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Learning Biblical Hebrew Interactively, I (Student Edition, Revised)

Published: July 2016
£26.00£40.00
The fruit of several years' research and development, field-tested by teachers without experience of conversation in Hebrew as a spoken language, Paul Overland's new Hebrew textbook is startlingly original and immediately accessible and attractive. Its foundation is the theory and practice of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), which orients grammar so as to empower the student's capacity for reading, hearing and expressing in Biblical Hebrew. Learning Biblical Hebrew Interactively offers a set of activities structured on a serialized narrative inspired by the book of Jonah. Working through it, the student acquires facility in communicating in Hebrew by expressing opinions, accomplishing tasks, or asking others to do something. It is a hands-on, interactive learning experience, hugely various, enhanced by its 230 illustrations and photos, and numerous inserts headed 'Did you know that...?' featuring interesting aspects of Hebrew culture. There are two volumes, which can be bought separately, and a version of the student edition that is designed for the instructor, with hints on how to use the textbook in a class setting. Each lesson in the textbook is enhanced by digital resources, freely downloadable from LearningBiblicalHebrewInteractively.com.
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Learning Biblical Hebrew Interactively, I (Student Edition, Revised)

£26.00£40.00
The fruit of several years' research and development, field-tested by teachers without experience of conversation in Hebrew as a spoken language, Paul Overland's new Hebrew textbook is startlingly original and immediately accessible and attractive. Its foundation is the theory and practice of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), which orients grammar so as to empower the student's capacity for reading, hearing and expressing in Biblical Hebrew. Learning Biblical Hebrew Interactively offers a set of activities structured on a serialized narrative inspired by the book of Jonah. Working through it, the student acquires facility in communicating in Hebrew by expressing opinions, accomplishing tasks, or asking others to do something. It is a hands-on, interactive learning experience, hugely various, enhanced by its 230 illustrations and photos, and numerous inserts headed 'Did you know that...?' featuring interesting aspects of Hebrew culture. There are two volumes, which can be bought separately, and a version of the student edition that is designed for the instructor, with hints on how to use the textbook in a class setting. Each lesson in the textbook is enhanced by digital resources, freely downloadable from LearningBiblicalHebrewInteractively.com.
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The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume 9: Index

Published: May 2016
£50.00£150.00
Volume IX offers a valuable enhancement of the 8-volume Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (1993 —2011). In DCH I —VIII, each volume had its own English —Hebrew Index, but this volume presents a much improved gathering together of all those indexes. The Index here contains every word used as a translation (gloss) in the Dictionary, that is, all the words printed in bold. In addition —a feature not seen before in Hebrew dictionaries —beneath each listed word are noted all the Hebrew words it translates, together with the volume and page reference of the relevant article. The Index thus shows at a glance all the Hebrew words that are translated with the same English word, e.g. Arrogance 10 Hebrew words, Arrow 7, Assembly 10, Band 9, Basket 9, Bend 10, Branch 23, Break 21. So it becomes an index of synonyms, hard to parallel elsewhere in the scholarly literature. Indexes have not been a common feature of twentieth-century Hebrew dictionaries, though they were quite frequent in older lexica, and it is time they were restored as a customary element in a lexicon. Browsing the Index will prove not only interesting but also useful. The second element in this volume is the Word Frequency Table. This is a combination of the Word Frequency Tables in the various volumes of DCH . There, the lists of word frequencies were arranged under each letter of the alphabet. In the present publication, all the words in the Dictionary are combined in a single list arranged in order of frequency of occurrence. Unlike all previous lists of occurrences of Hebrew words, the present list includes the occurrences not only in the Hebrew Bible but also in the whole scope of The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, which is to say, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hebrew Inscriptions as well as the Hebrew Bible itself. For each word there is listed the number of occurrences in each of those four corpora, and the ranking position of a given word is determined by the total number of occurrences in all the classical Hebrew texts combined. For some sample pages of this Volume, click The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, IX . See also The Concise Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, a one-volume version of The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew.
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The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume 9: Index

£50.00£150.00
Volume IX offers a valuable enhancement of the 8-volume Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (1993 —2011). In DCH I —VIII, each volume had its own English —Hebrew Index, but this volume presents a much improved gathering together of all those indexes. The Index here contains every word used as a translation (gloss) in the Dictionary, that is, all the words printed in bold. In addition —a feature not seen before in Hebrew dictionaries —beneath each listed word are noted all the Hebrew words it translates, together with the volume and page reference of the relevant article. The Index thus shows at a glance all the Hebrew words that are translated with the same English word, e.g. Arrogance 10 Hebrew words, Arrow 7, Assembly 10, Band 9, Basket 9, Bend 10, Branch 23, Break 21. So it becomes an index of synonyms, hard to parallel elsewhere in the scholarly literature. Indexes have not been a common feature of twentieth-century Hebrew dictionaries, though they were quite frequent in older lexica, and it is time they were restored as a customary element in a lexicon. Browsing the Index will prove not only interesting but also useful. The second element in this volume is the Word Frequency Table. This is a combination of the Word Frequency Tables in the various volumes of DCH . There, the lists of word frequencies were arranged under each letter of the alphabet. In the present publication, all the words in the Dictionary are combined in a single list arranged in order of frequency of occurrence. Unlike all previous lists of occurrences of Hebrew words, the present list includes the occurrences not only in the Hebrew Bible but also in the whole scope of The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, which is to say, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hebrew Inscriptions as well as the Hebrew Bible itself. For each word there is listed the number of occurrences in each of those four corpora, and the ranking position of a given word is determined by the total number of occurrences in all the classical Hebrew texts combined. For some sample pages of this Volume, click The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, IX . See also The Concise Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, a one-volume version of The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew.
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2 Timothy

