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Ezekiel has often been called ¿the prophet of the spirit¿ because of his surpassing use of the word ¿¿¿, ¿spirit¿. The main argument of this book is that Ezekiel¿s ¿spirit¿ motif conveys a polysemous symbolism which, nonetheless, accentuates an overarching leitmotiv. Ezekiel¿s ¿spirit¿ symbolism signifies a paradigm shift in ancient Israelite visualization of divine presence in Israel: from visible phenomena and experiences, mediated through rituals at cultic shrines in Israel, to an omnipresence that is not necessarily mediated through cultus. Moreover, author Samuel W. Muindi posits that the African Pentecostal ¿en-spirited¿ worldview is an apt hermeneutical lens for understanding Ezekielian ¿spirit¿ symbolism. The experiences of the Ezekielian exilic community prefigure dynamic equivalents in African communities. As such, Ezekielian ¿spirit¿ symbolism critically informs the African Pentecostal ¿en-spirited¿ worldview while the latter illumines Ezekielian ¿spirit¿ symbolism.This book is aimed at students of Biblical theology and others who wish to enrich their understanding of hermeneutics as well as Biblical pneumatology as an ¿en-spirited¿ worldview.

Throughout history, the Fourth Gospel has been an enigma to its readers, and most notably in the way that it shapes its characters. Although traditional approaches to gospel characterization have often confined its characters to the pages of the text, The Voices of the Fourth Gospel presents a fresh, interdisciplinary approach that reveals the characterizations of the Fourth Gospel as vibrant, literary products based on eyewitness testimony of their encounters with Jesus of Nazareth. As such, the characters of the Fourth Gospel emerge as unique "voices" that speak to both the realities of their narrative world and the context of the emerging Christian community in Ephesus at the end of the first century. Based on the Fourth Gospel¿s chronological and geographical distinctions, The Voices of the Fourth Gospel challenges its readers to hear the voices of each character from the historical memory of the Johannine church through five character case-studies: (1) the Disciple whom Jesus Loved, (2) Jesus of Nazareth, (3) John the Baptist, (4) Nicodemus, and (5) the Samaritan woman. Written for scholars, pastors, and serious students of Scripture, The Voices of the Fourth Gospel is an ideal source for readers who seek to better understand the Fourth Gospel from within its own cultural world.

Literary Allusions in Esther: A Study on the Convergence of Intertexts and Narrative examines the robust intertextual nature of MT Esther. Its textual landscape is filled with a plethora of allusions to other texts scattered throughout the Old Testament canon. While these intertexts have often been identified individually, they have not always been considered a collective whole. By employing a new, eclectic method of exegetical analysis (¿Analogical Convergence¿), the author demonstrates one means by which these intertexts complement one another and converge with the authorial intention embedded into MT Esther.In Literary Allusions in Esther, Ron Lindo offers a nuanced and sophisticated engagement with the book of Esther. His survey of proposed ¿intertexts¿ in secondary literature is comprehensive yet accessible¿a significant resource for Esther scholarship. Lindös discussion of method helpfully recognizes the place of authorial intention in many treatments of ¿intertextuality¿ in biblical studies, and the links he proposes between Esther and Jeremiah providethe basis for a compelling new account of Esther¿s thrust as a story. Literary Allusions in Esther makes important contributions to the field, and should feature in further discussions of the story¿s shape and the extent to which it interacts with other texts from antiquity.¿¿John Screnock, Tutor in Old Testament, Wycliffe Hall, University of Oxford That Esther is a work which is composed with allusion to other texts is now increasingly recognized. This work makes an important contribution by establishing a disciplined method for understanding this and how both the surface text and its interaction with other texts in the Old Testament contribute to its meaning. Scholars working on Esther will need to engage with this disciplined and careful work.¿¿David G. Firth, Old Testament Tutor, Trinity College Bristol

