In this volume, Brian Charles DiPalma examines masculinities in the court tales of Daniel as a test case for issues facing the burgeoning area of gender studies in the Hebrew Bible. In doing so, it both analyses how the court tales of Daniel portray the characters in terms of configurations of masculinity in their socio-historical context, and also seeks to advance gender studies in the Hebrew Bible on theoretical, methodological, and political grounds. Masculinities in the Court Tales of Daniel is therefore of interest not only to scholars working on Daniel, but also biblical scholars studying gender in the Hebrew Bible more broadly, including those engaged in feminist criticism, queer criticism, and studies of masculinity, as well as anyone studying gender within an ancient Near Eastern context.

"The chequered story of the Kings, a matter of nearly five centuries, had ended disastrously in 587 B.C. with the sack of Jerusalem, the fall of the monarchy and the removal to Babylonia of all that made Judah politically viable. It was a death to make way for a rebirth." So begins Derek Kidner in this introduction and commentary to the books of Ezra and Nehemiah which chart the Jews' return from exile to Jerusalem and the beginnings of that rebirth. As the drama unfolds, we see how international politics, nationalist pride, wise leadership, political intrigue and opportunism, internal dissension and compromise all shape events. But above all and through all we see the good hand of God at work. The original, unrevised text of this volume has been completely retypeset and printed in a larger, more attractive format with the new cover design for the series.

This new commentary on Zechariah is a part of the 46-volume New American Commentary series--an acclaimed resource for ministers and Bible students who want to understand and delve more deeply into the Scriptures. Based on the New International Version, the volume exhibits sound methodology reflecting research done in the Scripture's original languages. NIV text printed in the body of the commentary aids in cross-reference and study. Featured at academic conferences, the book is also a publicity focus on top theological blogs and publications. The author is an associate dean for the Research Doctoral Program and an associate professor Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas. He also serves on the Old Testament editorial board for the Bulletin for Biblical Research.

This book anchors its account of the beauty of Jesus Christ to a scheme found in St Augustine of Hippo's Expositions of the Psalms. There Augustine recognized the beauty of Christ at every stage-from his pre-existence ('beautiful in heaven'), through his incarnation, the public ministry ('beautiful in his miracles, beautiful in calling to life'), passion, crucifixion, burial, resurrection ('beautiful in taking up his life again'), and glorious life 'in heaven'. Augustine never filled out this laconic summary by writing a work on Christ and his beauty. The Beauty of Jesus Christ seems to be the first attempt in Christian history to write a comprehensive account of the beauty of Christ in the light of Augustine's list. The work begins by offering a working description of what it understands by beauty as being perfect, harmonious, and radiant. Beauty, above all the divine beauty, enjoys inexhaustible meaning and overlaps with 'the holy' or the awesome and fascinating mystery of God. Loving beauty opens the way to truth and helps us grasp and practise virtue. The books needs to add some items to Augustine's list by recognizing Christ's beauty in his baptism, transfiguration, and post-resurrection sending of the Holy Spirit. It also goes beyond Augustine by showing how the imagery and language Jesus prepared in his hidden life and then used in his ministry witness to the beautiful sensibility that developed during his years at home in Nazareth. Throughout, this book draws on the Scriptures to illustrate and justify Augustine's brief claims about the beauty revealed in the whole story of Christ, from his pre-existence to his risen 'post-existence'. Where appropriate, it also cites the witness to Christ's beauty that has come from artists, composers of sacred music, the creators of icons, and writers.

The ancient poems we call Psalms are over 2000 years old. They were written in very different times from our own when humans could travel at the speed of a camel, not at the speed of sound. But these songs have stood the test of time for they address many of the problems we still face: violence, injustice, anger and bewilderment. Why do the wicked prosper? Where is God when we suffer? In this 5 session course, Bishop Stephen Cottrell, a prolific and popular author, reflects on the psalms in general, and five psalms in particular. He invites us to join him as he does so. This York Course is available in the following formats: Course Book (Paperback 9781909107106) Course Book (eBook 9781909107632 both ePub and Mobi files provided) Audio Book of Interview to support The Psalms York Course (CD 9781909107458) Audio Book of Interview (Digital Download 9781909107618) Transcript of interview to support The Psalms York Course (Paperback 9781909107113) Transcript of interview (eBook 9781909107649 both ePub and Mobi files provided) Book Pack (9781909107465 Featuring Paperback Course Book, Audio Book on CD and Paperback Transcript of Interview) Large print (9781909107625) The five sessions focus on: SESSION 1: Know that the Lord is God (Psalm 100) SESSION 2: Out of the depths have I cried (Psalm 130) SESSION 3: How long, O Lord? (Psalm 13) SESSION 4: You spread a table before me (Psalm 23) SESSION 5: Unless the Lord builds the house (Psalm 127) The participants on the course audio are the Dominican Friar Fr Timothy Radcliffe; the Revd John Bell of the Iona Community; the Bishop of Dover, Rose-Hudson Wilkin and Revd Dr Jane Leach, the Principal of Wesley House Cambridge.

