The series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) covers all areas of research into the Old Testament, focusing on the Hebrew Bible, its early and later forms in Ancient Judaism, as well as its branching into many neighboring cultures of the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world. BZAW welcomes submissions that make an original and significant contribution to the field; demonstrate sophisticated engagement with the relevant secondary literature; and are written in readable, logical, and engaging prose.

For thirty years, James Crenshaw's "Old Testament Wisdom "has been the premier introduction to the wisdom books of the Old Testament. That tradition continues with this newly updated edition. This popular textbook introduces readers to the wisdom tradition as well as the biblical books of Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, Sirach, and the Wisdom of Solomon. In addition, Crenshaw offers expert analysis of the legacy of wisdom in other parts of the canon and in other cultures, offering new insights and fresh perspectives that can only come from one so well versed on the significance of Old Testament wisdom.

At issue in the Book of Job is a question with which most all of us struggle at some point in life, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" James Crenshaw has devoted his life to studying the disturbing matter of theodicy-divine justice-that troubles many people of faith. Few individuals come from reading Job unmoved. If they seek answers, they likely will be disappointed. And, many find the depiction of God troubling. If God were merely to meet our expectations, the Creator would hardly be anything more than our own projections into the heavens. Perhaps the ancient poet serves readers best by starkly portraying the brutal reality that life and this world are not fair, and that justice is a human project.

Description: In the wake of excessive evil--the Holocaust, genocide in Africa, tsunamis in Indonesia, terrorism, earthquakes, and floods--must one surrender belief in a good God? The poems in this volume, honest and reverent, arose from the struggle to answer that question with an emphatic ""No."" They exhibit the tension that also exists in the Bible where the expression ""Dust and Ashes"" occurs. When Abraham questioned God's justice involving the wholesale destruction of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and an aggrieved Job responded to speeches from a whirlwind, their status as mortals gave rise to different approaches, boldness in one, humility in the other. Following their examples and the voice of dissenters within much of Scripture, these poems chronicle the journey of a lonely ""man of faith,"" the agony and ecstasy of one who refuses to abandon belief in God despite much evidence that brings it into question. They discover the Sacred in Nature, a book written by the finger of God, and they lovingly reflect on biblical texts, a human record of encounter with the Sublime. Endorsements: ""Like photographs or glimpses through a window that capture a moment and reveal an unsuspected truth, these poems by James Crenshaw are encounters with the pain and joy of nature, biblical characters, and human relationships. Through these poems Crenshaw wrestles with that enigmatic God from whom he seeks a costly blessing."" --Carol Newsom Emory University ""A fish called Methuselah and a cat called JOY, the Babel and beauty of the church, the joys of family and of study, and the anguish of cancer--James Crenshaw beautifully articulates these and many more aspects of a rich life, viewed by a mind that is sharply critical and yet humble. The poems are both complex and lucid; many are peopled by the characters of Scripture. These are poems to share with other Christians, and to read again and again."" --Ellen F. Davis Duke Divinity School ""James Crenshaw's prose always makes me think slowly yet also furiously, and refuses me the luxury of easy answers. Now his poems do the same, though they also open up avenues to hope and trust."" --John Goldingay Fuller Theological Seminary About the Contributor(s): James L. Crenshaw is the Robert L. Flowers Professor of Old Testament Emeritus, Duke University. Among his recent books are Defending God (2005) and Prophets, Sages, & Poets (2006).

This is a thoughtful examination of one the Old Testament's central human figures. Marti J. Steussy provides a critical approach to the man who receives more attention from the Old Testament's writers than any other human character. This volume explores the ""Hebrew Bible""'s three major portraits of David - found in 1 and 2 ""Samuel"", 1 ""Chronicles"", and ""Psalms"" - and what each implies about the relation between divine and worldly power. Steussy's examination of David in 1 and 2 ""Samuel"" opens with the traditional impression of David as a virtuous hero 'after God's own heart', then invites readers to consider details of plot and phrasing that make problematic - without erasing - the impression of innocence. She proposes that questions surrounding David ultimately probe God's role in Israel's history. The scrutiny of David in 1 ""Chronicles"" shows how this book calls attention to his role as the head of a people rather than to his individual strengths and weaknesses. However, tension still lurks; David plays a key role in ""Chronicles""' argument against Ezra and Nehemiah for an inclusive Israel. Steussy's final character analysis begins with psalms about David, then discusses the ruler as the commonly accepted speaker of the David psalms. Steussy suggests that in the Psalter as a whole, David serves both as a model for individual spiritual development and as a symbol for Israel throughout its history. The complexity of David's role in ""Psalms"", Steussy contends, models the complexity of his characterization in the ""Hebrew Bible"" as a whole. A concluding chapter calls attention to David's scattered appearances in other parts of the Hebrew canon and discusses the cumulative effect of his various portraits.

In an inviting style that showcases his literary discernment, theological sophistication, and passion for the biblical text, Terence E. Fretheim turns his attention to one of the most dramatic stories of the Old Testament - that of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Isaac, and Ishmael. Through close readings of ""Genesis"" 12 through 25, Fretheim guides readers through the intricacies of the plot, from God's surprising call to Abraham to leave home and family to God's enigmatic commands to evict one son and sacrifice another. Extending the vein of analysis in which he previously has written to wide acclaim, Fretheim examines Abraham's family and assesses the significant roles it plays across three religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Relating biblical narrative to theological concerns, Fretheim wrestles with such controversial concepts as God's selection of an elect people, the gift of land and other promises, the role of women and outsiders, the character of God, and the suffering of innocents. In addition, Fretheim contributes to the increasingly important interreligious dialogue surrounding Abraham by examining the continuing conversation among Muslims, Christians, and Jews about the place of Hagar and Ishmael in Abraham's family. Throughout the text, Fretheim frames the narrative as rooted in the trials of family and faith that define the story of Abraham as the father of three religions.

