Bøger i The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies serien

Based on two years of academic presentations on laments in the Biblical Hebrew Poetry Section at the Society of Biblical Literature (2006-2007), this title provides fresh readings of familiar texts as they are read through the lens of lamentation, and deepens our understanding of Israel and God as lamenter and lamentee.

Ancestor veneration plays important- and hitherto overlooked- socio-religious and ideological roles in various and competing territorial claims as presented in the Hebrew Bible.

Investigates the composition history of the "Amos-text" by drawing on the influential works of Hans W Wolff and J Jeremias. This redaction-critical study interprets the reasons for judgment in "Amos" 2.6-16 in the literary context of each of the redactional compositions which, it is argued, underlie the "Amos-text".

This volume collects essays from an international body of leading scholars in Old Testament studies, focused upon the key concepts of the question of historicity of biblical stories, the archaeology of Israel/Palestine during the Bronze and Iron Ages, and the nature of biblical narratives and related literature. As a celebration of the extensive body of Thomas L. Thompson's work, these essays enable a threefold perspective on biblical narratives. Beginning with 'method', the contributors discuss archaeology, cultural memory, epistemology, and sociology of knowledge, before moving to 'history, historiography and archaeology' and close analysis of the Qumran Writings, Josephus and biblical rewritings. Finally the argument turn to the narratives themselves, exploring topics including the possibility of invented myth, the genre of Judges and the depiction of Moses in the Qu'ran. Presenting an interdisciplinary analysis of the historical issues concerning ancient Israel/Palestine, this volume creates an updated body of reference to fifty years' worth of scholarship.

This book is an examination of characters in the books of Kings; showing how understanding and interpretation of key characters affects readings of the story. The volume begins with more general pieces addressing how the study of characters can shed light on the composition history of Kings and on how characters and characterization can be considered with respect to ethics, particularly with respect to the moral complexity of biblical characters.Contributors then consider key characters within the Kings narrative in depth, such as Nathan, Bathsheba, Solomon and Jezebel. The contributors use their own specific expertise to analyze these characters and more, drawing on insights from literary theory and considering such approaches as questioning our view of a particular character with based on the character within the text with whom we identify. Contributors also assess whether or not characters as portrayed in the biblical text necessarily match up to their possible counterparts in history.

Revision of author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University, 2010 under title: Domestic disputations at the dung heap: a reception history of Job and his wife in Christianity of the West.

This collection honours Margreet Steiner, who used archaeology and pottery analysis to question the assumptions made by historians and biblical scholars about the past. It brings together biblical scholars and archaeologists to examine the relationship between 'dirt' archaeology and the biblical world as presented to us through written sources.

Though the portrait of Abimelech as king in "Judges" 9 is negative, this portrayal served to delegitimate local leaders in favor of centralized power-holders. This book explores the portrayal of the rise, reign, and demise of Abimelech in "Judges" 9 and asks about whose interests this portrayal may have served.

Presents an investigation into the lexical meanings of Hebrew terms for the human life cycle in the Old Testament. This book studies the terms from the perspective of a specific semantic domain (age) and not in isolation from each other. In addition, it applies other modern linguistic approaches, including syntagmatic and paradigmatic analysis.

The nature of historical and archaeological research is such that biblical and archaeological evidence should both be taken into account so that we can attain a more reliable reconstruction of ancient Israel. This is a study on how to relate written evidence with non-inscriptional archaeological evidence, with reference to pre-exilic Israel.

Characters provide the entry point to the story of the books of Samuel, just as they do in all stories. In this book the history of research into characters in Samuel, and the role(s) they play in the text are examined and discussed. The contributors look at the interpretative function of characters in the Samuel stories, and at issues of textual composition and what profiling of characters within the text can add to theories surrounding this issue. Specific characters are also profiled and studied. The character of God is examined: is God kind towards Israel? Is God loving and 'worthy to be praised' 2 Sam 22.4. Characters such as Hannah are examined from the perspective of literary type, as well as Eli as priest and Samuel himself as prophet. All of the major characters within the books are studied, including David and Jonathan, and chapters also treat the minor characters and offer information on their roles in the structure of the text. The contributors provide a range of different approaches to characterization, according to their specific expertise, and provide a thorough handbook to the characters in Samuel and their roles in the literary make-up of the text.

