The first in a major new series of guides to the books of the Old Testament written in an accessible and anecdotal style. The series is suitable for personal or group use and the format is also appropriate for daily study. 'In the beginning God created . . .' This gripping opening line draws attention to the irresistible creative nature of God - the One who is able to bring something out of nothing. There is no more fitting way to introduce us to the first and most obvious indication of God s goodness and greatness. The book of Genesis goes on to tell stories (both exciting and commonplace), offer profound mysteries, and engage us in the biggest issues of all: who we are, where we come from, and where we're going. Using personal anecdote, a witty and lively style, and drawing on his considerable theological knowledge, John Goldingay takes us deep into the unfolding story. He explores the character and nature of the God we meet so powerfully in that opening line, the God we can encounter daily on the journey through this revelatory book. And, as Professor Goldingay guides us in our understanding of these time-honoured words and the ancient world they describe, he helps us to apply what we read to our lives. This series offers a natural progression from the successful 'For Everyone' series of New Testament translations and commentaries.

Where is God when the world falls apart, when he doesn't seem to care? Ezekiel brought God's word to his people at the lowest point in their history, suffering the trauma of exile. But with exile comes the opportunity to renew their faith and hope in God himself. Although God had judged his people, he would also restore them and dwell with them forever - promises which find their ultimate fulfilment in Christ. Antony Billington's six-session guide, with his astute mini-features, skilful questions, and timely notes, will help you explore how Ezekiel's message of challenge and comfort speaks today, enabling you to live in the light of God's presence, Monday through Sunday - whatever you're facing.

Situated in the years leading up to the overthrow of Judah by the Babylonians, Jeremiah's prophesies are set against a tense atmosphere of threat and invasion. Strongly warning of God's judgment and the nation's imminent catastrophe, Jeremiah lost credibility amongst his contemporaries as the years progressed, but the length of his book and the duration of his ministry establishes him as a major figure in the Old Testament. The fulfilment of his prophecies in later events of the Bible reassert the truth of his words and his speeches and prayers depict a God whose anger is a passionate response to the depths of love he feels for his people. Using personal anecdote, a witty and lively style, and drawing on his considerable theological knowledge, John Goldingay takes us deep into the unfolding story of the Old Testament.

Offers an in depth comparative look at the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Primeval History, which allows students to view the Genesis within its Near Eastern context. Offers a fresh model for approaching this comparative task, which has at times been stifled by religious dogmatism, on the one hand, or disciplinary insularity on the other. Written in a lucid style with explanation of all key terms and themes, this book is suitable for students with no background in the subjects.

This book examines community identity in the post-exilic temple community in Ezra-Nehemiah, and explores the possible influences that the Achaemenids, the ruling Persian dynasty, might have had on its construction. In the book, David Janzen reads Ezra-Nehemiah in dialogue with the Achaemenids' Old Persian inscriptions, as well as with other media the dynasty used, such as reliefs, seals, coins, architecture, and imperial parks. In addition, he discusses the cultural and religious background of Achaemenid thought, especially its intersections with Zoroastrian beliefs. Ezra-Nehemiah, Janzen argues, accepts Achaemenid claims for the necessity and beneficence of their hegemony. The result is that Ezra-Nehemiah, like the imperial ideology it mimics, claims that divine and royal wills are entirely aligned. Ezra-Nehemiah reflects the Achaemenid assertion that the peoples they have colonized are incapable of living in peace and happiness without the Persian rule that God established to benefit humanity, and that the dynasty rewards the peoples who do what they desire, since that reflects divine desire. The final chapter of the book argues that Ezra-Nehemiah was produced by an elite group within the Persian-period temple assembly, and shows that Ezra-Nehemiah's pro-Achaemenid worldview was not widely accepted within that community.

Using personal anecdote, a witty and lively style, and drawing on his considerable theological knowledge, John Goldingay takes us deep into the unfolding story of the Old Testament.

