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Jacob: Conflicted Twin, Aggrieved Patriarch
Published: Jun 2025
Original price was: £70.00.£30.00Current price is: £30.00.
George Savran brings his narrative interpretive approach to look closely at Jacob’s shifting identity. Jacob is indelibly linked to his brother Esau in the Genesis narrative, and their complex relationship as twins foregrounds this problematic connection. Jacob’s lineage is examined—he differs noticeably from his ancestors and his offspring in the complexity of his changing character. At times he is a “simple man” at the mercy of the demands of others; elsewhere he is a devious trickster eager to use his wits to achieve personal success. His search for a coherent identity, as it unfolds in this study, leads to his emergence as the patriarch of his family, compelled to make peace with his brother and his sons in the midst of ongoing conflict.
This study brings out how Jacob’s mature identity is clarified further by his reactions to three unusual and unexpected encounters which shed light on his ability to recalibrate his self-understanding.
- The first is his struggle with the man/angel at the Jabbok, where he receives a blessing with the name Israel, and comes to realize that his relationship to God is more complicated (and less predictable) than he had previously thought.
- An additional insight comes the following day during his reunion with Esau, as he learns to appreciate him in a new way and compares beholding his face to “seeing the face of God”. This is a remarkable admission by a brother who thought only the worst of his twin.
- Jacob’s rethinking his own self-importance emerges later in the Joseph story, when he is compelled to realizes that his insistence on his personal concerns will lead to the dissolution of his family.
Savran’s interpretation of these reactions underscores their significance in Jacob’s development, revealing a character of depth and resilience and giving new meaning to his role as the avatar of Israel.
Sale
Jacob: Conflicted Twin, Aggrieved Patriarch
Original price was: £70.00.£30.00Current price is: £30.00.
George Savran brings his narrative interpretive approach to look closely at Jacob’s shifting identity. Jacob is indelibly linked to his brother Esau in the Genesis narrative, and their complex relationship as twins foregrounds this problematic connection. Jacob’s lineage is examined—he differs noticeably from his ancestors and his offspring in the complexity of his changing character. At times he is a “simple man” at the mercy of the demands of others; elsewhere he is a devious trickster eager to use his wits to achieve personal success. His search for a coherent identity, as it unfolds in this study, leads to his emergence as the patriarch of his family, compelled to make peace with his brother and his sons in the midst of ongoing conflict.
This study brings out how Jacob’s mature identity is clarified further by his reactions to three unusual and unexpected encounters which shed light on his ability to recalibrate his self-understanding.
- The first is his struggle with the man/angel at the Jabbok, where he receives a blessing with the name Israel, and comes to realize that his relationship to God is more complicated (and less predictable) than he had previously thought.
- An additional insight comes the following day during his reunion with Esau, as he learns to appreciate him in a new way and compares beholding his face to “seeing the face of God”. This is a remarkable admission by a brother who thought only the worst of his twin.
- Jacob’s rethinking his own self-importance emerges later in the Joseph story, when he is compelled to realizes that his insistence on his personal concerns will lead to the dissolution of his family.
Savran’s interpretation of these reactions underscores their significance in Jacob’s development, revealing a character of depth and resilience and giving new meaning to his role as the avatar of Israel.
Sale
Song of Songs in Sense, Sound and Space
Published: Nov 2024
Original price was: £70.00.£30.00Current price is: £30.00.
This volume offers 13 cutting-edge essays on the Song of Songs presented in four categories.
1. Exegetical and Contextualised Studies. Fernandes argues Solomon’s sidelining in the Song is unjust and uncovers subtle allusions to him. Scheffler examines the contentious place of Song 7.1 and its depiction. Lombaard challenges whether gender equity exists in the Song, arguing that female voices are more prominent than male ones. Landy employs affect theory to the depiction of the woman as a mare (1.9-11) and the invitation for her to return (7.1). Kim highlights the subjectivity of interpretation by comparing readings of Song 7 by Keel, Black and herself through the lens of Umberto Eco’s semiotic model. Potgieter and Lombaard contemporise Paul Decock’s readings of Origen and Bernard on the Song.
2. Spatial Studies. Fischer applies Lefebvre’s spatial theory to the Song, highlighting the protagonists’ physical space; their conceived (cultural) space; and their lived space (their supra-temporal experience). Dantonel analyses several spatial domains in both the Song and Proverbs: spring; well; and vineyard along with three places of enduring love: mother’s house; door; and window.
3. Comparative Studies. Volkonski compares Early Arabic poetic techniques and the Song to show new possibilities for interpreting the latter. Recalcati investigates parallels between the Song and Hellenistic epigrammatic poetry within the Anthologia Palatina. Biermann explores the metaphor(s) ‘set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm’ in 8.6 through cognitive linguistics and sensory archaeology.
4. Studies in Music. Boyce-Tillman integrates her reading of the Song with her musical compositions to contemporise themes including fertility, the body, ecotheology, and apophatic theology. Lamont and Fernandes survey four shared tropes between Arvo Pärt’s The Deer’s Cry, St. Patrick’s Breastplate and the Song: love and war; incantation and magic; connection with nature; and in medias res.
Sale
Song of Songs in Sense, Sound and Space
Original price was: £70.00.£30.00Current price is: £30.00.
This volume offers 13 cutting-edge essays on the Song of Songs presented in four categories.
1. Exegetical and Contextualised Studies. Fernandes argues Solomon’s sidelining in the Song is unjust and uncovers subtle allusions to him. Scheffler examines the contentious place of Song 7.1 and its depiction. Lombaard challenges whether gender equity exists in the Song, arguing that female voices are more prominent than male ones. Landy employs affect theory to the depiction of the woman as a mare (1.9-11) and the invitation for her to return (7.1). Kim highlights the subjectivity of interpretation by comparing readings of Song 7 by Keel, Black and herself through the lens of Umberto Eco’s semiotic model. Potgieter and Lombaard contemporise Paul Decock’s readings of Origen and Bernard on the Song.
2. Spatial Studies. Fischer applies Lefebvre’s spatial theory to the Song, highlighting the protagonists’ physical space; their conceived (cultural) space; and their lived space (their supra-temporal experience). Dantonel analyses several spatial domains in both the Song and Proverbs: spring; well; and vineyard along with three places of enduring love: mother’s house; door; and window.
3. Comparative Studies. Volkonski compares Early Arabic poetic techniques and the Song to show new possibilities for interpreting the latter. Recalcati investigates parallels between the Song and Hellenistic epigrammatic poetry within the Anthologia Palatina. Biermann explores the metaphor(s) ‘set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm’ in 8.6 through cognitive linguistics and sensory archaeology.
4. Studies in Music. Boyce-Tillman integrates her reading of the Song with her musical compositions to contemporise themes including fertility, the body, ecotheology, and apophatic theology. Lamont and Fernandes survey four shared tropes between Arvo Pärt’s The Deer’s Cry, St. Patrick’s Breastplate and the Song: love and war; incantation and magic; connection with nature; and in medias res.
Sale
Ancient Israel, Judah, and Greece: Laying the Foundation of a Comparative Approach
Published: Nov 2024
Original price was: £70.00.£30.00Current price is: £30.00.
Andrew Tobolowsky offers a new starting point for comparative investigations into the traditions of the Hebrew Bible and of ancient Greece. Noting a number of shared problems and questions in the study of each corpus, he advocates for a method based on comparing not tradition to tradition but scholarly approach to scholarly approach. He argues that such a method not only helps overcome the problem of parallelomania, and a high philological barrier to entry, but transforms scholars in each discipline into fellow travellers, capable of offering each other useful insights.