The definition of silence is essential to the interpretation of 1 Corinthians 14:34¿35. What did Paul mean when he silenced women in church? In Paul, Women, and the Meaning of Silence, author Alex S. Carr compares the Greek verb Paul used for silence with other ancient Greek sources containing the same term. Through this comparison, he demonstrates consistency within 1 Corinthians and the other Pauline letters. Through comparison with other passages in the New Testament, Carr also demonstrates that these passages do not contradict the type of silence in 1 Corinthians 14.Paul, Women, and the Meaning of Silence further considers cultural and historical contextual issues, including women¿s education and speech in the Greco-Roman world. This book will assist Bible scholars, pastors, and theological students in navigating some of key interpretive issues in 1 Corinthians. Scholars seeking to locate primary source material will especially profit. Pastors will find an explanation of various views as they preach and teach on the subject. The book is one of the most extensive discussions of this challenging New Testament passage on women in the church. "In what is possibly the most thorough examination of 1 Corinthians 14:34¿35 to date, Alex Carr offers an insightful discussion of the history of research, literary context, historical context, and theological context of this debated text. His knowledge of the topic is vast, his arguments cogent, and his conclusion persuasive. Carr¿s research will topple several of the popular theories and become the work with which all future scholarship simply must engage."¿Charles L. Quarles, Research Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology; Charles Page Chair of Biblical Theology, Southeastern Seminary "After decades of debate and libraries of books on the ministry of women, Alex Carr¿s study shows there are new insights still to be had from examining the biblical texts afresh. Paul, Women, and the Meaning of Silence demonstrates that lexical, literary, historical, and theological factors weigh against Paul¿s command in 1 Corinthians 14:34 demanding ¿absolute silence¿ of women. Instead, Carr shows that Paul¿s command enjoins women to temporary silence during a specific time in the church gathering, namely, during the weighing of prophecies. His findings support the authenticity of the text and shed light on the contribution and participation of women in the first century church and today."¿Claire S. Smith, Author of Pauline Communities as ¿Scholastic Communities¿: A Study of the Vocabulary of ¿Teaching¿ in 1 Corinthians, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus (2012) "1 Corinthians 14:34¿35 at first glance appears to silence all women in church, yet 11:5 permits them to pray and prophesy if their heads are covered. A plethora of approaches has developed both to affirm and deny that this is an irreconcilable contradiction. But Alex Carr deftly guides his readers through the maze of options that scholars have developed, showing there is no contradiction at all. A welcome addition to a crowded field of studies."¿Craig L. Blomberg, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of New Testament, Denver Seminary

The concept of subordination plays a prominent role in the paranesis of 1 Peter, and it appears too in the context of Christ's victory over the cosmic powers.

Formative Feasting will be of special interest to researchers, students, and church leaders interested in moral formation and the Bible, as well as those interested in feasting and eating in Scripture.

Across the Psalter, the movement "from laments of individuals to praises of nations," among other movements, are not in linear but progressive parallel patterns and cross over the fivefold doxological division.

This book takes a narrative-critical approach to the meaning and function of debate in the Gospel of Mary.

Ccompares the moral system in the Epistle of James with other Greco-Roman and Judaic texts. In this analysis, the author's systemic comparison of texts reveals how the author's vision of a distinctive way of community life was both part of and distinct from the moral and religious systems among which it emerged.

This book argues that invocations of YHWH have a number of functions in 1 Kings 1-2, with the function of characters' invocations being particularly dependent on the identities of the characters, their relationships, and the narrative contexts in which they participate.

This book breaks fresh ground in the interpretation of the Apocalypse with an interdisciplinary methodology called aural-performance criticism that assesses how the first-century audience would have heard the Apocalypse.

This landmark study of the literary relationship between the gospel of John and the synoptic gospels presents compelling evidence for the existence of a written pre-canonical Alpha gospel that contained almost all of the main episodes in the adult life of Jesus and which became the written source for the core biography of Jesus in all four gospels.

The central aim of Water as an Image of the Spirit in the Johannine Literature is to propose two sets of indicators that can be used to assess the symbolic reference of water imagery in the Johannine literature. The validity of these indicators is demonstrated by applying them to six disputed water passages.

This book pays special attention to the hermeneutical location where the fig-tree story appears in Mark 11.

Ancient Indian Kavya Sastra (Poetics) and its modern rendering Narratology supplies a variety of poetical tools and devices with which the vast miscellany of biblical narratives can be approached and appreciated.

Reading Green: Tactical Considerations for Reading the Bible Ecologically operates on the premise that the Bible itself does not directly address the current ecological crisis and that expecting it to do so is anachronistic, for there was no ecological crisis on the agendas of biblical authors as they penned their works.

The (Im)Polite Jesus is an informed, focused, deep and creative analysis of the topic of (im)politeness applied to Jesus in Matthew's Gospel with in-depth conclusions and analysis about the Matthean Jesus' (im)politeness.

This book investigates the Matthean use of bread and the breaking of bread in light of cognitive conceptual metaphor, which are not only intertwined within Matthew's narrative plots but also function to represent Matthew's communal identity and ideological vision.

This book shifts the focus of biblical stories about David from historicity to popular culture, suggesting their origins in popular heroic literature of the later monarchy and Persian period and comparing them with Homeric and Arthurian heroic literature. Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)