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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Christianity > The Bible > Old Testament
ECPA Top Shelf Book Cover Award Biblical Foundations Book Award
Winner Sandra L. Richter cares about the Bible. She also cares
about creation. An expert in ancient Israelite society and economy
as well as biblical theology, she walks readers through passages
familiar and not-so-familiar, showing how significant environmental
theology is to the Bible's witness. She then calls Christians to
apply that message to today's environmental concerns. Richter is a
master Bible scholar. Each chapter draws out a biblical mandate
about humanity's responsibility to care for the land, domestic and
wild creatures, and people on the margins. She is also a master
storyteller. Well informed on present-day environmental challenges,
Richter includes case studies that connect the biblical mandates to
current issues. Though modern political alliances may tempt readers
to sever Christian faith from environmental stewardship, in this
concise and accessible book, Richter urges us to be driven by God's
values instead.
This study focuses on the Chronicler's special interest in Levite
singers. It takes into consideration the socio-ideological milieu
of the Jerusalem temple community in the Persian period and the
Mesopotamian elite professional norms and practices that nourished
the singers and their music. It also explores the conception of the
earthly temple as representative of its heavenly counterpart, and
looks at the way in which this shaped the Chronicler's theological
frame of reference. The work is divided into two parts. Part I
examines the Mesopotamian scribal-musical background, to which Ko
attributes the rise of music in Chronicles. Part II considers the
Chronicler's ideological perspective, the language of the temple
and the educational, scribal, and liturgical services of Levite
singers. By focusing on the characterisation of the Levite singers
in the light of their Mesopotamian counterparts, Ko shows how they
sought to foster cosmic stability according to the terms of the
Davidic covenant.
Kamrada's study analyses three narratives concerning the greatest
heroic figures of the biblical tradition: Jephthah's daughter,
Samson and Saul, and includes a consideration of texts about King
David. All three characters are portrayed as the greatest and most
typical and exemplary heroes of the heroic era. All three heroes
have an exceptionally close relationship with the deity all die a
traditionally heroic, tragic death. Kamrada argues that within the
Book of Judges and the biblical heroic tradition, Jephthah's
daughter and Samson represent the pinnacle of female and male
heroism respectively, and that they achieve super-human status by
offering their lives to the deity, thus entering the sphere of
holiness. Saul's trajectory, by contrast, exemplifies downfall of a
great hero in his final, irreversible separation from God, and it
also signals the decline of the heroic era. David, however, is
shown as an astute hero who founds a lasting dynasty, thus
conclusively bringing the heroic era in the Deuteronomistic history
to a close.
1 and 2 Kings unfolds an epic narrative that concludes the long
story of Israel's experience with institutional monarchy, a
sequence of events that begins with the accession of Solomon and
the establishment of the Jerusalem temple, moves through the
partition into north and south, and leads inexorably toward the
nation's destruction and the passage to exile in Babylon. Keith
Bodner's The Theology of the Book of Kings provides a reading of
the narrative attentive to its literary sophistication and
theological subtleties, as the cast of characters - from the royal
courts to the rural fields - are variously challenged to resist the
tempting pathway of political and spiritual accommodations and
instead maintain allegiance to their covenant with God. In dialogue
with a range of contemporary interpreters, this study is a
preliminary exploration of some theological questions that arise
from the Kings narrative, while inviting contemporary communities
of faith into deeper engagement with this enduring account of
divine reliability amidst human scheming and rapaciousness.
This book is concerned with ascertaining the value of having two
versions of the same monarchic history of Israel within the Hebrew
Bible (focusing on the books of Kings and Chronicles). It is
furthermore concerned with how the book of Chronicles is read in
relation to the book of Kings as Chronicles is so often considered
to be a later rewritten text drawing upon an earlier version of the
Masoretic Text of Samuel and Kings. The predominant scholarly
approach to reading the book of Chronicles is to read it in light
of how the Chronicler emended his source texts (additions,
omissions, harmonizations). This approach has yielded great success
in our understanding of the Chronicler's theology and rhetoric.