Published: Jan 2016
£15.00£35.00
In the last 150 years 2 Timothy has been the object of much scholarly scrutiny, especially over the questions of its authorship and the historical situation it presupposes. Though a few scholars today accept Pauline authorship, most have supported the view that 2 Timothy is pseudonymous, written sometime after the death of Paul. In this commentary, Smith straddles the fine line between Pauline authorship and pseudonymity, proposing that Paul is the author but that Luke is a significant contributing amanuensis. The most significant difference between this commentary and others is Smith's rejection of the common supposition that 2 Timothy is Paul's Farewell Speech or Last Testament. On the basis of his earlier work, Timothy's Task, Paul's Prospect, Smith understands 2 Timothy as a paraenetic letter written to Timothy encouraging him in his Ephesian ministry and asking him to join Paul in Rome. Paul's perspective in this letter is thus not one of resignation to death, nor does it express Paul's sense of passing on the baton to his younger colleague; rather it envisages his expectation of release from prison and his hope of new opportunities for ministry with Timothy, Luke and Mark. Smith understands the problem of false teaching in Ephesus to be a real problem that Timothy is facing and not a fictional situation of a subsequent time. Smith carefully elucidates the difficult situation in the church at Ephesus and its effect on Timothy, together with Paul's kindly and thoughtful admonition given as a father to a son.
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2 Timothy

£15.00£35.00
In the last 150 years 2 Timothy has been the object of much scholarly scrutiny, especially over the questions of its authorship and the historical situation it presupposes. Though a few scholars today accept Pauline authorship, most have supported the view that 2 Timothy is pseudonymous, written sometime after the death of Paul. In this commentary, Smith straddles the fine line between Pauline authorship and pseudonymity, proposing that Paul is the author but that Luke is a significant contributing amanuensis. The most significant difference between this commentary and others is Smith's rejection of the common supposition that 2 Timothy is Paul's Farewell Speech or Last Testament. On the basis of his earlier work, Timothy's Task, Paul's Prospect, Smith understands 2 Timothy as a paraenetic letter written to Timothy encouraging him in his Ephesian ministry and asking him to join Paul in Rome. Paul's perspective in this letter is thus not one of resignation to death, nor does it express Paul's sense of passing on the baton to his younger colleague; rather it envisages his expectation of release from prison and his hope of new opportunities for ministry with Timothy, Luke and Mark. Smith understands the problem of false teaching in Ephesus to be a real problem that Timothy is facing and not a fictional situation of a subsequent time. Smith carefully elucidates the difficult situation in the church at Ephesus and its effect on Timothy, together with Paul's kindly and thoughtful admonition given as a father to a son.
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The World of the Child in the Hebrew Bible

Published: Oct 2015
£18.50£50.00
The question 'What is a child?' is not easily answered. To make us aware of the multiple factors that contribute to the social construction of childhood in the Hebrew Bible, Naomi Steinberg draws on ethno-historical evidence and incorporates the insights of contemporary social studies of childhood. Through close readings of Genesis 21, 1 Samuel 1 and Exodus 21.22-25, she argues that chronological age and biological immaturity do not determine the boundaries of childhood in biblical Israel. The social constructions of childhood in the Hebrew Bible were based on what the child could do for the parent, not vice versa. Children were their parents' property and were used to fulfil their parents' desires and needs. Not all children had the same experiences of childhood, of course. For example, whether a child was born into a monogamous or polygamous family shaped the course of its future. Other relevant factors in the construction of the multiplicities of childhoods included gender, birth order, and the socio-political historical contexts of ancient Israel. Steinberg convincingly corrects the notion that childhood is a static category in the human life cycle, showing that meanings of childhood are not generic and cannot be carried over from one society to another. This fascinating study, in which the author draws fruitfully on her personal cross-cultural experience of children's lives in Guatemala, exposes the reality that childhood in the Hebrew Bible was radically different from present-day childhood.
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The World of the Child in the Hebrew Bible

£18.50£50.00
The question 'What is a child?' is not easily answered. To make us aware of the multiple factors that contribute to the social construction of childhood in the Hebrew Bible, Naomi Steinberg draws on ethno-historical evidence and incorporates the insights of contemporary social studies of childhood. Through close readings of Genesis 21, 1 Samuel 1 and Exodus 21.22-25, she argues that chronological age and biological immaturity do not determine the boundaries of childhood in biblical Israel. The social constructions of childhood in the Hebrew Bible were based on what the child could do for the parent, not vice versa. Children were their parents' property and were used to fulfil their parents' desires and needs. Not all children had the same experiences of childhood, of course. For example, whether a child was born into a monogamous or polygamous family shaped the course of its future. Other relevant factors in the construction of the multiplicities of childhoods included gender, birth order, and the socio-political historical contexts of ancient Israel. Steinberg convincingly corrects the notion that childhood is a static category in the human life cycle, showing that meanings of childhood are not generic and cannot be carried over from one society to another. This fascinating study, in which the author draws fruitfully on her personal cross-cultural experience of children's lives in Guatemala, exposes the reality that childhood in the Hebrew Bible was radically different from present-day childhood.
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The Letter to the Romans: A Linguistic and Literary Commentary

Published: Oct 2015
£19.50£50.00
This substantial new commentary, expounding the letter paragraph by paragraph, is distinctive among commentaries on Romans in foregrounding a linguistic and literary approach. To comprehend the letter, Porter shows, we must always be aware of the letter-writing and linguistically based rhetorical conventions its author was deploying. The commentary is organized around the five-part epistolary structure that Paul developed for this fundamental letter, a structure that gives shape to its logically unfolding theological argument. Recognizing this structure is vital for interpreting the traditional sections of the body of the letter, as well as for understanding the placement of the problematic chapters 9 —11 within Paul's thought. One of the primary means of development Paul uses within the letter is dialogical interaction —what the ancients called diatribe —as a linguistic device for shaping and presenting his argument. Through the insistent questions and responses of the interaction, Paul opens up the major theological issues of the letter —human depravity, sin and works, justification and righteousness, reconciliation, life in the Spirit, and the role of Israel —and shapes the way his addressees should respond to them.
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The Letter to the Romans: A Linguistic and Literary Commentary

£19.50£50.00
This substantial new commentary, expounding the letter paragraph by paragraph, is distinctive among commentaries on Romans in foregrounding a linguistic and literary approach. To comprehend the letter, Porter shows, we must always be aware of the letter-writing and linguistically based rhetorical conventions its author was deploying. The commentary is organized around the five-part epistolary structure that Paul developed for this fundamental letter, a structure that gives shape to its logically unfolding theological argument. Recognizing this structure is vital for interpreting the traditional sections of the body of the letter, as well as for understanding the placement of the problematic chapters 9 —11 within Paul's thought. One of the primary means of development Paul uses within the letter is dialogical interaction —what the ancients called diatribe —as a linguistic device for shaping and presenting his argument. Through the insistent questions and responses of the interaction, Paul opens up the major theological issues of the letter —human depravity, sin and works, justification and righteousness, reconciliation, life in the Spirit, and the role of Israel —and shapes the way his addressees should respond to them.
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Teaching the Bible in the Liberal Arts Classroom, Volume 2

