Biblical scholarship today is divided between two mutually exclusive concepts of the emergence of monotheism: an early-monotheistic Yahwism paradigm and a native-pantheon paradigm. This study identifies five main stages on Israel's journey towards monotheism. Rather than deciding whether Yahweh was originally a god of the Baal-type or of the El-type, this work shuns origins and focuses instead on the first period for which there are abundant sources, the Omride era. Non-biblical sources depict a significantly different situation from the Baalism the Elijah cycle ascribes to King Achab. The novelty of the present study is to take this paradox seriously and identify the Omride dynasty as the first stage in the rise of Yahweh as the main god of Israel. Why Jerusalem later painted the Omrides as anti-Yahweh idolaters is then explained as the need to distance itself from the near-by sanctuary of Bethel by assuming the Omride heritage without admitting its northern Israelite origins. The contribution of the Priestly document and of Deutero-Isaiah during the Persian era comprise the next phase, before the strict Yahwism achieved in Daniel 7 completes the emergence of biblical Yahwism as a truly monotheistic religion.

Exegesis has ethical dimensions. This is the case for the Bible, which has a foundational status in traditional perspectives that is simultaneously contested in the modern world. This innovative essay collection, largely about Hebrew Bible/Old Testament texts, is written by an international team - all Doktorkinder of a pioneer in this area, Professor John Barton, whose 70th birthday this volume celebrates. With interdisciplinary angles, the essays highlight the roles and responsibilities of the biblical scholar, often located professionally between religious and secular domains. This reflects a broader reality: all readers of texts are engaged ethically in the public square of ideas.

The Body As Property indicates that physical disfigurement functioned in biblical law to verify legal property acquisition, when changes in the status of dependents were formalized. It is based on the reality the cuneiform script, in particular, was developed in Sumer and Mesopotamia for the purpose of record keeping: to provide legal proof of ownership where the inscription of a tablet evidenced the sale, or transfer, of property. Legitimate property acquisition was as important in biblical law, where physical disfigurements marked dependents, in a similar way that the veil or the head covering identified a wife or concubine in ancient Assyrian and Judean societies. This is primarily substantiated in the accounts of prescriptive disfigurements: namely circumcision and the piercing of a slave's ear, both of which were required only when a son, or slave, was acquired permanently. It is further argued that legal entitlement was relevant also to the punitive disfigurements recorded in Exodus 21:22-24, and Deuteronomy 25:11-12, where the physical violation of women was of concern solely as an infringement of male property rights.

Among the books of the Old Testament, the book of Esther presents significant interpretive problems. The book has been preserved in Greek and Hebrew texts that diverge greatly from each other. As a result, Jews and Protestants usually read a version of the book of Esther that is several chapters shorter than the one in most Catholic and Orthodox Bibles. Jon D. Levenson capably guides the reader through both the longer Greek version and the shorter Hebrew one, demonstrating their coherence and their differences.This commentary listens to the voices of modern scholarship as well as rabbinic interpretation, providing a wealth of interpretive results.

Stephanie Day Powell illuminates the myriad forms of persuasion, inducement, discontent, and heartbreak experienced by readers of Ruth. Writing from a lesbian perspective, Powell draws upon biblical scholarship, contemporary film and literature, narrative studies, feminist and queer theories, trauma studies and psychoanalytic theory to trace the workings of desire that produced the book of Ruth and shaped its history of reception. Wrestling with the arguments for and against reading Ruth as a love story between women, Powell gleans new insights into the ancient world in which Ruth was written. Ruth is known as a tale of two courageous women, the Moabite Ruth and her Israelite mother-in-law Naomi. As widows with scarce means of financial or social support, Ruth and Naomi are forced to creatively subvert the economic and legal systems of their day in order to survive. Through exceptional acts of loyalty, they, along with their kinsman Boaz, re-establish the bonds of family and community, while preserving the line of Israel's great king David. Yet for many, the story of Ruth is deeply dissatisfying. Scholars increasingly recognize how Ruth's textual "gaps" and ambiguities render conventional interpretations of the book's meaning and purpose uncertain. Feminist and queer interpreters question the appropriation of a woman's story to uphold patriarchal institutions and heteronormative values. Such avenues of inquiry lend themselves to questions of narrative desire, that is, the study of how stories frame our desires and how our own complex longings affect the way we read.

