This volume will prove a classic textbook on rhetorical criticism in the Bible, especially the Hebrew Bible. Following the lead of the famous Presidential Address to the Society of Biblical Literature in 1968 by James Muilenburg, 'Form Criticism and Beyond', Jack Lundbom has for over 40 years been developing and shaping the field with a stream of papers. 26 of them (three not previously published) are gathered into this volume Hebrew rhetoric has a long history, reaching back even into the early Israelite period. Recognition of rhetorical elements in the Bible can be seen in Hillel, Augustine, ibn Ezra, and Calvin, as well as among certain biblical scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries. But the revival of rhetoric and the modern method of rhetorical criticism is more recent, having begun in America among classical scholars in the early 1900s, and having been widely adopted by biblical scholars in the last third of the twentieth century. Biblical scholars today invariably have rhetorical criticism in their exegetical toolbox, but the field lacks such a comprehensive corpus of studies as the present volume supplies. Reading the Bible with an eye to the rhetorical nature of its discourse-not just the style, but its structures and modes of argumentation-gives one a sharpened view of biblical figures, their legacy, and much else in the biblical text. One also gets new insight into the audiences for whom biblical messages were originally intended. Rhetorical criticism offers a ready yield for all those seeking a closer understanding of the biblical texts.

Closer up than what? Many recent studies of Jeremiah leave us with but a faint glimmer of this great Hebrew prophet; in some he disappears completely into later tradition. Some scholars think that the book of Jeremiah lacks historical veracity: when it was composed, supposedly in the late exilic or postexilic periods, historical memories had been dimmed and ideology had come to dominate the Jeremiah legacy. The present essays combine to argue that both the prophet and his book can be viewed "closer up" than the imagination of many modern-day interpreters will allow. The first three essays discuss the text, rhetoric and composition of the book of Jeremiah. The longer Hebrew text is given preference over the Greek Septuagint text, which means that we can dispense entirely with the idea that scribes were busily writing, editing and expanding the Jeremiah book in Babylon. Rhetorical and other delimiting criteria show that Jeremiah's so-called 'Temple Sermon' (7.1-15) is rather a cluster of three oracles manifesting a rudimentary form of logic. Finally, a correlation of Gedaliah's murder with the exile of 582 argues for a nearly four-year existence of the remnant community at Mizpah, more than enough time for Jeremiah and Baruch to write up the events following the destruction of Jerusalem. The remaining essays discuss Jeremiah's views of history, the created order, the covenant, and nations of the world, as well as the prophet's so-called 'confessions'. These extraordinary insights into the interior disposition of a Hebrew prophet reveal how Jeremiah felt about the word he had to preach, and what impact it had on him personally. The confessions are analysed both as formal psalm-like laments, and as gems of rhetorical composition.

This book seeks to place before beginning students and general readers a representative discussion of material contained in the biblical book of Jeremiah. It is written for those who may never look into a Jeremiah commentary or read a scholarly work on one who arguably stands as the greatest of ancient Israel's prophets. These twenty essays can be read with profit by beginning students, adults in Bible-study classes, and people anywhere who simply want an introduction to Jeremiah and the book bearing his name. Hopefully this will generate interest, not only in Jeremiah, but in all the Hebrew prophets, who are without parallel in the ancient world, and who define the office of prophet up to the present day.

Jeremiah, long considered one of the most colorful of the ancient Israelite prophets, comes to life in Jack R. Lundbom's Jeremiah 1-20. From his boyhood call to prophecy in 627 b.c.e., which Jeremiah tried to refuse, to his scathing judgments against the sins and hypocrisy of the people of Israel, Jeremiah charged through life with passion and emotion. He saw his fellow Israelites abandon their one true God, and witnessed the predictable outcome of their disregard for God's word - their tragic fall to the Babylonians. The first book of a three-volume Anchor Bible commentary, Jack R. Lundbom's eagerly awaited exegesis of Jeremiah investigates the opening twenty chapters of this Old Testament giant. With considerable skill and erudition, Lundbom leads modern readers through this prophet's often mysterious oracles, judgments, and visions. He quickly dispels the notion that the life and words of a seventh-century b.c.e. Israelite prophet can have no relevance for the contemporary reader. Clearly, Jeremiah was every bit as concerned as we are with issues like terrorism, hypocrisy, environmental pollution, and social justice. This impressive work of scholarship, essential to any biblical studies curriculum, replaces John Bright's landmark Anchor Bible commentary on Jeremiah. Like its predecessor, Jeremiah 1-20 draws on the best biblical scholarship to further our understanding of the weeping prophet and his message to the world.