By applying this method of comparing scholarly approaches, Tobolowsky considers four crucial questions:
- what do contemporary understandings of ethnic identity mean for the study of these traditions;
- what role should extraliterary evidence play in illuminating them;
- how should we understand the data of genealogical traditions;
- and what do new understandings of the porousness of cultural boundaries in the ancient world mean for the study of foundation traditions.
In each case, he surveys the landscape of contemporary debates in both fields to determine what new ideas hold the most promise for solving intractable problems—and for most successfully moving on from outdated assumptions.
In addition, Ancient Israel, Judah, and Greece particularly emphasizes the usefulness of thinking about the historical development of traditions in the Hebrew Bible through the lens of a Mediterranean context where there is so much more evidence for how traditions were inherited and adapted to work with. Overall, Tobolowsky argues that what each of these comparisons most clearly demonstrates is the crucial importance of completing the shift from a “kernels of truth” based approach to the study of traditions to one where their ongoing dynamism as the medium for redescribing identity and the past is emphasized instead.
Sale
Ancient Israel, Judah, and Greece: Laying the Foundation of a Comparative Approach
Original price was: £70.00.£30.00Current price is: £30.00.
Andrew Tobolowsky offers a new starting point for comparative investigations into the traditions of the Hebrew Bible and of ancient Greece. Noting a number of shared problems and questions in the study of each corpus, he advocates for a method based on comparing not tradition to tradition but scholarly approach to scholarly approach. He argues that such a method not only helps overcome the problem of parallelomania, and a high philological barrier to entry, but transforms scholars in each discipline into fellow travellers, capable of offering each other useful insights.
By applying this method of comparing scholarly approaches, Tobolowsky considers four crucial questions:
- what do contemporary understandings of ethnic identity mean for the study of these traditions;
- what role should extraliterary evidence play in illuminating them;
- how should we understand the data of genealogical traditions;
- and what do new understandings of the porousness of cultural boundaries in the ancient world mean for the study of foundation traditions.
In each case, he surveys the landscape of contemporary debates in both fields to determine what new ideas hold the most promise for solving intractable problems—and for most successfully moving on from outdated assumptions.
In addition, Ancient Israel, Judah, and Greece particularly emphasizes the usefulness of thinking about the historical development of traditions in the Hebrew Bible through the lens of a Mediterranean context where there is so much more evidence for how traditions were inherited and adapted to work with. Overall, Tobolowsky argues that what each of these comparisons most clearly demonstrates is the crucial importance of completing the shift from a “kernels of truth” based approach to the study of traditions to one where their ongoing dynamism as the medium for redescribing identity and the past is emphasized instead.
Sale
Ecclesiastes
Published: Oct 2024
Price range: £17.00 through £22.00
For readers of Ecclesiastes, the first impressions of the book can be perplexing, paradoxical, elusive and pessimistic. First-time readers may be discouraged to engage in understanding this difficult and strange book. Yet, against our collective lived experience under the sun, there are others who find this book ‘on the meaning of life’ exceptionally intriguing and inviting. The ‘search’ for a fitting reading strategy to unpack the complexity of the book; and a logical structure amidst the fragmented, thinking-out-loud mode of expressions presents a great challenge to all commentators.
To address these challenges, this commentary distinguishes itself on three grounds. First, Barbara Leung Lai intentionally hammers out a five-fold interconnected perspectival reading strategy toward interpretation: as a ‘Grand Narrative’ of all humanity; as a multi-voiced book; as a dialectic composition; as an enriched whole through reading ‘cross the grains’; and as a ‘memoir’. This approach to reading Ecclesiastes opens an expanded window of perception toward interpretation.
Second, she foregrounds the five identifiable voices embedded in this polyphony: i.e. the voice of the narrator, the ‘I’-voice of the Preacher/Qohelet, Qohelet’s ‘inner voice’, the collective voice of wisdom, and the voice of the epilogist. The result of this innovative task provides for us a comprehensive, sensible, and cohesive analytical outline demonstrating the trajectory of the flow of thought within the twelve chapters.
Third, in keeping with the objective of the Readings series (for first-time commentary readers of Ecclesiastes), Leung Lai invites all readers to read and practise hearing this polyphonic text self-engagingly. Be encouraged and empowered to develop our own readerly interpretive voice.
In terms of the originality of its five-fold approach to reading and its structural outline based on multi-voice analysis, this commentary is a groundbreaking endeavour—a fresh and invigorating read for all readers.
Sale
Ecclesiastes
Price range: £17.00 through £22.00
For readers of Ecclesiastes, the first impressions of the book can be perplexing, paradoxical, elusive and pessimistic. First-time readers may be discouraged to engage in understanding this difficult and strange book. Yet, against our collective lived experience under the sun, there are others who find this book ‘on the meaning of life’ exceptionally intriguing and inviting. The ‘search’ for a fitting reading strategy to unpack the complexity of the book; and a logical structure amidst the fragmented, thinking-out-loud mode of expressions presents a great challenge to all commentators.
To address these challenges, this commentary distinguishes itself on three grounds. First, Barbara Leung Lai intentionally hammers out a five-fold interconnected perspectival reading strategy toward interpretation: as a ‘Grand Narrative’ of all humanity; as a multi-voiced book; as a dialectic composition; as an enriched whole through reading ‘cross the grains’; and as a ‘memoir’. This approach to reading Ecclesiastes opens an expanded window of perception toward interpretation.
Second, she foregrounds the five identifiable voices embedded in this polyphony: i.e. the voice of the narrator, the ‘I’-voice of the Preacher/Qohelet, Qohelet’s ‘inner voice’, the collective voice of wisdom, and the voice of the epilogist. The result of this innovative task provides for us a comprehensive, sensible, and cohesive analytical outline demonstrating the trajectory of the flow of thought within the twelve chapters.
Third, in keeping with the objective of the Readings series (for first-time commentary readers of Ecclesiastes), Leung Lai invites all readers to read and practise hearing this polyphonic text self-engagingly. Be encouraged and empowered to develop our own readerly interpretive voice.
In terms of the originality of its five-fold approach to reading and its structural outline based on multi-voice analysis, this commentary is a groundbreaking endeavour—a fresh and invigorating read for all readers.
Sale
Trauma Theories: Refractions in the Book of Jeremiah
Published: Oct 2024
Original price was: £75.00.£35.00Current price is: £35.00.
A first of its kind, this monograph examines five common trauma theories used within biblical studies, setting out the assumptions and implications of each and using passages from the book of Jeremiah to demonstrate interpretive possibilities. Trauma Theories highlights the interdisciplinary character of trauma hermeneutics and demonstrates the distinctive contribution each approach offers for biblical interpreters.
In her exploration of trauma theories, Elizabeth Boase treats each school of thought separately, tracing its disciplinary roots and its underlying convictions about language and memory. At the same time, she argues for the importance of understanding the way each theory accounts for the place of texts in a communal setting, suggesting that it is the communal impact of trauma that is key to reading biblical texts.
Boase uses passages from the Book of Jeremiah as case studies, showcasing how different theories offer diverse ways of understanding the impact of suffering experienced during the time of the Babylonian incursion on Judah and Jerusalem in the sixth century BCE.
This volume will be an invaluable resource for newcomers to the field of biblical trauma hermeneutics and for those more familiar with these approaches.
Sale
Trauma Theories: Refractions in the Book of Jeremiah
Original price was: £75.00.£35.00Current price is: £35.00.
