Apocalypticism arose in ancient Judaism in the last centuries BCE and played a crucial role in the rise of Christianity. It is not only of historical interest: there has been a growing awareness, especially since the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, of the prevalence of apocalyptic beliefs in the contemporary world. To understand these beliefs, it is necessary to appreciate their complex roots in the ancient world, and the multi-faceted character of the phenomenon of apocalypticism. The Oxford Handbook of Apocalyptic Literature is a thematic and phenomenological exploration of apocalypticism in the Judaic and Christian traditions. Most of the volume is devoted to the apocalyptic literature of antiquity. Essays explore the relationship between apocalypticism and prophecy, wisdom and mysticism; the social function of apocalypticism and its role as resistance literature; apocalyptic rhetoric from both historical and postmodern perspectives; and apocalyptic theology, focusing on phenomena of determinism and dualism and exploring apocalyptic theology's role in ancient Judaism, early Christianity, and Gnosticism. The final chapters of the volume are devoted to the appropriation of apocalypticism in the modern world, reviewing the role of apocalypticism in contemporary Judaism and Christianity, and more broadly in popular culture, addressing the increasingly studied relation between apocalypticism and violence, and discussing the relationship between apocalypticism and trauma, which speaks to the underlying causes of the popularity of apocalyptic beliefs. This volume will further the understanding of a vital religious phenomenon too often dismissed as alien and irrational by secular western society.

The Book of Isaiah is considered one of the greatest prophetic works in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. The complex history of the book's composition, over several time periods, can often perplex and enthrall. The editors to this volume encourage readers to engage deeply with the text in order to get a grasp of the traces and signs within it that can be seen to point to the book's process of composition and ongoing reinterpretation over time. The contributions discuss suggested segments of composition and levels of interpretation, both within the book of Isaiah and its history of reception. The book is divided into two sections: in the first part certain motifs that have come to Isaiah from a distant past are traced through to their origins. Arguments for a suggested 'Josianic edition' are carefully evaluated, and the relationship between the second part of Isaiah and the Book of Psalms is discussed, as are the motifs of election and the themes of Zion theology and the temple. The second part of the book focuses on the history of reception and looks at Paul's use of the book of Isaiah, and how the book is used, and perhaps misused in a contemporary setting in the growing churches in Africa. With a range of international specialists, including Hugh Williamson, Tommy Wasserman, and Knut Holter, this is an excellent resource for scholars seeking to understand Isaiah in a greater depth.

The festive meal texts of Deuteronomy 12-26 depict Israel as a unified people participating in cultic banquets - a powerful and earthy image for both preexilic Judahite and later audiences. Comparison of Deuteronomy 12:13-27, 14:22-29, 16:1-17, and 26:1-15 with pentateuchal texts like Exodus 20-23 is broadened to highlight the rhetorical potential of the Deuteronomic meal texts in relation to the religious and political circumstances in Israel during the Neo-Assyrian and later periods. The texts employ the concrete and rich image of festive banquets, which the monograph investigates in relation to comparative ancient Near Eastern texts and iconography, the zooarchaeological remains of the ancient Levant, and the findings of cultural anthropology with regard to meals.

In The Wandering Throne of Solomon: Objects and Tales of Kingship in the Medieval Mediterranean Allegra Iafrate analyzes the circulation of artifacts and literary traditions related to king Solomon, particularly among Christians, Jews and Muslims, from the 10th to the 13th century. The author shows how written sources and objects of striking visual impact interact and describes the efforts to match the literary echoes of past wonders with new mirabilia. Using the throne of Solomon as a case-study, she evokes a context where Jewish rabbis, Byzantine rulers, Muslim ambassadors, Christian sovereigns and bishops all seem to share a common imagery in art, technology and kingship.

How can one distinguish between narrative, which records a sequence of events, and a narrator's comment on these events, in the form of notes, clarifications, and retellings? Syntax of Targumic Aramaic: A Text-Linguistic Reading of 1 Samuel applies the insights of Functional Sentence Perspective and Text Linguistics to Targum 1 Samuel. Through this analysis, Condrea answers key questions about Aramaic syntax and recovers the voice and contributions of the text's narrator.