Sight and Insight shows how prominent are terms from the semantic field of sight in the book of Genesis. They are constantly found in openings, at turning points, and as constituents in place-names and personal names. Because of their presence at strategic points in the plot of Genesis, words of sight enhance cohesion among the narratives of the book. From the beginning of time, according to Genesis, there have been numerous instances of seeing on the part of both God and humans. But as Genesis progresses, God gradually becomes more hidden and his seeing gives place to human perception. These observations are built upon a sound theoretical foundation, outlined in the opening chapter, which provides a clear definition of the concept of 'semantic field' and an explanation of related semantic terms such as 'frames' and 'prototypes'. Subsequent chapters identify the words that can be assigned to the 'sight' field, examine the deployment of the sight field in individual narratives in Genesis, and study the sight field over larger sections of the book. This is the sixth volume of the Amsterdam Studies in the Bible and Religion (ed. Athalya Brenner), a sub-series of the Bible in the Modern World and Hebrew Bible Monographs.

The biblical apocalyptic books of Daniel and Revelation are, for better or worse, polarizing. Interpreters have long read and searched these books for clues about how their worlds will "end," which each new interpreter promising to have "unlocked" how Daniel and Revelation work together to uncover a divine plan for prophetic fulfillment. Redding uses the Vision of the Fourth Beast from Daniel 7 as a case study to consider how interpretations of texts take on lives of their own, eventually wedding interpretation with text and prompting the question: what even is a text? Is it what is on the page, something interpreters put there, or a combination of both? Starting with the literature of the Levant, this work traces the use of motifs, images, and themes through Daniel, Revelation, and into pre-Enlightenment Christian thinkers to consider hermeneutical trajectories that shaped (and continue to shape) how modern readers engage biblical apocalyptic literature.

This volume examines the stories of Genesis in music, showing how musical settings can illuminate many of the Bible's most noted tales. Helen Leneman studies oratorios, operas and songs (as well as their librettos) to shed light on how Genesis has been understood and experienced over time. Examining an extensive range of musical settings of stories from the book of Genesis, Leneman offers an overview of chiefly 19th and 20th century musical engagements with this biblical text. Leneman first discusses how Eve's inner thoughts are explored by noted French composers Jules Massenet and Gabriel Faure. The text then enters the deep waters of Noah's flood in examination of several compositions, including two unusual settings by Igor Stravinsky and Benjamin Britten, as well as more conventional settings by Saint-Saens and Donizetti. Two major 19th century oratorio settings of Abraham's story by lesserknown German composers Martin Blumner and Karl Mangold provide fascinating illuminations of the Abraham narratives, whereas parts of Rebecca's story are found in works by Cesar Franck, Ferdinand Hiller, and most unusually, by a French woman composer, Celanie Carissan. Finally, Leneman shows how Joseph's story was set in numerous oratorios (including by Handel) but that one of the most important works based on his story is an opera by 18th century French composer Etienne Mehul. In addition to discussing these larger 19th century works, Leneman also examines several interesting atonal 20th century works based on the stories of Eve and the Flood, shedding new light on the history of the interpretation of the Book of Genesis.

Mayer I. Gruber provides a new commentary on and translation of Hosea. Building upon his work that debunked the myth of sacred prostitution, Gruber now goes on to show that the book of Hosea repeatedly advocates a single standard of marital fidelity for men and women and teaches cheated women to fight back. Gruber employs the latest and most precise findings of lexicography and poetics to solve the difficulties of the text and to determine both how Hosea can be read and what this means. The translation differs from classical and recent renderings in eliminating forms and expressions, which are neither modern English nor ancient Hebrew. Referring to places, events, and material reality of the 9th and 8th centuries BCE, Gruber uncovers the abiding messages of the heretofore obscure book of Hosea. As in previous studies, Gruber employs the insights of behavioral sciences to uncover forgotten meanings of numerous allusions, idioms, similes, and metaphors. Judicious use is made also of textual history, reception history, and personal voice criticism. One of the least biblical books now speaks more clearly to present and future audiences than it did to many previous audiences.

Michael R. Stead introduces the books of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi in light of the latest biblical scholarship. Over the past four decades, there has been an explosion of interest in the postexilic prophets and their role within the Book of the Twelve, which has coincided with paradigm shifts in biblical studies generally. This study guide integrates insights from both historio-critical and literary approaches to examine the authorship, form, structure, and composition of these texts. In particular, this guide explores how the intertextual connections with other scriptures help to shape their meaning. It includes a concise section-by-section overview that highlights key interpretive issues and guides readers in their approach to the text.