This volume offers one of the best available introductions to the psalms literature of the Bible. Specially designed for use in a wide range of educational settings, James Crenshaw's new book will help beginning students read the psalms with understanding and appreciation.

Part 1 examines the composition and major features of the book of Psalms. Comparisons to other biblical psalms and to deutero- and noncanonical psalms are also made. Part 2 surveys the various approaches to the Psalter, illustrating with great clarity the various modes of interpreting the book, Crenshaw looks in particular at the types of psalms, their social settings, and the historical reconstruction of the Israelite experience, with special attention to ancient Near Eastern iconography. Artistic design and theological editing are also discussed, In Part 3 Crenshaw offers in-depth exegesis of four notable psalms -- 24, 71, 73, and 115 -- to show how one might fruitfully engage the text.

Given its range of discussion and highly accessible style, The Psalms: An Introduction will quickly become a standard text for classroom use.

This critically acclaimed series provides fresh and authoritative treatments of important aspects of Old Testament study through commentaries and general surveys. The authors are scholars of international standing.

This volume, a part of the Old Testament Library series, explores the book of Ecclesiastes.

The Old Testament Library provides fresh and authoritative treatments of important aspects of Old Testament study through commentaries and general surveys. The contributors are scholars of international standing.

In this groundbreaking new book, distinguished biblical scholar James L. Crenshaw investigates both the pragmatic hows and the philosophical whys of education in ancient Israel and its surroundings. Asking questions as basic as "Who were the teachers and students and from what segment of Israelite society did they come?" and "How did instructors interest young people in the things they had to say?" Crenshaw explores the institutions and practices of education in ancient Israel. The results are often surprising and more complicated than one would expect.
Education, for the people who lived in the biblical world, was more than a simple matter of memorizing information and taking tests. It was a search for the hidden plan and presence of God. Knowledge was gained, according to biblical texts such as Ecclesiastes and Proverbs, not only by means of patient observation and listening, but through communication with Wisdom, the feminine incarnation of the Divine. Drawing upon a broad range of ancient sources, Crenshaw examines this religious dimension of education in ancient Israel, demonstrating how the practice of teaching and learning was transformed into the supreme act of worship.

"Scripture Scholar James L. Crenshaw Captures The Ominous, Yet Hopeful Spirit Of Joel's Prophecy In His New Translation And Commentary,"
Joel's Prophecy has an unexpectedly familiar ring to it. The biblical book of Joel is relevant to our late-twentieth-century world because it confronts an age when people tolerated almost anything, did not want someone telling them how to live their lives, and had difficulty distinguishing right from wrong. It was at once a time of self-indulgence and a time of spiritual decay. The economic and political disparity of the day, combined with widespread social injustice and deviant religious practices, brought about God's judgment on his chosen people, the judahites. Pleading the litany of sins in Joel is like reading the newspaper, things have not changed much in 2,500 years. Leading Scripture scholar James L. Crenshaw's fresh translation of the biblical prophecy of Joel combines the latest research into Hebrew language and literature with down-to-earth insights into how Joel's words relate to the modern world. Drawing upon a thorough analysis of the book's grammar and philology, literary forms and context, religious and social situation, and historical setting, Crenshaw offers the most informed and up-to-date commentary available. For those who want to read and understand Joel, this book is indispensable.

The question that launches Job's story is posed by God at the outset of the story: "Have you considered my servant Job?" (1:8; 2:3). By any estimation the answer to this question must be yes. The forty-two chapters that form the biblical story have in fact opened the story to an ongoing practice of reading and rereading, evaluating and reevaluating. Early Greek and Jewish translators emphasized some aspects of the story and omitted others; the Church Fathers interpreted Job as a forerunner of Christ, while medieval Jewish commentators debated conservative and liberal interpretations of God's providential love. Artists, beginning at least in the Greco-Roman period, painted and sculpted their own interpretations of Job. Novelists, playwrights, poets, and musicians - religious and irreligious, from virtually all points of the globe - have added their own distinctive readings. In Have You Considered My Servant Job?, Samuel E. Balentine examines this rich and varied history of interpretation by focusing on the principal characters in the story - Job, God, the satan figure, Job's wife, and Job's friends. Each chapter begins with a concise analysis of the biblical description of these characters, then explores how subsequent readers have expanded or reduced the story, shifted its major emphases or retained them, read the story as history or as fiction, and applied the morals of the story to the present or dismissed them as irrelevant. Each new generation of readers is shaped by different historical, cultural, and political contexts, which in turn require new interpretations of an old yet continually mesmerizing story. Voltaire read Job one way in the eighteenth century, Herman Melville a different way in the nineteenth century. Goethe's reading of the satan figure in Faust is not the same as Chaucer's in The Canterbury Tales, and neither is fully consonant with the Testament of Job or the Qur'an. One need only compare the descriptions of God in the biblical account with the imaginative renderings by Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, and Franz Kafka to see that the effort to understand why God afflicts Job "for no reason" (2:3) continues to be both compelling and endlessly complicated.

In the ancient Near East, when the gods detected gross impropriety in their ranks, they subjected their own to trial. When mortals suspect their gods of wrongdoing, do they have the right to put them on trial? What lies behind the human endeavor to impose moral standards of behavior on the gods? Is this effort an act of arrogance, as Kant suggested, or a means of keeping theological discourse honest? It is this question James Crenshaw seeks to address in this wide-ranging study of ancient theodicies. Crenshaw has been writing about and pondering the issue of theodicy - the human effort to justify the ways of the gods or God - for many years. In this volume he presents a synthesis of his ideas on this perennially thorny issue. The result sheds new light on the history of the human struggle with this intractable problem.