The Book of Psalms is often seen as an anthology of prayers and hymns from which the reader may extract a selection as need or interest dictates. However, a recent development in Psalms scholarship has been a discussion of whether the collection of psalms has some overall structure. Is the whole of the Book of Psalms greater than the sum of its individual parts? This commentary argues that it is and presents a continuous reading of the Book of Psalms. Moreover, the long-standing tradition, found within both Judaism and Christianity, of associating the psalms with David is used as a reading strategy. In this volume, the Psalms are presented sequentially. Each has its place in the collection but thirty-five are treated at greater length. They are read, at least in the first two books (Psalms 1-72), as if they were David's words. Beyond that a more complex and developed association between David and the Psalms is demanded. David becomes a figure of hope for a different future and a new royal reign reflecting the reign of Yahweh. Throughout, David remains a model of piety for all who seek to communicate with God in prayer. It is in light of this that later disasters in the life of Israel, especially the Babylonian Exile, can be faced. In the Book of Psalms, the past, in terms of both David's life and the history of Israel, is the key to future well-being and faithfulness.

Stephen D. Eyre leads you to explore this story of God's people seeking after him. As you trace their journey, experiencing their forward progress, their detours and their obstacles, you, too, will learn to follow God more closely.

In his Second Inaugural Address, delivered as the nation was in the throes of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that both sides "read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other." He wasn't speaking metaphorically: the Bible was frequently wielded as a weapon in support of both North and South. As James P. Byrd reveals in this insightful narrative, no book was more important to the Civil War than the Bible. From Massachusetts to Mississippi and beyond, the Bible was the nation's most read and respected book. It presented a drama of salvation and damnation, of providence and judgment, of sacred history and sacrifice. When Americans argued over the issues that divided them - slavery, secession, patriotism, authority, white supremacy, and violence - the Bible was the book they most often invoked. Soldiers fought the Civil War with Bibles in hand, and both sides called the war just and sacred. In scripture, both Union and Confederate soldiers found inspiration for dying-and for killing-on a scale never before seen in the nation's history. With approximately 750,000 fatalities, the Civil War was the deadliest of the nation's wars, leading many to turn to the Bible not just to fight but to deal with its inevitable trauma. A fascinating overview of religious and military conflict, A Holy Baptism of Fire and Blood draws on an astonishing array of sources to demonstrate the many ways that Americans enlisted the Bible in the nation's bloodiest, and arguably most biblically-saturated conflict.

This volume in the Belief series provides a new and interesting theological interpretation of Genesis through the themes of liberation and the concerns of the poor and marginalized. De La Torre remembers Jacob's wrestling at Peniel (Gen. 32:24-32), and finds that "there are consequences when we truly wrestle with the biblical text, struggling to see the face of God." This commentary provides theological and ethical insights that enables the book of Genesis to speak powerfully today. The volumes in Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible from Westminster John Knox Press offer a fresh and invigorating approach to all the books of the Bible. Building on a wide range of sources from biblical studies, the history of theology, the church's liturgical and musical traditions, contemporary culture, and the Christian tradition, noted scholars focus less on traditional historical and literary angles in favor of a theologically focused commentary that considers the contemporary relevance of the texts. This series is an invaluable resource for those who want to probe beyond the backgrounds and words of biblical texts to their deep theological and ethical meanings for the church today.

Among the books of the Old Testament, the book of Esther presents significant interpretive problems. The book has been preserved in Greek and Hebrew texts that diverge greatly from each other. As a result, Jews and Protestants usually read a version of the book of Esther that is several chapters shorter than the one in most Catholic and Orthodox Bibles. Jon D. Levenson capably guides the reader through both the longer Greek version and the shorter Hebrew one, demonstrating their coherence and their differences.This commentary listens to the voices of modern scholarship as well as rabbinic interpretation, providing a wealth of interpretive results.

This monograph examines the manuscript variants of the Peshitta (the standard Syriac translation) of Kings, with special attention to the manuscript 9a1. Manuscript 9a1 is of critical importance for the textual history of Kings, and Walter argues that there is overwhelming evidence that the non-9a1 Mss attest to an extensive revision. This monograph also discusses translation features of the Peshitta of Kings with special attention paid to harmonization and the leveling and dissimulation of vocabulary. Walter also treats the vorlage for the translation and treats its relation to the LXX and the Targumim.

Jewish Theology Unbound challenges the widespread misinterpretation of Judaism as a religion of law as opposed to theology. James A. Diamond provides close readings of the Bible, classical rabbinic texts, Jewish philosophers, and mystics from the ancient, medieval, and modern period, which communicate a profound Jewish philosophical theology on human nature, God, and the relationship between the two. The study begins with an examination of questioning in the Hebrew Bible, demonstrating that what the Bible encourages is independent philosophical inquiry into how to situate oneself in the world ethically, spiritually, and teleologically. It explores such themes as the nature of God through the various names by which God is known in the Jewish intellectual tradition, love of others and of God, death, martyrdom, freedom, angels, the philosophical quest, the Holocaust, and the state of Israel, all in light of the Hebrew Bible and the way it is filtered through the rabbinic, philosophical, and mystical traditions.

