This compendium examines the origins of the God Yahweh, his place in the Syrian-Palestinian and Northern Arabian pantheon during the bronze and iron ages, and the beginnings of the cultic veneration of Yahweh. Contributors analyze the epigraphic and archeological evidence, apply fundamental considerations from the cultural and religious sciences, and analyze the relevant Old Testament texts.

Metaphors are a vital linguistic component of religious speech and serve as a cultural indicator of how groups understand themselves and the world. The essays compiled in this volume analyze the use, function, and structure of metaphors in Jewish writings from the Hellenistic-Roman period (including the works of Philo and the texts of Qumran), as well as in apocryphal early Christian texts and inscriptions.

This compendium examines the origins of the God Yahweh, his place in the Syrian-Palestinian and Northern Arabian pantheon during the bronze and iron ages, and the beginnings of the cultic veneration of Yahweh. Contributors analyze the epigraphic and archeological evidence, apply fundamental considerations from the cultural and religious sciences, and analyze the relevant Old Testament texts.

In this collection of essays, Markus Witte offers a survey of genres in the wisdom literature of the Old Testament as well as exegetical and thematic case studies of the books of Job, Ben Sira, Wisdom of Solomon, and the Psalms of Solomon. The author focuses especially on reflections on the justice and power of God, on human knowledge, and on good and evil. He thereby demonstrates the contribution of early Jewish wisdom to the Hellenistic culture of knowledge and to biblical theology.

The Old Testament is integrally bound to the history and culture of Ancient Israeland the Ancient Middle East. This collection of essays primarily employs approaches from the fields of literary history andarcheology. It makes an important contribution to cultural and religious historical aspects of kingship and prophecy. It also casts a new light on questions regarding institutional education and worship practices, on the possibilities and limitations of religious historical comparison, and on Biblical interpretation in a Judeo-Christian context.

The volume presents a collection of international papers on the literary genesis of the deuteronomistic history and on "Deuteronomism" in the books from Genesis to Kings. They discuss the essence of Old Testament historiography together with the overall historical editorial and compositional relationship between "Pentateuch", "Hexateuch" and "Early Prophets".

The contributors to this volume on the literary and editorial history of the books from Genesis to Joshua present a collection of programmatic papers dealing with the history of research and individual points of exegesis which demonstrate the problematic nature of the Yahwist hypothesis and take new approaches to an interpretation of the redaction history of the Hexateuch, particularly in the parts not emanating from the priestly code. The individual papers are written by international Old Testament authorities from Europe, Israel and the USA. The contributors are: A. Graeme Auld, Uwe Becker, Joseph Blenkinsopp, Erhard Blum, Thomas B. Dozeman, William Johnstone, Ernst Axel Knauf, Reinhard Gregor Kratz, Albert de Pury, Thomas Romer, Hans-Christoph Schmitt, Jean Louis Ska."

Das Buch Jesus Sirach stellt eine gewaltige Synthese weisheitlicher, kultischer, prophetischer, rechtlicher und historiographischer Traditionen des antiken Israel und des frühen Judentums dar. Um 180 v.Chr. in Jerusalem als Lehrbuch verfasst, verbindet sein auf Hebräisch schreibender Autor das jüdische Gesetz mit der kosmischen Weisheit und formuliert Maximen zum gelingenden Leben in der vielfältigen Welt des Hellenismus. Der vorliegende Band präsentiert alle bis heute bekannten hebräischen Fragmente dieses Buchs samt deutscher Übersetzung sowie ausgewählte Texte der um 120 v.Chr. in Alexandria erstellten griechischen Übertragung. Einzelne Essays führen in die literarischen und kulturellen Kontexte des Sirachbuchs ein, beleuchten zentrale in ihm behandelte Themen wie die rechte Lebensführung, die Gerechtigkeit Gottes, die Bedeutung des Gebets oder die Auslegung der heiligen Schriften Israels und skizzieren exemplarisch die Rolle dieses jüdischen Werkes in der christlichen Frömmigkeitsgeschichte.

This title provides a comprehensive and profound introduction to the literature and history of the Old Testament. Beginning with methods and sources, this Handbook looks at the Biblical text, archaeology, other texts, and iconography. It explores varying exegetical methods, including historical criticism, canonical approach, feminist, social scientific and liberation theology. Methods in archaeology, Hebrew epigraphic and iconography are also covered. The second section is devoted to the history and religious history of Ancient Israel. Introductory matters, such as fundamental terminology and definitions, ethnic identity, ancestors and the dead, geography and time reckoning are explicated before the book moves on to a historical survey from the Iron Age (c. 1200 BCE) to the early Roman period (ending about 63 CE). The heart of the book is a detailed survey of the Hebrew canonical books, section by section and book by book. The discussion for each book includes: biblical presentation and content; problems arising from the history of literary analysis and research; the origin and growth of the writing; the theology; and notes on reception history. This book will provide students with everything they need to study the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament.