However, Cook asserts, it has also failed to consider how the book
of Chronicles can be read as an autonomous and coherent document.
That is, a diachronic approach to reading Chronicles sometimes
misses the theological and rhetorical features of the text in its
final form. This book shows the great benefit of reading these
narratives as autonomous and coherent by using the Solomon
narratives as a case study. These narratives are first read
individually, and then together, so as to ascertain their
uniqueness vis-a-vis one another. Finally, Cook addresses questions
related to the concordance of these narratives as well as their
purposes within their respective larger literary contexts.
David Janzen argues that the Book of Chronicles is a document with
a political message as well as a theological one and moreover, that
the book's politics explain its theology. The author of Chronicles
was part of a 4th century B.C.E. group within the post-exilic
Judean community that hoped to see the Davidides restored to power,
and he or she composed this work to promote a restoration of this
house to the position of a client monarchy within the Persian
Empire. Once this is understood as the political motivation for the
work's composition, the reasons behind the Chronicler's particular
alterations to source material and emphasis of certain issues
becomes clear. The doctrine of immediate retribution, the role of
'all Israel' at important junctures in Judah's past, the promotion
of Levitical status and authority, the virtual joint reign of David
and Solomon, and the decision to begin the narrative with Saul's
death can all be explained as ways in which the Chronicler tries to
assure the 4th century assembly that a change in local government
to Davidic client rule would benefit them. It is not necessary to
argue that Chronicles is either pro-Davidic or pro-Levitical; it is
both, and the attention Chronicles pays to the Levites is done in
the service of winning over a group within the temple personnel to
the pro-Davidic cause, just as many of its other features were
designed to appeal to other interest groups within the assembly.
In this book Barbara Green demonstrates how David is shown and can
be read as emerging from a young naive, whose early successes grow
into a tendency for actions of contempt and arrogance, of blindness
and even cruelty, particularly in matters of cult. However, Green
also shows that over time David moves closer to the demeanor and
actions of wise compassion, more closely aligned with God. Leaving
aside questions of historicity as basically undecidable Green's
focus in her approach to the material is on contemporary
literature. Green reads the David story in order, applying seven
specific tools which she names, describes and exemplifies as she
interprets the text. She also uses relevant hermeneutical theory,
specifically a bridge between general hermeneutics and the specific
challenges of the individual (and socially located) reader. As a
result, Green argues that characters in the David narrative can
proffer occasions for insight, wisdom, and compassion.
Acknowledging the unlikelihood that characters like David and his
peers, steeped in patriarchy and power, can be shown to learn and
extend wise compassion, Green is careful to make explicit her
reading strategies and offer space for dialogue and disagreement.
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Esther
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Peter H. W. Lau
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If Zechariah's vision report (Zechariah 1.8-6.8) reflects the
seer's visionary experience, how does that impact our understanding
of the gradual growth of the text? Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer builds on
the work done in her previous book Zechariah and His Visions
(Bloomsbury-T&T Clark, 2014), to demonstrate that the visionary
material forms the primary textual layer. The oracular texts
constitute chronologically later interpretations. Zechariah and/or
later authors/editors sought guidance in the earlier vision
accounts, and the oracular material reflects these endeavours.
Tiemeyer's investigation is guided by the question: what is the
latter material doing with the former? Is it enforcing,
contradicting, or adding to it? Using a ratio composed of the
difference between the intratexts and intertexts of Zech 1-8,
Tiemeyer shows how this ratio is higher in the oracular material
than in the visionary material. This difference points to the
different origin and the different purpose of the two sets of
material. While the earlier vision report draws on images found
primarily in other biblical vision reports, the later oracular
material has the characteristics of scribal interpretation. By
drawing on earlier material, it seeks to anchor its proposed
interpretations of the various vision accounts within the Israelite
textual tradition. It is clear that the divine oracles were added
to give, modify, and specify the meaning of the earlier vision
report.