A first of its kind, this monograph examines five common trauma theories used within biblical studies, setting out the assumptions and implications of each and using passages from the book of Jeremiah to demonstrate interpretive possibilities. Trauma Theories highlights the interdisciplinary character of trauma hermeneutics and demonstrates the distinctive contribution each approach offers for biblical interpreters.
In her exploration of trauma theories, Elizabeth Boase treats each school of thought separately, tracing its disciplinary roots and its underlying convictions about language and memory. At the same time, she argues for the importance of understanding the way each theory accounts for the place of texts in a communal setting, suggesting that it is the communal impact of trauma that is key to reading biblical texts.
Boase uses passages from the Book of Jeremiah as case studies, showcasing how different theories offer diverse ways of understanding the impact of suffering experienced during the time of the Babylonian incursion on Judah and Jerusalem in the sixth century BCE.
This volume will be an invaluable resource for newcomers to the field of biblical trauma hermeneutics and for those more familiar with these approaches.
Sale
A Distraught Prophet and Other Performance Readings in Jeremiah
Published: July 2024
Original price was: £70.00.£32.00Current price is: £32.00.
Continuing the theme of Valerie M Billingham’s, The Great Drama of Jeremiah: A Performance Reading which addresses eleven scenes in Jer 1-19, Billingham presents a performance reading of nine further scenes from chs. 20-32. In a synchronic reading, she undertakes rhetorical analyses of her own translations of the Masoretic Text, noting repetitions, chiastic structures, parallelism, alliteration and assonance that add impact to the messages. She analyses each scene according to their actors, audience, settings (geographical and socio-political), and improvisation of traditional scripts.
Employing the Earth Bible Team’s six Eco-justice Principles, she attends to the voices of Earth and members of the Earth community as they express their distress at the Babylonian invasion of Judah, and rejoice at the prospect of the exiles’ return. With the exilic community suffering Post Traumatic Stress, she argues that Jeremiah presents a manual that offers healing and restoration. Acknowledging performance as a worthy pursuit, Billingham provides helpful groundwork for engaging with texts in order to produce scripts for acting.
The performances presented include Jeremiah's distress at Yhwh's apparent deception and coercion regarding his prophetic vocation. The kings are the problem in Judah, provoking Yhwh’s judgment, but plans to appoint an ideal leader who will rule according to the covenantal qualities of wisdom, justice and righteousness. Two baskets of figs represent the exilic community and those who remain in Judah. In a twist, the good figs are identified as the suffering exiles, and the bad figs are those who avoided deportation. In a heated clash over the severity and duration of exile, yokes are smashed and Jeremiah is declared to be the true prophet of Yhwh. Jeremiah purchases his uncle’s block of land. An ecological reading presents the field as a silent symbol of hope for the exilic community. It represents all the other fields that will be restored to the rightful families of the returning exiles.
Sale
A Distraught Prophet and Other Performance Readings in Jeremiah
Original price was: £70.00.£32.00Current price is: £32.00.
Continuing the theme of Valerie M Billingham’s, The Great Drama of Jeremiah: A Performance Reading which addresses eleven scenes in Jer 1-19, Billingham presents a performance reading of nine further scenes from chs. 20-32. In a synchronic reading, she undertakes rhetorical analyses of her own translations of the Masoretic Text, noting repetitions, chiastic structures, parallelism, alliteration and assonance that add impact to the messages. She analyses each scene according to their actors, audience, settings (geographical and socio-political), and improvisation of traditional scripts.
Employing the Earth Bible Team’s six Eco-justice Principles, she attends to the voices of Earth and members of the Earth community as they express their distress at the Babylonian invasion of Judah, and rejoice at the prospect of the exiles’ return. With the exilic community suffering Post Traumatic Stress, she argues that Jeremiah presents a manual that offers healing and restoration. Acknowledging performance as a worthy pursuit, Billingham provides helpful groundwork for engaging with texts in order to produce scripts for acting.
The performances presented include Jeremiah's distress at Yhwh's apparent deception and coercion regarding his prophetic vocation. The kings are the problem in Judah, provoking Yhwh’s judgment, but plans to appoint an ideal leader who will rule according to the covenantal qualities of wisdom, justice and righteousness. Two baskets of figs represent the exilic community and those who remain in Judah. In a twist, the good figs are identified as the suffering exiles, and the bad figs are those who avoided deportation. In a heated clash over the severity and duration of exile, yokes are smashed and Jeremiah is declared to be the true prophet of Yhwh. Jeremiah purchases his uncle’s block of land. An ecological reading presents the field as a silent symbol of hope for the exilic community. It represents all the other fields that will be restored to the rightful families of the returning exiles.
Sale
Nahum: A Trauma for a Trauma
Published: Jun 2024
Price range: £18.00 through £27.00
In this first volume of our Trauma Bible Commentary series, Bob Becking encourages attention to Nahum as a text that could—or probably should—be read as a reflection to trauma. The text sits within a history of humankind that is full of traumatising events, which may be experienced on an almost daily basis.The small Book of Nahum saw the light of day in times of trouble. Samaria was reduced to an Assyrian province; Judah to a vassal-state—both suffered from the presence of the Assyrian yoke, including loss of independence, deportations and paying of tribute.
This commentary re-considers the author, noting he was a person who had inside knowledge of Assyrian culture and language. This anonymous author was veiled behind the name Nahum, meaning consolation. What kind of consolation is promised in this pamphlet and at what price? In what way is the book of Nahum to be seen as a consoling reaction to this trauma?
Becking provides a contemporary trauma informed critique of the book’s approach—and by reading against the grain explains Nahum’s way out of trauma is not the only route; rather another pathway of mourning, coping and healing could be taken. The God of Nahum has two faces: one compassionate and one full of wrath. Using close textual analysis, Becking argues that the Assyrians will be defeated by divine wrath leading to an end of Israel’s trauma. Reading Nahum conceptually, reveals that the book is based on the idea of retribution: ‘an eye for an eye’. Theologically this raises big questions when appropriating the ‘message’ of Nahum to our times:
- Is it not against humanitarianism to believe in such a revengeful God?
- Or is it perhaps worse: to adopt this idea to justify human acts in the many traumatising conflicts that determine our age?
Sale
Nahum: A Trauma for a Trauma
Price range: £18.00 through £27.00
In this first volume of our Trauma Bible Commentary series, Bob Becking encourages attention to Nahum as a text that could—or probably should—be read as a reflection to trauma. The text sits within a history of humankind that is full of traumatising events, which may be experienced on an almost daily basis.The small Book of Nahum saw the light of day in times of trouble. Samaria was reduced to an Assyrian province; Judah to a vassal-state—both suffered from the presence of the Assyrian yoke, including loss of independence, deportations and paying of tribute.
This commentary re-considers the author, noting he was a person who had inside knowledge of Assyrian culture and language. This anonymous author was veiled behind the name Nahum, meaning consolation. What kind of consolation is promised in this pamphlet and at what price? In what way is the book of Nahum to be seen as a consoling reaction to this trauma?
Becking provides a contemporary trauma informed critique of the book’s approach—and by reading against the grain explains Nahum’s way out of trauma is not the only route; rather another pathway of mourning, coping and healing could be taken. The God of Nahum has two faces: one compassionate and one full of wrath. Using close textual analysis, Becking argues that the Assyrians will be defeated by divine wrath leading to an end of Israel’s trauma. Reading Nahum conceptually, reveals that the book is based on the idea of retribution: ‘an eye for an eye’. Theologically this raises big questions when appropriating the ‘message’ of Nahum to our times:
- Is it not against humanitarianism to believe in such a revengeful God?
- Or is it perhaps worse: to adopt this idea to justify human acts in the many traumatising conflicts that determine our age?
