What is the most important lesson in the word of God? In Matt. 22:34-40, Jesus summarizes the whole Bible into two commandments, being 'love for God' and 'love for thy neighbor' (Lev. 19:18). Why did Jesus cite Lev. 19:18 (love) instead of 19:2 (holiness), which is the core of this chapter? This book analyzes how Lev. 19 is unfolded from OT times to the message of the NT. It attempts to prove the importance of Lev. 19 in the canonical tradition of Judaism and Christianity and to identify the clues which can help to explain the reason why Jesus chose Lev. 19:18. Further, the book shows that holiness, one of the main issues in Lev. 19, is replaced by perfection in Matt. 5:48. This connection is shown through examining the Community Rule (1QS) of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which joins the themes of holiness and perfection. This combination serves as the 'missing link' to bridge the gap between Lev. 19 and Matt. 5. The method used to explore these texts is called 'a canonical unfolding.' After a commentary on Lev. 19 the chapter is compared to other connected texts. Finally, the meaning of Lev. 19 is reinterpreted in the whole context of the Canon.

Scholarly consensus on the relationship of the Letter to the Hebrews to the Old Testament is far from universal or uniform. This book aims to address this area in Hebrews scholarship, which is lacking a critical account of the dependence of Hebrews on the Old Testament, especially Leviticus, in constructing a meaningful text. The book examines how the author of Hebrews uses the textual levitical tabernacle theme to construct the central motif of the heavenly tabernacle in Hebrews. In analysing the ways in which Hebrews relates to the Old Testament, the author makes use of literary theorist Gerard Genette's concepts of transtextuality and transformation. These concepts help set in relief the variegated textual relationships Hebrews has with the Old Testament in general, and Leviticus in particular, and the transformations that are central to constituting meaning in Hebrews.

It has been widely recognized that the Book of the Twelve, Hosea to Malachi, was considered a single composition in antiquity. Recent articles and monographs have discussed the internal clues to this composition, but there has been little effort to understand the way the New Testament authors quote from the Twelve in light of the compositional unity of the book. The Twelve Prophets in the New Testament contends that New Testament quotations from the Twelve presuppose knowledge of the larger whole and cannot be understood correctly apart from awareness of the compositional strategy of the Twelve.

The two creation stories in Genesis 1-3 have been subject of intense study since the beginning of critical research on the Pentateuch in the eighteenth century. Even today, they continue to vex the biblical commentators. This work attempts to study one of these creation stories, namely the Eden Story narrated in Gen 2:4-3:24. This story graphically describes the first couple's installation in the Garden of Eden and their expulsion from it. These two themes have prompted some scholars to consider this story as a summary of Israel's history until the tragedy of exile and a prologue to the literary composition commonly called Enneateuch (Genesis - 2 Kings). Such a hypothesis is based on the premise that both Eden story and Israel's history have the same end: expulsion. The reason for such an end in both is disobedience. The study takes up this hypothesis and examines its viability. Furthermore, this work attempts to bring out the biblical message of this story. Gen 2-3 is an expression of Israel's faith resulting from its history with Yahweh and from its encounter with the surrounding cultures, and it intends to articulate a religious and anthropological identity for Israel.

Lessons from the book of Exodus: learn how to stop walking in circles and rely on God's grace to show you the way to his good promise. Do you wonder if you'll ever get back on track after suffering a major setback or traumatic experience? Do you wonder-even secretly-if God actually does keep his promises? Or if his love is far-reaching enough, his plan detailed enough to include even your daily struggles, habits, and hang-ups? In this Bible study, Rebecca Bender takes study groups and individuals straight into the book of Exodus where the Israelites are wandering after their own tracks immediately after escaping from bondage and oppression at the hands of Pharaoh. God is trying to get them to the land of his promise, but they, like many of us, are frustrated by doubts, fears, and self-destructive habits... This study guide will equip you to: See Exodus in a new and relatable way that will help you better understand God and yourself. Understand the historical and cultural nuances of Egypt to give you fresh insight into this powerful story. Learn applicable tips from the children of Israel by understanding what they did right and what they did wrong in order to reach their goals. Move beyond your own past and into your promises. Get back on track after experiencing a major setback in life or enduring a traumatic event. God has called you out of bondage-to sin, to doubt, to defeat-and into his Promised Land that flows with his grace and truth. This study guide includes biblical and historical background insights, practical application, group discussion questions, and a memory verse for each chapter. Inscribed is a collection of studies that lead women to not just survive but thrive by encouraging them to immerse themselves in the Word of God.