Violence disturbs. And violent depictions, when encountered in the
biblical texts, are all the more disconcerting. Isaiah 63:1-6 is an
illustrative instance. The prophetic text presents the "Arriving
One" in gory details ('trampling down people'; 'pouring out their
lifeblood' v.6). Further, the introductory note that the Arriving
One is "coming from Edom" (cf. v.1) may suggest Israel's
unrelenting animosity towards Edom. These two themes: the "gory
depiction" and "coming from Edom" are addressed in this book.
Irudayaraj uses a social identity reading to show how Edom is
consistently pictured as Israel's proximate and yet 'other'-ed
entity. Approaching Edom as such thus helps situate the animosity
within a larger prophetic vision of identity construction in the
postexilic Third Isaian context. By adopting an iconographic
reading of Isaiah 63:1-6, Irudayaraj shows how the prophetic
portrayal of the 'Arriving One' in descriptions where it is clear
that the 'Arriving One' is a marginalised identity correlates with
the experiences of the "stooped" exiles (cf 51:14). He also
demonstrates that the text leaves behind emphatic affirmations
('mighty' and 'splendidly robed' cf. v.1; "alone" cf. v.3), by
which the relegated voice of the divine reasserts itself. It is in
this divine reassertion that the hope of the Isaian community's
reclamation of its own identity rests.
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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.
A collection of essays, lectures and printed materials that address
the issue of the proper use of the Old Testament in the church.
The book of Chronicles, the last book of the Hebrew Bible and a
central historical book of the Christian Old Testament, has in
recent decades gone from being "the Cinderella of biblical studies"
to being one of the most researched books of the Bible. The
anonymous author, often simply called "the Chronicler" by modern
scholars, looks back at the old Israelite monarchy, before the
Babylonian exile, from his vantage point in the post-exilic early
Second Temple Period, and attempts to "update" the older
historiographies of Samuel and Kings in order to elucidate their
meaning to the people of his own time. In The Chronicles of the
Kings of Judah, Yigal Levin does the same for the modern reader. He
offers a brand-new translation and commentary on 2 Chronicles
chapters 10-36, tracing the "sacred history" of the monarchy from
the division of Solomon's kingdom to the final exile and return.
Each chapter is translated from the original Hebrew into an English
that is both faithful to the original and easy for the modern
reader to follow. Extensive footnotes provide full explanations of
the translator's choices and of linguistic and literary issues,
taking note of alternative versions offered by a wide array of
ancient and modern versions and translations. The comprehensive
commentary on each section provides historical background and
explains the text both on a literary and a historical level, making
full use of the most up-to-date research on the text, literature,
history, geography and on the archaeological background of the
biblical world. The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah is to be
followed by The Chronicles of David and Solomon on 1 Chronicles 10
- 2 Chronicles 9, and then by The Chronicles of All Israel on the
genealogies of 1 Chronicles 1-9 and including comprehensive essays
on the book of Chronicles, its time, purposes, methods and
meanings.
A neglected area of study of the letter to the Hebrews is the
function of the Old Testament in the letter's logic. Compton
addresses this neglect by looking at two other ideas that have
themselves received too little attention, namely (1) the unique and
fundamental semantic contribution of Hebrews' exposition (vis-a-vis
its exhortation) and (2) the prominence of Ps 110 in the author's
exposition. The conclusion becomes clear that Hebrews'
exposition-its theological argument-turns, in large part, on
successive inferences drawn from Ps 110:1 and 4. Compton observes
that the author uses the text in the first part of his exposition
to (1) interpret Jesus' resurrection as his messianic enthronement,
(2) connect Jesus' enthronement with his fulfillment of Ps 8's
vision for humanity and, thus, (3) begin to explain why Jesus was
enthroned through suffering. In the second and third parts of his
exposition, the author uses the text to corroborate the narrative
initially sketched. Thus, he uses the text to (1) show that messiah
was expected to be a superior priest and, moreover, (2) show that
this messianic priest was expected to solve the human problem
through death.
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.
Pikor anaylzes the land of Israel in the book of Ezekiel showing
how its preoccupation with the Babylonian exile and the loss of the
Promised Land that this entails is directly linked to the danger
this poses to Israel's covenant with God. Pikor examines the motif
of land in its literary and historical contexts and in relation to
the oracles of salvation in chapters 34-39 as well as the vision of
the new Israel and the return of Yahweh's Glory to the temple.