Sale
‘Good Omens’ and the Bible
Published: Jun 2024
Original price was: £50.00.£22.00Current price is: £22.00.
Good Omens and the Bible provides a diversely rich collection of considerations of apocalypse and apocalypticism, via responses to the reception of the Bible in the landmark cultural icon that is Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (1990). These essays explore the perplexing, captivating, and curious interactions between Good Omens and biblical literature.
Interdisciplinary explorations reveal how both the novel and TV series reflects and explodes contemporary ideas about the end times. Filtering references to biblical apocalypses through the lens of popular culture, Good Omens shines a light on the received interpretations of apocalyptic thinking that resonate in the present, revealing in turn something about ourselves.
Together, these essays open up conversations about how Good Omens makes use of religious ideas about textuality, performance, theodicy, and the role of popular culture in the proliferation of those conversations. This book illustrates the ways in which the novel and series are agents in the continuation of cultural debates about important, wide-ranging theological and biblical issues.
Sale
‘Good Omens’ and the Bible
Original price was: £50.00.£22.00Current price is: £22.00.
Good Omens and the Bible provides a diversely rich collection of considerations of apocalypse and apocalypticism, via responses to the reception of the Bible in the landmark cultural icon that is Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (1990). These essays explore the perplexing, captivating, and curious interactions between Good Omens and biblical literature.
Interdisciplinary explorations reveal how both the novel and TV series reflects and explodes contemporary ideas about the end times. Filtering references to biblical apocalypses through the lens of popular culture, Good Omens shines a light on the received interpretations of apocalyptic thinking that resonate in the present, revealing in turn something about ourselves.
Together, these essays open up conversations about how Good Omens makes use of religious ideas about textuality, performance, theodicy, and the role of popular culture in the proliferation of those conversations. This book illustrates the ways in which the novel and series are agents in the continuation of cultural debates about important, wide-ranging theological and biblical issues.
Sale
Biblical Daughters and Queens Re-imagined in Music
Published: Jun 2024
Original price was: £74.00.£32.00Current price is: £32.00.
In Biblical Daughters and Queens, Helen Leneman continues her sustained approach to biblical reception in music traversing several centuries. She offers a immersive reading of two types of biblical women—daughters and queens—in a wide range of musical representations spanning over 300 years (1648-1993). Music, as Leneman highlights, goes beyond words: music expresses how feelings sound. Leneman’s unique analysis shares the ways in which these women’s stories have been altered, their emotions imagined and amplified.
The stories of two daughters are explored: the tragedy of Jephthah’s daughter (Judges 11); and the Apocryphal story of Susannah. The tragedy of Jephthah’s daughter seems to have been of greater interest to early composers, with most works, whether oratorios or operas, dating to pre-20th century. Susanna was a lesser-known story yet was treated both in two early oratorios and, unusually, in an operatic retelling of the story from the mid-20th century.
Queens included are Sheba (1 Kings), Athalia (2 Kings), and Esther (Book of Esther). In general, the Queen of Sheba has not been re-imagined with much nuance in musical works, mostly depicted as a sexy siren (though not always). Esther is the most popular queen for musical retellings, featured in no fewer than nine works in this volume. An interesting discovery was an eighteenth-century oratorio with a Hebrew libretto. Athalia is the least known of the three but Handel thought she was worth an oratorio (he is well represented throughout the book).
In previous volumes Leneman has considered the biblical reception in music of Moses and Miriam in Exodus; David, Saul and Bathsheba in the Book of Kings; Ruth and Naomi in the Book of Ruth; and Judith in the Book of Judith. Leneman also discussed the varied biblical characters in the Book of Genesis.
This volume encourages an experiential approach, to enable the reader, and listener to hear and feel these women’s stories as never before. Links to the musical works are provided throughout. Each setting is filled with both text and music that will inspire the listener to return to the original story with a new and different understanding.
Sale
Biblical Daughters and Queens Re-imagined in Music
Original price was: £74.00.£32.00Current price is: £32.00.
In Biblical Daughters and Queens, Helen Leneman continues her sustained approach to biblical reception in music traversing several centuries. She offers a immersive reading of two types of biblical women—daughters and queens—in a wide range of musical representations spanning over 300 years (1648-1993). Music, as Leneman highlights, goes beyond words: music expresses how feelings sound. Leneman’s unique analysis shares the ways in which these women’s stories have been altered, their emotions imagined and amplified.
The stories of two daughters are explored: the tragedy of Jephthah’s daughter (Judges 11); and the Apocryphal story of Susannah. The tragedy of Jephthah’s daughter seems to have been of greater interest to early composers, with most works, whether oratorios or operas, dating to pre-20th century. Susanna was a lesser-known story yet was treated both in two early oratorios and, unusually, in an operatic retelling of the story from the mid-20th century.
Queens included are Sheba (1 Kings), Athalia (2 Kings), and Esther (Book of Esther). In general, the Queen of Sheba has not been re-imagined with much nuance in musical works, mostly depicted as a sexy siren (though not always). Esther is the most popular queen for musical retellings, featured in no fewer than nine works in this volume. An interesting discovery was an eighteenth-century oratorio with a Hebrew libretto. Athalia is the least known of the three but Handel thought she was worth an oratorio (he is well represented throughout the book).
In previous volumes Leneman has considered the biblical reception in music of Moses and Miriam in Exodus; David, Saul and Bathsheba in the Book of Kings; Ruth and Naomi in the Book of Ruth; and Judith in the Book of Judith. Leneman also discussed the varied biblical characters in the Book of Genesis.
This volume encourages an experiential approach, to enable the reader, and listener to hear and feel these women’s stories as never before. Links to the musical works are provided throughout. Each setting is filled with both text and music that will inspire the listener to return to the original story with a new and different understanding.
Sale
Activism, Bible, and Research-Based Teaching: Practical Approaches for the Global Biblical Studies Classroom
Published: May 2024
Original price was: £75.00.£32.50Current price is: £32.50.
Activism, Bible, and Research-Based Teaching demonstrates how the cross-fertilisation between biblical studies and social justice activism generates creativity that is powerful, empowering, and inspiring. This volume offers diverse and critical insights, as well as hands-on strategies for classroom settings. Shared emphasis on academic rigour and practical application is evident throughout.
Socially engaged biblical scholars—from Aoterora New Zealand, Botswana, Hong Kong, South Africa, Uganda, the UK and the USA—focus on a spectrum of activist causes. Topics include resistance to discrimination on the grounds of HIV/AIDS status, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, migrant status, and ethnicity, as well as advocacy for environmental protection, equity, and getting out of one's ‘bubble’. Multiple chapters reflect on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on tertiary education.
The volume contains an introduction and forewords by Richard Newton (University of Alabama, USA) and Emily Colgan (Trinity Theological College, Aotearoa New Zealand). The 14 chapters include 12 revised contributions previously published in a special issue of the open access Journal of Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies, alongside two new chapters, which were both presented at a Bible and Activism event combining community and academic engagements.
Sale
Activism, Bible, and Research-Based Teaching: Practical Approaches for the Global Biblical Studies Classroom
Original price was: £75.00.£32.50Current price is: £32.50.
Activism, Bible, and Research-Based Teaching demonstrates how the cross-fertilisation between biblical studies and social justice activism generates creativity that is powerful, empowering, and inspiring. This volume offers diverse and critical insights, as well as hands-on strategies for classroom settings. Shared emphasis on academic rigour and practical application is evident throughout.
