Following the work of scholars who have attempted to rehabilitate the notion of “chosenness” in the Hebrew Bible and others who have focused more narrowly on the fate of non-Israelites in the Old Testament, The Unfavored centers on the role of two “unfavored” characters within Israel—Judah and Saul. Josef Sykora examines two narratives with seemingly opposite trajectories: the Joseph cycle in Genesis 37–50 and the Saul episode in 1 Samuel 13–15. Both contain passages that feel intrusive—Genesis 38 and 49 and 1 Samuel 13:7b–15a—and that coincide with Judah’s and Saul’s rise or fall in God’s favor. Taking seriously the redaction-critical proposals suggesting that these puzzling segments may stem from a later editorial hand, Sykora reorients them for theological purposes. He reads the two narratives first without and then with these intrusive parts in order to indicate what their message and content might mean for the idea of election in the Old Testament in general and for the fate of unfavored characters in particular. A freshly insightful exploration of chosenness in the Old Testament, The Unfavored guides us to new and deeper interpretations of these biblical texts.

Formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is a natural process during oxidative metabolism. ROS play an important role not only in pathological processes of human organism as usually presented but less attention is paid to their proper important role in cell signalling, biosynthesis or non-specific anti-infectious defence. Overproduction of ROS during numerous pathological situations in presence of insufficient antioxidant protection leads to substantial oxidative changes of lipids, proteins, sugars, and also DNA. Protection against ROS is assured by different extracellular or intracellular antioxidant mechanisms as studied during last decades. Antioxidant enzymes rectifying the oxidative damage are studied with regard to their different activities and usefulness in body protection. Their genetic polymorphisms are certainly involved in different response to oxidative stress. Special attention should be devoted to the topic of oxidative nuclear and mitochondrial DNA damage and its restoring via DNA repair process, especially base excision repair (BER). A large scale of antioxidant enzymes is involved in correction of DNA oxidative damage. Natural trend of worsened DNA repair is usually associated with aging. Other pathologies related with deficient DNA repair are susceptibility to carcinogenesis (lack of apoptosis control) or degenerative diseases. Oxidative stress is involved in the pathophysiology of diabetes mellitus (DM -- oxidative stress of mainly metabolic origin) and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD -- oxidative stress of mainly inflammatory origin). In spite of confirmed OS in DM or IBD, the substantial information about the intensity of DNA repair and its possible relationship to the disease course and development of chronic complications is missing. The author pilot studies completed both in adult and paediatric patients with DM or IBD confirmed an increased oxidative stress as well as oxidative DNA damage examined with comet assay. The surprising findings were ascertained in intensity of DNA repair (analysed with modified comet assay).