Published: Oct 2015
£22.50£50.00
Eugene V. Gallagher, Rosemary Park Professor of Religious Studies at Connecticut College, writes: 'In a context where the general value of the Humanities has increasingly come under question by those who see a college education as necessarily being directly tied to the first job that students will have after they graduate, an ability to make a vigorous case about the contribution of studying the Bible to any college student's education is crucial for any teacher'. This second collection of essays edited by Jane Webster and Glenn Holland seeks not only to promote the role of biblical studies in an undergraduate liberal arts education, but also to suggest strategies and approaches for teaching the Bible in a range of academic situations. Combining the theoretical and the practical, this volume will be another useful source of guidance and support for teachers of biblical studies at any point in their professional careers.
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Teaching the Bible in the Liberal Arts Classroom, Volume 2

£22.50£50.00
Eugene V. Gallagher, Rosemary Park Professor of Religious Studies at Connecticut College, writes: 'In a context where the general value of the Humanities has increasingly come under question by those who see a college education as necessarily being directly tied to the first job that students will have after they graduate, an ability to make a vigorous case about the contribution of studying the Bible to any college student's education is crucial for any teacher'. This second collection of essays edited by Jane Webster and Glenn Holland seeks not only to promote the role of biblical studies in an undergraduate liberal arts education, but also to suggest strategies and approaches for teaching the Bible in a range of academic situations. Combining the theoretical and the practical, this volume will be another useful source of guidance and support for teachers of biblical studies at any point in their professional careers.
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Biblical Rhetoric and Rhetorical Criticism

Published: Oct 2015
£20.00£80.00
This volume will prove a classic textbook on rhetorical criticism in the Bible, especially the Hebrew Bible. Following the lead of the famous Presidential Address to the Society of Biblical Literature in 1968 by James Muilenburg, 'Form Criticism and Beyond', Jack Lundbom has for over 40 years been developing and shaping the field with a stream of papers. 26 of them (three not previously published) are gathered into this volume. Hebrew rhetoric has a long history, reaching back even into the early Israelite period. Recognition of rhetorical elements in the Bible can be seen in Hillel, Augustine, ibn Ezra, and Calvin, as well as among certain biblical scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries. But the revival of rhetoric and the modern method of rhetorical criticism is more recent, having begun in America among classical scholars in the early 1900s, and having been widely adopted by biblical scholars in the last third of the twentieth century. Biblical scholars today invariably have rhetorical criticism in their exegetical toolbox, but the field lacks such a comprehensive corpus of studies as the present volume supplies. Reading the Bible with an eye to the rhetorical nature of its discourse —not just the style, but its structures and modes of argumentation —gives one a sharpened view of biblical figures, their legacy, and much else in the biblical text. One also gets new insight into the audiences for whom biblical messages were originally intended. Rhetorical criticism offers a ready yield for all those seeking a closer understanding of the biblical texts.
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Biblical Rhetoric and Rhetorical Criticism

£20.00£80.00
This volume will prove a classic textbook on rhetorical criticism in the Bible, especially the Hebrew Bible. Following the lead of the famous Presidential Address to the Society of Biblical Literature in 1968 by James Muilenburg, 'Form Criticism and Beyond', Jack Lundbom has for over 40 years been developing and shaping the field with a stream of papers. 26 of them (three not previously published) are gathered into this volume. Hebrew rhetoric has a long history, reaching back even into the early Israelite period. Recognition of rhetorical elements in the Bible can be seen in Hillel, Augustine, ibn Ezra, and Calvin, as well as among certain biblical scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries. But the revival of rhetoric and the modern method of rhetorical criticism is more recent, having begun in America among classical scholars in the early 1900s, and having been widely adopted by biblical scholars in the last third of the twentieth century. Biblical scholars today invariably have rhetorical criticism in their exegetical toolbox, but the field lacks such a comprehensive corpus of studies as the present volume supplies. Reading the Bible with an eye to the rhetorical nature of its discourse —not just the style, but its structures and modes of argumentation —gives one a sharpened view of biblical figures, their legacy, and much else in the biblical text. One also gets new insight into the audiences for whom biblical messages were originally intended. Rhetorical criticism offers a ready yield for all those seeking a closer understanding of the biblical texts.
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Adam, Eve, and the Devil: A New Beginning, Second Enlarged Edition

Published: Aug 2015
£22.50£60.00
In this book the authors develop an intriguing theory about the Canaanite origin of the biblical traditions concerning the origin of the cosmos and the creation of humankind. Adam, Eve, and the Devil tells a new story about human beginnings and at the same time proposes a fresh start for biblical research into primordial traditions. A number of clay tablets from Ugarit, dating from the late thirteenth century BCE, throw new light, Korpel and de Moor argue, on the background of the first chapters of Genesis and the myth of Adam. In these tablets, El, the creator deity, and his wife Asherah lived in a vineyard or garden on the slopes of Mt Ararat, known in the Bible as the mountain where Noah's ark came to rest. The first sinner was not a human being, but an evil god called Horon who wanted to depose El. Horon was thrown down from the mountain of the gods, and in revenge he transformed the Tree of Life in the garden into a Tree of Death and enveloped the whole world in a poisonous fog. Adam was sent down to restore life on earth, but failed because Horon in the form of a huge serpent bit him. As a result Adam and his wife lost their immortality. This myth found its way into the Bible, the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigraphical literature, though it was often transformed or treated critically. Adam, Eve, and the Devil traces the reception of the myth in its many forms, and also presents the oldest pictures of Adam and Eve ever identified (one of them on the front cover of the book). A second, enlarged edition is published in paperback in August, 2015.
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Adam, Eve, and the Devil: A New Beginning, Second Enlarged Edition