Socially engaged biblical scholars—from Aoterora New Zealand, Botswana, Hong Kong, South Africa, Uganda, the UK and the USA—focus on a spectrum of activist causes. Topics include resistance to discrimination on the grounds of HIV/AIDS status, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, migrant status, and ethnicity, as well as advocacy for environmental protection, equity, and getting out of one's ‘bubble’. Multiple chapters reflect on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on tertiary education.
The volume contains an introduction and forewords by Richard Newton (University of Alabama, USA) and Emily Colgan (Trinity Theological College, Aotearoa New Zealand). The 14 chapters include 12 revised contributions previously published in a special issue of the open access Journal of Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies, alongside two new chapters, which were both presented at a Bible and Activism event combining community and academic engagements.
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Amos and Micah
Published: May 2024
Price range: £18.00 through £27.50
Amos denied being a prophet, for he was a Visionary, one who ‘saw’ and assessed what was happening around him. Micah condemned all prophets as corrupt liars, ensuring that he should not be mistaken for one. He too was a Visionary who ‘saw’ the state of affairs in that same eighth century BCE Israelite society. The fact that neither of these men is identified in the text as a prophet is vitally important, for it indicates how one must read their edited works. The traditional view that these men spoke what Yahweh their God revealed to them is not applicable; both spoke about what they themselves ‘saw’ in the social and religious context within Israel at the time.
Both books, Amos and Micah, are reports of their insights now set within new frames. Amos is structured about discrete blocks of material with shared forms, such as the opening series of numerical x, x+1 forms (1.3—2.16), the calls to ‘Hear this word…’ (3.1—5.17), ‘Woe…’ forms (5.18—6.7) and his five visions (7.1—9.6). It is a planned re-arrangement of Amos’ words (1.1) as recalled. Micah’s editor similarly has selected a number of discrete and generalized speeches attributed to Micah, setting them within a chiastic structure with 4.11-13 as the central unit; it spells out his conviction that Yahweh is ‘master of the whole earth’. Indeed, Micah’s very name asks the question ‘Who is like Yah(weh)?’ and 4.11-13 is his response, closing in 7.18-20 with another rhetorical question ‘Who is a God like you?’ Micah sees his God as incomparable!
The commentary depends on the text’s literary and rhetorical evidence to give expression to Amos’ and Micah’s deep personal concerns within the historical and cultural setting of their time.
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Amos and Micah
Price range: £18.00 through £27.50
Amos denied being a prophet, for he was a Visionary, one who ‘saw’ and assessed what was happening around him. Micah condemned all prophets as corrupt liars, ensuring that he should not be mistaken for one. He too was a Visionary who ‘saw’ the state of affairs in that same eighth century BCE Israelite society. The fact that neither of these men is identified in the text as a prophet is vitally important, for it indicates how one must read their edited works. The traditional view that these men spoke what Yahweh their God revealed to them is not applicable; both spoke about what they themselves ‘saw’ in the social and religious context within Israel at the time.
Both books, Amos and Micah, are reports of their insights now set within new frames. Amos is structured about discrete blocks of material with shared forms, such as the opening series of numerical x, x+1 forms (1.3—2.16), the calls to ‘Hear this word…’ (3.1—5.17), ‘Woe…’ forms (5.18—6.7) and his five visions (7.1—9.6). It is a planned re-arrangement of Amos’ words (1.1) as recalled. Micah’s editor similarly has selected a number of discrete and generalized speeches attributed to Micah, setting them within a chiastic structure with 4.11-13 as the central unit; it spells out his conviction that Yahweh is ‘master of the whole earth’. Indeed, Micah’s very name asks the question ‘Who is like Yah(weh)?’ and 4.11-13 is his response, closing in 7.18-20 with another rhetorical question ‘Who is a God like you?’ Micah sees his God as incomparable!
The commentary depends on the text’s literary and rhetorical evidence to give expression to Amos’ and Micah’s deep personal concerns within the historical and cultural setting of their time.
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1 & 2 Kings: A Visual Commentary
Published: Mar 2024
Original price was: £75.00.£35.00Current price is: £35.00.
In this uniquely conceived and brilliantly illustrated book, Martin O’Kane, one of the leading experts internationally on biblical art, turns his attention to the narratives of 1&2 Kings. Here we encounter a large and varied cast of characters, men and women whose lives are portrayed imaginatively, ranging from exotic kings and queens and flamboyant prophets to lowly servants and other insignificant functionaries. Readers meet individuals of all ages, from the old and wise to the young and foolish, saints and sinners alike. Many of these characters, and the stories in which they appear, play a prominent part in the religious traditions and cultural worlds of three major faiths—Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Interpreted according to each faith’s distinctive norms, they are popular subjects not only in the literature but particularly in the rich iconographies of the three religions.
1&2 Kings: A Visual Commentary takes the form of a commentary that focuses on the interpretation of characters and stories from the books of Kings in the visual cultures of the three monotheistic faiths. In each chapter, the first section sets out the most distinctive interpretations and appropriations of the biblical story. The second section interprets how the story has been received and interpreted in Jewish, Christian and Islamic literature. The final section details how characters or episodes from Kings re-appear in original ways in the artwork of the three religions. With its over one hundred and seventy-five full-colour images, from Christian mediaeval manuscripts and Persian and Ottoman miniature paintings to contemporary Jewish art, the volume shows why stories from 1&2 Kings feature so prominently in the artistic and cultural worlds the three religions have helped to shape.
Scholars, students and Bible readers in general will find something new and something delightful on every page of this unusually engaging work.
Sale
1 & 2 Kings: A Visual Commentary
Original price was: £75.00.£35.00Current price is: £35.00.
In this uniquely conceived and brilliantly illustrated book, Martin O’Kane, one of the leading experts internationally on biblical art, turns his attention to the narratives of 1&2 Kings. Here we encounter a large and varied cast of characters, men and women whose lives are portrayed imaginatively, ranging from exotic kings and queens and flamboyant prophets to lowly servants and other insignificant functionaries. Readers meet individuals of all ages, from the old and wise to the young and foolish, saints and sinners alike. Many of these characters, and the stories in which they appear, play a prominent part in the religious traditions and cultural worlds of three major faiths—Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Interpreted according to each faith’s distinctive norms, they are popular subjects not only in the literature but particularly in the rich iconographies of the three religions.
1&2 Kings: A Visual Commentary takes the form of a commentary that focuses on the interpretation of characters and stories from the books of Kings in the visual cultures of the three monotheistic faiths. In each chapter, the first section sets out the most distinctive interpretations and appropriations of the biblical story. The second section interprets how the story has been received and interpreted in Jewish, Christian and Islamic literature. The final section details how characters or episodes from Kings re-appear in original ways in the artwork of the three religions. With its over one hundred and seventy-five full-colour images, from Christian mediaeval manuscripts and Persian and Ottoman miniature paintings to contemporary Jewish art, the volume shows why stories from 1&2 Kings feature so prominently in the artistic and cultural worlds the three religions have helped to shape.
Scholars, students and Bible readers in general will find something new and something delightful on every page of this unusually engaging work.
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Habitats of the Basileia: Essays in Honour of Elaine M. Wainwright
Published: Jan 2024
Original price was: £65.00.£29.50Current price is: £29.50.
Habitats of the Basileia brings together some of the current and important work in biblical studies and theology, which takes seriously the demands and possibilities of applying contextual, feminist, decolonial, and ecological approaches to the critical study of the Bible and religion. The volume is inspired by the engaging work of Elaine M. Wainwright RSM; and invites us to imagine what thriving conditions and communities of the human and more-than-human might look like across multiple contexts.
- What did it mean for those living in biblical times, or for the early Jesus movement who proclaimed an alternative basileia or kingdom against the backdrop of Roman imperial power?
