This book discusses the theory that the Psalter was compiled with the specific intention that it should be used as a book for private spiritual reading. It is argued that if this were so, the work of the final editors would not have been confined to arranging the psalms in a particular order but would have included additions and interpolations intended to give the whole book a new orientation. An investigation of selected psalms shows that although the Psalter may have become a book for private devotion not long after its compilation, there is little evidence that it was compiled for that purpose.

Professor Rofe seeks to clarify the contents and unity of each section of Deuteronomy, its literary history, the origin of the single laws and their relation to other kindred laws in other documents of the Pentateuch.

The Peshitta is the Syriac translation of the Old Testament made on the basis of the Hebrew text during the second century CE. Much like the Greek translations of the Old Testament, this document is an important source for our knowledge of the text of the Old Testament. Its language is also of great interest to linguists. Moreover, as Bible of the Syriac Churches it is used in sermons, commentaries, poetry, prayers, and hymns. Many terms specific to the spirituality of the Syriac Churches have their origins in this ancient and reliable version of the Old Testament. The present edition, published by the Peshitta Institute in Leiden on behalf of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament, is the first scholarly one of this text. It presents the evidence of all known ancient manuscripts and gives full introductions to the individual books. This volume contains Isaiah.

This two-part commentary argues that Chronicles, placed as it is among the 'historical books' in the traditional Old Testament of the Christian church, is much misunderstood. Restored to its proper position as the final book in the canon as arranged in the order of the Hebrew Bible, it is rather to be understood as a work of theology essentially directed towards the future. The Chronicler begins his work with the problem facing the whole human race in Adam-the forfeiture of the ideal of perfect oneness with God's purpose. He explores the possibility of the restoration of that ideal through Israel's place at the centre of the world of the nations. This portrayal reaches its climax in an idealized presentation of the reign of Solomon, in which all the rulers of the earth, including most famously the Queen of Sheba, bring their tribute in acknowledgment of Israel's status (Volume 1). As subsequent history only too clearly shows, however, the Chronicler argues (Volume 2), that Israel itself, through unfaithfulness to Torah, has forfeited its right to possession of its land and is cast adrift among these same nations of the world. But the Chronicler's message is one of hope. By a radical transformation of the chronology of Israel's past into theological terms, the generation whom the Chronicler addresses becomes the fiftieth since Adam. It is the generation to whom the jubilee of return to the land through a perfectly enabled obedience to Torah, and thus the restoration of the primal ideal of the human race, is announced.>

This book deals with the place of the source-document Q and its compilers within late Second Temple Judaism, with special attention to Q's relationship to the Herodian Temple. The investigation of this perspective is fraught with problems because the passages that are associated with the Temple in Q do not speak with the same voice, raising the question of how to reconcile the seemingly positive view with the rather more hostile views. Using a comparative approach, Han analyses the essential differences in the two types of positions, and concludes that the negative attitude is original, while the positive position is due to a later redaction that took place after the First Revolt and the destruction of the Temple.

This work argues that the author of the Gospel of Matthew structures his work as a Bios or biography of Jesus, so as to encapsulate, in narrative form, the essence of his theological understanding of God's Basileia (sovereign rule), as proclaimed and taught in the teaching and healing mission of Jesus. Evidence for this is found in Matthew's careful use of structural markers to divide his story of Jesus into significant thematic sub-sections in which he uses a series of Basileia logia at incisive points to highlight aspects of Jesus' teaching and healing mission. In this way, Matthew is able to portray Jesus, as God's promised Messiah, who instructs his disciples through discourse and narrative, hence in word and example, in the nature and demands of God's sovereign rule.

By structuring his Gospel as a story, Matthew depicts Jesus giving instructions to his disciples and also instructs the readers of the text. Hence, Matthew's Gospel becomes a manual of instruction on the nature and demands of God's sovereignty. Its purpose is to ensure that not only the members of the Matthean community, but all future disciples of Jesus are competently trained to carry out Jesus' commission: "Go therefore and disciple all the nations ..." (28:19-20). In this way, the goods news of God's saving presence is proclaimed to all the nations until God's eschatological reign is finally established.