£22.50£60.00
In this book the authors develop an intriguing theory about the Canaanite origin of the biblical traditions concerning the origin of the cosmos and the creation of humankind. Adam, Eve, and the Devil tells a new story about human beginnings and at the same time proposes a fresh start for biblical research into primordial traditions. A number of clay tablets from Ugarit, dating from the late thirteenth century BCE, throw new light, Korpel and de Moor argue, on the background of the first chapters of Genesis and the myth of Adam. In these tablets, El, the creator deity, and his wife Asherah lived in a vineyard or garden on the slopes of Mt Ararat, known in the Bible as the mountain where Noah's ark came to rest. The first sinner was not a human being, but an evil god called Horon who wanted to depose El. Horon was thrown down from the mountain of the gods, and in revenge he transformed the Tree of Life in the garden into a Tree of Death and enveloped the whole world in a poisonous fog. Adam was sent down to restore life on earth, but failed because Horon in the form of a huge serpent bit him. As a result Adam and his wife lost their immortality. This myth found its way into the Bible, the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigraphical literature, though it was often transformed or treated critically. Adam, Eve, and the Devil traces the reception of the myth in its many forms, and also presents the oldest pictures of Adam and Eve ever identified (one of them on the front cover of the book). A second, enlarged edition is published in paperback in August, 2015.
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Religion and Violence: The Biblical Heritage

Published: Jun 2015
£14.50£35.00
Violence that is motivated by--and justified by--religious ideas, authorities and texts is everywhere around us. Some say that the origins of religion and human violence are inherently connected, and that the explanation for religious violence lies at the heart of the religious imagination itself, others that human violence was there long before religion ever came about, being no more than an unfortunate by-product of human evolution. Reconsidering the question of religion and violence in the biblical heritage is a narrower--but nonetheless essential--endeavour, to which the present volume addresses itself. After an introductory chapter by the editors on religion, violence and the Bible, Ziony Zevit writes on violence in Israelite culture and in the Bible, Tamar Kamionkowski on violence in prophetic literature, Stephen Geller on the prophetic roots of religious violence, David Wright on homicide, talion and vengeance in the Covenant Code, Lawrence Wills on the death of the hero and the violent death of Jesus, Jennifer Wright Knust on sacrifice and sacred text in Justin, and David Frankfurter on vengeance fantasies in the New Testament. Stephen Marini offers concluding reflections on religion and violence under the rubric of conflict, subversion and sacrifice.
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Religion and Violence: The Biblical Heritage

£14.50£35.00
Violence that is motivated by--and justified by--religious ideas, authorities and texts is everywhere around us. Some say that the origins of religion and human violence are inherently connected, and that the explanation for religious violence lies at the heart of the religious imagination itself, others that human violence was there long before religion ever came about, being no more than an unfortunate by-product of human evolution. Reconsidering the question of religion and violence in the biblical heritage is a narrower--but nonetheless essential--endeavour, to which the present volume addresses itself. After an introductory chapter by the editors on religion, violence and the Bible, Ziony Zevit writes on violence in Israelite culture and in the Bible, Tamar Kamionkowski on violence in prophetic literature, Stephen Geller on the prophetic roots of religious violence, David Wright on homicide, talion and vengeance in the Covenant Code, Lawrence Wills on the death of the hero and the violent death of Jesus, Jennifer Wright Knust on sacrifice and sacred text in Justin, and David Frankfurter on vengeance fantasies in the New Testament. Stephen Marini offers concluding reflections on religion and violence under the rubric of conflict, subversion and sacrifice.
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The Book of Job

Published: Jun 2015
£25.00£70.00
John Gray, who was Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages in the University of Aberdeen, left at his death in 2000 a complete manuscript of a commentary on the Book of Job. Rich in text-critical and philological observations, the manuscript has been carefully prepared for the press; it will soon become a standard work for scholars and students of the biblical book, and a fitting tribute to the sound judgment and innovative scholarship of its author. John Gray was noted especially for his books The Legacy of Canaan (1957; 2nd edn, 1964), The Biblical Doctrine of the Reign of God (1979), and his commentaries, I and II Kings (1963; 2nd edn, 1970) and Joshua, Judges and Ruth (1967). Gray's commentary on Job, which is prefaced by a lengthy general introduction, is the first volume in a new series of commentaries on the text of the Hebrew Bible. All the volumes will concentrate on the text criticism and philology of the Hebrew text, a feature notably lacking or merely perfunctory in many current biblical commentary series.
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The Book of Job

£25.00£70.00
John Gray, who was Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages in the University of Aberdeen, left at his death in 2000 a complete manuscript of a commentary on the Book of Job. Rich in text-critical and philological observations, the manuscript has been carefully prepared for the press; it will soon become a standard work for scholars and students of the biblical book, and a fitting tribute to the sound judgment and innovative scholarship of its author. John Gray was noted especially for his books The Legacy of Canaan (1957; 2nd edn, 1964), The Biblical Doctrine of the Reign of God (1979), and his commentaries, I and II Kings (1963; 2nd edn, 1970) and Joshua, Judges and Ruth (1967). Gray's commentary on Job, which is prefaced by a lengthy general introduction, is the first volume in a new series of commentaries on the text of the Hebrew Bible. All the volumes will concentrate on the text criticism and philology of the Hebrew text, a feature notably lacking or merely perfunctory in many current biblical commentary series.
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Sin, Impurity, Sacrifice, Atonement: The Priestly Conceptions

Published: May 2015
£16.50£50.00
The goal of this closely reasoned study is to explain why, in Priestly texts of the Hebrew Bible, the verb kipper, traditionally translated 'atone', means the way of dealing both with sin and with impurity —which might seem very different things. Sklar's first key conclusion is that when the context is sin, certain sins also pollute; so 'atonement' may include some element of purification. His second conclusion is that, when the context is impurity, and kipper means not 'atone' but 'effect purgation', impurity also endangers; so kipper can include some element of ransoming. In fact, sin and impurity, while distinct categories in themselves, have this in common: each of them requires both ransoming and purification. It is for this reason that kipper can be used in both settings. This benchmark study concludes with a careful examination of the famous sentence of Leviticus 17.11 that 'blood makes atonement' (kipper) and explains how, in the Priestly ideology, blood sacrifice was able to accomplish both ransom and purification.
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Sin, Impurity, Sacrifice, Atonement: The Priestly Conceptions