Biblical scholarship, like many other disciplines, has become increasingly isolated. As a result, the field has not borrowed as much from other areas of scholarship as it could have and has exerted a smaller impact upon the larger intellectual community. A significant portion of Pagans and Practitioners deals with how the New Testament can be read as a rebuttal of Pagan rivals. In doing so, greater linkages with other disciplines are reestablished. Discussion of how the tools developed by Biblical criticism can serve other, secular disciplines are provided. Collectively, this book explores how Biblical criticism can exert a greater impact upon the intellectual world.

Text, translation, theology - the three nouns in the title indicate the main fields of Old Testament study which are covered in this collection of essays. Text refers both to the history of biblical texts and to problems of textual criticism. Translation of the Hebrew Bible as a philological task is a central subject in several essays. Theology does not define what the essays are but what some of them are about: religious ideologies are objects of enquiry. Bertil Albrektson gathers together a selection of his essays, some of which have become classics, which were written on separate occasions and published in different, sometimes rather remote, places. They cover more than four decades of research, and for the first time they are now brought together in this accessible volume. Bertil Albrektson is a Swedish Old Testament scholar of international repute, awarded the Burkitt Medal for Biblical Studies by The British Academy in 2003. His writing was characterized by the late Professor P.R. Ackroyd of King's College, London, as 'a model of learning, clarity and dry humour'. This volume offers a unique resource to current scholars of biblical studies.

Ancient cultures, such as that of the Hebrews, commonly associated wisdom with advanced years. In A Biblical Theology of Gerassapience the author investigates the validity of this correlation through an eclectic approach - including linguistic semantic, tradition-historical, and socio-anthropological methods - to pertinent biblical and extra-biblical texts. There are significant variations in the estimation of gerassapience (or "old-age wisdom") in each period of ancient Israel's life - that is, in pre-monarchical, monarchical, and post-monarchical Israel. Throughout this study, appropriate cross-cultural parallels are drawn from the cultures of ancient Israel's neighbors and of modern societies, such as the West African Yoruba tribe. The overall results are bi-dimensional. On the one hand, there are semantic elements of gerassapience, such as the elusiveness of "wisdom" and the mild fluidity of "old age". Both terms have strong contextual affinity with minimal exceptions. Thus, the attribution of wisdom to old age is evident but not absolute in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). On the other hand, gerassapience is depicted as primarily didactic, through direct and indirect instructions and counsels of the elderly, fostering the saging fear-of-Yahweh legacies. On the whole, socio-anthropocentric tendencies of gerassapience (that is, of making old age a repertoire of wisdom) are checked by theological warrants of theosapience (Yahwistic wisdom). Therefore, in the Hebrew Bible, the fear of Yahweh is also the beginning of growing old and wise.

Religion, Ethnicity and Xenophobia in the Bible looks at some of the Bible's most hostile and violent anti-foreigner texts and raises critical questions about how students of the Bible and ancient Near East should grapple with "ethnicity" and "foreignness" conceptually, hermeneutically and theologically. The author uses insights from social psychology, cognitive psychology, anthropology, sociology and ethnic studies to develop his own perspective on ethnicity and foreignness. Starting with legends about Mesopotamian kings from the third millennium BCE, then navigating the Deuteronomistic and Holiness traditions of the Hebrew Bible, and finally turning to Deuterocanonicals and the Apostle Paul, the book assesses the diverse and often inconsistent portrayals of foreigners in these ancient texts. This examination of the negative portrayal of foreigners in biblical and Mesopotamian texts also leads to a broader discussion about how to theorize ethnicity in biblical studies, ancient studies and the humanities. This volume will be invaluable to students of ethnicity and society in the Bible, at all levels.