'This is an exceptional piece of biblical theology ... Preachers will find this work a rich source of sermon material and all who are interested in the Bible will be amazed at its unity.' Evangelical Times Who shall ascend the mountain of the LORD?' (Psalm 24:3). This stimulating study explores the narrative context, literary structure and theology of Leviticus. Morales follows its dramatic movement, examines the tabernacle cult and the Day of Atonement, and tracks the development from Sinai's tabernacle to Zion's temple - and from the earthly to the heavenly Mount Zion in the New Testament. He shows how life with God in the house of God was the original goal of the creation of the cosmos, and became the goal of redemption and the new creation.

The book of Jeremiah poses a challenge to biblical scholarship in terms of its literary composition and textual fluidity. This study offers an innovative approach to the problem by focusing on an instructive case study. Building on the critical recognition that the prophecy contained in Jer 10:1-16 is a composite text, this study systematically discusses the various literary strands discernible in the prophecy: satirical depictions of idolatry, an Aramaic citation, and hymnic passages. A chapter is devoted to each strand, revealing its compositional development-from the earliest recoverable stages down to its late reception. A range of pertinent evidence-culled from the literary, text-critical, and linguistic realms-is examined and sets within broader perspectives, with an eye open to cultural history and the development of theological outlook. The investigation of a particular text has important implications for the textual and compositional history of Jeremiah as a whole. Rather than settling for the common opinion that Jeremiah developed in two main stages, reflected in the MT and LXX respectively, a nuanced supplementary model is advocated, which better accords with the complexity of the available evidence.

Hebrew tradition presents Haggai and Zechariah as prophetic figures arising in the wake of the Babylonian exile with an agenda of restoration for the early Persian period community in Yehud. This agenda, however, was not original to these prophets, but rather drawn from the earlier traditions of Israel. In recent years there has been a flurry of scholarly attention on the relationship between these Persian period prophets and the earlier traditions with a view to the ways in which these prophets draw on earlier tradition in innovative ways. It is time to take stock of these many contributions and provide a venue for dialogue and evaluation.

One hundred and fifty years of sustained archaeological investigation has yielded a more complete picture of the ancient Near East. The Old Testament in Archaeology and History combines the most significant of these archaeological findings with those of modern historical and literary analysis of the Bible to recount the history of ancient Israel and its neighboring nations and empires. Eighteen international authorities contribute chapters to this introductory volume. After exploring the history of modern archaeological research in the Near East and the evolution of "biblical archaeology" as a discipline, this textbook follows the Old Testament's general chronological order, covering such key aspects as the exodus from Egypt, Israel's settlement in Canaan, the rise of the monarchy under David and Solomon, the period of the two kingdoms and their encounters with Assyrian power, the kingdoms' ultimate demise, the exile of Judahites to Babylonia, and the Judahites' return to Jerusalem under the Persians along with the advent of "Jewish" identity.Each chapter is tailored for an audience new to the history of ancient Israel in its biblical and ancient Near Eastern setting. The end result is an introduction to ancient Israel combined with and illuminated by more than a century of archaeological research. The volume brings together the strongest results of modern research into the biblical text and narrative with archaeological and historical analysis to create an understanding of ancient Israel as a political and religious entity based on the broadest foundation of evidence. This combination of literary and archaeological data provides new insights into the complex reality experienced by the peoples reflected in the biblical narratives.

With the aid of computers, it is becoming possible to clarify some longstanding disputes over Biblical authorship. Using statistical analysis of linguistic usage, Kenny reexamines the authorship of Revelation, the relationship between Luke and the Acts, and the complex problem of the Pauline corpus. He also comments on the general merits of the stylometric approach to textual analysis.

Classic IVP series now rejacketed and retypeset

Biblical Reception is rapidly becoming the go-to annual publication for all matters related to the reception of the bible. The annual addresses all kinds of use of the bible in art, music, literature, film and popular culture, as well as in the history of interpretation. For this fourth edition of the annual, guest editor David Tollerton has commissioned pieces specifically on the use of the bible in one film: Exodus: Gods and Kings and these chapters consider how the film uses the bible, and how the bible functions within the film.

The social and intellectual context of the material in the book of Proverbs has given rise to several proposals concerning the nature of the constituent compendia within the document as well as the function of the discourse as a whole. In light of the problems inherent in an investigation of the nature and function of Proverbs, the present study focuses on the social dimensions of the document within its distinct, literary context. That is, the study attempts to examine the nature and function of the sapiential material within its new performance context, viz., the discursive context, the Sitz im Buch. This form of analysis moves beyond the investigation of individual aphorisms to provide a concrete context through which to view the various components of the discourse as well as the discourse as a whole. In the main, the study explores the formal, discursive, and thematic features of the constituent collections within the book of Proverbs in order to identify the nature and function of the work. More specifically, the study highlights the fundamental features of the book's discourse setting, the thematic development of the material, the ethos of the individual collections and their role within Proverbs in order to ascertain the degree to which the document may be considered a courtly piece.

Many scholars have approached both the origins of ancient city laments in some of the oldest Sumerian texts and how this "genre" found its way into the Tanakh/Old Testament. Randall Heskett goes a step further. He uses both historical criticism and a form-critical approach to analyze and assess "Lamentation and Restoration of Destroyed Cities" as oral traditions of ancient Israelite prophetic genres. He also shows how a later exilic/post-exilic redactional framework may have semantically transformed older prophetic genres about destruction and restoration to be reflexes of the events around 587 BCE.