Leslie C. Allen introduces students to the 1 & 2 Chronicles in the Old Testament, incorporating insights from over two decades of previous scholarship while grounding his analysis in earlier key works. "A Message for Yehud" sums up what has been judged to be a fundamental motivation underlying the whole book, a conviction that the obligation to "seek the Lord" in the light of the Torah and prophetic texts must be laid on the hearts of the community of Yehud in the fourth century BCE. To this end, using Samuel-Kings as a basis, Chronicles reviewed pre-exilic royal history for positive and negative clues as to how the generation for which it was written might achieve this spiritual ideal. In the book, Allen shows how this program was communicated all through the book by literary and rhetorical means.

The book of Chronicles has had a chequered past. Neglected for many years under the fortunate name of Paraleipomen or 'Things omitted', meant that they occupied a subordinate position in the Scriptures until the 4th century AD when the title 'A Chronicle of the whole Sacred History' was suggested instead. This has since been shortened to Chronicles and the rest is, literally history. Probably penned by Ezra, Chronicles is a selective history of the Jews encouraging them to trust that God is intimately involved in their story. Written at a time when the Jews were newly out of captivity and with their capital city in ruins, Chronicles assures them of God's faithfulness. If they would obey and serve him then his people would still enjoy his blessing. Cyril Barber has also written Focus on the Bible's commentary on 1 Chronicles.

Whereas many books in this field deal with individual aspects or texts of the study of family laws, Leviticus: The Priestly Laws and Prohibitions from the Perspective of Ancient Near East and Africa examines extensively biblical texts, ancient Near Eastern text, and oral traditions from Africa. Thus, three different cultures converge: the world of the Hebrew Bible, the world of the ancient Near East, and the world of Africa. This volume examines in detail the history of the development of ancient laws in general and family laws in particular, especially the laws relating to marriages between close relatives. Furthermore, Johnson M. Kimuhu looks at prohibitions and taboos in Africa and the problems they pose with regard to the interpretation and translation of difficult biblical concepts into African languages. In that sense, Kimuhu provides an example of how to contextualize or integrate African traditions into the study of biblical Hebrew, and he also offers insights into the current debate on the study of kinship from the point of view of social/cultural anthropology and the Hebrew Bible legal system. Teachers, students, and researchers in biblical studies, ancient Near Eastern studies, African traditions, and social/cultural anthropology will find this book helpful in their quest to understand family laws, prohibitions, and taboos.

The Word Biblical Commentary delivers the best in biblical scholarship, from the leading scholars of our day who share a commitment to Scripture as divine revelation. This series emphasizes a thorough analysis of textual, linguistic, structural, and theological evidence. The result is judicious and balanced insight into the meanings of the text in the framework of biblical theology. These widely acclaimed commentaries serve as exceptional resources for the professional theologian and instructor, the seminary or university student, the working minister, and everyone concerned with building theological understanding from a solid base of biblical scholarship. Overview of Commentary Organization Introduction-covers issues pertaining to the whole book, including context, date, authorship, composition, interpretive issues, purpose, and theology. Each section of the commentary includes: Pericope Bibliography-a helpful resource containing the most important works that pertain to each particular pericope. Translation-the author's own translation of the biblical text, reflecting the end result of exegesis and attending to Hebrew and Greek idiomatic usage of words, phrases, and tenses, yet in reasonably good English. Notes-the author's notes to the translation that address any textual variants, grammatical forms, syntactical constructions, basic meanings of words, and problems of translation. Form/Structure/Setting-a discussion of redaction, genre, sources, and tradition as they concern the origin of the pericope, its canonical form, and its relation to the biblical and extra-biblical contexts in order to illuminate the structure and character of the pericope. Rhetorical or compositional features important to understanding the passage are also introduced here. Comment-verse-by-verse interpretation of the text and dialogue with other interpreters, engaging with current opinion and scholarly research. Explanation-brings together all the results of the discussion in previous sections to expose the meaning and intention of the text at several levels: (1) within the context of the book itself; (2) its meaning in the OT or NT; (3) its place in the entire canon; (4) theological relevance to broader OT or NT issues. General Bibliography-occurring at the end of each volume, this extensive bibliographycontains all sources used anywhere in the commentary.

