; d. the pastoral document Eucaristia, Comunione e Comunita by the Italian episcopate. Sunday, the day in which we turn our thoughts to our Lord Creator and Father, has its specific, long and interesting history. Let us have a look at the story of this important day in the Christian week.

2005-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/32215 2018-07-25T01:32:33Z 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Where ecology of no hope can find hope Abstract: Most journals and newspapers today often make reference to an ecological crisis. Human negligence, too much waste or better far too much production for what humans need, have proved that we have disrespected our universe beyond control and somehow we have to pay the consequences for it now. Looking for our conversion to improve this 'relationship' with the habitat could give hope and life to something that is dying and suffering. An Ecology Of Hope could be useful today to overcome the present state of ecological awareness that often encounters an ultimate sense of meaninglessness. A lack of vision can give rise to a mood of cosmic loneliness especially when it is embedded in an inability to see beyond the horizons of the present. An ecological awareness with a more hopeful vision does not allow the past and the present to determine the future, but wants to present a final escape that could be beneficial to humanity and to the cosmos. To be able to come out of a spiral of hopelessness, an act if imagination is needed; to foresee possible futures amidst all despair and thus a complete change of mentality towards creation by individuals, politicians, businessmen and agricultural industry is needed.

2005-01-01T00:00:00Z