In Axis of Glory, Dan Lioy conducts a biblical and theological analysis of the temple motif as a conceptual and linguistic framework for understanding Scripture. His investigation takes a fresh look at the topic, assesses a representative group of the Judeo-Christian writings through the various prisms of secondary literature, and offers a synthesis of what appears in the biblical data. The author notes that references and allusions connected with the temple motif crisscross the entire literary landscape of Scripture. An additional finding is that the presence of the shrine concept is comparable to a series of rhetorical threads that join the fabric of God's Word and weaves together its seemingly eclectic and esoteric narratives into a richly textured, multicolored tapestry. The author concludes that the Bible's theocentric and Christocentric emphases are heightened in their intensity and sharpened in their focus due to the temple motif making its way through the pages of the sacred text, beginning with the opening chapter of Genesis and ending with the final chapter of Revelation.

The Old Testament as Authoritative Scripture in the Early Churches of the East represents the latest scholarly research in the field of Old Testament as Scripture in Eastern Christianity. Its twelve articles focus on the use of the Old Testament in the earliest Christian communities in the East. The collection explores the authoritative role of the Old Testament in the churches of the East and its impact on the church's doctrine, liturgy, canon law, and spirituality.

This unique study of the theology of the book of Daniel examines the cultic motif within the book as it relates to space and time. Numerous references and allusions to cult are investigated with linguistic, literary, and contextual analyses. The findings are then related to the main theological themes of the book such as judgment, eschatology, kingdom, and worship. It is evident that the idea of cult plays a dominant role in Daniel, and that it demonstrates the intention of the author to present the issue of conflict of two opposing systems of cult and worship. For all who are interested in an exegesis of Daniel that pays dutiful attention to the theology of Daniel, The Cultic Motif in the Book of Daniel is a must-read.

Today's biblical scholars and dogmaticians are giving a significant amount of attention to the topic of theological exegesis. A resource turned to for guidance and insight in this discussion is the history of interpretation, and Karl Barth's voice registers loudly as a helpful model for engaging Scripture and its subject matter. Most readers of Barth's theological exegesis encounter him on the level of his New Testament exegesis. This is understandable from several different vantage points. Unfortunately, Barth's theological exegesis of the Old Testament has not received the attention it deserves. This book seeks to fill this lacuna as it encounters Barth's theological exegesis of Isaiah in the Church Dogmatics. From the Church's inception, Isaiah has been understood as Christian Scripture. In the Church Dogmatics we find Barth reading Isaiah in multi-functional and multi-layered ways as he seeks to hear Isaiah as a living witness to God's triune revelation of himself in Jesus Christ.

The Trickster Revisited: Deception as a Motif in the Pentateuch explores the use of deception in the Pentateuch and uncovers a new understanding of the trickster's function in the Hebrew Bible. While traditional readings often «whitewash the biblical characters, exonerating them of any wrongdoing, modern scholars often explain these tales as significant at some earlier point in Israelite tradition. But this study asks the question: what role does the trickster have in the later pentateuchal setting? Considering the work of Victor Turner and the mythic function of the trickster, The Trickster Revisited explores the connections between tricksters, the rite de passage pattern, marginalization, and liminality. Marginalized individuals and communities often find trickster tales significant, therefore trickster stories often follow a similar literary pattern. After tracing this pattern throughout the Pentateuch, specifically the patriarchal narratives and Moses' interaction with Pharaoh in the Exodus, the book discusses the meaning these stories had for the canonizers of the Pentateuch. The author argues that in the Exile and post-exilic period, as the canon was forming, the trickster was the perfect manifestation of Israel's self-perception. The cognitive dissonance of prophetic words of hope and grandeur, in light of a meager socio-economic and political reality, caused the nation to identify itself as the trickster. In this way, Israel could explain its lowly state as a temporary (but still significant) «betwixt and between, on the threshold of a rise in status, i.e. the great imminent kingdom predicted by the prophets.

