The essays in this volume address the interface between biblical studies, archaeology, sociology and cultural anthropology, celebrating the pioneering work of James Flanagan. In particular, this collection explores various ways in which the real ancient world is constructed by the modern critical reader with the aid of various theoretical and practical tools. The contributors to this volume have all been involved with Flanagan and his projects during his academic career and the essays carry forward the important interdisciplinary agendas he has encouraged. Part One deals with his recent interest in spatiality and Part Two with social and historical constructs. This book in James Flanagan's honour represents a significant statement of research in an area of biblical and historical research that is increasingly important yet surprisingly under-represented.

In this volume, a list of esteemed scholars engage with the literary readings of prophetic and poetic texts in the Hebrew Bible that revolve around sensitivity to the complexity of language, the fragility of meaning, and the interplay of texts. These themes are discussed using a variety of hermeneutical strategies. In Part 1, Poets and Poetry, some essays address the nature of poetic language itself, while others play with themes of love, beauty, and nature in specific poetic texts. The essays in Part 2, Prophets and Prophecy, consider prophets and prophecy from a number of interpretive directions, moving from internal literary analysis to the reception of these texts and their imagery in a range of ancient and modern contexts. Those in Part 3, on the other hand, Texts in Play, take more recent works (from Shakespeare to Tove Jansson's Moomin books for children) as their point of departure, developing conversations between texts across the centuries that enrich the readings of both the ancient and modern pieces of literature.

* Lucid, accessible introduction to new literary criticism of the Bible

Discusses theory and politics of reading, using a wide selection of examples

After almost two centuries of historical criticism, biblical scholarship has recently taken major shifts in direction, most notably towards literary study of the Bible. Much germinal criticism has taken as its primary focus narrative texts of the Hebrew Bible (the `Old Testament'). This study belongs in this movement and provides a lucid guide to its interpretative possibilities. It is both theoretical and practical, combining discussion of method and the business of reading in general with numerous illustrations through readings of particular texts. The opening chapter shows how literary criticism is related to other dominant ways of reading the text over the last two thousand years. In subsequent methodological chapters, the authors discuss characters, not excluding the narrator and God; plot, modifying recent theory to accommodate the peculiar complexity of biblical narratives; and the play of language through repetition, ambiguity, multivalence, metaphor and intertextuality. The concluding chapter explores the ideological dimension of narrative interpretation, with particular attention to Genesis 1-3, a story which has generated much discussion about gender and social hierarchy. Does this text define or challenge the status quo (of either the ancient or the modern world)? The authors lay out some of the debate and question what values are at work when we and others read and champion readings.

An extensive bibliography, arranged by subject and biblical text, completes the book.

In this volume, a list of esteemed scholars engage with the literary readings of prophetic and poetic texts in the Hebrew Bible that revolve around sensitivity to the complexity of language, the fragility of meaning, and the interplay of texts. These themes are discussed using a variety of hermeneutical strategies. In Part 1, Poets and Poetry, some essays address the nature of poetic language itself, while others play with themes of love, beauty, and nature in specific poetic texts. The essays in Part 2, Prophets and Prophecy, consider prophets and prophecy from a number of interpretive directions, moving from internal literary analysis to the reception of these texts and their imagery in a range of ancient and modern contexts. Those in Part 3, on the other hand, Texts in Play, take more recent works (from Shakespeare to Tove Jansson's Moomin books for children) as their point of departure, developing conversations between texts across the centuries that enrich the readings of both the ancient and modern pieces of literature.

Biblical authors were artists of language who created their meaning through their verbal artistry, their rhetoric. These twelve essays see meaning as ultimately inseparable from art and seek to understand the biblical literature with sensitivity to the writer's craft. Contents: David Clines, The Arguments of Job's Friends. George Coats, A Moses Legend in Numbers 12. Charles Davis, The Literary Structure of Luke 1-2. Cheryl Exum, A Literary Approach to Isaiah 28. David Gunn, Plot, Character and Theology in Exodus 1-14. Alan Hauser, Intimacy and Alienation in Genesis 2-3. Charles Isbell, Story Lines and Key Words in Exodus 1-2. Martin Kessler, Methodology for Rhetorical Criticism. John Kselman, A Rhetorical Study of Psalm 22. Kenneth Kuntz, Rhetorical Criticism and Isaiah 51.1-16. Ann Vater, Form and Rhetorical Criticism in Exodus 7-11. Edwin Webster, Pattern in the Fourth Gospel.>

This book explores Genesis-Kings, the first great story in the Bible, stretching from creation through the promise to Abraham, the formation of Israel, the giving of the Law, the taking of the promised land, and the nation's eventual exile. Given the gender divide that Genesis-Kings constructs, the authors read this great story of promise wondering what it might look like to the excluded people--the aliens, the children, and particularly the women who are deemed to stand on the 'other' side of the divide,