Priestly functionaries occupy a paramount position in the study of the Hebrew Bible. Despite more than a century of critical research, questions still abound regarding social location and definitions of the various priestly groups, the depictions of their origins, their ritual functions, the role of the laity and family religion, the relationship between prophecy and the priesthood, and the dating of texts. Making use of cross-disciplinary approaches, this volume provides a representative look at the state of current research into various aspects of priesthood in ancient Israel.

Never before has there existed a more diverse set of possibilities for understanding the canonical texts of the New Testament, other early Christian literature, and the history of the emergent Christian movement that was to become the church. Harold W. Attridge has contributed authoritatively to many of the disciplines that underlie approaches to these questions: textual criticism, exegesis, comparative literary and historical studies, and numerous other areas. In honor of his work, this volume seeks to draw many of these methodological threads together. Readers will find discussions of both new and traditional methods of New Testament study, with numerous examples indicating how these approaches work and what insights they yield. The contributors are Gary A. Anderson, David E. Aune, James Hamilton Charlesworth, Adela Yarbro Collins, John J. Collins, J. Keith Elliott, Eldon Jay Epp, Philip F. Esler, Craig A. Evans, Everett Ferguson, Sean Freyne, Gabriella Gelardini, Mark Goodacre, Rowan A. Greer, Richard A. Horsley, Judith M. Lieu, Francisco Lozada Jr., Andrew B. McGowan, Edgar V. McKnight, Elaine Pagels, Pheme Perkins, Richard I. Pervo, David Rhoads, Kent Harold Richards, James M. Robinson, David T. Runia, Thomas D. Stegman, SJ, Thomas H. Tobin, SJ, Joseph B. Tyson, and James VanderKam.

Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)

Koehler, Baumgartner and Stamm's The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HAL), is widely recognized as being the standard modern dictionary for Biblical Hebrew. In combining scholarly thoroughness with easy accessibility, this dictionary meets the needs of a wide range of users. The CD-ROM edition of the dictionary not only contains all the information available in the print edition of HAL, but also provides additional features that enhance its usefulness considerably. This updated version includes the Aramaic Lexicon.
The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament on CD-ROM for Windows uses the Logos Library System Software. System requirements: Microsoft Windows version 3.1 or higher, 12Mb of RAM, 20Mb of free hard disk space, CD-ROM player.
Functionality
The functionality of the CD-ROM includes the exact reproduction of the character and paragraph formatting of the print edition. Additional functionality comes especially with the possibility of article-based navigation and extensive, language-aware, searching of Hebrew and related languages, e.g. full-text, Boolean, and proximity searches. Furthermore, every 'see also' cross-reference to other articles in the dictionary is be made into a hyperlink. Biblical references are also enabled to be hyperlinks to Biblical texts. As an aid to the reader, all abbreviations are turned into hotspots, activating window pop-ups with the full expansion of the abbreviation.

The books constituting the Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible, have a complex history of authorship, resulting in a variety of styles, perspectives, and meanings. The authors and editors of the books that became the Bible lived through the political vicissitudes of a region that was a cultural crossroads, subject to successive waves of invasion, settlement, and influence by a variety of civilizations. Consequently, their works reflect the diverse political, intellectual, and literary legacies of the ancient Near East and, in some cases, the incorporation of non-Hebrew texts.

S. A. Nigosian, a scholar of Biblical and Near Eastern religions, explores the diverse literary antecedents of the Old Testament as well as the Apocrypha -- books excluded from the canonical Hebrew text but included in the Septuagint. Closely analyzing the formation and contents of these works, Nigosian compares them with the religious, philosophical, didactic, and historical works created by the neighboring Near Eastern civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and Asia Minor. Proceeding book by book, he highlights parallels in language, structure, and story among Hebrew and non-Hebrew and non-canonical Hebrew texts.

From the ubiquity of flood myths throughout the ancient Near East to similarities between seduction tales in Genesis and Egyptian mythology, Job-like stories from Babylonian legend, and the recycling of elements within the Hebrew Bible, this book offers a concise and accessible history of the composition and compilation of the Bible and the complex process of canonization. It also features a glossary, an extensive bibliography, and a chronology of the composition of the Hebrew Bible andthe Apocrypha.