£16.50£50.00
The goal of this closely reasoned study is to explain why, in Priestly texts of the Hebrew Bible, the verb kipper, traditionally translated 'atone', means the way of dealing both with sin and with impurity —which might seem very different things. Sklar's first key conclusion is that when the context is sin, certain sins also pollute; so 'atonement' may include some element of purification. His second conclusion is that, when the context is impurity, and kipper means not 'atone' but 'effect purgation', impurity also endangers; so kipper can include some element of ransoming. In fact, sin and impurity, while distinct categories in themselves, have this in common: each of them requires both ransoming and purification. It is for this reason that kipper can be used in both settings. This benchmark study concludes with a careful examination of the famous sentence of Leviticus 17.11 that 'blood makes atonement' (kipper) and explains how, in the Priestly ideology, blood sacrifice was able to accomplish both ransom and purification.
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The Ancient Near East in the Nineteenth Century: I. Claiming and Conquering

Published: Apr 2015
£22.50£70.00
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, little was known of the ancient Near East except for what was preserved in the Bible and Classical literature. By the end of that century, an amazing transformation had occurred: the basic outline of ancient Near Eastern history was now understood and the material culture of the region was recognizable to the general public. This three-volume study explores the various ways by which non-specialists would have encountered ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Holy Land and how they derived and constructed meaning from those discoveries. McGeough challenges the simplistic view that the experience of the ancient Near East was solely a matter of 'othering' and shows how different people claimed the Near East as their own space and how connections were drawn between the ancient and contemporary worlds. Volume I traces how the study of the ancient Near East developed into a professional discipline and how interpretative frameworks were gradually standardized throughout the nineteenth century. Some of the best-sellers of the period were accounts of the early explorers of the region and, beginning with the Napoleonic expedition, the book examines how ancient Near Eastern discoveries were communicated to the public. It looks at how archaeological reporting was shaped in this period and how the study of the ancient Near East was employed to understand issues of progress and decline and was referenced in the political and social satire of the period. It also documents the growth of middle-class tourism to the region and considers how the changing experiences of travel impacted Near Eastern studies. Throughout, the book observes how the ancient Near East mirrored and subverted British society and played a role in European and North American thinking about their places in a larger global and historical perspective.
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The Ancient Near East in the Nineteenth Century: I. Claiming and Conquering

£22.50£70.00
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, little was known of the ancient Near East except for what was preserved in the Bible and Classical literature. By the end of that century, an amazing transformation had occurred: the basic outline of ancient Near Eastern history was now understood and the material culture of the region was recognizable to the general public. This three-volume study explores the various ways by which non-specialists would have encountered ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Holy Land and how they derived and constructed meaning from those discoveries. McGeough challenges the simplistic view that the experience of the ancient Near East was solely a matter of 'othering' and shows how different people claimed the Near East as their own space and how connections were drawn between the ancient and contemporary worlds. Volume I traces how the study of the ancient Near East developed into a professional discipline and how interpretative frameworks were gradually standardized throughout the nineteenth century. Some of the best-sellers of the period were accounts of the early explorers of the region and, beginning with the Napoleonic expedition, the book examines how ancient Near Eastern discoveries were communicated to the public. It looks at how archaeological reporting was shaped in this period and how the study of the ancient Near East was employed to understand issues of progress and decline and was referenced in the political and social satire of the period. It also documents the growth of middle-class tourism to the region and considers how the changing experiences of travel impacted Near Eastern studies. Throughout, the book observes how the ancient Near East mirrored and subverted British society and played a role in European and North American thinking about their places in a larger global and historical perspective.
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The Bad Jesus: The Ethics of New Testament Ethics

Published: Apr 2015
£25.00£60.00
Did Jesus ever do anything wrong? Judging by the vast majority of books on New Testament ethics, the answer is a resounding No. Writers on New Testament ethics generally view Jesus as the paradigm of human standards and behaviour. But since the historical Jesus was a human being, must he not have had flaws, like everyone else? The notion of a flawless human Jesus is a paradoxical oddity in New Testament ethics. According to Avalos, it shows that New Testament ethics is still primarily an apologetic enterprise despite its claim to rest on critical and historical scholarship. The Bad Jesus is a powerful and challenging study, presenting detailed case studies of fundamental ethical principles enunciated or practised by Jesus but antithetical to what would be widely deemed 'acceptable' or 'good' today. Such topics include Jesus' supposedly innovative teachings on love, along with his views on hate, violence, imperialism, animal rights, environmental ethics, Judaism, women, disabled persons and biblical hermeneutics. After closely examining arguments offered by those unwilling to find any fault with the Jesus depicted in the Gospels, Avalos concludes that current treatments of New Testament ethics are permeated by a religiocentric, ethnocentric and imperialistic orientation. But if it is to be a credible historical and critical discipline in modern academia, New Testament ethics needs to discover both a Good and a Bad Jesus.
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The Bad Jesus: The Ethics of New Testament Ethics

£25.00£60.00
Did Jesus ever do anything wrong? Judging by the vast majority of books on New Testament ethics, the answer is a resounding No. Writers on New Testament ethics generally view Jesus as the paradigm of human standards and behaviour. But since the historical Jesus was a human being, must he not have had flaws, like everyone else? The notion of a flawless human Jesus is a paradoxical oddity in New Testament ethics. According to Avalos, it shows that New Testament ethics is still primarily an apologetic enterprise despite its claim to rest on critical and historical scholarship. The Bad Jesus is a powerful and challenging study, presenting detailed case studies of fundamental ethical principles enunciated or practised by Jesus but antithetical to what would be widely deemed 'acceptable' or 'good' today. Such topics include Jesus' supposedly innovative teachings on love, along with his views on hate, violence, imperialism, animal rights, environmental ethics, Judaism, women, disabled persons and biblical hermeneutics. After closely examining arguments offered by those unwilling to find any fault with the Jesus depicted in the Gospels, Avalos concludes that current treatments of New Testament ethics are permeated by a religiocentric, ethnocentric and imperialistic orientation. But if it is to be a credible historical and critical discipline in modern academia, New Testament ethics needs to discover both a Good and a Bad Jesus.
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Proverbs

