Natalie Mylonas uses Ezekiel 16 as a case study in order to reveal the critical relationship between space, emotion, and identity politics in the Hebrew Bible. Drawing on interdisciplinary research that emphasises how space and emotions are inextricably linked in human experience, Mylonas explores the portrayal of Yhwh's wife, Jerusalem, in Ezekiel 16 as a personified city who feels emotion. She foregrounds purity and gender issues, as well as debates on emotions in the Hebrew Bible, emphasising that spatiality is a key component of how these issues are conceptualised in ancient Israel. This book argues that the power struggle between Jerusalem and Yhwh in Ezekiel 16 is a struggle over the contested space of Jerusalem's body and the city space. Jerusalem's emotions are in a dynamic relationship with the spaces in the text - they are signified by these spaces, shift as the constitution of the spaces shifts, and are shaped by Jerusalem's use of space. Her desire, pride, and shamelessness are communicated spatially through her use of city space, while her representation as disgusting is underscored by her "uncontrollable" female body. Mylonas concludes by showing how Ezekiel's vision of the new Jerusalem in Ezekiel 40-48 re-establishes sacred space through the erasure of the feminine city metaphor coupled with strict boundary policing, which is a far cry from the assault on Jerusalem's boundaries described in Ezekiel 16.

With critical scholarship and theological sensitivity, Walter Brueggemann traces the people of God through the books of Samuel as they shift from marginalized tribalism to oppressive monarchy. He carefully opens the literature of the books, sketching a narrative filled with historical realism but also bursting with an awareness that more than human action is being presented.

Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching is a distinctive resource for those who interpret the Bible in the church. Planned and written specifically for teaching and preaching needs, this critically acclaimed biblical commentary is a major contribution to scholarship and ministry.

What can explain the persistence of gender inequality throughout history? Do narratives such as the Eden story explain that dissymmetry or contribute to it? This book suggests that the Hebrew Bible began and has sustained a rich conversation about sex and gender throughout its life. A literary study of the Garden of Eden story reveals a focus on the human partnership as integral to the divine creation project. Texts from other Hebrew Bible genres build a picture of robust and flexible partnerships within a patriarchal framework. In popular culture, Eve still carries the stench of guilt while Adam, seemingly unscathed by Eden events, remains a positive symbol of manhood. This book helps explain why they have had such different histories. The book also charts the subversive alternate streams of interpretation of women's writings and rabbinic texts. The story of Adam and Eve demonstrates how conceptions of gender in both ancient and modern worlds reflect larger philosophical schemes. Far from existing as timeless verities, female and male relations are constructed according to cultural imperatives of the day. Understanding the different ways that Adam and Eve have been conceived gives us perspective on our own twenty-first century gender architecture.

This book addresses intertextual connections between Lamentations and texts in each division of the Hebrew Bible, along with texts throughout history. Sources examined range from the Dead Sea Scrolls to modern Shoah literature, allowing the volume's impact to reach beyond Lamentations to each of the 'intertexts' the chapters address. By bringing together scholars with expertise on this diverse array of texts, the volume offers a wide range of exegetical insight. It also enables the reader to appreciate the varying intertextual approaches currently employed in Biblical Studies, ranging from abstract theory to rigid method. By applying these to a focused analysis of Lamentations, this book will facilitate greater insight on both Lamentations and current methodological research.

Henry Barclay Swete (1835 1917) published An Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek in 1900 as a manual to accompany his three-volume edition of the Septuagint (1887 1894) and to provide a guide through the vast corpus of Septuagint literature. Part 1 covers the textual history of the Septuagint, providing an in-depth analysis of its complex tradition, surveying the most important Greek witnesses and the earliest versions. Part 2 discusses the Alexandrian manuscript tradition, and covers the order and grouping of books, titles, comparison with the Hebrew Canon, and the textual divisions used in the manuscripts. Part 3 is concerned with the influence and use of the Septuagint in later works. An appendix contains the letter of pseudo-Aristeas with an introduction explaining the forgery. For over a century Swete's work has been an indispensable tool for every scholar and student of the Septuagint.