A reprint of a classic exposition of the understanding of the Old Testament. Rowley brings the Old Testament back to the forefront of Scholarship and finds rich meaning in much of what has previously been buried. Increasingly men are turning their thoughts to the deeper message of the Old Testament, and finding richer meaning in the light of all work that has been done. The Old Testament need not to be buried beneath the weight of scholarship, but may rather stand on the foundation of scholarship, sustained by it and firmly upheld before men - from the Preface.

The groundbreaking "Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible" ("DTIB") introduced readers to key names, theories, and concepts in the field of biblical interpretation. It has been well received by pastors and students, won book awards from "Christianity Today "and the Catholic Press Association, and was named the ECPA 2006 Christian Book of the Year. "Theological Interpretation of the Old Testament "features key articles from "DTIB," providing readers with a book-by-book theological reading of the Old Testament. The articles are authored by leading scholars, including Daniel I. Block, Tremper Longman III, J. Gordon McConville, Walter Moberly, Richard Schultz, and Gordon J. Wenham. This handy and affordable text will work particularly well for students in Old Testament/Bible survey courses, pastors, and lay readers.

This collaboration between two scholars from different fields of religious studies draws on three comparative data sets to develop a new theory of purity and pollution in religion, arguing that a culture's beliefs about cosmological realms shapes its pollution ideas and its purification practices. The authors of this study refine Mary Douglas' foundational theory of pollution as "matter out of place," using a comparative approach to make the case that a culture's cosmology designates which materials in which places constitute pollution. By bringing together a historical comparison of Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean religions, an ethnographic study of indigenous shamanism on Jeju Island, Korea, and the reception history of biblical rhetoric about pollution in Jewish and Christian cultures, the authors show that a cosmological account of purity works effectively across multiple disparate religious and cultural contexts. They conclude that cosmologies reinforce fears of pollution, and also that embodied experiences of purification help generate cosmological ideas. Providing an innovative insight into a key topic of ritual studies, this book will be of vital interest to scholars and graduate students in religion, biblical studies, and anthropology.

The NIV Application Commentary helps you communicate and apply biblical text effectively in today's context The books of Judges and Ruth have relevance for our lives today. Judges, because it reveals a God who employs very human deliverers but refuses to gloss over their sins and their consequences. And Ruth, because it demonstrates the far-reaching impact of a righteous character. K. Lawson Younger Jr. shares literary perspectives on the books of Judges and Ruth that reveal ageless truths for our contemporary lives. To bring the ancient messages of the Bible into today's context, each passage is treated in three sections: Original Meaning. Concise exegesis to help readers understand the original meaning of the biblical text in its historical, literary, and cultural context. Bridging Contexts. A bridge between the world of the Bible and the world of today, built by discerning what is timeless in the timely pages of the Bible. Contemporary Significance. This section identifies comparable situations to those faced in the Bible and explores relevant application of the biblical messages. The author alerts the readers of problems they may encounter when seeking to apply the passage and helps them think through the issues involved. This unique, award-winning commentary is the ideal resource for today's preachers, teachers, and serious students of the Bible, giving them the tools, ideas, and insights, they need to communicate God's Word with the same powerful impact it had when it was first written.

John Goldingay is widely respected as a brilliant scholar and gifted communicator by Christians of all major denominations

Good kings and bad kings, good faith and bad faith - these are the themes of 1 and 2 Kings, from the wise King Solomon to the consequences of his successors' folly. Using personal anecdote, a lively style, and drawing on his considerable theological knowledge, John Goldingay takes us deep into the unfolding story of the Old Testament.