This volume advances scholarly discussion of Jeremiah via rigorous feminist and postcolonial perspectives of the text. Essays analyse gendered imagery, explore rhetorics of imperialism and resistance, and examine theological implications of feminist-critical perspectives on YHWH and other deities represented in Jeremiah.

This volume fills an important lacuna in the study of the Hebrew Bible by providing the first comprehensive treatment of intertextuality in Job, in which essays will address intertextual resonances between Job and texts in all three divisions of the Hebrew canon, along with non-canonical texts throughout history, from the ancient Near East to modern literature. Though comprehensive, this study will not be exhaustive, but will invite further study into connections between Job and these texts, few of which have previously been explored systematically. Thus, the volume''s impact will reach beyond Job to each of the ''intertexts'' the articles address. As a multi-authored volume that gathers together scholars with expertise on this diverse array of texts, the range of discussion is wide. The contributors have been encouraged to pursue the intertextual approach that best suits their topic, thereby offering readers a valuable collection of intertextual case studies addressing a single text. No study quite like this has yet been published, so it will also provide a framework for future intertextual studies of other biblical texts.

This book indicates that physical disfigurement functioned in biblical law to verify legal property acquisition. This is primarily substantiated in the accounts of prescriptive disfigurements: namely circumcision and the piercing of a slave's ear, both of which were required only when a son, or slave, was acquired permanently.

Images from the ancient Near East are an important though generally underutilized source of data for interpreting the Hebrew Bible and the cultural context from which it emerged. The essays in this volume highlight the ways that ancient Near Eastern iconography can inform exegesis. This aim is accomplished through case studies in iconographic exegesis that exhibit sound methodologies for relating images and texts.Since the 1970s, biblical scholars have been turning increasingly to iconography as a source for understanding the religion, history and literature of the ancient Near East. The essays in this volume tackle two thorny issues: 1) how images reflect the cultures that produce them and 2) the nature of the relationship between images and texts, both within discrete cultures and among different cultures. Until now, there have been relatively few methodologically self-conscious treatments of ancient iconography and its relationship to the biblical text. So this volume addresses a clear need for demonstrating transparent and consistent methods for iconographic work among biblical scholars.

This volume makes a positive intervention into maximalist/minimalist debates about Israelite historiography by pointing to the events that happened during the Persian and Hellenistic periods. During this historical epoch, traditions about Israel and Judah''s founding became fixed as markers of ethnic identity, and much of the canonical Hebrew Bible came into its present form. Concentrating on these events, a clearer historical picture emerges. The entire volume is set within the context of Doug Knight''s contributions, which have encouraged a rigorous social-scientific and tradition-historical approach to the Hebrew Bible and ancient Israel in general. Many scholars have pursued how the social scientific method, first used to analyze early monarchic Israel, can shape the understanding of these later historical periods. Knight''s methods, teachings, writings, and scholarly interventions have pointed the contributors of this volume to fresh considerations of the Persian and Hellenistic periods. The concluding essay will examine the future directions in which such sociological and historical investigation can go forward.

This volume advances scholarly discussion of Jeremiah via rigorous feminist and postcolonial perspectives of the text. Essays analyse gendered imagery, explore rhetorics of imperialism and resistance, and examine theological implications of feminist-critical perspectives on YHWH and other deities represented in Jeremiah.

Discusses the experience and understanding of the senses in the culture represented in the Hebrew Bible. Through examination of associative and contextual patterns, the author reaches a septasensory model, including sight, hearing, speech, kinaesthesia, touch, taste, and smell.