This incomplete, early twentieth-century edition was one of the first modern attempts to bring textual criticism to bear on the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures which originated in the third century BCE. It is still widely consulted today. Originally issued in nine parts between 1906 and 1940, this reissue is bound in four volumes. Volume 1 contains the books of Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus. Following Swete's smaller Septuagint (1887-1894) the running text is that of Codex Vaticanus (B) supplemented by Codex Alexandrinus (A) or another uncial when B is defective. The edition provides an extensive critical apparatus, taking account of numerous uncial manuscripts, fragments and palimpsests, over sixty cursive manuscripts, a sample lectionary, early daughter versions of the Septuagint, including the Armenian, Bohairic, Sahidic, Ethiopian, Old Latin, Palestinian Aramaic, and Syro-hexapla, and a wide range of Patristic quotations.

This incomplete, early twentieth-century edition was one of the first modern attempts to bring textual criticism to bear on the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures which originated in the third century BCE. It is still widely consulted today. Originally issued in nine parts between 1906 and 1940, this reissue is bound in four volumes. This, the second volume, contains the books of Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges and Ruth. Following Swete's smaller Septuagint (1887 1894) the running text is that of Codex Vaticanus (B) supplemented by Codex Alexandrinus (A) or another uncial when B is defective. The edition provides an extensive critical apparatus, taking account of numerous uncial manuscripts, fragments and palimpsests, over sixty cursive manuscripts, a sample lectionary, early daughter versions of the Septuagint, including the Armenian, Bohairic, Sahidic, Ethiopian, Old Latin, Palestinian Aramaic, and Syro-hexapla, and a wide range of Patristic quotations.

This incomplete, early twentieth-century edition was one of the first modern attempts to bring textual criticism to bear on the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures which originated in the third century BCE. It is still widely consulted today. Originally issued in nine parts between 1906 and 1940, this reissue is bound in four volumes. This third volume contains the later historical books: 1 and 2 Samuel (1927); 1 and 2 Kings (1930); 1 and 2 Chronicles (1932); and 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras (Ezra) and Nehemiah (1935). Following Swete's smaller Septuagint (1887 1894) the running text is that of Codex Vaticanus (B) supplemented by Codex Alexandrinus (A) or another uncial when B is defective. The edition includes an extensive critical apparatus taking account of key uncial manuscripts and fragments, over thirty cursive manuscripts, several daughter versions and a wide range of Patristic quotations.

This incomplete, early twentieth-century edition was one of the first modern attempts to bring textual criticism to bear on the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures which originated in the third century BCE. It is still widely consulted today. Originally issued in nine parts between 1906 and 1940, this reissue is bound in four volumes. This, the final volume, contains the books of Esther, Judith, and Tobit. Following Swete's smaller Septuagint (1887-1894) the running text is that of Codex Vaticanus (B) supplemented by Codex Alexandrinus (A) or N when B is defective. The edition includes an extensive critical apparatus, citing key uncial manuscripts and fragments, twenty-seven cursive manuscripts, many freshly collated for the edition, the Sahidic, Ethiopic, Syriac and Old Latin versions, and quotations from Latin writers including Cyprian and Augustine. It remains an invaluable resource for the study of the Septuagint.

Offers an in depth comparative look at the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Primeval History, which allows students to view the Genesis within its Near Eastern context. Offers a fresh model for approaching this comparative task, which has at times been stifled by religious dogmatism, on the one hand, or disciplinary insularity on the other. Written in a lucid style with explanation of all key terms and themes, this book is suitable for students with no background in the subjects.

This collaboration between two scholars from different fields of religious studies draws on three comparative data sets to develop a new theory of purity and pollution in religion, arguing that a culture's beliefs about cosmological realms shapes its pollution ideas and its purification practices. The authors of this study refine Mary Douglas' foundational theory of pollution as "matter out of place," using a comparative approach to make the case that a culture's cosmology designates which materials in which places constitute pollution. By bringing together a historical comparison of Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean religions, an ethnographic study of indigenous shamanism on Jeju Island, Korea, and the reception history of biblical rhetoric about pollution in Jewish and Christian cultures, the authors show that a cosmological account of purity works effectively across multiple disparate religious and cultural contexts. They conclude that cosmologies reinforce fears of pollution, and also that embodied experiences of purification help generate cosmological ideas. Providing an innovative insight into a key topic of ritual studies, this book will be of vital interest to scholars and graduate students in religion, biblical studies, and anthropology.