Published: Jan 2015
£15.00£35.00
In previous commentaries on Proverbs, little is said about any literary and thematic unity in the book. This commentary, by contrast, reads Proverbs not as a collection of disjointed aphorisms, but as a book of symmetrically arranged wisdom-teaching where topics, forms of expression and rhetoric are constantly hearkening back to what has preceded or heralding what is to follow. In the preface (1.1-7), the editors of Proverbs introduce a book of wisdom-teaching which the audience, the youth of Israel, are supposed to understand by discerning the figurative language in which the teaching is expressed. The present-day reader of Proverbs is invited in this commentary to read from the same perspective, becoming, like the original audience, engaged in the unfolding figurative language. At the outset Proverbs is set well within the household (1.8 —9.18), where a mother and father urge their naive and uncommitted son to retain their teaching and to successfully establish his own household. Wisdom is personified as a teacher and a welcoming host whose metaphorical banquet is laid out in the poetry of the topical groups identified in the 'Proverbs of Solomon' (10.1 —22.16). The parental wisdom teaching in the 'Words of the Wise' (22.17 —24.34) addresses a youth now on the threshold of public life, marking out a path of courageous wisdom amid attractive but self-destructive alternatives. In the 'Other Proverbs of Solomon' (chaps. 25 —29) a wealth of imagery and stark antitheses highlight earlier themes and inculcate personal responsibility in a lawless society. The Book of Proverbs concludes with the striking portraits of three eminent wise ones (chaps. 30 —31), who are presumably imbued with the spirit of the Book.
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Proverbs

£15.00£35.00
In previous commentaries on Proverbs, little is said about any literary and thematic unity in the book. This commentary, by contrast, reads Proverbs not as a collection of disjointed aphorisms, but as a book of symmetrically arranged wisdom-teaching where topics, forms of expression and rhetoric are constantly hearkening back to what has preceded or heralding what is to follow. In the preface (1.1-7), the editors of Proverbs introduce a book of wisdom-teaching which the audience, the youth of Israel, are supposed to understand by discerning the figurative language in which the teaching is expressed. The present-day reader of Proverbs is invited in this commentary to read from the same perspective, becoming, like the original audience, engaged in the unfolding figurative language. At the outset Proverbs is set well within the household (1.8 —9.18), where a mother and father urge their naive and uncommitted son to retain their teaching and to successfully establish his own household. Wisdom is personified as a teacher and a welcoming host whose metaphorical banquet is laid out in the poetry of the topical groups identified in the 'Proverbs of Solomon' (10.1 —22.16). The parental wisdom teaching in the 'Words of the Wise' (22.17 —24.34) addresses a youth now on the threshold of public life, marking out a path of courageous wisdom amid attractive but self-destructive alternatives. In the 'Other Proverbs of Solomon' (chaps. 25 —29) a wealth of imagery and stark antitheses highlight earlier themes and inculcate personal responsibility in a lawless society. The Book of Proverbs concludes with the striking portraits of three eminent wise ones (chaps. 30 —31), who are presumably imbued with the spirit of the Book.
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On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt

Published: Jun 2014
£25.00£60.00
The assumption that Jesus existed as a historical person has occasionally been questioned in the course of the last hundred years or so, but any doubts that have been raised have usually been put to rest in favor of imagining a blend of the historical, the mythical and the theological in the surviving records of Jesus. Carrier re-examines the whole question and finds compelling reasons to suspect the more daring assumption is correct. He lays out extensive research on the evidence for Jesus and the origins of Christianity and poses the key questions that must now be answered if the historicity of Jesus is to survive as a dominant paradigm. Carrier contrasts the most credible reconstruction of a historical Jesus with the most credible theory of Christian origins if a historical Jesus did not exist. Such a theory would posit that the Jesus figure was originally conceived of as a celestial being known only through private revelations and hidden messages in scripture; then stories placing this being in earth history were crafted to communicate the claims of the gospel allegorically; such stories eventually came to be believed or promoted in the struggle for control of the Christian churches that survived the tribulations of the first century. Carrier finds the latter theory more credible than has been previously imagined. He explains why it offers a better explanation for all the disparate evidence surviving from the first two centuries of the Christian era. He argues that we need a more careful and robust theory of cultural syncretism between Jewish theology and politics of the second-temple period and the most popular features of pagan religion and philosophy of the time. For anyone intent on defending a historical Jesus, this is the book to challenge.
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On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt

£25.00£60.00
The assumption that Jesus existed as a historical person has occasionally been questioned in the course of the last hundred years or so, but any doubts that have been raised have usually been put to rest in favor of imagining a blend of the historical, the mythical and the theological in the surviving records of Jesus. Carrier re-examines the whole question and finds compelling reasons to suspect the more daring assumption is correct. He lays out extensive research on the evidence for Jesus and the origins of Christianity and poses the key questions that must now be answered if the historicity of Jesus is to survive as a dominant paradigm. Carrier contrasts the most credible reconstruction of a historical Jesus with the most credible theory of Christian origins if a historical Jesus did not exist. Such a theory would posit that the Jesus figure was originally conceived of as a celestial being known only through private revelations and hidden messages in scripture; then stories placing this being in earth history were crafted to communicate the claims of the gospel allegorically; such stories eventually came to be believed or promoted in the struggle for control of the Christian churches that survived the tribulations of the first century. Carrier finds the latter theory more credible than has been previously imagined. He explains why it offers a better explanation for all the disparate evidence surviving from the first two centuries of the Christian era. He argues that we need a more careful and robust theory of cultural syncretism between Jewish theology and politics of the second-temple period and the most popular features of pagan religion and philosophy of the time. For anyone intent on defending a historical Jesus, this is the book to challenge.
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Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Ethics of Biblical Scholarship

Published: May 2013
£19.50£70.00
In this immensely wide-ranging and fascinating study, Avalos critiques the common claim that the abolition of slavery was due in large part to the influence of biblical ethics. Such a claim, he argues, is characteristic of a broader phenomenon in biblical scholarship, which focuses on defending, rather than describing, the ethical norms encountered in biblical texts. The first part of Avalos's critique explores how modern scholars have praised the supposed superiority of biblical ethics at the cost of diminishing or ignoring many similar features in ancient Near Eastern cultures. These features include manumission, fixed terms of service, familial rights, and egalitarian critiques of slavery. At the same time, modern scholarship has used the standard tools of biblical exegesis in order to minimize the ethically negative implications of many biblical references to slavery. The second part of the book concentrates on how the Bible has been used throughout Christian history both to maintain and to extend slavery. In particular, Avalos offers detailed studies of papal documents used to defend the Church's stance on slavery. Discussions of Gregory of Nyssa, Aquinas and Luther, among others, show that they are not such champions of freedom as they are often portrayed. Avalos's close readings of the writings of major abolitionists such as Granville Sharp, William Wilberforce and Frederick Douglass show an increasing shift away from using the Bible as a support for abolitionism. Biblical scholars have rarely recognized that pro-slavery advocates could use the Bible just as effectively. According to Avalos, one of the complex mix of factors leading to abolition was the abandonment of the Bible as an ethical authority. The case of the biblical attitude to slavery is just one confirmation of how unsuitable the Bible is as a manual of ethics in the modern world.
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Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Ethics of Biblical Scholarship

