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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

For thousands of years, the Book of Psalms has been one of God's people's richest resources for expression of worship and development of the spiritual life. At the same time it is one of the more complex and challenging sections of the Bible for expositors. Pastors, teachers, and all serious students of the Bible will find this commentary invaluable for developing their understanding of the Psalms and for improving their ability to expound it with precision and depth.

For each psalm, Dr. Allen Ross guides the reader through a detailed exegetical outline, proposes a homiletical outline, and offers a summary expository idea of the message of the whole psalm.

The commentary includes discussion throughout of three primary challenges to understanding the Psalms: Textual issues: Every major textual difficulty is addressed in order to help the expositor understand the interpretive issues and make decisions when there are multiple available readings.Poetic language: The Psalms are full of poetic imagery, devices and structures. Ross discusses this "language" of Hebrew poetry in its context with each psalm, specifying the precise devices being used and how they work in the psalm.The Psalms' Hebrew grammar and syntax pose a challenge to many expositors, whether they are familiar with Hebrew or not. This commentary illuminates Hebrew constructions word meanings in a way that is helpful both to readers who are comfortable with Hebrew and those who are not.

The Mudil Codex from the late 4th century contains the Biblical Psalms in Coptic. However, the text differs significantly from familiar versions of the Psalms, giving rise to the question of whether we are dealing with an original form of the text. The comprehensive analysis presented here demonstrates the tradition in which this fascinating text is located, how it arose, and what significance it has for research into the Psalms generally and the Coptic Bible manuscripts in particular.

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.

? As long as the TUAT has not been completed and remains hardly affordable for students, this continues to be a useful collection for instruction purposes. Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Christoph Markschies"

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

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.

Ben Sira is properly regarded as one of the most significant representatives of Jewish wisdom literature. Georg Sauer, the renowned Viennese Old Testament scholar, addresses the many sides of these scriptural writings in the present volume. He explores text-immanent questions regarding the structure, content, and theological meaning of Ben Sira s book in consideration of evidence from Hebrew and Greek texts. In addition, this study illuminates the historical background and context for Ben Sira s work as well as explores questions about the history of its interpretation in Judaism and Christianity.

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.

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.

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.

"Do you have wisdom to count the clouds?" asks the voice of God from the whirlwind in the stunningly beautiful catalogue of nature-questions from the Old Testament Book of Job. Tom McLeish takes a scientist's reading of this ancient text as a centrepiece to make the case for science as a deeply human and ancient activity, embedded in some of the oldest stories told about human desire to understand the natural world. Drawing on stories from the modern science of chaos and uncertainty alongside medieval, patristic, classical and Biblical sources, Faith and Wisdom in Science challenges much of the current 'science and religion' debate as operating with the wrong assumptions and in the wrong space. Its narrative approach develops a natural critique of the cultural separation of sciences and humanities, suggesting an approach to science, or in its more ancient form natural philosophy - the 'love of wisdom of natural things' - that can draw on theological and cultural roots. Following the theme of pain in human confrontation with nature, it develops a 'Theology of Science', recognising that both scientific and theological worldviews must be 'of' each other, not holding separate domains. Science finds its place within an old story of participative reconciliation with a nature, of which we start ignorant and fearful, but learn to perceive and work with in wisdom. Surprisingly, science becomes a deeply religious activity. There are urgent lessons for education, the political process of decision-making on science and technology, our relationship with the global environment, and the way that both religious and secular communities alike celebrate and govern science.

New volume in the TOTC replacement programme