The biblical Priestly Blessing found in Numbers 6:24-26 left a deep imprint upon Jewish and Christian religious practice and tradition. The various ways in which the blessing was incorporated into the liturgical traditions, for example, are well documented in a variety of written sources from the past two thousand years. Rabbinic literature demonstrates that the blessing held a central place in early Jewish traditions, especially as part of the development of the Amidah and other liturgical prayers. Christian tradition also attests to a rich diversity of applications of the blessing in Byzantine and Medieval Christian practice. While the Priestly Blessing's development and significance in Judaism and early Christianity are well documented, considerably less known about its earliest history in the ancient world. The Priestly Blessing in Inscription and Scripture breaks new ground in the study of the origins and early history of the blessing by examining its appearance on two Iron Age amulets discovered at the site of Ketef Hinnom in Jerusalem. Jeremy Smoak provides a comprehensive description of the two amulets and compares the inscriptions on their surfaces with several Phoenician and Punic inscribed amulets. He argues that the blessing's language originated within a wider tradition of protective words, which were often inscribed on metal amulets as protection against evil. He contends that the Priestly writers of the biblical texts incorporated the specific words into the blessing's formulations precisely due to their wide popularity and appeal as protective words in the eastern Mediterranean world. This argument represents an important departure from earlier studies on the background of the blessing's language in the ancient Near East, and it sheds significant new light on the history of their use within early Judaism and Christianity.

Rowe examines David and Jonathan's friendship in the context of what ancient readers would have understood as the 'natural' loyalty to their families. Rowe focuses on the conflicting moral goods between which the men choose, seeking to understand the dynamics of the narrative consonant with ancient society. Rowe discusses theoretical issues of interpretation and summarises how Bakhtin's theory of heteroglossic voices can be utilised to understand the narrative. He deliberates over the key aspects of family life in the world described by the Old Testament, surveys approaches to the study of the family among anthropologists and, finally, states how anthropology can inform the interpretation of the biblical text. Starting from the concept of 'hegemonic masculinity', Rowe examines how men in general are presented positively, and then shows how Jonathan, David and Saul measure up to these standards. Rowe concludes that although Jonathan was disloyal to his family, something that implied readers would have censured, the books of Samuel present this disloyalty as honourable, thus making a theological point about fidelity to the house of David.

The first book-length comparative and interdisciplinary treatment of divine envy and vengeance in the biblical and classical worlds.

Understand the Prophets Like Never Before with Amazing Insights from One of Today's Foremost Old Testament Scholars For many Christians reading the Old Testament, trying to understand Israel's prophets is like listening to just one side of a phone conversation--you only get half the idea of it. You hear the answer, but how do you know what question the prophet is answering? In The Lost Letters to the Twelve Prophets, John Goldingay uncovers the questions behind the prophets' answers that make their meaning and relevance intelligible to us. Written as a series of imaginary letters to the twelve Minor Prophets, The Lost Letters to the Twelve Prophets asks the kinds of questions that Hosea, Micah, Zechariah, and others were answering. The letters make clear the issues these prophets of Israel were dealing with or deliver the news they were responding to in their Old Testament writings. For example, To Hosea: Why did you marry someone you knew might be unfaithful? To Joel: It looks as if a locust epidemic is on the way: what should we do? To Amos: What should we do about the war crimes of peoples around us? To Obadiah: The Edomites have occupied our land and pushed us out: what's up with that? To Jonah: When is God going to fulfill his undertaking to destroy Nineveh? To Micah: Will God always be angry with us as a people? To Nahum: When is God going to fulfill his undertaking to destroy Nineveh? To Habakkuk: When is God going to do something about injustice in Judah? To Zephaniah: What do you mean by "the day of the Lord"? To Haggai: When is God going to fulfill his promises about rebuilding the temple? To Zechariah: Should Jeshua be High Priest when he has been in an unclean land? To Malachi: Why does serving God seem pointless? These and other questions help readers peer behind the veil of Minor Prophets' utterances and unlock their significance for today's Christians. Each chapter: begins with a brief paragraph of background about the prophet recounts questions or reports that have been addressed to the prophet in the form of a letter sums up message of the prophet responding to that question offers a brief comment or explanation after each passage The Lost Letters to the Twelve Prophets offers an imaginative, fun, and engaging way for students, pastors, and all serious Bible readers get a better grip on what is happening in these often misunderstood biblical books and get more out of their Bible reading and study.