In the Book of Ezra-Nehemiah, Ezra commands Yehudite men to put away their foreign wives to avoid further defiling the 'holy seed'. What is the meaning of this warning? Are Ezra's words to be understood as a concern about race-mixing or is it emblematic of some more complex set of problems prevalent in the fledgling postexilic community? Ezra's words, with their seemingly racialized thinking, have been influential in much political, religious and popular culture in the USA. It has been a backdrop for constructing racial reality for centuries, melding seemingly biblical ideologies with accepted European Enlightenment-era ideas about racial superiority and inferiority. Willa Johnson combines archaeological data with social-scientific theory to argue for a new interpretation. In this anthropological and narratological analysis, Johnson views Ezra's edict in the light of ancient Yehudite concerns over ethnicity, gender, sexuality and social class following the return from exile. In this context, she argues, the warning against intermarriage appears to be an effort to reconstitute identity in the aftermath of the cataclysmic political dominance by first the Babylonian and then the Persian empires. This book represents a postmodern interdisciplinary approach to understanding an ancient biblical socio-political situation. As such, it offers fresh perspectives on ways that interpretations of the Bible continue to reflect the ideologies of its interpreters.

After a long and painful wait for the Jewish exiles, Ezra and Nehemiah lead their people back to the Promised Land. Despite hardships and setbacks, they would rebuild their nation in time for the arrival of its Messiah. Whenever we are tempted to doubt the promises of God these books remind us that that God is a promise-keeper that is able to redeem any situation. God inspired the Bible for a reason. He wants you read it and let it change your life. If you are willing to take this challenge seriously, then you will love Phil Moore's devotional commentaries. Their bite-sized chapters are punchy and relevant, yet crammed with fascinating scholarship. Welcome to a new way of reading the Bible. Welcome to the Straight to the Heart series.

An Invitation to Biblical Poetry is an accessibly written introduction to biblical poetry that emphasizes the aesthetic dimensions of poems and their openness to varieties of context. It demonstrates the irreducible complexity of poetry as a verbal art and considers the intellectual work poems accomplish as they offer aesthetic experiences to people who read or hear them. Chapters walk the reader through some of the diverse ways biblical poems are organized through techniques of voicing, lineation, and form, and describe how the poems' figures are both culturally and historically bound and always dependent on later reception. The discussions consider examples from different texts of the Bible, including poems inset in prose narratives, prophecies, psalms, and wisdom literature. Each chapter ends with a reading of a psalm that offers an acute example of the dimension under discussion. Students and general readers are invited to richer and deeper readings of ancient poems and the subjects, problems, and convictions that occupy their imagination.

Informed by the understanding that all texts are intertexts, this work develops and employs a method that utilizes the concept of intertextuality for the purpose of exploring the history of interpretation of a biblical text. With Day One, Genesis 1.1-5, as the primary text, the intertextuality of this biblical text is investigated in its Hebrew (Masoretic Text) and Greek (Septuagint) contexts. The study then broadens to take up the intertextuality of Day One in other Hebrew and Greek texts up to c. 200 CE, moving from Hebrew texts such as Ben Sira and the Dead Sea Scrolls to Greek texts such as Josephus, Philo, the New Testament, and early Christian texts. What emerges from this is a new glimpse of the intertextuality of Day One that provides insight into the complexity of the intertextuality of a biblical text and the role that language plays in intertextuality and interpretation. In addition to the methodological insights that this approach provides to the history of interpretation, the study also sheds light on textual and theological questions that relate to Day One, including the genesis of creatio ex nihilo.

The theology of Isaiah 40-55 has two seemingly contradictory aspects: the tension between the consolatory message of deliverance, and the harsh tone of accusation and the call to repentance. This study argues that such tension does not necessarily disclose a different authorship, but that it expresses the basic nature of the relationship between YHWH and the Israelites, in which the actions of YHWH and the actions of the people stand in a relationship of interdependence. Such interdependence is essential for the re-establishment and the continued existence of the relationship between YHWH and his people, as well as for shaping the identity of both the exiled and the non-exiled Israelite communities in the latter part of the sixth century B.C.E.

In this work Calum Carmichael-a legal scholar who applies a literary approach to the study of the Bible-shows how each law and each narrative in Numbers, the least researched book in the Pentateuch, responds to problems arising in narrative incidents in Genesis. The book continues Carmichael's process of demonstrating how every law in the Pentateuch is a response to a problem arising in a biblical narrative, not to an inferred societal situation.