'Theology in Language, Rhetoric, and Beyond' places before a broad audience of students and general readers theological essays on both the Old and New Testaments. Theology is seen to derive from a number of sources: the biblical language, biblical rhetoric and composition, academic disciplines other than philosophy, and above all a careful exegesis of the biblical text. The essay on Psalm 23 makes use of anthropology and human-development theory; the essay on Deuteronomy incorporates Wisdom themes; the essay called "Jeremiah and the Created Order" looks at ideas not only about God and creation but also about the seldom-considered idea of God and a return to chaos; and the essay on the "Confessions of Jeremiah" examines, not the words that this extraordinary prophet was given by God to preach, but what he himself felt and experienced in the office to which he was called. One essay on "Biblical and theological themes" includes a translation into the African language of Lingala, which weaves together the story of early Christianity with the more recent founding of churches in Africa and Asia. Jack R. Lundbom argues eloquently through these essays that theology is rooted in biblical words, in themselves, in rhetoric and their different contexts.

Formerly one of the largest and most militant Islamic organizations in the Middle East, Egypt's al-Gama'ah al-Islamiyah is believed to have played an instrumental role in numerous acts of global terrorism, including the assassination of President Anwar Sadat and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. In later years, however, the organization issued a surprising renunciation of violence, repudiating its former ideology and replacing it with a shari'ah-based understanding and assessment of the purpose and proper application of jihad. This key manifesto of modern Islamist thought is now available to an English-speaking audience in an eminently readable translation by noted Islamic scholar Sherman A. Jackson. Unlike other Western and Muslim critiques of violent extremism, this important work emerges from within the movement of Middle Eastern Islamic activism, both challenging and enriching prevailing notions about the role of Islamists in fighting the scourge of extremist politics, blind anti-Westernism, and, alas, wayward jihad.

The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:7) is the best-known repository of the teachings of Jesus and one of the most studied. Amid the considerable erudition expended on the Sermon, however, Jack R. Lundbom argues that it has proven too easy to deflect or disregard the main thrust of the Sermon, which he characterizes as a mandate to holy living and a "greater righteousness." Through careful attention to the structure of Matthew's Gospel and the place of the Sermon within it, keen sensitivity to the patterns and themes of Israelite prophecy, and judicious comparisons with other Jewish and rabbinic literature, Lundbom elucidates the meaning of the Sermon and its continuity with Israel's prophetic heritage as well as the best of Jewish teaching. By deft appeal to Christian commentators on the Sermon, Lundbom brings its most important themes to life for the contemporary reader, seeking always to understand what the "greater righteousness" to which the Sermon summons might mean for us today.

Closer up than what? Many recent studies of Jeremiah leave us with but a faint glimmer of this great Hebrew prophet; in some he disappears completely into later tradition. Some scholars think that the book of Jeremiah lacks historical veracity: when it was composed, supposedly in the late exilic or postexilic periods, historical memories had been dimmed and ideology had come to dominate the Jeremiah legacy. The present essays combine to argue that both the prophet and his book can be viewed "closer up" than the imagination of many modern-day interpreters will allow. The first three essays discuss the text, rhetoric and composition of the book of Jeremiah. The longer Hebrew text is given preference over the Greek Septuagint text, which means that we can dispense entirely with the idea that scribes were busily writing, editing and expanding the Jeremiah book in Babylon. Rhetorical and other delimiting criteria show that Jeremiah's so-called 'Temple Sermon' (7.1-15) is rather a cluster of three oracles manifesting a rudimentary form of logic. Finally, a correlation of Gedaliah's murder with the exile of 582 argues for a nearly four-year existence of the remnant community at Mizpah, more than enough time for Jeremiah and Baruch to write up the events following the destruction of Jerusalem. The remaining essays discuss Jeremiah's views of history, the created order, the covenant, and nations of the world, as well as the prophet's so-called 'confessions'. These extraordinary insights into the interior disposition of a Hebrew prophet reveal how Jeremiah felt about the word he had to preach, and what impact it had on him personally. The confessions are analysed both as formal psalm-like laments, and as gems of rhetorical composition.

About the Contributor(s): Jack Lundbom is currently Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois. He is author of Jeremiah: A Study in Ancient Hebrew Rhetoric (1975; 1997), a three-volume Jeremiah in the Anchor Bible commentary series (1999; 2004), and a two-volume Deuteronomy commentary (2012).