Abasciano builds upon his forthcoming LNTS volume Paul's Use of the Old Testament in Romans 9.1-9, continuing the project begun in that volume and its intertextual methodology. This method 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 9:10-33 with an awareness of the broader unit of chapters 9-11 especially, and also the epistle as a whole. Conclusions for the meaning of these passages and their theological significance are drawn. LNTS and SSEJC.

The book of Jeremiah poses a challenge to biblical scholarship in terms of its literary composition and textual fluidity. This study offers an innovative approach to the problem by focusing on an instructive case study. Building on the critical recognition that the prophecy contained in Jer 10:1-16 is a composite text, this study systematically discusses the various literary strands discernible in the prophecy: satirical depictions of idolatry, an Aramaic citation, and hymnic passages. A chapter is devoted to each strand, revealing its compositional development-from the earliest recoverable stages down to its late reception. A range of pertinent evidence-culled from the literary, text-critical, and linguistic realms-is examined and sets within broader perspectives, with an eye open to cultural history and the development of theological outlook. The investigation of a particular text has important implications for the textual and compositional history of Jeremiah as a whole. Rather than settling for the common opinion that Jeremiah developed in two main stages, reflected in the MT and LXX respectively, a nuanced supplementary model is advocated, which better accords with the complexity of the available evidence.

From the early days of the church to the present, the Old Testament Law has been a subject of much confusion, debate, and outright theological division. And with good reason: the way Christians understand the Law has massive implications for their individual lives and for the life of the church. To sort through the numerous interpretations and approaches to this thorny issue, we need to start with a solid knowledge of the Law itself. Richard Averbeck provides a comprehensive, accessible discussion of how the Law fits into the arc of the Bible and its relevance to the church today. Beginning with the way God intended the Law to work in its original historical and cultural context, he then explores the New Testament perspective on the Law. Averbeck identifies three biblical theological theses: the Law is good, the Law is weak, and the Law is a unified whole. Rejecting common partitions between categories of law, he makes the case that the whole Law applies to the Christian. Our task is to discern how it applies in the light of Christ. The Old Testament Law for the Life of the Church invites readers to consider how all of Scripture is illuminating and useful for God's people. The church, as the new temple, has much to learn from the Law and about what it means for our doctrine and practice.

This book focuses on the expressions used to describe Job's body in pain and on the reactions of his friends to explore the moral and social world reflected in the language and the values that their speeches betray. A key contribution of this monograph is to highlight how the perspective of illness as retribution is powerfully refuted in Job's speeches and, in particular, to show how this is achieved through comedy. Comedy in Job is a powerful weapon used to expose and ridicule the idea of retribution. Rejecting the approach of retrospective diagnosis, this monograph carefully analyses the expression of pain in Job focusing specifically on somatic language used in the deity attack metaphors, in the deity surveillance metaphors and in the language connected to the body and social status. These metaphors are analysed in a comparative way using research from medical anthropology and sociology which focuses on illness narratives and expressions of pain. Job's Body and the Dramatised Comedy of Moralising will be of interest to anyone working on the Book of Job, as well as those with an interest in suffering and pain in the Hebrew Bible more broadly.