Pikor begins by examining the motif of land in its literary and
historical contexts. The main body of the book then addresses
specific sections of Ezekiel. Chapter two analyzes the oracles of
punishment addressed to Israel, in which the land undergoes a
process of anthropomorphization. Chapter three situates the
punishment experienced by Ezekiel and his listeners in a broader
historical context suggested by the prophet in Ezekiel 20. Chapter
four analyses the oracles of salvation in Ezekiel 34-39, in which
the restoration of the land of Israel remains intertwined with the
promise of the new covenant. Finally, chapter five addresses the
closing vision of the new Israel (Ezekiel 40-48), which is
characterized by the territorial dimension of the future
restoration. This feature is shown via analysis of the rhetoric of
the land, the crucial element of which is the return of Yahweh's
Glory to the temple. God's presence adds sacral value to the land
in which his covenant with his people is to be realized. The
covenant will be finalized through Israel's repopulation of the
renewed land.
In the Baylor Handbook on the Hebrew Bible's most widely used
volume, Dennis Tucker provides a foundational analysis of the text
of Jonah.This second edition of Jonah is distinguished by the
detailed and comprehensive attention paid to the Hebrew text.
Tucker's analysis is a convenient pedagogical and reference tool
that explains the form and syntax of the biblical text, offers
guidance for deciding between competing semantic analyses, engages
important text-critical debates, and addresses questions relating
to the Hebrew text that arenot always addressed in standard
commentaries. Beyond serving as a succinct and accessible analytic
key,Jonahalso reflects the most up-to-dateadvances in scholarship
on Hebrew grammar and linguisticsaspecifically, this edition relies
onthe methodology of generative grammar utilized in other recent
volumes in this series.This handbook proves itself an indispensable
tool for anyone committed to a deep reading of the Hebrew biblical
text.
In this unique volume, father-and-son team Walter and John
Brueggemann take a close look at our fractured American society and
suggest ways for improvement. Using six themes identified by some
scholars as the moral foundations of societycare, fairness,
liberty, loyalty, authority, and sanctitythey examine the
unsustainable patterns of our contemporary society and reveal how
those patterns played out in the ancient world of the Old
Testament. Brueggemann and Brueggemann demonstrate how comparing
the current state of these moral foundations with what God wanted
them to be can help us better respond to the challenges of today.
They assert that achieving any significant change will require the
work of all of us and will be grounded in a vision of
neighborliness. Rebuilding the Foundations will inspire readers to
reorient toward a better way of living, both for themselves and for
all living things.
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.
Roy L. Heller looks at the prophets Elijah and Elisha in the books
of Kings charting a two-fold characterization that portrays these
prophetic figures in both positive and negative lights. In the
narratives of Kings Elijah and Elisha often parallel other
prophetic figures from Israel's history: they perform miraculous
signs, they speak in the name of God, and they pronounce judgments
upon the nation of Israel for its idolatrous worship. There are,
however, other stories which have troubled readers and scholars
alike: Elijah's cowardly running from the threats of Jezebel, his
self-pitying complaint to God that he was the only true Israelite
left, and Elisha's cursing a group of little boys who, in turn, are
slaughtered by two female bears. Scholars have traditionally
ignored or belittled the negative stories of the prophets, seeing
them as either late additions to the biblical text or as minor,
unimportant stories that can easily be dismissed. Heller, however,
argues that the dual characterization of Elijah and Elisha reflects
an ambivalent attitude that the narrator of Kings has toward
prophecy as a whole, an attitude that is reflected in the book of
Deuteronomy itself. This forces readers of the biblical text to
pose the question; "how may Israel best know and follow God?" The
stories of Elijah and Elisha make the answer clear: the words and
lives of the prophets are a possible way for God to reveal how
Israel is to live, but those words and lives must always be
considered with a degree of suspicion and must always be evaluated
in light of the clear and straightforward teaching of Deuteronomy.
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