£19.50£70.00
In this immensely wide-ranging and fascinating study, Avalos critiques the common claim that the abolition of slavery was due in large part to the influence of biblical ethics. Such a claim, he argues, is characteristic of a broader phenomenon in biblical scholarship, which focuses on defending, rather than describing, the ethical norms encountered in biblical texts. The first part of Avalos's critique explores how modern scholars have praised the supposed superiority of biblical ethics at the cost of diminishing or ignoring many similar features in ancient Near Eastern cultures. These features include manumission, fixed terms of service, familial rights, and egalitarian critiques of slavery. At the same time, modern scholarship has used the standard tools of biblical exegesis in order to minimize the ethically negative implications of many biblical references to slavery. The second part of the book concentrates on how the Bible has been used throughout Christian history both to maintain and to extend slavery. In particular, Avalos offers detailed studies of papal documents used to defend the Church's stance on slavery. Discussions of Gregory of Nyssa, Aquinas and Luther, among others, show that they are not such champions of freedom as they are often portrayed. Avalos's close readings of the writings of major abolitionists such as Granville Sharp, William Wilberforce and Frederick Douglass show an increasing shift away from using the Bible as a support for abolitionism. Biblical scholars have rarely recognized that pro-slavery advocates could use the Bible just as effectively. According to Avalos, one of the complex mix of factors leading to abolition was the abandonment of the Bible as an ethical authority. The case of the biblical attitude to slavery is just one confirmation of how unsuitable the Bible is as a manual of ethics in the modern world.
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Jeremiah Closer Up: The Prophet and the Book

Published: May 2013
£15.00£40.00
Closer up than what? Many recent studies of Jeremiah leave us with but a faint glimmer of this great Hebrew prophet; in some he disappears completely into later tradition. Some scholars think that the book of Jeremiah lacks historical veracity: when it was composed, supposedly in the late exilic or postexilic periods, historical memories had been dimmed and ideology had come to dominate the Jeremiah legacy. The present essays combine to argue that both the prophet and his book can be viewed “closer up” than the imagination of many modern-day interpreters will allow. The first three essays discuss the text, rhetoric and composition of the book of Jeremiah. The longer Hebrew text is given preference over the Greek Septuagint text, which means that we can dispense entirely with the idea that scribes were busily writing, editing and expanding the Jeremiah book in Babylon. Rhetorical and other delimiting criteria show that Jeremiah’s so-called ‘Temple Sermon’ (7.1-15) is rather a cluster of three oracles manifesting a rudimentary form of logic. Finally, a correlation of Gedaliah’s murder with the exile of 582 argues for a nearly four-year existence of the remnant community at Mizpah, more than enough time for Jeremiah and Baruch to write up the events following the destruction of Jerusalem. The remaining essays discuss Jeremiah’s views of history, the created order, the covenant, and nations of the world, as well as the prophet’s so-called ‘confessions’. These extraordinary insights into the interior disposition of a Hebrew prophet reveal how Jeremiah felt about the word he had to preach, and what impact it had on him personally. The confessions are analysed both as formal psalm-like laments, and as gems of rhetorical composition.
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Jeremiah Closer Up: The Prophet and the Book

£15.00£40.00
Closer up than what? Many recent studies of Jeremiah leave us with but a faint glimmer of this great Hebrew prophet; in some he disappears completely into later tradition. Some scholars think that the book of Jeremiah lacks historical veracity: when it was composed, supposedly in the late exilic or postexilic periods, historical memories had been dimmed and ideology had come to dominate the Jeremiah legacy. The present essays combine to argue that both the prophet and his book can be viewed “closer up” than the imagination of many modern-day interpreters will allow. The first three essays discuss the text, rhetoric and composition of the book of Jeremiah. The longer Hebrew text is given preference over the Greek Septuagint text, which means that we can dispense entirely with the idea that scribes were busily writing, editing and expanding the Jeremiah book in Babylon. Rhetorical and other delimiting criteria show that Jeremiah’s so-called ‘Temple Sermon’ (7.1-15) is rather a cluster of three oracles manifesting a rudimentary form of logic. Finally, a correlation of Gedaliah’s murder with the exile of 582 argues for a nearly four-year existence of the remnant community at Mizpah, more than enough time for Jeremiah and Baruch to write up the events following the destruction of Jerusalem. The remaining essays discuss Jeremiah’s views of history, the created order, the covenant, and nations of the world, as well as the prophet’s so-called ‘confessions’. These extraordinary insights into the interior disposition of a Hebrew prophet reveal how Jeremiah felt about the word he had to preach, and what impact it had on him personally. The confessions are analysed both as formal psalm-like laments, and as gems of rhetorical composition.
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Between Author and Audience in Mark: Narration, Characterization, Interpretation

Published: May 2013
£16.50£45.00
To hear, read, and interpret the Gospel of Mark is to become involved in the dynamic relationship between author (real or implied) and audience (implied or real). So we have learned from the 'literary turn' in biblical interpretation. But there remains another dynamic relationship in which we are of necessity involved: that of the literary and the historical questions surrounding the text. Clearly, multiple approaches are called for by anyone who wishes to claim a place in the on-going audience of the Gospel of Mark. The first three essays in this volume move in different ways between real and implied Markan realities: from implied audience to real (ancient) audience, from real (contemporary, oral) narrator to implied (ancient, oral) narrator, and from implied audience to various real (or 'unimplied') audiences. The next three essays treat the central Markan reality of parable as it connects author, narrator, and audience in challenging ways. The final three essays concern the relation of Mark's characters among themselves or the relation of narrator and character, recognizing the complexity of characterization in the Gospel as a form of communication between author and audience.
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Between Author and Audience in Mark: Narration, Characterization, Interpretation