- What does it mean for various communities today, as we seek to understand and re-imagine what thriving conditions might look like in our own complex and often rapidly changing environments?
Written by a diverse range of biblical, theological, and religious studies scholars, the chapters in this volume collectively argue for and demonstrate the importance of context and being attuned to social location in the production of biblical and theological scholarship.
The essays are divided into three categories: the first seven chapters deal with the Gospel of Matthew, given the importance of this book to Elaine’s work. The next nine chapters explore biblical texts beyond Matthew through various lenses including those of gender, colonialism, the environment, animal studies, contextual hermeneutics, and class. The final three chapters are concerned with the legacies of both Elaine’s lifework and the broader avenues in current biblical research that have been nurtured and influenced through her efforts.
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Habitats of the Basileia: Essays in Honour of Elaine M. Wainwright
Original price was: £65.00.£29.50Current price is: £29.50.
Habitats of the Basileia brings together some of the current and important work in biblical studies and theology, which takes seriously the demands and possibilities of applying contextual, feminist, decolonial, and ecological approaches to the critical study of the Bible and religion. The volume is inspired by the engaging work of Elaine M. Wainwright RSM; and invites us to imagine what thriving conditions and communities of the human and more-than-human might look like across multiple contexts.
- What did it mean for those living in biblical times, or for the early Jesus movement who proclaimed an alternative basileia or kingdom against the backdrop of Roman imperial power?
- What does it mean for various communities today, as we seek to understand and re-imagine what thriving conditions might look like in our own complex and often rapidly changing environments?
Written by a diverse range of biblical, theological, and religious studies scholars, the chapters in this volume collectively argue for and demonstrate the importance of context and being attuned to social location in the production of biblical and theological scholarship.
The essays are divided into three categories: the first seven chapters deal with the Gospel of Matthew, given the importance of this book to Elaine’s work. The next nine chapters explore biblical texts beyond Matthew through various lenses including those of gender, colonialism, the environment, animal studies, contextual hermeneutics, and class. The final three chapters are concerned with the legacies of both Elaine’s lifework and the broader avenues in current biblical research that have been nurtured and influenced through her efforts.
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The Spirit of Prophecy and Reconciliation. A Festschrift for Rickie Moore.
Published: Nov 2023
Original price was: £65.00.£27.00Current price is: £27.00.
This volume focuses on the relationship of prophecy and reconciliation, within the frame of Pentecostal hermeneutics. These themes have been prominent throughout Rickie D. Moore’s work and this collection celebrates his life and academic career—as a professor of Old Testament, a specialist in the prophetic literature, a leading voice in the development of Pentecostal hermeneutics, and an influential figure of the Cleveland School of Pentecostal theology.
The editors and contributors of this volume represent a small selection of Moore’s mentors (Walter Brueggemann and James Crenshaw), his colleagues (Lee Roy Martin, John Christopher Thomas, Blaine Charette, Amos Yong, Kimberly Alexander, and Chris Green), and former students (Caroline Reddick, Robby Waddell, Jesse Stone, David Johnson, Daniela Augustine, and Casey Cole). Their words testify to the deep, far-reaching effects of his teaching and his presence.
The essays are gathered into three main sections: the first two deal explicitly with a close reading of biblical texts from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, and the last deals with the theological issues that emerge in consideration of prophetic awareness and action and the hope of intergenerational reconciliation. Moore pioneered an integrative approach to reading and teaching the Scriptures, keenly aware of his own theological and spiritual inheritance as a Pentecostal and deeply committed to the life-altering power of sacred study, skillfully blending critical self-reflection and testimony with rigorous scholarship.
Sale
The Spirit of Prophecy and Reconciliation. A Festschrift for Rickie Moore.
Original price was: £65.00.£27.00Current price is: £27.00.
This volume focuses on the relationship of prophecy and reconciliation, within the frame of Pentecostal hermeneutics. These themes have been prominent throughout Rickie D. Moore’s work and this collection celebrates his life and academic career—as a professor of Old Testament, a specialist in the prophetic literature, a leading voice in the development of Pentecostal hermeneutics, and an influential figure of the Cleveland School of Pentecostal theology.
The editors and contributors of this volume represent a small selection of Moore’s mentors (Walter Brueggemann and James Crenshaw), his colleagues (Lee Roy Martin, John Christopher Thomas, Blaine Charette, Amos Yong, Kimberly Alexander, and Chris Green), and former students (Caroline Reddick, Robby Waddell, Jesse Stone, David Johnson, Daniela Augustine, and Casey Cole). Their words testify to the deep, far-reaching effects of his teaching and his presence.
The essays are gathered into three main sections: the first two deal explicitly with a close reading of biblical texts from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, and the last deals with the theological issues that emerge in consideration of prophetic awareness and action and the hope of intergenerational reconciliation. Moore pioneered an integrative approach to reading and teaching the Scriptures, keenly aware of his own theological and spiritual inheritance as a Pentecostal and deeply committed to the life-altering power of sacred study, skillfully blending critical self-reflection and testimony with rigorous scholarship.
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Ruth: A Commentary
Published: Oct 2023
Original price was: £58.00.£25.00Current price is: £25.00.
After the significant and ground-breaking commentaries on Ezra and Nehemiah by Lisbeth Fried, she now turns her attention to a different genre of biblical literature and to the book of Ruth. Fried approaches Ruth as folktale, specifically, a fairy tale. This new reading of Ruth allows the book to be experienced in a new way, a way infrequently recognized, that provides novel but compelling insights into the author’s intentions and goals.
Fried uses Propp’s Morphology of a Folktale to provide the guideposts for her strikingly refreshing approach. The story of Ruth is one of a stranger in a strange land. Ruth’s author explores the meaning of identity, assimilation and acceptance. He asks whether identity can be changed, whether the Judean god and the Judean nationality can be taken on voluntarily, whether assimilation is possible,
whether the stranger can or should be welcomed into the bosom of a family, and indeed, whether he or she can be trusted. These are questions we deal with today, but it was a vital issue after the return from Babylon and on into the Hellenistic period, when foreigners (first Persian and then Greek) were everywhere, and in control of everyday life, and when their foreign ways were rampant. Ruth’s author recognizes that welcoming the stranger was and indeed is a scary proposition.
Like her Commentaries on Ezra and Nehemiah, the present volume includes a new translation of the book, plus text-critical notes on each verse which compares and contrasts the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Syriac versions as well as the Aramaic Targum. The Introduction and extensive chapter commentaries provide a discussion of the larger historical and literary issues. Fried’s commentary promises to revolutionize how we read the book of Ruth.
This is the fourth volume in the Critical Commentaries series.
Sale
Ruth: A Commentary
Original price was: £58.00.£25.00Current price is: £25.00.
After the significant and ground-breaking commentaries on Ezra and Nehemiah by Lisbeth Fried, she now turns her attention to a different genre of biblical literature and to the book of Ruth. Fried approaches Ruth as folktale, specifically, a fairy tale. This new reading of Ruth allows the book to be experienced in a new way, a way infrequently recognized, that provides novel but compelling insights into the author’s intentions and goals.
Fried uses Propp’s Morphology of a Folktale to provide the guideposts for her strikingly refreshing approach. The story of Ruth is one of a stranger in a strange land. Ruth’s author explores the meaning of identity, assimilation and acceptance. He asks whether identity can be changed, whether the Judean god and the Judean nationality can be taken on voluntarily, whether assimilation is possible,
whether the stranger can or should be welcomed into the bosom of a family, and indeed, whether he or she can be trusted. These are questions we deal with today, but it was a vital issue after the return from Babylon and on into the Hellenistic period, when foreigners (first Persian and then Greek) were everywhere, and in control of everyday life, and when their foreign ways were rampant. Ruth’s author recognizes that welcoming the stranger was and indeed is a scary proposition.