The Fantastic in Religious Narrative from Exodus to Elisha argues that perspectives drawn from literary-critical theories of the fantastic and fantasy are apt to explore Hebrew Bible religious narratives. The book focuses on the narratives' marvels, monsters, and magic, rather than whether or not the stories depict historical events. The Exodus narrative (Ex 1-18) and a selection of additional Hebrew Bible narratives (Num 11-14, Judg 6-8, 1 Kings 17-19, 2 Kings 4-7) are analysed from a fantasy-theoretical perspective. The 'fantasy perspective' helps to make sense of elements of these narratives that - although prominently featured in the stories - have previously often been explained by being explained away. These case studies can illuminate Hebrew Bible religion and offer wider perspectives on religious narrative generally. In light of the fantasy-theoretical approach, these Hebrew Bible stories - with the Exodus narrative at the centre - read not as foundational stories, affirming triumphantly and unambiguously the bond between the deity, his people, and their territory, but rather as texts that harbour and even actively encourage ambiguity and uncertainty, not necessarily prompting belief, orientation, and a sense of meaningfulness, but also open-ended reflection and doubt. The case studies suggest that other religious narratives, both in and beyond the Judaic tradition, may also be amenable to interpretation in these terms, thus questioning a dominant trend in myth studies. The results of the analyses lead to a discussion of the role of ambiguity, uncertainty, and transformation in religious narrative in broader perspective, and to a questioning of the emphasis in the study of religion on the capacity of religious narrative for founding and maintaining institutions, orienting identity, and defending order over disorder. The book suggests the wider importance of incorporating destabilisation, disorientation, and ambiguity more strongly into theories of what religious narrative is and does.

Distinguished Old Testament scholar Walter Kaiser believes that the Old Testament is sorely neglected today in teaching and preaching, but it is even more neglected when it comes to setting forth the hope that Christians have for the future. Firmly believing that the Old Testament offers important insights into biblical eschatology and the Christian life, he provides guidance for expositing fifteen key Old Testament eschatological passages to preachers, teachers, and Bible students. Each chapter focuses on a single biblical text. Kaiser introduces the topic, examines the issues, notes who has contributed to some of the solutions, and shows how this sets up the text to be exegeted and prepared for exposition.

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah have been neglected in Old Testament scholarship, but as Dean Ulrich demonstrates in this valuable study, new in the NSBT series, Ezra-Nehemiah as a literary unit is part of the Christian Bible that tells God's grand story of saving activity. Now and Not Yet explores how the narrative theology of Ezra and Nehemiah shows us how to be a godly participant in God's story, and how the moral imperatives of leadership are bound up in the larger context of God's acts and promises: God's redeemed community that is bigger than any individual person, and at the heart of this is mission - participation in God's purpose for his world. Seeing these books as the record of the beginning of a new work of God among his people after the exile, Ulrich also illuminates how the theology of Ezra and Nehemiah connects to the larger biblical narrative and leads to the first coming of Jesus. Insightful and accessible, Now and Not Yet is a brilliant addition to the New Studies in Biblical Theology series. It is ideal for students, pastors and anyone looking for studies on Ezra and Nehemiah that dig deeply into their theology, particularly in relation to biblical mission. Now and Not Yet will leave you with a greater understanding of Ezra-Nehemiah as a literary unit, and how its theology is still relevant for Christians today - the new work it reveals enables God's people to be restored in their relationship with God, through both hope in God's promises and obedience to his instruction concerned with mission.

In this guide, Philip Peter Jenson provides an introduction to Leviticus, examining its structure, character, and content. In particular, he focuses on explaining the basic concepts that inform the rituals and ethics of Leviticus. This is especially the case for the pervasive and complex category of holiness, along with its antithesis, impurity. Overall, Jenson's emphasis is on the overarching coherence of the book and how it reached its present canonical form. Leviticus is a difficult book for most readers, describing rituals that are no longer practiced and reflecting a culture that is vastly different from that of the modern West. Yet it is the central book of the first section of the Bible of both Jews and Christians, and it is at the heart of the law revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai. It includes the foundational texts on matters such as sacrifice or love for one's neighbour. In this comprehensive introduction, Jenson offers extensive analysis, and concludes each chapter with reflections on the contemporary significance of the texts being discussed.

