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For the past few decades a growing number of scholars have attempted to overthrow the traditional Wellhausian view that the socalled 'Yahwist' or 'J' source of the Pentateuch is the oldest of the four major sources. These scholars have argued that 'J' was composed during the exilic or post-exilic periods of ancient Israel.

Using a variety of approaches from art criticism to structuralist analysis, this book draws out largely neglected narrative elements of Qoheleth''s text, including the strategies of framing, autobiography and the ''use'' of Solomon. In locating the self as the central concern of this narrative, Christianson shows that although Qoheleth passionately observes the world''s transience, he desires that his own image be fixed and remembered. His story is thereby concerned with identity and the formation of character. In the guise of Solomon that concern is almost satirical and somewhat playful. Through the strategy of the frame narrative the complex relations of all such elements are brought into question, particularly the reader''s relation to the framed material, as well as the relation of the framer to the one framed.

Recent discussion of biblical law sees it either as a response to socio-economic factors or as an intellectual tradition. In either case it is viewed as the product of elites that form an international community drawing on a common culture. This book takes that fundamental discussion a step further by proposing that ''law'' is an inappropriate term for the biblical codes, and that they represent, rather, the ''moral advice'' of scribes working independently of the legal framework and appealing to Yahweh as authority. Only by prolonged exegesis and through the transformation of Judaean religion does this ''advice'' take the form of divine law binding on Jews.

In this close reading of a text central to the story of David, the author, using the tools of linguistic pragmatics and poetics, exposes the text''s promotion of a prophetic-based ideology, through a polemical rhetoric that polarizes David and Yahweh around the opposed notions of king (melek) and leader (nagid). He then goes on to analyse the context, in ancient Near Eastern royal ideology and in Samuel, for how the text develops this opposition, and finally reflects on its promulgation of the supreme mediacy of the prophetic word.

A creative, independent, Irish exegetical tradition was well established by the year 700 CE, influencing Northumbria but not Continental Europe. This book contains eight studies by the distinguished Irish biblical scholar, Martin McNamara, which he has published over the past twenty-five years, on the Latin biblical texts (Vulgate, Gallicanum and Jerome''s Hebraicum) of the Psalter and commentaries on it in Ireland from 600 CE onwards. The oldest Irish Vulgate text, the Cathach of St Columba of Iona (died 597), shows signs of correction against the Irish recension of the Hebrew text. The central exegetical tradition is strongly Antiochene, being dependent on the commentary of Theodore of Mopsuestia (in Julian''s translation), while another branch understands the Psalms as principally about David, rather than christologically or as about later Jewish history.

The analysis of biblical rhetoric has been developed only in the last 250 years. The first half of this book outlines the history of the method known as rhetorical analysis in biblical studies, illustrated by numerous texts. The work of Lowth (who focused on ''parallelism''), Bengel (who drew attention to ''chiasmus''), Jebb and Boys (the method''s real founders at the turn of the ninteenth century) and Lund (the chief exponent in the mid-twentieth century) are all discussed, as is the current full blooming of rhetorical analysis. The second half of the book is a systematic account of the method, testing it on Psalms 113 and 146, on the first two chapters of Amos, and many other texts, especially from Luke. Translated by Luc Racaut.

This synchronic study of the books of Samuel examines the multifaceted character of David. His is a complex tale, seemingly designed to explore the human dimension of a traditional motif: divine election and rejection. Through speeches and actions, David is revealed as a man who never quite understands his fate. Why has Saul been rejected and why is David not rejected? If Saul sinned, David sinned boldly. The man, David, through poetic soliloquies (2 Sam. 1.19-27; 22.2-51; 23.1b-7), explores this question.

Underlying Exodus in its priestly redaction is a pilgrimage. Smith''s new book starts by reviewing pilgrimage shrines, feasts and practices in ancient Israel. Next, it examines the two pilgrimage journeys in Exodus. In Exodus 1-15 Moses journeys to Mount Sinai, experiences God and receives his commission. In Exodus 16-40, Moses and the people together journey to Mount Sinai for the people''s experience of God and their commission. Between lies Exodus 15, the fulcrum-point of the book: vv. 1-12 look back and vv. 13-18 look forward to Israel''s journey to Sinai. Finally, the different meanings of torah in the book of Exodus are contrasted, and the book concludes with a consideration of Exodus''s larger place in the Pentateuch.

This anthropological study of the expulsion of the foreign women from the post-exilic community argues that it was the result of a witch-hunt. Its comparative approach notes that the community responded to its weak social boundaries in the same fashion as societies with similar social weaknesses.

The contributors to this volume use a variety of methodological approaches to explore texts and issues related to prophecy in ancient Israel and the Near East. The essays cover a wide range of themes on the institution of prophecy and on the individual prophets in ancient Israel.

The proceedings of an international conference of historians, archaeologists and biblical scholars, who met in Amman to discuss new perspectives on the history of ancient Jerusalem and its relationship to biblical tradition on October 12-14, 2001.

This study investigates the Dan/Danite tradition in the Hebrew Bible to determine what it tells us about Dan and also the degree to which traditions associated with one representation of Dan may have influenced the characterization of another.

This book examines the portrayal of Israel as a royal-priestly nation within Exodus and against the background of biblical and ancient Near Eastern thought. Central to the work is a literary study of Exodus 19.4-6 and a demonstration of the pivotal role these verses and their main image have within Exodus.

Papers of a symposium between the department of Bible Studies, Tel Aviv University, and the Faculty of Protestant Theology, Bochum, on the Jewish and Christian Biblical understanding of eschatology.