Like her Commentaries on Ezra and Nehemiah, the present volume includes a new translation of the book, plus text-critical notes on each verse which compares and contrasts the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Syriac versions as well as the Aramaic Targum. The Introduction and extensive chapter commentaries provide a discussion of the larger historical and literary issues. Fried’s commentary promises to revolutionize how we read the book of Ruth.
This is the fourth volume in the Critical Commentaries series.
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Nahum, Habakkuk and Malachi
Published: May 2023
Price range: £18.00 through £27.50
Nahum, ironically named ‘the compassionate one’, Habakkuk who laments God’s failure to answer his questions about justice and violence, and the eponymous Malachi are the three characters whose record is the focus of this reading. The commentary offers a close reading of the Hebrew text of each book along with its rhetorical features. The three books are read from within their several ancient contexts, literary, cultural and theological.
Only Habakkuk is specifically identified as a ‘prophet’, while Nahum’s and Malachi’s editors studiously avoid the term, raising a question about why these three books have been honoured with a place in the Scroll of the Twelve rather than somewhere else. Each book is titled a Massa’ by its editor, identifying them as examples of an emerging literary trope that combines both prophetic and wisdom elements in a didactic purpose.
Nahum is identified not as a prophet but as a Visionary. He saw the dire situation of his people and expressed his longing for God’s intervention. The God of whom he spoke was one ‘jealous, and avenging’, one he longed would act against the overwhelming power of the Assyrians that threatened his people.
Habakkuk, though identified as a prophet, shows no evidence of any prophetic activity. He laments the failure of justice and consequent violence as witnessed (1.2-4). The Lament-form used has been torn in two by the editor for the purpose of inserting a Dialogue with God (1.5-2.20), a Dialogue that fails completely to answer Habakkuk’s ‘Why?’ questions in 1.1-2. The concluding portion of the Lament (3.2-19) witnesses to Habakkuk’s continued trust in his God despite the divine failure to resolve his questions.
The eponymous ‘Malachi’ is identified as a Messenger, never as a prophet, as the book reports six different and independent messages covering issues that arose during an extended period in early postexilic Judaean life. Using a frame of six Question-Response forms that feature rhetorical questions, his audiences deny the validity of each negative charge against them.
Graham Ogden has been a United Bible Societies’ Translation Consultant. He lives in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
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Nahum, Habakkuk and Malachi
Price range: £18.00 through £27.50
Nahum, ironically named ‘the compassionate one’, Habakkuk who laments God’s failure to answer his questions about justice and violence, and the eponymous Malachi are the three characters whose record is the focus of this reading. The commentary offers a close reading of the Hebrew text of each book along with its rhetorical features. The three books are read from within their several ancient contexts, literary, cultural and theological.
Only Habakkuk is specifically identified as a ‘prophet’, while Nahum’s and Malachi’s editors studiously avoid the term, raising a question about why these three books have been honoured with a place in the Scroll of the Twelve rather than somewhere else. Each book is titled a Massa’ by its editor, identifying them as examples of an emerging literary trope that combines both prophetic and wisdom elements in a didactic purpose.
Nahum is identified not as a prophet but as a Visionary. He saw the dire situation of his people and expressed his longing for God’s intervention. The God of whom he spoke was one ‘jealous, and avenging’, one he longed would act against the overwhelming power of the Assyrians that threatened his people.
Habakkuk, though identified as a prophet, shows no evidence of any prophetic activity. He laments the failure of justice and consequent violence as witnessed (1.2-4). The Lament-form used has been torn in two by the editor for the purpose of inserting a Dialogue with God (1.5-2.20), a Dialogue that fails completely to answer Habakkuk’s ‘Why?’ questions in 1.1-2. The concluding portion of the Lament (3.2-19) witnesses to Habakkuk’s continued trust in his God despite the divine failure to resolve his questions.
The eponymous ‘Malachi’ is identified as a Messenger, never as a prophet, as the book reports six different and independent messages covering issues that arose during an extended period in early postexilic Judaean life. Using a frame of six Question-Response forms that feature rhetorical questions, his audiences deny the validity of each negative charge against them.
Graham Ogden has been a United Bible Societies’ Translation Consultant. He lives in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
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Bodies without Organs in the Gospel of Mark
Published: Aug 2022
Original price was: £50.00.£22.50Current price is: £22.50.
In this stimulating monograph, Villalobos Mendoza leads the diligent reader to a re-appreciation of Mark’s Jesus as an enabler of human freedom. The freedom that ought to be every human’s birthright is, we know, everywhere constrained by custom, regulation and law. But for the Jesus of Mark, order itself is disruptive, boundaries are transgressed, hierarchies are dismantled, and the bodies of humans, animals and trees are interconnected.
Villalobos Mendoza—taking his theoretical inspiration from the philosopher Gilles Deleuze—proposes Mark’s Jesus as the first figure to accomplish the ‘Body without Organs’ (BwO), the one who frees us from the oppression of the priest / institution / power / hierarchy. According to Deleuze, ‘the body is the body / it is all by itself / and has no need of organs / the body is never an organism / organisms are the enemies of the body’. This notion is helpful for understanding Jesus as the BwO, how Jesus’ body affects other bodies, and how those bodies function (or assemble) as an interkingdom of no-bodies.
The analysis of several Markan texts (Mk. 3.20- 35; 6.1-6; 1.12-13; 13.32-35; 14.27; 11.12-14; 14.51-52; 15.42-47; 16.1-8), is done through the interpretative lens of Deleuze and Félix Guattari whose co-authored works deliberately self-create new philosophical constructs, alongside BwO, such as: ‘any-space-whatever’, ‘de-re-territorialization’, ‘assemblage’, ‘rhizome’, ‘threes’, ‘Becoming(s)’, ‘interkingdoms’, ‘affects’, ‘people-yet-to-come’, ‘nomadism’, ‘eternal return’, ‘repetition’. By putting into dialogue insights from Deleuze and the Markan Jesus’ understanding of the kingdom of God, Villalobos Mendoza suggests the character of Jesus as the exemplary opponent of the apparatus of state which: organized, signified, subdued and subjected the human as well as the nonhuman ‘body’. This representation of Jesus creates a new interplay with the riddle of Deleuzean thought that argues that God and the judgement of God are the eternal enemy of the BwO!
Sale
Bodies without Organs in the Gospel of Mark
Original price was: £50.00.£22.50Current price is: £22.50.
In this stimulating monograph, Villalobos Mendoza leads the diligent reader to a re-appreciation of Mark’s Jesus as an enabler of human freedom. The freedom that ought to be every human’s birthright is, we know, everywhere constrained by custom, regulation and law. But for the Jesus of Mark, order itself is disruptive, boundaries are transgressed, hierarchies are dismantled, and the bodies of humans, animals and trees are interconnected.
Villalobos Mendoza—taking his theoretical inspiration from the philosopher Gilles Deleuze—proposes Mark’s Jesus as the first figure to accomplish the ‘Body without Organs’ (BwO), the one who frees us from the oppression of the priest / institution / power / hierarchy. According to Deleuze, ‘the body is the body / it is all by itself / and has no need of organs / the body is never an organism / organisms are the enemies of the body’. This notion is helpful for understanding Jesus as the BwO, how Jesus’ body affects other bodies, and how those bodies function (or assemble) as an interkingdom of no-bodies.