The Word Biblical Commentary delivers the best in biblical scholarship, from the leading scholars of our day who share a commitment to Scripture as divine revelation. This series emphasizes a thorough analysis of textual, linguistic, structural, and theological evidence. The result is judicious and balanced insight into the meanings of the text in the framework of biblical theology. These widely acclaimed commentaries serve as exceptional resources for the professional theologian and instructor, the seminary or university student, the working minister, and everyone concerned with building theological understanding from a solid base of biblical scholarship. Overview of Commentary Organization Introduction-covers issues pertaining to the whole book, including context, date, authorship, composition, interpretive issues, purpose, and theology. Each section of the commentary includes: Pericope Bibliography-a helpful resource containing the most important works that pertain to each particular pericope. Translation-the author's own translation of the biblical text, reflecting the end result of exegesis and attending to Hebrew and Greek idiomatic usage of words, phrases, and tenses, yet in reasonably good English. Notes-the author's notes to the translation that address any textual variants, grammatical forms, syntactical constructions, basic meanings of words, and problems of translation. Form/Structure/Setting-a discussion of redaction, genre, sources, and tradition as they concern the origin of the pericope, its canonical form, and its relation to the biblical and extra-biblical contexts in order to illuminate the structure and character of the pericope. Rhetorical or compositional features important to understanding the passage are also introduced here. Comment-verse-by-verse interpretation of the text and dialogue with other interpreters, engaging with current opinion and scholarly research. Explanation-brings together all the results of the discussion in previous sections to expose the meaning and intention of the text at several levels: (1) within the context of the book itself; (2) its meaning in the OT or NT; (3) its place in the entire canon; (4) theological relevance to broader OT or NT issues. General Bibliography-occurring at the end of each volume, this extensive bibliographycontains all sources used anywhere in the commentary.

A recent string of popular-level books written by the New Atheists have leveled the accusation that the God of the Old Testament is nothing but a bully, a murderer, and a cosmic child abuser. This viewpoint is even making inroads into the church. How are Christians to respond to such accusations? And how are we to reconcile the seemingly disconnected natures of God portrayed in the two testaments?
In this timely and readable book, apologist Paul Copan takes on some of the most vexing accusations of our time, including:

God is arrogant and jealous
God punishes people too harshly
God is guilty of ethnic cleansing
God oppresses women
God endorses slavery
Christianity causes violence
and more

Copan not only answers God's critics, he also shows how to read both the Old and New Testaments faithfully, seeing an unchanging, righteous, and loving God in both.

"The stories you are about to read are some of the most violent and sexually explicit in all of Western literature. They are tales of human passion in all of its infinite variety: adultery, seduction, incest, rape, mutilation, assassination, torture, sacrifice, and murder. . . ."

Sex. Violence. Scandal. These are words we rarely associate with the sacred text of the Bible. Yet in this brilliant book, Jonathan Kirsch recounts shocking tales that have been suppressed by religious authorities throughout history. Kirsch places each story within the political and social context of its time, delves into the latest biblical scholarship to explain why each one was originally censored, and shows how these ancient narratives hold valuable lessons for all of us.

In "Out of Eden," Paul W. Kahn offers a philosophical meditation on the problem of evil. He uses the Genesis story of the Fall as the starting point for a profound articulation of the human condition. Kahn shows us that evil expresses the rage of a subject who knows both that he is an image of an infinite God and that he must die. Kahn's interpretation of Genesis leads him to inquiries into a variety of modern forms of evil, including slavery, torture, and genocide.

Kahn takes issue with Hannah Arendt's theory of the banality of evil, arguing that her view is an instance of the modern world's lost capacity to speak of evil. Psychological, social, and political accounts do not explain evil as much as explain it away. Focusing on the existential roots of evil rather than on the occasions for its appearance, Kahn argues that evil originates in man's flight from death. He urges us to see that the opposite of evil is not good, but love: while evil would master death, love would transcend it.