In this volume, Witte presents three case studies on biblical theology and demonstrates how the ways of speaking and thinking about God in the Old Testament constitute the religio-historical and theological basis for the discourse on God’s acts in the person of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. The theology of the Old Testament and that of the New Testament are inseparably connected, even if discrete theologies of the Old and New Testaments can be identified. The first study traces the development of the understanding of God in the Old Testament through the Hebrew divine title, El Shaddai, and one of its most important Greek equivalents, pantokrator. The use of the title El Shaddai, its ancient Near Eastern religious background, its transfer into Hellenistic Judaism, and its theological significance reveal fundamental aspects of a biblical theology that is equally indebted to comparative philology and to the history of religion. The second essay discusses justice as a central theme of the theology of the Old Testament and as an essential category in defining the relationship between God and humanity through a selection of different texts from the canon of the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint. The third study offers a short literary-historical biography of Yahweh as the creator of the world, the master of history, the guarantor of justice, and the donor of wisdom. It takes into account the approach of the first essay, which presents theology as a sort of religio-historical onomastics, and reflects, on the basis of the second essay, the traditio-historical presentation of images of God and his anointed in the Old Testament as a background for theology and christology in the New Testament.

This title presents a comprehensive and profound introduction to the literature and history of the Old Testament. Beginning with methods and sources, this Handbook looks at the Biblical text, archaeology, other texts, and iconography. It explores varying exegetical methods, including historical criticism, canonical approach, feminist, social scientific and liberation theology. Methods in archaeology, Hebrew epigraphic and iconography are also covered. The second section is devoted to the history and religious history of Ancient Israel. Introductory matters, such as fundamental terminology and definitions, ethnic identity, ancestors and the dead, geography and time reckoning are explicated before the book moves on to a historical survey from the Iron Age (c. 1200 BCE) to the early Roman period (ending about 63 CE). The heart of the book is a detailed survey of the Hebrew canonical books, section by section and book by book. The discussion for each book includes: biblical presentation and content; problems arising from the history of literary analysis and research; the origin and growth of the writing; the theology; and notes on reception history. This book will provide students with everything they need to study the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament.

Suffering, freedom and justice as well as the mysteriousness of God are among the great themes of human existence. In the Book of Job they are poetically reflected in tremendous density. The circles involved in its creation play with the literary traditions of ancient Israel and early Judaism and bring different theologies of cult, legal and wisdom origins into a polyphonic conversation. The present commentary traces this conversation with a view to its literary origin and its reception in early Judaism and early Christianity. Theodicy poems from the ancient oriental environment are included in the translation and verse-by-verse interpretation of the individual chapters of the Book of Job, as are Egyptian wisdom texts and philosophical discourses from the Greek and Roman environment of the Old Testament. Individual excursions provide information on the anthropological, ethical, mythological and theological backgrounds of the Book of Job.

Der Band bietet eine Sammlung von Predigten A"ber Texte aus dem Alten Testament, die der Verfasser in den Jahren 2004 bis 2015 in Hochschulgottesdiensten gehalten hat. Mittels ausgewAhlter Bilder und Motive in den Schriften des alten Israel und des frA"hen Judentums wird menschliches Leben in der Spannung von GlA"ck und UnglA"ck, Gelingen und Misslingen, Freude und Trauer gedeutet. Die vorgefA"hrten Auslegungen zielen auf Orientierung in einer oft rAtselhaften Welt. Dabei werden neueste exegetische Erkenntnisse im Modus der VerkA"ndigung fA"r die Erhellung menschlicher Existenz fruchtbar gemacht. Den Predigten sind grundsAtzliche Aberlegungen zur literarischen und theologischen Rolle des Alten Testaments im Rahmen der einen aus zwei Teilen bestehenden christlichen Bibel, zum VerhAltnis von Kirche und Judentum sowie zum lebensdeutenden Potential heiliger Schriften vorangestellt. Mit dieser hermeneutischen Einleitung und der Fokussierung auf Texte aus dem Alten Testament fA"gt sich der Band zur gegenwArtig wieder neu in Kirche und Theologie entbrannten Diskussion A"ber die Frage der theologischen Zuordnung der Schriften Israels zur Offenbarung Gottes in Jesus Christus.

Zion. Symbol of Life in Judaism and Christianity] In Jewish and Christian traditions Mount Zion is associated with ideas of salvation according to which this place is to be understood as the spatially fixed source of life. In biblical tradition it is considered as the Mountain of God resp. the World Mountain a site of God s instructions for the whole world and the place of the gigantic battles of the nations, which will herald the end of history. The contributions of internationally renowned scientists from Europe, Israel and the USA collected here present images of Zion to be found in Isaiah and in the Psalms, in early Jewish, New Testamental and rabbinical texts as well as in medieval Jewish literature and in Martin Luther s works. Mit dem Berg Zion verbinden sich in judischer und christlicher Tradition Heilsvorstellungen, die diesen Ort als raumlich fixierte Quelle des Lebens verstehen. In der biblischen Uberlieferung gilt er als Gottes- und als Weltenberg als Statte universaler Unterweisung durch Gott und als Ort gigantischer Volkerschlachten, mit denen das Ende der Geschichte eingelautet wird. In den mit dem Zion verknupften Motiven spiegeln sich wesentliche Konzeptionen des judischen Tempels, des Konigtums Gottes und der Stellung Israels in Raum und Zeit. Die hier gesammelten Beitrage international renommierter Wissenschaftler aus Europa, Israel und den USA prasentieren Bilder des Zions bei Jesaja und in den Psalmen, in fruhjudischen, neutestamentlichen und rabbinischen Texten sowie in der mittelalterlichen judischen Dichtung und bei Martin Luther. Der Sammelband unterstreicht die Bedeutung des Zion als einem gemeinsamen Element religioser Identitat in Judentum und Christentum.