A new commentary for today's world, The Story of God Bible Commentary explains and illuminates each passage of Scripture in light of the Bible's grand story. The first commentary series to do so, SGBC offers a clear and compelling exposition of biblical texts, guiding everyday readers in how to creatively and faithfully live out the Bible in their own contexts. Its story-centric approach is ideal for pastors, students, Sunday school teachers, and laypeople alike. Each volume employs three main, easy-to-use sections designed to help readers live out God's story: LISTEN to the Story: Includes complete NIV text with references to other texts at work in each passage, encouraging the reader to hear it within the Bible's grand story. EXPLAIN the Story: Explores and illuminates each text as embedded in its canonical and historical setting. LIVE the Story: Reflects on how each text can be lived today and includes contemporary stories and illustrations to aid preachers, teachers, and students. -Exodus- Exodus' place within the story of God is defined by its record of God's greatest act of redemption until the cross and resurrection of Christ. Its concluding picture of God in all his blessing and glory dwelling in the midst of his people will spark the faith and vision of the concluding picture of the whole Bible. Edited by Scot McKnight and Tremper Longman III, and written by a number of top-notch theologians, The Story of God Bible Commentary series will bring relevant, balanced, and clear-minded theological insight to any biblical education or ministry.

Whilst prophetic oracles in late prophetic books evidence tensions about the Jerusalem temple and its priesthood, MacDonald demonstrates that the relationships between prophetic oracles have been incorrectly appraised. Employing an interpretative method attentive to issues of redaction and inner-biblical interpretation, MacDonald show that Ezekiel 44 is a polemical response to Isaiah 56, and not the reverse as is typically assumed. This has significant consequences for the dating of Ezekiel 44 and for its relationship to other biblical texts, especially Pentateuchal texts from Leviticus and Numbers. Since Ezekiel 44 has been a crucial chapter in understanding the historical development of the priesthood, MacDonald's arguments affect our understanding of the origins of the distinction between Levites and priests, and the claims that a Zadokite priestly sept dominated the Second Temple hierarchy.

What can explain the persistence of gender inequality throughout history? Do narratives such as the Eden story explain that dissymmetry or contribute to it? This book suggests that the Hebrew Bible began and has sustained a rich conversation about sex and gender throughout its life. A literary study of the Garden of Eden story reveals a focus on the human partnership as integral to the divine creation project. Texts from other Hebrew Bible genres build a picture of robust and flexible partnerships within a patriarchal framework. In popular culture, Eve still carries the stench of guilt while Adam, seemingly unscathed by Eden events, remains a positive symbol of manhood. This book helps explain why they have had such different histories. The book also charts the subversive alternate streams of interpretation of women's writings and rabbinic texts. The story of Adam and Eve demonstrates how conceptions of gender in both ancient and modern worlds reflect larger philosophical schemes. Far from existing as timeless verities, female and male relations are constructed according to cultural imperatives of the day. Understanding the different ways that Adam and Eve have been conceived gives us perspective on our own twenty-first century gender architecture.

The first book-length comparative and interdisciplinary treatment of divine envy and vengeance in the biblical and classical worlds.

The book of Joshua reads like an exciting novel - from the miraculous crossing of the Jordan to the crash of the walls of Jericho and the sun stopping in the sky. Through it all we see God's faithfulness and power. Studying Joshua encourages us to persevere in our own daily battles, arming us with the powerful weapons we need - God's promises. This revised Lifebuilder Bible Study features additional questions for starting group discussions and for meeting God in personal reflection, together with expanded leader's notes and an extra 'Now or Later' section in each study.

The longest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 119, is about the Bible itself. In his commentary on Psalm 119 Pastor Mott shows how the Bible is relevant for every need of life. No matter what situation or emotion you may be experiencing in your life, there is a verse in Psalm 119 that speaks to it. In this psalm you will find information relating to things historical, political, social, psychological, soteriological, and eschatological. The comprehensiveness of Psalm 119 is itself a wonder. Only God could inspire such a psalm.

This scrupulous study foregrounds an often forgotten element of the Masoretic texts of these important prophetic chapters: the Masoretic systems of indicating smaller and larger parts of the text through the use of spaces and accents. The Masoretes were not only transmitters of the biblical text but also exegetes and interpreters of it, so taking the Masoretic text divisions seriously should be an essential part of our contemporary exegesis. That is not to say, however, that the Masoretic text divisions should be followed uncritically; de Bruin compares the Masoretic delimitation of textual units with his own structural analysis of the text based on its internal characteristics, as well as with the text division in other ancient manuscripts of Isaiah 1-12. He concludes that such comparisons show the reliability of the Masoretic system and its value for modern exegetes.