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The Pelagian controversy - whether man is saved through predestination or by his own free will - has proved one of the most enduring and fiercely contended issues of the Christian church, and has secured Pelagius a lasting place within its history. Few of Pelagius' writings, however, have been preserved, and until recently none was available in English translation. This volume presents Pelagius' commentary on Paul's Letter to the Romans for the first time in English. The commentary, one of thirteen on the Pauline Epistles, dates from the time when Pelagius was active in Rome, before he became embroiled in controversy. But already there are adumbrations of the later debate and signs of different currents of thought in Italy and beyond. In his introduction Theodore de Bruyn discusses the context in which Pelagius wrote the commentary and the issues which shaped his interpretation of Romans. He also takes up questions about the edition of the commentary. The translation is annotated with references to Pelagius' contemporaries. A new recension of Pelagius' text of Romans is presented in an appendix.

This study focuses upon the language of the Song of Songs in an attempt to see how individual images work together in the constitution of a poetic unity. The perception of certain 'imaginative fields', each of which organizes a range of related imagery, is helpful to an appreciation of the symbolic density which certain images acquire in the course of the Song's movement and to an acknowledgment of their capacity for narrativity.

Remarkably enough, there is a scarcity of modern commentaries on the Psalms for the more general reader, though after the Gospels, they are probably the most widely read part of the Bible. Clergy read the Psalms in rotation as part of the daily offices, the Psalms are a regular part of the church's worship, and the "Book of Psalms" is a spiritual classic in its own right. This commentary is addressed to the widest possible readership and is informed by John Eaton's pastoral concerns and his commitment to environmental issues. He examines the authorship of the psalms and their use as poetry and songs, as well as in worship. Eaton provides his own, modern translation of each of the 150 Psalms and provides a commentary highlighting the relevance of the psalms to the modern reader. The inspirational discussion of each psalm ends with a related Christian prayer, either from the tradition or written by Eaton himself.

In this study, Irene Backus examines the fate of the Apocalypse at the hands of early Protestants in three centres of the Reformation: Geneva, Zurich, and Wittenberg. To do so, Backus systematically investigates sources and methods on the most important reformed and Lutheran commentaries of the Apocalypse from 1528-1584.

The book is, primarily, a linguistic investigation into the possibility that the Johannine farewell discourse is the product of multiple hands. Chapter 1 examines the history of the problem. Chapter 2 contains an examination of the stylistic unity of the farewell discourse and John 14:31-16:33 is examined for specific literary style markers. All the style tests show that the major divisions of the farewell discourse are consistent with the style evident in the rest of the Gospel. Chapter 3 contains an investigation of the structure of the farewell discourse. The text is tested for structural unity, textual prominence, and coherence. The results show that the discourse holds together quite well in structure, peak, and cohesion. Chapter 4, therefore, returns to the issue of the magnus reus (Latin for "the great litigant"). The difficulty presented by 14:31, (ultimately, the major reason for identifying editorial activity) is investigated in terms of the assumptions current among source critics. Upon a closer examination, these assumptions are shown to be unlikely based on the conventions of ancient literature and the literary conventions of participant movement in the rest of the Fourth Gospel. The conclusion reached in this work is that the farewell discourse should be considered a unity. Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series, 256.

Elaine Jordan has written her first book with personal reflections on a wide variety of biblical and spiritual subjects ranging from the providence of God, to faith, children have free will, situation ethics, management, etc. A delightful group of short essays by a Christian author.

By a poetic analysis of Isaiah 34-35 as a single poem, the reading explores in depth its imagery, themes and structure. Attention to detail is combined with wide-ranging discussions of reading and interpretation, which revolve around the contrasting, and strangely interrelated, scenes of destruction (nightmare) and restoration (dream) found in the two parts of the poem. The poem emerges as an integral part of Isaiah, which is treated as a single work. The consistency is revealed in parallel terms, images and structure. Implications of the analysis and mode of reading for the whole of Isaiah are commented on throughout.

It has long been noted that the "Book of Lamentations" shares, at least in part, a theological outlook with the prophetic literature that the destruction of Jerusalem was the result of Yahweh's decisive action against the sins of the nation. Too often, however, this relationship has simply been presupposed, or assumed to be a relationship of shared perspective. To date, there has been no systematic exploration of how it is that Lamentations accepts and/or modifies the theological outlook of the prophetic literature. In addition, when the theology of the prophets has been discussed in relation to "Lamentations", there has been a tendency to group all the prophetic books together as if they existed as a homogeneous whole, and shared amongst themselves a singular outlook. This tendency to simplify the theological complexity of the prophetic literature coincides with a similar tendency to reduce the theology of "Lamentations" to simple, monotheistic assertions. Drawing on the literary insights of Mikhail Bakhtin, this study explores in detail the nature of the relationship between "Lamentations" and the pre-exilic/exilic prophetic literature. Drawing on the notions of dialogism, polyphony and double-voicing, the study argues that "Lamentations" enters into a dialogic relationship with prophetic literature, a relationship that both affirms and subverts that literature. Central to the acknowledgement of the dialogic interaction between Lamentations and the prophetic literature is the recognition of "Lamentations" as a multivalent, polyphonic text in which unmerged viewpoints exist in a tension-filled relationship.

