Dale Ralph Davis plunges right into the middle of King David's hard times with a study that is resonant for our lives. King David's faith brought him through the muddy parts of life. Will we find that depression is our final response to a hard path? Will faith carry us across? Find the encouragement that Psalms 13-24 hold for the Scripture-filled life.

For years, Douglas Stuart's Old Testament Exegesis has been one of the most popular ways to learn how to perform exegesis-the science and art of interpreting biblical texts properly for understanding as well as proclamation. This new edition includes a major revision and expansion of online and other resources for doing biblical research and updates past editions by including a helpful configuration of the format for the exegesis process. Stuart provides guidance for full exegesis as well as for a quicker approach specifically tailored to the task of preaching. A glossary of terms explains the sometimes-bewildering language of biblical scholarship, and a list of frequent errors guides the student in avoiding common mistakes. No exegetical guide for the Old Testament has been more widely used in training ministers and students to be faithful, careful interpreters of Scripture.

This study guide introduces students to the Book of Proverbs from the Old Testament. Zoltán Schwáb examines the book's structure and characteristics; covers the latest Biblical scholarship, including historical and interpretive issues; and considers a range of scholarly approaches from historical-critical through feminist to theological. The guide encourages existential engagement with Proverbs, and uses diverse tools in order to achieve this. A brief chapter by chapter commentary on Proverbs will highlight the major themes of each of its sections. The playful ambiguity and poetry of the proverbs is also discussed. A special emphasis will be placed on how different historical, literary, or performance contexts can influence a proverb’s meaning. Finally, the guide presents an overview of the rich heritage of African interpretation of proverbs. With suggestions of further reading at the end of each chapter, this guide will be an essential accompaniment to the study of the Book of Proverbs.

The impact of Gilles Deleuze on critical thought in the opening decades of the twenty-first century rivals that of Jacques Derrida or Michel Foucault on critical thought in the closing decades of the twentieth. The "Deleuze and..." industry is in overdrive in the humanities, the social sciences, and beyond, busily connecting Deleuzian philosophy to everything from literature to architecture, metaphysics to mathematics, ethics to physics, sexuality to technology, and ecology to theology. What of Deleuze and the Bible? What does the Bible become when it is plugged into the Deleuzian corpus? An immense affective assemblage, among other things. And what does biblical criticism become in the process? A practice of close reading that is other than interpretation and renounces the concept of representation. Not just for those already familiar with the work of Deleuze, the book begins with an extended introduction to Deleuzian thought. It then proceeds to unexegetical explorations of five successive themes: Text (how to make yourself a Bible without Organs, and why); Body (why there are no bodies in the Bible, and how to read them anyway); Sex (a thousand tiny sexes, a trillion tiny Jesuses); Race (Jesus and the white faciality machine); and Politics (democracy, despots, pandemics, ancient prophets). Cumulatively, these explorations limn the fluid contours of a Bible after Deleuze.

This guide to Ezra and Nehemiah showcases the latest developments and most up-to-date scholarship on these important texts. Ezra and Nehemiah tell the story of the people in Yehud in the 6th and the 5th centuries BCE. This was a time of economic hardship. The people living in and around Jerusalem were scratching out a living in a land that had been devastated by war. It was also a time of soul searching. Having lost their political autonomy and national identity, the people in Yehud had to find new ways of understanding and shaping their identity. Ezra and Nehemiah provide glimpses of these issues by way of an assortment of narratives, lists, letters, and other types of records. The readers encounter different voices and different opinions. Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer provides an overview of the various texts and the topics, concerns, and disputes that they reflect. The guide also zooms in on select key issues pertaining to the development of the text, its historical background(s), the quest for identity, and its afterlife in Jewish and Christian traditions.

This collection of leading scholars presents reflections on both wisdom as a general concept throughout history and cultures, as well as the contested nature of the category of Wisdom Literature. The first half of the collection explores wisdom more generally with essays on its relationship to skill, epistemology, virtue, theology, and order. Wisdom is examined in a number of different contexts, such as historically in the Hebrew Bible and its related cultures, in Egypt and Mesopotamia, as well as in Patristic and Rabbinic interpretation. Additionally, wisdom is examined in its continuing relevance in Islamic, Jewish, and Christian thought, as well as from feminist, environmental, and other contextual perspectives. The second half of the volume considers "Wisdom Literature" as a category. Scholars address its relation to the Solomonic Collection, its social setting, literary genres, chronological development, and theology. Wisdom Literature's relation to other biblical literature (law, history, prophecy, apocalyptic, and the broad question of "Wisdom influence") is then discussed before separate chapters on the texts commonly associated with the category. Contributors take a variety of approaches to the current debates surrounding the viability and value of Wisdom Literature as a category and its proper relationship to the concept of wisdom in the Hebrew Bible. Though the organization of the volume highlights the independence of wisdom as concept from "Wisdom Literature" as a category, seeking to counter the lack of attention given to this question in the traditional approach, the inclusion of both topics together in the same volume reflects their continued interconnection. As such, this handbook both represents the current state of Wisdom scholarship and sets the stage for future developments.