A lengthy history of readers' struggles with Joel lies behind Merx's characterization of the book as "the problem child of Old Testament exegesis, insofar as the resources utilized by interpreters thus far are entirely insufficient to dispel its darkness". Long before Vernes posited that chapters 3-4 were a composition distinct from 1-2, Augustine voiced his perplexity about how the book constituted a unity. Many attempts to expound it as a unity have subdued the book's tensions through problematic harmonizations. On the other hand, theories of the book's development within the construction of a Book of the Twelve not only bar understanding the book as a whole, but also fall short of explaining its composition. In this volume, Ronald L. Troxel acknowledges the perennial problems raised by the book, but argues that taking account of the signs of its genre elucidates numerous cruxes and spotlights salient interpretive features that are infrequently discussed. Recognizing that chapter four comprises a series of late additions permits recognition of narrative markers that unite the first three chapters as a product of schriftgelehrte Prophetie, "scribal prophecy". The book's features align well with those of two other prophetic narratives fashioned as composite works: Jonah and Haggai. All three books are better accounted for in this way than through the prism of redactional expansion. Correlatively, the long-standing arguments against chapter 3 as the literary continuation of chapters 1-2 prove reliant on social conceptions of prophecy that are alien to schriftgelehrte Prophetie. Instead, Troxel shows Joel 3 to be the culmination of a didactic narrative meant to prepare a future generation to survive the Day of the Lord. The first chapter of Troxel's study illuminates the persistent conundrums addressed in the history of interpretation, as well as the social contexts from which resolutions have been proposed. Chapters two and three address the book's composite texture and narrative marks, while chapter four expounds its distinctive eschatology. The fifth chapter synthesizes these observations in a synopsis of Joel's genre, scope, and meaning.

For decades, the prophetic book of Joel has been the focus of scrutiny that belies its brevity. It captures readers with its vivid descriptions of locusts and military invasion and the distress that they cause. It then reveals the concern of YHWH for the covenant community as it systematically reverses the crises that it announces. The book of Joel also offers a window into the rhetorical function of "the day of YHWH" as it uses the phrase to announce both judgment and restoration. Reflecting the creativity of the Old Testament prophetic spirit, the book then guides its readers from utter anguish to the hope of restoration, rooted in the presence of YHWH. From the Depths of Despair to the Promise of Presence delves into Joel's rhetoric and explores the ways in which it seeks to persuade its audience to adopt its perspective in order to respond to a time of crisis. Barker evaluates the state of the discussion surrounding Joel's composition and relationship to the Book of the Twelve. He develops a model of rhetorical criticism that builds on the foundations of previous approaches and proposes modifications that address the specific challenges posed by the book of Joel. He then puts this model into practice and demonstrates that the book of Joel moves from scenes of devastation to promises of restoration in articulating the necessity of calling and relying on YHWH in all circumstances. He explores the persuasive potential of Joel by focusing on its rhetorical structures and strategy. He examines the way the book of Joel engages its audience and guides the people to realize that they must turn to YHWH so that YHWH will turn and bring restoration. From the Depths of Despair to the Promise of Presence invites the reader to enter into the world of Joel. It calls the reader to experience the ways in which the book of Joel intertwines threats of destruction and the hope of renewal in order to reveal the character of YHWH.

Antonios Finitsis provides a distinctive view social worldview and message of Zechariah. Zechariah 1-6 is unlike most of the prophets in the Hebrew Bible. He is pro-establishment and he conveys his message mostly with visions. These observations have led to scholarly disagreements as to how one should understand his role. Antonios Finitsis mediates this disagreement by triangulating the relationship of Zechariah's visionary mode of expression, his message and his function. Zechariah has often been seen as a link between prophecy and apocalypticism. However, Finitsis argues again assuming the presence of this link - warning against the potential for reductionist thinking. Furthermore, Proto-Zechariah's viewpoint is particular to the post-exilic social setting. His visions are influenced by the social circumstances in which they are expressed. Proto-Zechariah refers to the near future using elements from the community's present. Therefore, Finitsis defines the message of Proto-Zechariah one of restoration eschatology, suggesting that the text is addressed to a small province plagued by inner-community conflicts. The text succeeds in alleviating social discord by empowering the people to rebuild their community. This presents a unique and challenging understand of Zechariah's prophetic role. "The Library of Second Temple Studies" is a premier book series that offers cutting-edge work for a readership of scholars, teachers, postgraduate students and advanced undergraduates in the field of Second Temple studies. All the many and diverse aspects of Second Temple study are represented and promoted, including innovative work from historical perspectives, studies using social-scientific and literary theory, and developing theological, cultural and contextual approaches.

A key text in the study of the minor prophets, this volume by distinguished academic William Rainey Harper offers a comprehensive look at the pre-prophetic movement, and in-depth analysis of meaning and literary form in these prophetic works.

Since the seventies, no study has examined the methodologies of Josephus' rewriting of an entire biblical book as part of his Judean Antiquities. This book attempts to fill this vacuum by exploring Josephus' adaptation of the books of Samuel, penetrating the exegetical strategies he employs to modify the biblical stories for his intended audience. Through meticulous comparison of the biblical narrative and Josephus' Antiquities, broader issues - such as Josephus' attitude towards monarchy and women - gradually come to light, challenging long-held assumptions. This definitive exploration of Josephus' rewriting of Samuel illuminates the encounter between the ancient texts and its relevance to scholarly discourse today.