For hundreds of years, scholars have debated the meaning of Jesus' central theological term, the 'kingdom of God'. Most of the argument has focused on its assumed eschatological connotations and Jesus' adherence or deviation from these ideas. Within the North American context, the debate is dominated by the work of Norman Perrin, whose classification of the kingdom of God as a myth-evoking symbol remains one of the fundamental assumptions of scholarship. According to Perrin, Jesus' understanding of the kingdom of God is founded upon the myth of God acting as king on behalf of Israel as described in the Hebrew Bible. Moving Beyond Symbol and Myth challenges Perrin's classification, and advocates the reclassification of the kingdom of God as metaphor. Drawing upon insights from the cognitive theory of metaphor, this study examines all the occurrences of the 'God is king' metaphor within the literary context of the Hebrew Bible. Based on this review, it is proposed that the 'God is king' metaphor functions as a true metaphor with a range of expressions and meanings. It is employed within a variety of texts and conveys images of God as the covenantal sovereign of Israel; God as the eternal suzerain of the world, and God as the king of the disadvantaged. The interaction of the semantic fields of divinity and human kingship evoke a range of metaphoric expressions that are utilized throughout the history of the Hebrew Bible in response to differing socio-historical contexts and within a range of rhetorical strategies. It is this diversity inherent in the 'God is king' metaphor that is the foundation for the diversified expressions of the kingdom of God associated with the historical Jesus and early Christianity.

This volume presents recent international research results of Old Testament studies and related fields. The topics of the individual contributions vary widely and are concerned with exegetic and literary questions, historical and religious problems, as well as central questions of Theology of the Old Testament. In den Beitragen dieses Bandes werden neueste Forschungsergebnisse dargelegt, die weltweit mit der wissenschaftlichen Arbeit am Alten Testament sowie in den mit ihm in Verbindung stehenden Wissenschaftsgebieten erzielt wurden. Die Themen der einzelnen Aufsatze sind breit gefachert; sie betreffen sowohl exegetische und literarische Fragen als auch historische und religionsgeschichtliche Probleme sowie zentrale Fragen der Theologie des Alten Testaments.

Commentators have long set the book of Daniel within the context of world history and the genre of apocalyptic literature. The present volume argues that the primary context for the book is the composition of the Hebrew Bible as a whole. Daniel in the Context of the Hebrew Bible has implications for every major hermeneutical issue in Daniel including the four kingdoms, the son of man, and the prophecy of seventy sevens. In the final analysis, the Hebrew Bible and the book of Daniel are decidedly messianic, eschatological, and faith-oriented.

Voices of Marginality is theoretically grounded in the theology of the diaspora, which according to Fernando F. Segovia has been forged in the migratory experience of American Hispanics. This theological perspective views Judean exiles (587 B.C.E.) and contemporary Mexican migrants as part of a recurring diasporic human experience. The present analysis «reads across from the exile and return envisioned in the poetry of Second Isaiah (40-55) to the corridos (ballads) about Mexican immigration to the United States. More specifically, the diasporic categories of exile and return in Second Isaiah inform our reading of exile and return in the Mexican immigrant corridos. Conversely, the rhetorical ability of these corridos to transmit a collective Mexican identity for immigrants in the United States provides a compelling lens for understanding the images of exile and return in Second Isaiah. Ultimately, both literary productions reflect voices of marginality.

Western interpretations of poverty proverbs in the Old Testament Book of Proverbs have tended to see a status quo acceptance in the ancient texts, thus neglecting existential challenges of the poverty issue. In contrast, Lechion Peter Kimilike argues that African proverbial material on poverty may - when used comparatively to interpret the corresponding Old Testament poverty proverbs - create a more dynamic analysis. The author's new and thought-provoking interpretation suggests "an African transformational hermeneutic" that balances between the questions and methodology of the "global [i.e., western] guild" and the concerns of the African interpretative context.