Offering a unique perspective that combines political and cultural theory, law, and philosophy, Kahn here continues his project of advancing a political theology of modernity.

In this volume, Douglas Yoder uses the tools of modern and postmodern philosophy and biblical criticism to elucidate the epistemology of the Tanakh, the collection of writings that comprise the Hebrew Bible. Despite the conceptual sophistication of the Tanakh, its epistemology has been overlooked in both religious and secular hermeneutics. The concept of revelation, the genre of apocalypse, and critiques of ideology and theory are all found within or derive from epistemic texts of the Tanakh. Yoder examines how philosophers such as Spinoza, Hume, and Kant interacted with such matters. He also explores how the motifs of writing, reading, interpretation, image, and animals, topics that figure prominently in the work of Derrida, Foucault, and Nietzsche, appear also in the Tanakh. An understanding of Tanakh epistemology, he concludes, can lead to new appraisals of religious and secular life throughout the modern world.

Jewish culture places a great deal of emphasis on texts and their means of transmission. At various points in Jewish history, the primary mode of transmission has changed in response to political, geographical, technological, and cultural shifts. Contemporary textual transmission in Jewish culture has been influenced by secularization, the return to Hebrew and the emergence of modern Yiddish, and the new centers of Jewish life in the United States and in Israel, as well as by advancements in print technology and the invention of the Internet. Volume XXXI of Studies in Contemporary Jewry deals with various aspects of textual transmission in Jewish culture in the last two centuries. Essays in this volume examine old and new kinds of media and their meanings; new modes of transmission in fields such as Jewish music; and the struggle to continue transmitting texts under difficult political circumstances. Two essays analyze textual transmission in the works of giants of modern Jewish literature: S.Y. Agnon, in Hebrew, and Isaac Bashevis Singer, in Yiddish. Other essays discuss paratexts in the East, print cultures in the West, and the organization of knowledge in libraries and encyclopedias.

Using narrative devices such as allusions and free associations, multivalent expressions, and irony, the author of Esther wrote a story that is about a Jewish woman, Esther, during the time of the Persian exile of Yehudites, and the Persian king, Ahasuerus, who was in power at the time. At various junctures, the author also used secret writing, or we could say that he conveys mixed messages: one is a surface message, but another, often conflicting message lies beneath the surface. For instance, the outer portrayal of the king as one of the main protagonists is an ironic strategy used by the author to highlight the king's impotent, indecisive, "antihero" status. He may wield authority-as symbolized by his twice-delegated signet ring-but he remains powerless. Among all the concealments in the story, the concealment of God stands out as the most prominent and influential example. A growing number of scholars regard the book of Esther as a "comic diversion," the function and intention of which are to entertain the reader. However, Grossman is more convinced by Mikhail Bakhtin's approach, and he labels his application of this approach to the reading of Esther as "theological carnivalesque." Bakhtin viewed the carnival (or the carnivalesque genre) as a challenge by the masses to the governing establishment and to accepted social conventions. He described the carnival as an eruption of ever-present but suppressed popular sentiments. The connection between the story of Esther and Bakhtin's characterization of the carnivalesque in narrative is evident especially in the book of Esther's use of the motifs of "reversal" and "transformation." For example, the young girl Esther is transformed from an exiled Jewess into a queen in one of the turnabouts that characterize the narrative. Many more examples are provided in this analysis of one of the Bible's most fascinating books.

An ambitious introduction to the Apocrypha that encourages readers to reimagine what "canon" really means Challenging the way Christian and non-Christian readers think about the Apocrypha, this is an ambitious introduction to the deuterocanonical texts of the Christian Old Testaments. Lawrence Wills introduces these texts in their original Jewish environment while addressing the very different roles they had in various Christian canons. Though often relegated to a lesser role, a sort of "Bible-Lite," these texts deserve renewed attention, and this book shows how they hold more interest for both ancient and contemporary communities than previously thought.