No other prophetic book rivals Isaiah's clear message, powerful imagery and confident hope in God's future deliverance. His vision of God's glory and holiness in chapter 6 permeates the whole book, and he never tires of correcting misplaced faith in power or false gods. While many scholars divide the book with the gap of about 150 years between chapters 39 and 40, Wegner highlights the unified message of the book with its three Introductions (Isa. 1:1; 2:1; 13:1) paired with its three refrains (Isa. 48:22; 57:21; 66:24), with both parts illuminating God's glorious plan for his people.

In many corners of the world these days the climate of hostility hangs over any overt Christian faith commitment. Any kind of Christian commitment is now assumed to imply intolerance and often prompts reactions that range from a low-grade hostility and exclusion in the West to the vicious and murderous assaults on Christian believers in Pakistan, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Syria and Iraq and elsewhere. Such issues are not new. Christians have faced them ever since Nero's lions, and even before that. Jews also have faced the same questions all through their history, most tragically sometimes enduring horrendous persecution from states claiming to be Christian. So it is not surprising that the Bible gives a lot of attention to these questions. The book of Daniel tackles the problem head on, both in the stories of Daniel and his friends, and in the visions he received. A major theme of the book is how people who worship the one, true, living God-the God of Israel-can live and work and survive in the midst of a nation, a culture, and a government that are hostile and sometimes life-threatening. What does it mean to live as believers in the midst of a non-Christian state and culture? How can we live "in the world" and yet not let the world own us and squeeze us into the shape of its own fallen values and assumptions? The book was written to encourage believers to keep in mind that the future, no matter how terrifying it may eventually become, rests in the hands of the sovereign Lord God-and in that assurance to get on with the challenging task of living in God's world for the sake of God's mission.

Ezra and the Second Wilderness addresses the relationship between Ezra, the Ezra Memoir, and the Pentateuch. Tracing the growth of the Ezra Memoir and its incorporation into Ezra-Nehemiah, Philip Y. Yoo discusses the literary strategies utilized by some of the composers and redactors operating in the post-exilic period. After the strata in Ezra 7-10 and Nehemiah 8-10 are identified, what emerges as the base Ezra Memoir is a coherent account of Ezra's leadership of the exiles from Babylon over the course of a single year, one that is intricately modelled on the multiple presentations of Moses and the Israelite wilderness preserved in the Pentateuch. Through discussion of the detected influences, allusions, and omissions between the Pentateuch and the Ezra Memoir, Yoo shows that the Ezra Memoir demonstrates a close understanding of its source materials and received traditions as it constructs the Babylonian returnees as the inheritors of torah and, in turn, the true and unparalleled successors of the Israelite cult. This study presents the Ezra Memoir as a sophisticated example of 'biblical' interpretation in the Second Temple period. It also suggests that the Ezra Memoir has access to the Pentateuch in only its constituent parts. Acknowledging not only the antiquity but also efficacy of its prototypes, the Ezra Memoir employs a variety of hermeneutical strategies in order to harmonize the competing claims of its authoritative sources. In closing the temporal gap between these sources and its own contemporary time, the Ezra Memoir grants authority to the utopic past yet also projects its own vision for the proper worship of Israel's deity.

A fundamental part of understanding one's ancestors is knowing when they were born, how long they lived, and when they died. Here in The Genesis Genealogies lies that crucial core information about the forebears of Christianity. Rev. Abraham Park has meticulously analyzed the information in The Book of Genesis. Taking the explicit date references in Genesis and performing math calculations forward and backward in time, he builds a complete chronological Biblical timeline from Adam to the Exodus, including the duration of construction of Noah's ark. With this Bible study of the cornerstone text of The Old Testament, we can more deeply understand the layers of meanings that Genesis offers. The Genesis Genealogies is a must-have for every Church Library. This title is part of The History of Redemption series which includes: Book 1: The Genesis Genealogies Book 2: The Covenant of the Torch Book 3: The Unquenchable Lamp of the Covenant Book 4: God's Profound and Mysterious Providence Book 5: The Promise of the Eternal Covenant

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.