Few parts of the Bible have captured the imagination of individuals in the way that the book of Jonah has. James Limburg examines this well-known book, keeping several questions in mind: How did the story originate? What is its place in the Bible? How did the New Testament understand the story? How has the story been understood in Judaism and in Islam? What might it mean for people today? And what does it have to say about God, about the human condition, and even about God and nature? In reviewing the book, Limburg gives special attention to the many contributions of artists, musicians, painters, and sculptors who, he says, may have been the best interpreters of Jonah. He also keeps in mind the literary dimension of the texts and takes great care to follow the divisions of the book as they were defined by Jewish scribal tradition. Limburg begins his commentary with a fresh translation of the biblical book of Jonah and continues with a careful examination of the text, pointing out the significance of this old story for our own time. An extensive appendix provides highlights from the interpretation of Jonah in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The activity of early Christian proclaimers is seen as the backdrop for the Epistle's challenge to its readers to identify with God's order or with the earthly patronage of the rich. The significance of the Epistle of James within early Christianity, when not neglected, has been disputed. In recent years the letter, and its author, have received renewed attention, and this contribution to the revival examines the way in which the author and his addressees are depicted within the social world of emerging Christianity. Edgar finds strong points of contact with the sayings of Jesus and with early Christian itinerant proclaimers, who are often seen as having been active in preserving and transmitting these sayings. The Epistle challenges the shaky commitment of its readers to their new allegiance, and, in the light of the coming of God's eschatological ruoe, employs the model of patronage to lay out the choice between loyalty to God and identification with the earthly value system dominated by the rich.

This investigation builds upon recent developments in the study of Paul's use of Scripture that center around the concept of ""intertextuality."" Abasciano uses an exegetical method that incorporates into a thorough traditional exegesis a comprehensive analysis of Paul's use of Scripture against the background of interpretive traditions surrounding the texts alluded to, with great emphasis placed on analyzing the original contexts of Paul's citations and allusions. Such an intertextual exegesis is conducted in Romans 9:1-9 with an awareness of the broader unit of chapters 9-11 especially, and also the epistle as a whole. The study finds that many of the themes Paul deals with in Romans 9-11 are also present in ancient Jewish and Christian interpretive traditions surrounding the passages he invokes, and more importantly, that Paul's scriptural quotations and allusions function as pointers to their broad original contexts, from which he developed much of the form, content, and direction of his argument, holding significance for a number of exegetical details as well as broader themes and rhetorical movements. The final chapter seeks to draw conclusions concerning the significance of Paul's use of the Old Testament in Romans 9:1-9 for the exegesis and theology of Romans and for Pauline intertextuality. The identity of the true people of God is central to Romans 9-11 and the epistle. And Paul's use of Scripture is contextual and referential, calling for attention to Pauline intertextuality in standard exegetical procedure. JSNTS 301

"What is the lesson of that other, newly sprung tree (the cross) in whose bark Mark has carved his Gospel (for this is a book that bleeds)? Is it that Jesus's body, grafted onto the cross, became one with it, and thus became tree, branch, book, and leaf, inscribed with letters of blood, can now at last be read, no longer an indecipherable code but an open codex? And that in its (now) re(a)d(able) ink, lately invisible, the message that was scratched into the fig tree is transcribed: outside the gates, but only just, the summer Son is shining in full strength?"--Stephen D. Moore In this book Stephen D. Moore offers a dazzling new reading of the Gospels of Mark and Luke, applying the poststructuralist techniques of Derrida, Lacan, and Foucault to illuminate these texts in a way that no one has done before. Written with wit and a sensitivity to words--and wordplay--that is reminiscent of Moore's fellow countryman James Joyce, the book is also deeply learned, impressive in its detailed knowledge of previous scholarship as well as in the challenges it presents to that scholarship. Moore argues that whereas the language of the Gospels is concrete, pictorial, and often startling, the language of modern gospel scholarship tends to be propositional and abstract. Calling himself a New Test-what-is-meant scholar, he approaches the Gospels of Mark and Luke as though they were pictograms or dreamwork to decipher and interpret, writing a response that is no less visceral and immediate than the biblical texts themselves.