While recent Old Testament scholarship has seen a steady rise in the prominence of narrative approaches to the text, little such work has been done on the book of Joshua. This book offers a narrative treatment of the conquest accounts, with specific attention given to the characterization of Joshua. The method employed is eclectic, including poetic analysis, structural study, delimitation criticism, comparative literary analysis, and intertextual reading. Joshua's characterization has received inadequate scholarly attention to date, largely because he is seen as a pale character, a mere stereotype in the biblical history. This two-dimensional reading often leads to the conclusion that Joshua is meant to represent another character in the history. But this approach neglects the many aspects of Joshua's character that are unique, and does not address the text's presentation of his flaws. On the other hand, some scholars have recently suggested that Joshua's character is significantly flawed. This reading is similarly untenable, as those features of Joshua's leadership that it portrays as faulty are in fact condoned, not condemned, by the text itself. Close examination of the conquest narratives suggests that Joshua's character is both complex and reliable. To the degree that Joshua functions as a paradigm in the subsequent histories, this paradigm must be conceived more broadly than it has been in the past. He is not merely a royal, prophetic, or priestly figure, but exercises, and often exemplifies, the many different types of leadership that feature in the former prophets. >

Telling Terror in Judges 19 explores the value of performing a 'reparative reading' of the terror-filled story of the Levite's pilegesh (commonly referred to as the Levite's concubine) in Judges 19, and how such a reparative reading can be brought to bear upon elements of modern rape culture. Historically, the story has been used as a morality tale to warn young women about what constitutes appropriate behaviour. More recently, (mainly male) commentators have tended to write the woman out of the story, by making claims about its purpose and theme which bear no relation to her suffering. In response to this, feminist critics have attempted to write the woman back into the story, generally using the hermeneutics of suspicion. This book begins by surveying some of the traditional commentators, and the three great feminist commentators of the text (Bal, Exum and Trible). It then offers a reparative reading by attending to the pilegesh's surprising prominence, her moral and marital agency, and her speaking voice. In the final chapter, there is a detailed comparison of the story with elements of modern rape culture.

"Psalmenexegese und Psalterexegese" has become the new trend in the exegesis of the psalms. In its broad scope, this trend includes a method of combining a detailed exegesis of the selected individual psalms with the research to discover the rationale for their particular placement in the book of the Psalter. Following this method and doing the synchronic analysis, this research work first carries out the in-depth exegesis of Pss 33, 34, and 35. Then it applies the principles of concatenation and lectio continua to the results derived from the exegesis. This study establishes that there are sufficient thematic, structural, and lexical connections between these psalms to call them a "Psalm-Triad". This triad narrates a lucid story of in the context of the first book of the Psalter.

The book represents the collection of the papers presented at the 2004 SBL sessions for the section, Social-Scientific Studies of the Second Temple period, the purpose of which was to create understanding about current historiography as it relates to biblical studies and ancient Israel amidst diverging academic trends. Papers and responses sought to avoid polemics while concurrently bringing to clarification methodological practices of prominent historians in an effort to move beyond hortatory polemics. Those writing papers were asked to specify their own methodology and the assumptions and philosophy underlying their methodology in an effort to create understanding for the audience. Respondents to the papers met two requests - to summarize the methodology of the paper and to respond to the methodology, philosophy, and presuppositions of the historian.

The social and intellectual context of the material in the book of Proverbs has given rise to several proposals concerning the nature of the constituent compendia within the document as well as the function of the discourse as a whole. In light of the problems inherent in an investigation of the nature and function of Proverbs, the present study focuses on the social dimensions of the document within its distinct, literary context. That is, the study attempts to examine the nature and function of the sapiential material within its new performance context, viz., the discursive context, the Sitz im Buch. This form of analysis moves beyond the investigation of individual aphorisms to provide a concrete context through which to view the various components of the discourse as well as the discourse as a whole. In the main, the study explores the formal, discursive, and thematic features of the constituent collections within the book of Proverbs in order to identify the nature and function of the work. More specifically, the study highlights the fundamental features of the book's discourse setting, the thematic development of the material, the ethos of the individual collections and their role within Proverbs in order to ascertain the degree to which the document may be considered a courtly piece.