£16.50£45.00
To hear, read, and interpret the Gospel of Mark is to become involved in the dynamic relationship between author (real or implied) and audience (implied or real). So we have learned from the 'literary turn' in biblical interpretation. But there remains another dynamic relationship in which we are of necessity involved: that of the literary and the historical questions surrounding the text. Clearly, multiple approaches are called for by anyone who wishes to claim a place in the on-going audience of the Gospel of Mark. The first three essays in this volume move in different ways between real and implied Markan realities: from implied audience to real (ancient) audience, from real (contemporary, oral) narrator to implied (ancient, oral) narrator, and from implied audience to various real (or 'unimplied') audiences. The next three essays treat the central Markan reality of parable as it connects author, narrator, and audience in challenging ways. The final three essays concern the relation of Mark's characters among themselves or the relation of narrator and character, recognizing the complexity of characterization in the Gospel as a form of communication between author and audience.
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From Judah to Judaea: Socio-Economic Structures and Processes in the Persian Period

Published: May 2013
£18.50£50.00
It has long been recognized that the Persian period is crucial to the history of the formation of the biblical corpora. The essays presented in this volume explore this critically important era, reconstructing the socio-economic shifts that took place as well as the religio-theological environment of the Judean community and its neighbours. The topics of this volume, sociological, archaeological and theological, include: ethnicities and administration in Persian-era Palestine (Yigal); the historical origin of the concept of the piety of the poor at Qumran (Ro); the development of the theological concept of Yhwh's punitive justice (Ro); social, cultural and demographic transformations in Persian-period Judah (Faust); changes in Judah and its neighbouring provinces in the fourth century BCE (Fantalkin and Tal); some Greek views of the Persian empire (Sano). The papers collected in this volume were presented at an international conference held at International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo, February 17 —19, 2011, a testimony to the fruitfulness of this unusual Asian —Israeli scholarly dialogue.
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From Judah to Judaea: Socio-Economic Structures and Processes in the Persian Period

£18.50£50.00
It has long been recognized that the Persian period is crucial to the history of the formation of the biblical corpora. The essays presented in this volume explore this critically important era, reconstructing the socio-economic shifts that took place as well as the religio-theological environment of the Judean community and its neighbours. The topics of this volume, sociological, archaeological and theological, include: ethnicities and administration in Persian-era Palestine (Yigal); the historical origin of the concept of the piety of the poor at Qumran (Ro); the development of the theological concept of Yhwh's punitive justice (Ro); social, cultural and demographic transformations in Persian-period Judah (Faust); changes in Judah and its neighbouring provinces in the fourth century BCE (Fantalkin and Tal); some Greek views of the Persian empire (Sano). The papers collected in this volume were presented at an international conference held at International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo, February 17 —19, 2011, a testimony to the fruitfulness of this unusual Asian —Israeli scholarly dialogue.
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Now My Eye Sees You: Unveiling an Apocalyptic Job

Published: May 2013
£16.50£50.00
This groundbreaking study on the book of Job is the first systematic effort to reveal and organize its apocalyptic impulses. Drawing on such scholars as John Collins, Christopher Rowland and Frank Moore Cross, Johnson argues that interpreting Job through the lens of apocalypse yields a coherent reading that is able to incorporate all of the seemingly disparate literary features of the book that historically stymie interpreters. An apocalyptic reading of Job begins with the presence of three important revelations: Eliphaz's vision, the hymn to wisdom and the Yahweh speeches. A literary division following these revelations contributes to the book's overall emphasis, which is to persevere in the midst of suffering. Thorny questions such as the reason Elihu was not rebuked by God in the epilogue receive fresh treatment from an apocalyptic paradigm. In tracing the history of the interpretation of Job, Johnson offers evidence that both Jewish and Christian traditions recognized many of these 'apocalyptic' elements. For example, the LXX version of Job contains a resurrection plus in the epilogue, the Testament of Job emphasizes the influence of Satan, the Qumran sect may have drawn strength from the book's message to persevere, and the 'apocalyptic' passage of James upholds Job as a model for perseverance. Viewing Job as a nascent form of apocalypse may also resuscitate Von Rad's hypothesis that apocalypse grew out of wisdom categories over against the more commonly accepted prophetic works. Students of Job at all levels are treated here to a stimulating appraisal that will open their eyes to the apocalyptic characteristics woven throughout this diverse book. This monograph will make important contributions to genre studies, the history of interpretation and be valuable to those interested in the intersection of wisdom and apocalypse.
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Now My Eye Sees You: Unveiling an Apocalyptic Job

£16.50£50.00
This groundbreaking study on the book of Job is the first systematic effort to reveal and organize its apocalyptic impulses. Drawing on such scholars as John Collins, Christopher Rowland and Frank Moore Cross, Johnson argues that interpreting Job through the lens of apocalypse yields a coherent reading that is able to incorporate all of the seemingly disparate literary features of the book that historically stymie interpreters. An apocalyptic reading of Job begins with the presence of three important revelations: Eliphaz's vision, the hymn to wisdom and the Yahweh speeches. A literary division following these revelations contributes to the book's overall emphasis, which is to persevere in the midst of suffering. Thorny questions such as the reason Elihu was not rebuked by God in the epilogue receive fresh treatment from an apocalyptic paradigm. In tracing the history of the interpretation of Job, Johnson offers evidence that both Jewish and Christian traditions recognized many of these 'apocalyptic' elements. For example, the LXX version of Job contains a resurrection plus in the epilogue, the Testament of Job emphasizes the influence of Satan, the Qumran sect may have drawn strength from the book's message to persevere, and the 'apocalyptic' passage of James upholds Job as a model for perseverance. Viewing Job as a nascent form of apocalypse may also resuscitate Von Rad's hypothesis that apocalypse grew out of wisdom categories over against the more commonly accepted prophetic works. Students of Job at all levels are treated here to a stimulating appraisal that will open their eyes to the apocalyptic characteristics woven throughout this diverse book. This monograph will make important contributions to genre studies, the history of interpretation and be valuable to those interested in the intersection of wisdom and apocalypse.
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