The Rabbinic Anti-Gospel in the Context of the Polemic between the Synagogue and the Church

This article tries to find the answers to the following questions: Can one find, in the Rabbinic writings (the Tosefta, Jerusalem Talmud and Babylonian Talmud), some texts that refer to Jesus and His followers? What is their nature? Do they include anti-Christian undertones and constitute a specific Rabbinic anti-gospel: the rabbis’ well-thought and thorough reaction to the content included in the Gospels? The author in his answers used the detailed research presented in his latest monograph entitled Jesus and His Followers in the Talmud. A Textological, Historical and Sociological Analysis, Lublin 2013. His investigation leads him to the conclusion that in Talmudic narratives Rabbis created a specific anti-gospel which was initially transmitted verbally and then written down in various contexts of their works. The aim of this anti-gospel is to challenge the authority of Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God and the Messiah from the house of David. Rabbinic narratives wish to show in a clear way that Jesus must not usurp any messianic and divine prerogatives. In the earlier times rabbis warned Jewish community against magic power and the attractiveness of the doctrine advocated by heretics. Subsequent rabbis showed the weakness and stupidity of heretical teaching, whose contradictions and lack of logic were easy to disprove by making use of proper argumentation. Jewish sages wished to prove the superiority of the Rabbinic doctrine and the biblical presentation they offered, over the Christian faith.This article tries to find the answers to the following questions: Can one find, in the Rabbinic writings (the Tosefta, Jerusalem Talmud and Babylonian Talmud), some texts that refer to Jesus and His followers? What is their nature? Do they include anti-Christian undertones and constitute a specific Rabbinic anti-gospel: the rabbis’ well-thought and thorough reaction to the content included in the Gospels? The author in his answers used the detailed research presented in his latest monograph entitled Jesus and His Followers in the Talmud. A Textological, Historical and Sociological Analysis, Lublin 2013. His investigation leads him to the conclusion that in Talmudic narratives Rabbis created a specific anti-gospel which was initially transmitted verbally and then written down in various contexts of their works. The aim of this anti-gospel is to challenge the authority of Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God and the Messiah from the house of David. Rabbinic narratives wish to show in a clear way that Jesus must not usurp any messianic and divine prerogatives. In the earlier times rabbis warned Jewish community against magic power and the attractiveness of the doctrine advocated by heretics. Subsequent rabbis showed the weakness and stupidity of heretical teaching, whose contradictions and lack of logic were easy to disprove by making use of proper argumentation. Jewish sages wished to prove the superiority of the Rabbinic doctrine and the biblical presentation they offered, over the Christian faith

The Gospel According to St. John in the Light of Targum Neofiti 1 to the Book of Genesis

In the present article the author tries to answer on the questions: What is the importance of Targum texts for a better understanding of the proclamation of the Gospel according to St. John? Is there any connection between the Targum terms „Memra”, „Yeqara”, „Shekinah” and the terms which appear in the Prologue and narrative of the Gospel of John: „logos”, „doksa”, „skenoo”? How did the first followers of Jesus from Nazareth understand these terms? Could the traditions contained in Targum synagogue readings have had a bearing on the thought of the author of the Fourth Gospel? The article consists of two parts: (1) Characteristics of the Targumic tradition based on Targum Neofiti 1; (2) The terminological and conceptual convergence between Targumic tradition and the Fourth Gospel. In the present article the author tries to show that Targumic traditions enables a better perception of the New Testament writings which can often be better explained thanks to Targumic traditions rather than to the Masoretic text.Ewangelia według św. Jana w świetle Targumu Neofiti I do Księgi RodzajuW niniejszym artykule autor pragnie odpowiedzieć na pytania: Jakie znaczenie ma tekst targumiczny dla lepszego rozumienia przeslania Czwartej Ewangelii? Czy istnieje związek między aramejskimi terminami „memra”, „jeqara”, „szekina” a greckimi terminami pojawiającymi się w Prologu Janowym „logos”, „doksa”, „skenoo”? W jaki sposób pojęcia te rozumieli pierwsi wyznawcy Jezusa? Czy tradycje targumiczne obecne w liturgii synagogalnej miały wpływ na idee i myśli autora Czwartej Ewangelii? Artykuł złożony jest z dwóch części: (1) Charakterystyka tradycji targumicznych na podstawie Targumu Neofiti; (2) Terminologiczne i konceptualne związki pomiędzy tradycją targumiczną i Czwartą Ewangelią. W niniejszym artykule autor ukazuje, że wiele tekstów zawartych w Czwartej Ewangelii może być głębiej rozumianych w świetle tradycji targumicznej