The topic of this book is to scholars what Uranus was to Scientists before 1781. The ignorance of astrologers about the existence of Uranus before 1781 does not negate the factuality of its being. This is similar in the case of the Servant of God in John. His predicates are there, although the title is missing. Scholars and epochs have witnessed researches and contributions in the Gospel of John. Many see aspects of the Servant of God in John. But just as Uranus could not be seen but its existence was proven because of its effects on the orbits of the other planets, so the Servant of God of the Fourth Gospel could not be seen as a title but its effects on the other christological titles of the gospel indicate its reality in the gospel. The author's approach is purely exegetico-theological.

Mark O'Brien is a member of the Australian province of the Dominican order, also known as the Order of Preachers (OP). He joined the Order in 1967 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1973; he completed post-graduate biblical studies at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome and the Melbourne College of Divinity. He is the author of The Deuteronomistic History Hypothesis: A Reassessment and has co-authored several books on the Old Testament with Antony F. Campbell SJ. He is currently lecturing in Old Testament studies in the Melbourne College of Divinity. He has also lectured at the Catholic Institute of Sydney ain the Sydney College of Divinity, at Blackfriars, Oxford and at the National Catholic Institute of Theology in Karachi.

During the past two millennia, the Christian church has repeatedly faced challenges to its acknowledgment of both Old and New Testaments as Scripture. None of these challenges has been successful: at the dawn of the third Christian millennium, the Bible contains the same books as it did in the early church, with only slight variations between different traditions. And yet, doubts remain and questions continue to be asked. Do we need the Old Testament today? Is this collection of ancient writings still relevant in our postmodern and increasingly post-literary world? Isn't the New Testament a sufficient basis for the Christian faith? What does the Old Testament God of power and glory have to do with the New Testament God of love whom Jesus calls 'Father'? Are these two very different Testaments really one Bible? In this thoroughly revised, updated and expanded edition of Two Testaments, One Bible, David L. Baker investigates the theological basis for the continued acceptance of the Old Testament as Christian Scripture, through a study of its relationship to the New Testament. He introduces the main issues, surveys the history of interpretation, and critically examines four major approaches. He then considers four key themes, which provide a framework for Christian interpretation of two Testaments in the context of one Bible: 'typology', 'promise and fulfilment', 'continuity and discontinuity', and 'covenant'. He completes his study with a summary of the main conclusions and reflection on their implications for the use of the Bible today.

Grammarians have been unable to provide a sufficient explanation for the verbal system of Biblical Aramaic by means of the standard categories of tense and aspect. Michael B. Shepherd exposes this situation and suggests a way out of the present impasse through distributional analysis by proposing that Biblical Aramaic has a primary verbal form for narration and a primary verbal form for discourse. This simple yet comprehensive proposal holds true not only for Biblical Aramaic but also for extra-Biblical Aramaic texts. This volume is an indispensable resource for courses in Biblical Aramaic and for anyone who wishes to read and understand the Biblical Aramaic corpus.

The Narrative Effect of Book IV of the Hebrew Psalter takes seriously the canonical form to the text and suggests that there is a narrative effect that occurs as a reader of the Hebrew Bible encounters the canonical Psalter. Rather than reading the book of Psalms as an anthology, the reader can find lexical and thematic connections within the text that tell a story. The turning point of that story comes in Book IV (Psalms 90-106) when the text emphasizes the kingship of YHWH rather than David and a return to the covenant of Moses.

It is said in 2 Samuel 21: 1-14 that Yhwh sends a three-year famine to his people because of their former King Saul's misdeed against the Gibeonites, their old treaty partner. As we know, Saul died earlier in the battle against the Philistines on Mount Gilboa (1 Sam. 31: 1-6) - YHWH'S punishment for Saul's disobedience to his command (1 Sam. 28: 15-19). Why then does his cause have to be retired, and why in David's reign, and why, this time, with a huge national disaster? Is YHWH so vengeful as to continue exact punishment?