This book addresses intertextual connections between Lamentations and texts in each division of the Hebrew Bible, along with texts throughout history. Sources examined range from the Dead Sea Scrolls to modern Shoah literature, allowing the volume's impact to reach beyond Lamentations to each of the 'intertexts' the chapters address. By bringing together scholars with expertise on this diverse array of texts, the volume offers a wide range of exegetical insight. It also enables the reader to appreciate the varying intertextual approaches currently employed in Biblical Studies, ranging from abstract theory to rigid method. By applying these to a focused analysis of Lamentations, this book will facilitate greater insight on both Lamentations and current methodological research.

In this book, Jason A. Staples proposes a new paradigm for how the biblical concept of Israel developed in Early Judaism and how that concept impacted Jewish apocalyptic hopes for restoration after the Babylonian Exile. Challenging conventional assumptions about Israelite identity in antiquity, his argument is based on a close analysis of a vast corpus of biblical and other early Jewish literature and material evidence. Staples demonstrates that continued aspirations for Israel's restoration in the context of diaspora and imperial domination remained central to Jewish conceptions of Israelite identity throughout the final centuries before Christianity and even into the early part of the Common Era. He also shows that Israelite identity was more diverse in antiquity than is typically appreciated in modern scholarship. His book lays the groundwork for a better understanding of the so-called 'parting of the ways' between Judaism and Christianity and how earliest Christianity itself grew out of hopes for Israel's restoration.

Luke, the eponymous author of the gospel that bears his name as well as the book of Acts, wrote the largest portion of the New Testament. Luke is generally thought to be a gentile. This book addresses a question raised by Jesus's disciples at the very beginning of Acts: "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" The question is freighted with political and national significance as it inquires about the restoration of political sovereignty to the Jewish people. This book investigates Luke's perspective on the salvation of Israel in light of Jewish restoration eschatology. It situates Luke-Acts in the aftermath of the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. The author of Luke-Acts did not write the Jews off but still awaited the restoration of Israel. Luke conceived of Israel's eschatological restoration in traditional Jewish terms. The nation of Israel would experience liberation in the fullest sense, including national and political restoration. Luke's Jewish Eschatology builds upon the appreciation of the Jewish character of early Christianity in the decades after the Holocaust, which has witnessed the reclamation of the Jewishness of the historical Jesus and even Paul.

The book begins by exploring a number of signposts in psalms' scholarship which alert us to the value of psalms as a form of prayer. The particular focus is lament psalms, and their potential as a form of prayer for people engaging with distressing experiences in life. What follows, is a discussion of lament as a process and the areas of potential change for someone who uses these psalms for prayer. The final section of the book includes stories of several people who prayed some of these psalms over a period of time. It explores their responses and reflections in an attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of praying psalms such as these. The book culminates with a chapter which invites the reader to pray some psalms of distress themselves with notes suggesting an appropriate ritual to follow and some ideas for further exploration. 'David J. Cohen's book, Why, O Lord?, provides a wonderful, comprehensive view of the psalms of lament. It is an encouragement to all Christian traditions to look with fresh eyes on the psalms as prayer, and particularly the psalms of lament, as our suffering, and the suffering of many in our world, needs the language to cry out to God in times of darkness. The psalms express every human emotion and use a strong confidence that we can cry out to God, and that God will hear our suffering, and that transformation is possible. Bringing the psalms of lament into ritual, so aptly described by Cohen, brings a new dimension to worship, both personal and communal. This book is an excellent academic and pastoral addition to our knowledge of the psalms.' Angela McCarthy, lecturer in Theology at the University of Notre Dame, Fremantle, Australia: National President of the Australian Academy of Liturgy