The impact of earlier works to the literature of early Judaism is an intensively researched topic in contemporary scholarship. This volume is based on an international conference held at the Sapientia College of Theology in Budapest, May 18 21, 2010. The contributors explore scriptural authority in early Jewish literature and the writings of nascent Christianity. They study the impact of earlier literature in the formulation of theological concepts and books of the Second Temple Period."

The impact of earlier works to the literature of early Judaism is an intensively researched topic in contemporary scholarship. This volume is based on an international conference held at the Sapientia College of Theology in Budapest,May 18 -21, 2010. The contributors explore scriptural authority in early Jewish literature and the writings of nascent Christianity. They study the impact of earlier literature in the formulation of theological concepts and books of the Second Temple Period.

Why did the biblical writers choose the specific words they did? In order to explore this question, this book investigates the use of literary-stylistic metathesis in the Hebrew Bible. By way of introduction, the book first discusses the related phenomena of linguistic metathesis, in which letters or sounds are unintentionally inverted during the historical development of a language, and textual metathesis, in which the letters of a word are accidentally inverted during the transmission of a text. The discussion then moves on to the widespread use of literary-stylistic metathesis in the Hebrew Bible, in which two or more words that use the same letters in opposite orders are deliberately juxtaposed within a sentence. This device appears in various literary genres within the Bible and in diverse forms, which demonstrates that various biblical authors and editors used it as a compositional device, for a variety of purposes: whether for literary, aesthetic, or rhetorical effect; to make a theological or exegetical point; to connect or contrast particular words with one another; or to emphasise a specific viewpoint. The book also demonstrates that literary metathesis is not limited to the Hebrew Bible but that it also appears in post-biblical Jewish Hebrew compositions, such as The Wisdom of Ben Sira and the rabbinic literature.

This two-volume work in biblical studies is a commemorative presentation to Simon John DeVries, noted Old Testament Scholar. Volume one offers a series of essays on issues in Hebrew bible studies. The topics addressed include the nature of Yahweh as God of Israel, a reexamination of the Exodus tradition, the Priestly code and practices, prophets and revelation, biblical poetry, issues in biblical linguistics, dramatic narrative in Hebrew Bible tradition and Yahweh's deliverance as redemption in Israel.

This two-volume work in biblical studies is a commemorative presentation to Simon John DeVries, noted Old Testament Scholar. Volume one offers a series of essays on issues in Hebrew bible studies. The topics addressed include the nature of Yahweh as God of Israel, a reexamination of the Exodus tradition, the Priestly code and practices, prophets and revelation, biblical poetry, issues in biblical linguistics, dramatic narrative in Hebrew Bible tradition and Yahweh's deliverance as redemption in Israel. Volume two encompasses the worldviews of the Bible for Jews and Christians, the Holiness of God, Psalms in LXX, similarities in ancient Near Eastern narrative and Hebrew Bible, the Bible in the cultural settings of ancient Rome, Middle Ages, Oriental theologies, and contemporary cultural imperatives, and the function of biblical metaphors.

The book of Esther is one of the most challenging books in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, not only because of the difficulty of understanding the book itself in its time, place, and literary contexts, but also for the long and tortuous history of interpretation it has generated in both Jewish and Christian traditions. In this volume, Isaac Kalimi addresses both issues. He situates 'traditional' literary, textual, theological, and historical-critical discussion of Esther alongside comparative Jewish and Christian interpretive histories, showing how the former serves the latter. Kalimi also demonstrates how the various interpretations of the Book of Esther have had an impact on its reception history, as well as on Jewish-Christian relations. Based on meticulous and comprehensive analysis of all available sources, Kalimi's volume fills a gap in biblical, Jewish, and Christian studies and also shows how and why the Book of Esther became one of the central books of Judaism and one of the most neglected books in Christianity.

This volume comprises fifteen essays classified in three major sections. Some of these essays raise theoretical and methodological issues while others focus on specific topics. The time span ranges from late biblical period to the present. The volume reflects the current thought of some of the major scholars in the field in various shapes and contexts as well as from a variety of perspectives: inner-biblical, qumranic, New Testament, various rabbinic literature (targumic, midrashic, halachic, and Medieval kabalistic), and some modern interpretation. The essays reflect the contemporary thought of some of the foremost scholars in the field of biblical exegesis from a variety of standpoints, moving the biblical exegesis well beyond its conventional limits, and enriching the knowledge and deepening the understanding of the readers.