An adulterous woman repeatedly spurns the love of her youth, while her betrayed husband offers forgiveness and seeks to win her back and restore the intimacy of their first love. With this bold and uncomfortable imagery, Hosea tells the story of God and his people. The message is made more poignant as God calls the prophet to embody this divine suffering and redeeming forgiveness in his own marriage. Hosea's own story thus sets the stage for his message of God's faithful and enduring love, his righteous judgement and also his continuing offer of reconciliation and a new beginning. Robin Routledge's commentary explores the historical, cultural, literary and theological dimensions of the book, and offers a guide to its continuing message of judgement, hope and restoration.

In The Present State of Old Testament Studies in the Low Countries fifteen leading scholars from Belgium and the Netherlands give an overview of their work. This collection celebrating the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Oudtestamentisch Werkgezelschap brings together the results of high quality research on many fields, from computer-assisted analysis to biblical theology, from the archaeology of Palestine to early rabbinic exegesis, from logotechnical analysis to delimitation criticism. It shows that Old Testament research in Belgium and the Netherlands is multifaceted and innovative.

Rest in Mesopotamian and Israelite Literature studies the concept of rest in the Hebrew Bible and ancient Near Eastern literature. Through close examination of Mesopotamian texts and selections from the Deuteronomistic History and Chronicles, Kim delineates a concept of rest for each body of literature, and employs a comparative approach to illuminate the rest motif in the Hebrew Bible in light of Mesopotamian literature.

Nahum's prophecy of Nineveh's coming destruction. Habakkuk's probing dialogue with the Lord of Israel. Zephaniah's warning to Jerusalem's last great king. The texts of these minor but important prophets receive a fresh analysis in this introduction and commentary. Fanie Snyman considers each book's historical setting, structure and literary features as well as important theological themes.

Recent advances in cognitive linguistics provide new avenues for reading and interpreting Biblical Hebrew prophetic text. This volume utilises a multi-layered cognitive linguistics approach to explore Jeremiah 1:1-6:30, incorporating insights from cognitive grammar, cognitive science and conceptual blending theory. While the modern reader is separated from the originators of these texts by time, space and culture, this analysis rests on the theory that both the originators and the modern reader share common features of embodied experience. This opens the way for utilising cognitive models, conceptual metaphor and mental spaces theory when reading and interpreting ancient texts. This volume provides an introduction to cognitive theory and method. Initially, short examples from Jeremiah 1:1-6:30 are used to introduce the theory and method. This is followed by a detailed comparison of traditional and cognitive approaches to Biblical Hebrew grammar. These insights are then applied to further examples taken from Jeremiah 1:1-6:30 in order to test and refine the approach. These findings show that Jeremiah 1:1-1:3 establishes perspective for the text as a whole and that subsequent shifts in perspective may be tracked using aspects of mental spaces theory. Much of the textual content yields to concepts derived from conceptual metaphor studies and from conceptual blending theory, which are introduced and explained using examples taken from Jeremiah 1:1-6:30. The entire analysis demonstrates some of the strengths and weaknesses of using recent cognitive theories and methods for analysing and interpreting ancient texts. While such theories and methods do not obviate the need for traditional interpretive methods, they do provide a more nuanced understanding of the ancient text.

The Texts @ Contexts series gathers scholarly voices from diverse contexts and social locations to bring new or unfamiliar facets of biblical texts to light. Joshua and Judges focuses attention on themes and tensions at the beginning of Israel's story in the Bible. How do these books represent conquest, war, trauma, violence against women and their marginalization? How does God appear to relate to these realities? And what do contemporary men and women do with biblical ambivalence? Like other volumes in the Texts @ Contexts series, these essays de-center the often homogeneous first-world orientation of much biblical scholarship and open up new possibilities for discovery.

This is a crucial study for those asking God 'Why?' Job's persistence in seeking an answer from God as to why he was suffering has many lessons to teach us. These 12 studies will help anyone who is wrestling with God. This revised title features questions for starting group discussions and for meeting God in personal reflection, as well as a 'now or later' section in each study.