Exploring the lively polemics among Jews, Christians, and Muslims during the Middle Ages, Hava Lazarus-Yafeh analyzes Muslim critical attitudes toward the Bible, some of which share common features with both pre-Islamic and early modern European Bible criticism. Unlike Jews and Christians, Muslims did not accept the text of the Bible as divine word, believing that it had been tampered with or falsified. This belief, she maintains, led to a critical approach to the Bible, which scrutinized its text as well as its ways of transmission. In their approach Muslim authors drew on pre-Islamic pagan, Gnostic, and other sectarian writings as well as on Rabbinic and Christian sources. Elements of this criticism may have later influenced Western thinkers and helped shape early modern Bible scholarship. Nevertheless, Muslims also took the Bible to predict the coming of Muhammad and the rise of Islam. They seem to have used mainly oral Arabic translations of the Hebrew Bible and recorded some lost Jewish interpretations. In tracing the connections between pagan, Islamic, and modern Bible criticism, Lazarus-Yafeh demonstrates the importance of Muslim mediation between the ancient world and Europe in a hitherto unknown field. Originally published in 1992. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

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.

There are many ancient West Asian stories that narrate the victory of a warrior deity over an enemy, typically a sea-god or sea dragon, and his rise to divine kingship. In The Conflict Myth and the Biblical Tradition, Debra Scoggins Ballentine analyzes this motif, arguing that it was used within ancient political and socio-religious discourses to bolster particular divine hierarchies, kings, institutions, and groups, as well as to attack others. Situating her study of the conflict topos within contemporary theorizations of myth by Bruce Lincoln, Russell McCutcheon, and Jonathan Z. Smith, Ballentine examines narratives of divine combat and instances of this conflict motif. Her study cuts across traditional disciplinary boundaries as well as constructed time periods, focusing not only on the Hebrew Bible but also incorporating Mesopotamian, early Jewish, early Christian, and rabbinic texts, spanning a period of almost three millennia - from the eighteenth century BCE to the early middle ages CE. The Conflict Myth and the Biblical Tradition advances our understanding of the conflict topos in ancient west Asian and early Jewish and Christian literatures and of how mythological and religious ideas are used both to validate and render normative particular ideologies and socio-political arrangements, and to delegitimize and invalidate others.

Das Buch befasst sich mit bedeutenden Dolmetschern und UEbersetzern aus 5000 Jahren auf der Basis umfangreicher Recherchen in Archiven und Bibliotheken. Aus der Geschichte der Translation sind erstmals aufgearbeitet: die Dolmetscher im Alten Testament, die Rolle der Pfortendolmetscher im Osmanischen Reich, die Dolmetschermemoiren uber die Kriegserklarung Deutschlands an die Sowjetunion am 22. Juni 1941 in der Gegenuberstellung mit neuen Dokumenten aus Archiven in Moskau und Washington sowie die Geschichte des Simultandolmetschens in der DDR. Grundlich beleuchten die Autorinnen die Tatigkeit der Russisch-Dolmetscher auf dem Nurnberger Prozess anhand schriftlicher und mundlicher Erinnerungen. Den Abschluss bilden Leben und Wirken der UEbersetzer der ersten russischen Ausgabe des Kapitals von Karl Marx.

This book explores the story of the Israelites' worship of the Golden Calf in its Jewish, Christian, and Muslim contexts, from ancient Israel to the emergence of Islam. It focuses in particular on the Qur'an's presentation of the narrative and its background in Jewish and Christian retellings of the episode from Late Antiquity. Across the centuries, the interpretation of the Calf episode underwent major changes reflecting the varying cultural, religious, and ideological contexts in which various communities used the story to legitimate their own tradition, challenge the claims of others, and delineate the boundaries between self and other. The book contributes to the ongoing reevaluation of the relationship between Bible and Qur'an, arguing for the necessity of understanding the Qur'an and Islamic interpretations of the history and narratives of ancient Israel as part of the broader biblical tradition. The Calf narrative in the Qur'an, central to the qur'anic conception of the legacy of Israel and the status of the Jews of its own time, reflects a profound engagement with the biblical account in Exodus, as well as being informed by exegetical and parascriptural traditions in circulation in the Qur'an's milieu in Late Antiquity. The book also addresses the issue of Western approaches to the Qur'an, arguing that the historical reliance of scholars and translators on classical Muslim exegesis of scripture has led to misleading conclusions about the meaning of qur'anic episodes.