The object of the essay is prophecy in the Qur’ān, through the stories of the prophets and the language they use. Specifically, the Qur’ānic narrative and Joseph’s speeches have been systematically examined, with the intention of introducing a symmetrical reading of the story between incidents and the specific language. Emphasis has been placed on the philological aspects, by focusing the analysis on the Arabic version of the Qur’ān, in order to try to draw up a personal profile of Joseph and, at the same time, to attempt to counter an approach that claims to see all the Qur’ānic envoys only in their instrumental function in the mission of Muḥammad.

Prophetic vocation belongs to the essence of the bond between man and God. In the creation story, God speaks words and everything comes into being, He inscribes his law into the world, and tells the first people how they should behave. That act of speaking to man is continued first by prophets in the Old Testament and then by Jesus Christ who commissions his disciples to go and proclaim the Gospel (cf. Matt 28:19-20). The Church has been fulfilling this commission to the present day to the present day The aim of this article is to indicate that it is the constitutive element of her nature to preach in the name of God. Evangelization, as John Paul II expressed it in the encyclical Sollicitudo rei socialis (No. 41), is the nature of the prophetic mission of the social teaching of the Church. She cannot stop preaching the Gospel, since this would constitute a deprivation of a part of her nature. Thus, it is important to properly understand the place of the Church in society and among its structures and institutions. False concepts of the presence of the Church in public space result in the criticism of both the positions taken by her [the Church] and her assessment of social phenomena. This, therefore, requires taking up discussion and explanation of the issues of her prophetic mission, most especially her social teaching.

The Apocalypse of St. Jana delights with the richness of eschatological content. However, the eschatological themes of the Apocalypse are not a frequent subject of scientific study. The reflections contained in this article take the form of methodological guidelines. They concern the process of interpreting the eschatology of Apocalypse. The Apocalypse should not be interpreted in isolation from historical and literary research. It should also not be interpreted in isolation from ethical research. It should also take into account the specific nature of prophetism of the Apocalypse. Eschatological contents contain an important place in this book. In order to interpret them properly, it is necessary to note i.a.: eschatological dynamics of the Apocalypse; the ambiguity of some symbols; the relation of eschatology to christology and ecclesiology.

In France, as well as in other countries of the French language, the relationship between the Bible and literature mirrors the dilemma facing the European culture, a culture founded on the Greek and Roman civilization, when it was becoming Christianized. The Christians in the French speaking Europe confront the problem of 'double-fidelity': either to the Bible as the Truth, or to the Greek and Roman culture representing Art. Two trends can be observed. Some would try to prove the artistic superiority of the Bible over pagan literature. Others would attempt to show that even in that kind of non-Christian literature it is possible to observe the presence of supernatural truth. The dilemma abates and loses its importance starting with the XVIII century when literature as such emancipates and becomes an autonomous reality of esthetic character.

Unsurprisingly, in the Middle Ages, the Bible constitutes the crucial source of inspiration for French literature. Authors compose paraphrases and long poems based on Biblical motifs. There appear mystery plays, with their performance often spread over a number of days. In the XVI century, both Catholics and Protestants produce a number of translations of the Holy Scriptures. There appear poetic pa- raphrases of psalms, and also extensive epic poems adopting various Biblical threads. In the XVII century, the genre of poetic meditation appears in addition to the genres already mentioned. On the other hand, the kind of drama based on Biblical themes is in retreat; it finds refuge in the academic theater, when it becomes superseded by works of the classicist character. In the beginning of the XVIII cen- tury, some scholars try to demonstrate the religious character of the works of Antiquity.

Together with the rationalism of Enlightenment, there appears a new attitude towards the Bible. In Voltaire, the Bible is an object of attacks and of ridicule. In Rousseau, it is a paradigm for the kind of discourse that is supposed to take its place. In Romanticism, we can observe the influence of the Bible over both Christian and non-Christian writers. In the works of the latter, the poet becomes a mystagogue interpreting the old myths. The Bible influences poetry; it serves as a stylistic and esthetic model, as a source of themes and motifs, and also as a point of reference for poems in the philosophy of history with the pantheistic or else progressist and utopic message, and for non-Christian apocrypha. In Symbolism, the Bible becomes completely despoiled of its religious value. It is being used in entirely atheistic and subjectivist ways. By the end of the XIX century, and in the first half of the XX century, we observe in France some kind of Catholic renaissance. The Bible is present in the prophetic works of Le'on Bloy. It becomes the object of the exegetical work of Claudel, of the poetry of Jouve and P. Emmanuel. In non-Christian writers in loses its function of the book of faith and becomes a book of myths.

This article attempts to formulate a new interpretation of the mysterious messianic character marked "Forty and Four" from the Vision of Priest Piotr in Adam Mickiewicz's poetic drama Dziady ( Forefathers' Eve), Part III. After a review of earlier readings of this crux and its symbolism, the author of the article presents his own proposal, which contextualizes the enigmatic number in three historical frameworks. The first of them is ancient history, and, more specifically, 'Forty four' is seen as a reference to the Ides of March in 44 B.C., the date on which Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of conspirators led by Brutus. The other two relevant contexts are the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution, and the high tides of modern history culminating in tyrannicide. In effect, the 'Forty four' passage is seen as an affirmation or even a sacralization of tyrannicide, symbolized by not only by inexplicit references to Brutus and the Israelite heroine Judith. It is a theme which reverberates not only in Dziady but also throughout Adam Mickiewicz's work.

The aim of the author is to present some messianic and prophetic ideas, which are intrinsically fused with Karl Marx’s doctrines, and which had also been expressed in Jewish mystical thought as well as in the ethical message of the Bible. Although Marx did not obtain any proper Jewish education, he was not able to reject his own being-a-Jew or his inborn spirituality together with the implicit axio-normative system of Judaism. Marxist philosophy, generally speaking, is dominated by the postulate of building a better and a more just world, and by the ethical demand of creating a new reality, from which poverty and social marginalization would be eradicated. However, such views were not new. For, it was the author of the Biblical “Book of Devarim”, who earlier emphasized the need for social solidarity. There had also been some Jewish prophets who criticized kings and priests, and Tsfat Jewish mystics who had formulated an ethically radical tikkun ha-olam postulate in the 16th century.