The analysis of several Markan texts (Mk. 3.20- 35; 6.1-6; 1.12-13; 13.32-35; 14.27; 11.12-14; 14.51-52; 15.42-47; 16.1-8), is done through the interpretative lens of Deleuze and Félix Guattari whose co-authored works deliberately self-create new philosophical constructs, alongside BwO, such as: ‘any-space-whatever’, ‘de-re-territorialization’, ‘assemblage’, ‘rhizome’, ‘threes’, ‘Becoming(s)’, ‘interkingdoms’, ‘affects’, ‘people-yet-to-come’, ‘nomadism’, ‘eternal return’, ‘repetition’. By putting into dialogue insights from Deleuze and the Markan Jesus’ understanding of the kingdom of God, Villalobos Mendoza suggests the character of Jesus as the exemplary opponent of the apparatus of state which: organized, signified, subdued and subjected the human as well as the nonhuman ‘body’. This representation of Jesus creates a new interplay with the riddle of Deleuzean thought that argues that God and the judgement of God are the eternal enemy of the BwO!
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Obadiah and Haggai
Published: May 2022
Price range: £14.00 through £17.00
This new commentary questions whether Obadiah’s ‘vision’ is a prophetic book in the traditional sense, or a communal appeal to God to deal with Edom, similar to the cry in Psalm 137.7-9. Ogden suggests an editorial structure for the document built around the numerically central v. 11 that provides a focus for the appeal, one which seeks an immediate response from God. The conclusion is that this is fundamentally an appeal for God to act, rather than a promise of a future possibility.
The Haggai commentary argues that the document is a collection of loosely related stories about the prophet Haggai’s encounters with Zerubbabel and
Joshua, Judaean leaders who did not share the prophet’s sense of urgency about providing God with a refurbished house. Haggai is seen as a somewhat distant figure whose narrow worldview and theology saw him in conflict with the openness of the two community leaders. Haggai’s explanation for the crisis confronting the community showed little concern for its impact on the community, his calls to ‘Consider…’ pressuring them to conform to his plan for God’s ‘house’.
Both commentaries take the view that from the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in 587 bce, and for many many years thereafter, there was a wide range of oral material in circulation that gave expression to Judaean pain and anger at what had happened, and to the deceitfulness of its ‘brother’ Edom’s participation in the demise of the southern kingdom. The editors of both Obadiah and Haggai drew upon that range of oral stories that existed in multiple forms to make their individual reports. Both documents have deep roots in Deuteronomic and nationalistic ideology.
Ogden provides a reading that prioritizes the rhetorical elements in the Hebrew text while noting its historical, social and theological settings.
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Obadiah and Haggai
Price range: £14.00 through £17.00
This new commentary questions whether Obadiah’s ‘vision’ is a prophetic book in the traditional sense, or a communal appeal to God to deal with Edom, similar to the cry in Psalm 137.7-9. Ogden suggests an editorial structure for the document built around the numerically central v. 11 that provides a focus for the appeal, one which seeks an immediate response from God. The conclusion is that this is fundamentally an appeal for God to act, rather than a promise of a future possibility.
The Haggai commentary argues that the document is a collection of loosely related stories about the prophet Haggai’s encounters with Zerubbabel and
Joshua, Judaean leaders who did not share the prophet’s sense of urgency about providing God with a refurbished house. Haggai is seen as a somewhat distant figure whose narrow worldview and theology saw him in conflict with the openness of the two community leaders. Haggai’s explanation for the crisis confronting the community showed little concern for its impact on the community, his calls to ‘Consider…’ pressuring them to conform to his plan for God’s ‘house’.
Both commentaries take the view that from the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in 587 bce, and for many many years thereafter, there was a wide range of oral material in circulation that gave expression to Judaean pain and anger at what had happened, and to the deceitfulness of its ‘brother’ Edom’s participation in the demise of the southern kingdom. The editors of both Obadiah and Haggai drew upon that range of oral stories that existed in multiple forms to make their individual reports. Both documents have deep roots in Deuteronomic and nationalistic ideology.
Ogden provides a reading that prioritizes the rhetorical elements in the Hebrew text while noting its historical, social and theological settings.
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Nehemiah: A Commentary
Published: Oct 2021
Original price was: £60.00.£27.50Current price is: £27.50.
Lisbeth Fried’s commentary on Nehemiah is the second instalment of her two-volume commentary on Ezra–Nehemiah. The first instalment, Ezra, was published by Sheffield Phoenix in 2015. Like her commentary on Ezra, Nehemiah too takes full advantage of recent results in archaeology and numismatics, as well as in the mechanisms of Persian and Hellenistic rule, and in the influence of the Hellenistic and Maccabean Wars on Jewish writings.
Like her Ezra, the present volume includes a new translation of the book of Nehemiah, plus text-critical notes on each verse which compare and contrast the Greek, Latin and Syriac versions. The Introduction and extensive chapter commentaries provide a discussion of the larger historical and literary issues.
Although not finalized until the Maccabean period, the book of Nehemiah contains a temple foundation document from the time of Darius I, a story of rebuilding and dedicating a city wall around Jerusalem in the mid-fifth century, and a memoir from a fifth-century governor of Judah. Numerous additions and lists that date from the Hellenistic and Maccabean periods complete the book.
Fried concludes that the book of Nehemiah contains two separate first-person reports—one by the wall-builder, wine steward of Artaxerxes I, whose name we do not know, and one by Yeho’ezer, a fifth-century governor of Judah. We know his name from seals found at the governor’s mansion at Ramat Raḥel. Nehemiah, whose full name was actually Nehemiah Attiršata ben Ḥacaliah, neither built the wall around Jerusalem nor served as a fifth-century governor of Judah, Fried argues. Rather, he was a Persian Jew who had charge of the temple priesthood under Zerubbabel in the days of Darius I.
Fried’s commentary promises to revolutionize how we read the book of Nehemiah.
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Nehemiah: A Commentary
Original price was: £60.00.£27.50Current price is: £27.50.
Lisbeth Fried’s commentary on Nehemiah is the second instalment of her two-volume commentary on Ezra–Nehemiah. The first instalment, Ezra, was published by Sheffield Phoenix in 2015. Like her commentary on Ezra, Nehemiah too takes full advantage of recent results in archaeology and numismatics, as well as in the mechanisms of Persian and Hellenistic rule, and in the influence of the Hellenistic and Maccabean Wars on Jewish writings.
Like her Ezra, the present volume includes a new translation of the book of Nehemiah, plus text-critical notes on each verse which compare and contrast the Greek, Latin and Syriac versions. The Introduction and extensive chapter commentaries provide a discussion of the larger historical and literary issues.
Although not finalized until the Maccabean period, the book of Nehemiah contains a temple foundation document from the time of Darius I, a story of rebuilding and dedicating a city wall around Jerusalem in the mid-fifth century, and a memoir from a fifth-century governor of Judah. Numerous additions and lists that date from the Hellenistic and Maccabean periods complete the book.
Fried concludes that the book of Nehemiah contains two separate first-person reports—one by the wall-builder, wine steward of Artaxerxes I, whose name we do not know, and one by Yeho’ezer, a fifth-century governor of Judah. We know his name from seals found at the governor’s mansion at Ramat Raḥel. Nehemiah, whose full name was actually Nehemiah Attiršata ben Ḥacaliah, neither built the wall around Jerusalem nor served as a fifth-century governor of Judah, Fried argues. Rather, he was a Persian Jew who had charge of the temple priesthood under Zerubbabel in the days of Darius I.
Fried’s commentary promises to revolutionize how we read the book of Nehemiah.
Proverbs 1-9
Proverbs 1-9