The present volume contains a collection of articles from an international conference in Zurich that brought together leading voices from North America, Europe, and Israel to evaluate the present state of research on the composition of the Pentateuch. The aim of the conference was to clarify differences in methodology and to identify points of convergence in the present state of pentateuchal research as a basis for further discussion. "The essays in this volume provide important insights about the way toward a better understanding of the Pentateuch's literary development." Angela Roskop Erisman in Journal of the American Oriental Society 133.3 (2013), p. 551-553

In A Reader of Ancient Near Eastern Texts: Sources for the Study of the Old Testament, leading biblical scholar Michael D. Coogan presents a collection of texts that introduce students to the larger world surrounding the Old Testament. Dating from the third millennium BCE to the turn of the era, the readings have been carefully selected from the most accurate sources and arranged by genre and place of origin. They provide historical correlations to people and events mentioned in the Bible; parallels to biblical genres, motifs, institutions, and concepts; and windows into the lives of ordinary people. The texts are enhanced by chapter and reading introductions, extensive biblical references, and illustrations.
Package this anthology with Michael D. Coogan's The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures, Second Edition (OUP, 2010) or A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: The Hebrew Bible in Its Context, Second Edition (OUP, 2011) for use in your course and save your students 20%. Please contact your Oxford University Press Sales Representative at 800.280.0280 for details.

Gustave Dore and the Modern Biblical Imagination explores the role of biblical imagery in modernity through the lens of Gustave Dore (1832-83), whose work is among the most reproduced and adapted scriptural imagery in the history of Judeo-Christianity. First published in France in late 1865, Dore's Bible illustrations received widespread critical acclaim among both religious and lay audiences, and the next several decades saw unprecedented dissemination of the images on an international scale. In 1868, the Dore Gallery opened in London, featuring monumental religious paintings that drew 2.5 million visitors over the course of a quarter-century; when the gallery's holdings travelled to the United States in 1892, exhibitions at venues like the Art Institute of Chicago drew record crowds. The United States saw the most creative appropriations of Dore's images among a plethora of media, from prayer cards and magic lantern slides to massive stained-glass windows and the spectacular epic films of Cecile B. DeMille. This book repositions biblical imagery at the center of modernity, an era that has often been defined through a process of secularization, and argues that Dore's biblical imagery negotiated the challenges of visualizing the Bible for modern audiences in both sacred and secular contexts. A set of texts whose veracity and authority were under unprecedented scrutiny in this period, the Bible was at the center of a range of historical, theological, and cultural debates. Gustave Dore is at the nexus of these narratives, as his work established the most pervasive visual language for biblical imagery in the past two and a half centuries, and constitutes the means by which the Bible has persistently been translated visually.

Mirrors of the Divine brings into focus how four influential authors of the late ancient world-Tertullian of Carthage, Clement of Alexandria, Gregory of Nyssa, and Augustine of Hippo-employ language of vision and of mirrors in their discursive struggles to construct Christian agency, identity, and epistemology. Early Christian authors described the vision of God through the Pauline verse 1 Corinthians 13:12: "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face." Yet each author interpreted this verse differently, based on a diverse set of assumptions about how they understood seeing and mirrors to function: does vision occur by something leaving or entering the eye? Is one impacted by seeing or by being seen? Do mirrors offer trustworthy knowledge? Spanning the second through fourth centuries CE in both Eastern and Western Christianity, Mirrors of the Divine analyzes these four authors' theological writings on vision and knowledge of God to explore how contradictory theories of sight shaped their cosmologies, theologies, subjectivities, genders, and discursive worlds. As Emily R. Cain demonstrates, how the authors portray eyes reveals how they envisioned one's relationship to the world, while how they portray mirrors reveals how they imagined the unknown. Both have dramatic impacts on how one interprets what it means to see God through a mirror dimly. She shows that arguments about the phenomenon of visual perception are deeply intertwined with broader debates about identity, agency, and epistemology, and uncovers some of the most self-conscious ways that late ancient Christians thought of themselves, their worlds, and their God.

In "Out of Eden," Paul W. Kahn offers a philosophical meditation on the problem of evil. He uses the Genesis story of the Fall as the starting point for a profound articulation of the human condition. Kahn shows us that evil expresses the rage of a subject who knows both that he is an image of an infinite God and that he must die. Kahn's interpretation of Genesis leads him to inquiries into a variety of modern forms of evil, including slavery, torture, and genocide.

Kahn takes issue with Hannah Arendt's theory of the banality of evil, arguing that her view is an instance of the modern world's lost capacity to speak of evil. Psychological, social, and political accounts do not explain evil as much as explain it away. Focusing on the existential roots of evil rather than on the occasions for its appearance, Kahn argues that evil originates in man's flight from death. He urges us to see that the opposite of evil is not good, but love: while evil would master death, love would transcend it.

Offering a unique perspective that combines political and cultural theory, law, and philosophy, Kahn here continues his project of advancing a political theology of modernity.