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Chaos is a perennial source of fear and fascination. The original
"formless void" (tohu-wa-bohu) mentioned in the book of Genesis,
chaos precedes the created world: a state of anarchy before the
establishment of cosmic order. But chaos has frequently also been
conceived of as a force that persists in the cosmos and in society
and threatens to undo them both. From the cultures of the ancient
Near East and the Old Testament to early modernity, notions of the
divine have included the power to check and contain as well as to
unleash chaos as a sanction for the violation of social and ethical
norms. Yet chaos has also been construed as a necessary supplement
to order, a region of pure potentiality at the base of reality that
provides the raw material of creation or even constitutes a kind of
alternative order itself. As such, it generates its own peculiar
'formations of the formless'. Focusing on the connection between
the cosmic and the political, this volume traces the continuities
and re-conceptualizations of chaos from the ancient Near East to
early modern Europe across a variety of cultures, discourses and
texts. One of the questions it poses is how these pre-modern 'chaos
theories' have survived into and reverberate in our own time.
Despite considerable scholarly efforts for many years, the last two
decades of the Kingdom of Israel are still beneath the veil of
history. What was the status of the Kingdom after its annexation by
Assyria in 732 BCE? Who conquered Samaria, the capital of the
Kingdom? When did it happen? One of the primary reasons for this
situation lies in the discrepancies found in the historical
sources, namely the Hebrew Bible and the Assyrian texts. Since
biblical studies and Assyriology are two distinct disciplines, the
gaps in the sources are not easy to bridge. Moreover, recent great
progress in the archaeological research in the Southern Levant
provides now crucial new data, independent of these textual
sources. This volume, a collection of papers by leading scholars
from different fields of research, aims to bring together, for the
first time, all the available data and to discuss these conundrums
from various perspectives in order to reach a better and deeper
understanding of this crucial period, which possibly triggered in
the following decades the birth of "new Israel" in the Southern
Kingdom of Judah, and eventually led to the formation of the Hebrew
Bible and its underlying theology.
Water is a vital resource and is widely acknowledged as such. Thus
it often serves as an ideological and linguistic symbol that stands
for and evokes concepts central within a community. This volume
explores 'thinking of water' and concepts expressed through
references to water within the symbolic system of the late
Persian/early Hellenistic period and as it does so it sheds light
on the social mindscape of the early Second Temple community.
In ancient Israelite literature Exile is seen as a central turning
point within the course of the history of Israel. In these texts
"the Exile" is a central ideological concept. It serves to explain
the destruction of the monarchic polities and the social and
economic disasters associated with them in terms that YHWH punished
Israel/Judah for having abandoned his ways. As it develops an image
of an unjust Israel, it creates one of a just deity. But YHWH is
not only imagined as just, but also as loving and forgiving, for
the exile is presented as a transitory state: Exile is deeply
intertwined with its discursive counterpart, the certain "Return".
As the Exile comes to be understood as a necessary purification or
preparation for a renewal of YHWH's proper relationship with
Israel, the seemingly unpleasant Exilic conditions begin,
discursively, to shape an image of YHWH as loving Israel and
teaching it. Exile is dystopia, but one that carries in itself all
the seeds of utopia. The concept of Exile continued to exercise an
important influence in the discourses of Israel in the Second
Temple period, and was eventually influential in the production of
eschatological visions.
Despite considerable scholarly efforts for many years, the last two
decades of the Kingdom of Israel are still beneath the veil of
history. What was the status of the Kingdom after its annexation by
Assyria in 732 BCE? Who conquered Samaria, the capital of the
Kingdom? When did it happen? One of the primary reasons for this
situation lies in the discrepancies found in the historical
sources, namely the Hebrew Bible and the Assyrian texts. Since
biblical studies and Assyriology are two distinct disciplines, the
gaps in the sources are not easy to bridge. Moreover, recent great
progress in the archaeological research in the Southern Levant
provides now crucial new data, independent of these textual
sources. This volume, a collection of papers by leading scholars
from different fields of research, aims to bring together, for the
first time, all the available data and to discuss these conundrums
from various perspectives in order to reach a better and deeper
understanding of this crucial period, which possibly triggered in
the following decades the birth of "new Israel" in the Southern
Kingdom of Judah, and eventually led to the formation of the Hebrew
Bible and its underlying theology.
This second volume of collected studies by the Munich Old Testament
scholar, Christoph Levin, is comprised of 17 essays. A major focus
of this volume is on Old Testament hermeneutics and theology. Other
papers examine the editorial history of the Pentateuch, the Book of
Kings, the Prophetic Books, and the Psalms. Chapters are also
devoted to in-depth analyses of the literary history of the books
of Genesis, Kings, and Jonah.
This volume contains twenty studies from 1981 to 2002 concerning
the history of literature and theology of the Old Testament and the
early history of Israel as well.
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