Introduction

We are offering you a new issue of The Ignatianum Philosophical Yearbook. It is almost entirely devoted to Mikołaj Zebrzydowski. The state of research on him is outlined in the first article by Elżbieta E. Wróbel and Tomasz Graff. In a separate article, the latter author also presents issues related to the development of Florian Zebrzydowski’s estate as his political importance grew at the court of King Sigismund Augustus. Special emphasis was placed on the case study method here. The author analyzes Zebrzydowski’s acquisition of property in Radocza near Wadowice, showing the prospect of the need for further research into the growth of the estate of Florian Zebrzydowski and his family. The article concludes with an appendix, including an edition in Latin and a Polish translation of the document, in which “Sigismund Augustus grants Florian Zebrzydowski the right to build a dam on the Skawa River and to run water from there through a moat across the area of the Wadowice estate to build fish ponds in the Radocza estate.

Interplay between incommensurate phases in the cuprates

We establish the qualitative behavior of the incommensurability $\epsilon$, optimal domain wall filling $\nu$ and chemical potential $\mu$ for increasing doping by a systematic slave-boson study of an array of vertical stripes separated by up to $d=11$ lattice constants. Our findings obtained in the Hubbard model with the next-nearest neighbor hopping $t'=-0.15t$ agree qualitatively with the experimental data for the cuprates in the doping regime $x\lesssim 1/8$. It is found that $t'$ modifies the optimal filling $\nu$ and triggers the crossover to the diagonal (1,1) spiral phase at increasing doping, stabilized already at $x\simeq 0.09$ for $t'=-0.3t$.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, EPL styl

Automatic method for the dermatological diagnosis of selected hand skin features in hyperspectral imaging

Introduction: Hyperspectral imaging has been used in dermatology for many years. The enrichment of hyperspectral imaging with image analysis broadens considerably the possibility of reproducible, quantitative evaluation of, for example, melanin and haemoglobin at any location in the patient's skin. The dedicated image analysis method proposed by the authors enables to automatically perform this type of measurement. Material and method: As part of the study, an algorithm for the analysis of hyperspectral images of healthy human skin acquired with the use of the Specim camera was proposed. Images were collected from the dorsal side of the hand. The frequency λ of the data obtained ranged from 397 to 1030 nm. A total of 4'000 2D images were obtained for 5 hyperspectral images. The method proposed in the paper uses dedicated image analysis based on human anthropometric data, mathematical morphology, median filtration, normalization and others. The algorithm was implemented in Matlab and C programs and is used in practice. Results: The algorithm of image analysis and processing proposed by the authors enables segmentation of any region of the hand (fingers, wrist) in a reproducible manner. In addition, the method allows to quantify the frequency content in different regions of interest which are determined automatically. Owing to this, it is possible to perform analyses for melanin in the frequency range λE∈(450,600) nm and for haemoglobin in the range λH∈(397,500) nm extending into the ultraviolet for the type of camera used. In these ranges, there are 189 images for melanin and 126 images for haemoglobin. For six areas of the left and right sides of the little finger (digitus minimus manus), the mean values of melanin and haemoglobin content were 17% and 15% respectively compared to the pattern. Conclusions: The obtained results confirmed the usefulness of the proposed new method of image analysis and processing in dermatology of the hand as it enables reproducible, quantitative assessment of any fragment of this body part. Each image in a sequence was analysed in this way in no more than 100 ms using Intel Core i5 CPU M460 @2.5 GHz 4 GB RAM