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Abigail, Wife of David, and Other Ancient Oriental Women

Published: Oct 2013
£50.00
This is the first book devoted to the biblical figure of Abigail, whose encounter with David is narrated in 1 Samuel 25. An interdisciplinary study, its seven papers combine biblical criticism, narratology, history of religions, Assyriology and the study of midrash. One article (by Michaël Guichard) brings to light a major historical analogy from the Mari documents to the triangular relationship of Abigail, Nabal and David. The career of the princess Inib-sharri, first married to an old sheikh, and, after his sudden, mysterious death, to a younger princeling, provides a very apt analogy to that of Abigail. Another article (by Daniel Bodi) compares David's way of seizing power to the pattern of seizing power in the ancient Near East: Zimri-Lim in Mari, Idrimi in Alalakh, and the 'Apiru in the Amarna texts serve as analogies to David. The tale of David as an ambitious warlord taking power through marriage can be paralleled by the myth of Nergal and Ereshkigal; in its older Amarna version Nergal takes power through violence whereas in its Assyrian version his power is due to Ereshkigal's seduction and love. The Abigail story combines both aspects, beginning with violence and ending with marriage (Jean-Jacques Glassner). Some rabbis saw Abigail as a seducer and a hellish type of woman. The final articles (by Bodi and Jean-Marie Husser) show that, while her behaviour might be ambiguous, she should not be branded a scarlet woman.
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Abigail, Wife of David, and Other Ancient Oriental Women

£50.00
This is the first book devoted to the biblical figure of Abigail, whose encounter with David is narrated in 1 Samuel 25. An interdisciplinary study, its seven papers combine biblical criticism, narratology, history of religions, Assyriology and the study of midrash. One article (by Michaël Guichard) brings to light a major historical analogy from the Mari documents to the triangular relationship of Abigail, Nabal and David. The career of the princess Inib-sharri, first married to an old sheikh, and, after his sudden, mysterious death, to a younger princeling, provides a very apt analogy to that of Abigail. Another article (by Daniel Bodi) compares David's way of seizing power to the pattern of seizing power in the ancient Near East: Zimri-Lim in Mari, Idrimi in Alalakh, and the 'Apiru in the Amarna texts serve as analogies to David. The tale of David as an ambitious warlord taking power through marriage can be paralleled by the myth of Nergal and Ereshkigal; in its older Amarna version Nergal takes power through violence whereas in its Assyrian version his power is due to Ereshkigal's seduction and love. The Abigail story combines both aspects, beginning with violence and ending with marriage (Jean-Jacques Glassner). Some rabbis saw Abigail as a seducer and a hellish type of woman. The final articles (by Bodi and Jean-Marie Husser) show that, while her behaviour might be ambiguous, she should not be branded a scarlet woman.
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Sight and Insight in Genesis: A Semantic Study

Published: Oct 2013
£60.00
Sight and Insight shows how prominent are terms from the semantic field of sight in the book of Genesis. They are constantly found in openings, at turning points, and as constituents in place-names and personal names. Because of their presence at strategic points in the plot of Genesis, words of sight enhance cohesion among the narratives of the book. From the beginning of time, according to Genesis, there have been numerous instances of seeing on the part of both God and humans. But as Genesis progresses, God gradually becomes more hidden and his seeing gives place to human perception. These observations are built upon a sound theoretical foundation, outlined in the opening chapter, which provides a clear definition of the concept of 'semantic field' and an explanation of related semantic terms such as 'frames' and 'prototypes'. Subsequent chapters identify the words that can be assigned to the 'sight' field, examine the deployment of the sight field in individual narratives in Genesis, and study the sight field over larger sections of the book. This is the sixth volume of the Amsterdam Studies in the Bible and Religion (ed. Athalya Brenner), a sub-series of the Bible in the Modern World and Hebrew Bible Monographs.
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Sight and Insight in Genesis: A Semantic Study

£60.00
Sight and Insight shows how prominent are terms from the semantic field of sight in the book of Genesis. They are constantly found in openings, at turning points, and as constituents in place-names and personal names. Because of their presence at strategic points in the plot of Genesis, words of sight enhance cohesion among the narratives of the book. From the beginning of time, according to Genesis, there have been numerous instances of seeing on the part of both God and humans. But as Genesis progresses, God gradually becomes more hidden and his seeing gives place to human perception. These observations are built upon a sound theoretical foundation, outlined in the opening chapter, which provides a clear definition of the concept of 'semantic field' and an explanation of related semantic terms such as 'frames' and 'prototypes'. Subsequent chapters identify the words that can be assigned to the 'sight' field, examine the deployment of the sight field in individual narratives in Genesis, and study the sight field over larger sections of the book. This is the sixth volume of the Amsterdam Studies in the Bible and Religion (ed. Athalya Brenner), a sub-series of the Bible in the Modern World and Hebrew Bible Monographs.
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Chorus in the Dark: The Voices of the Book of Lamentations

Published: Oct 2013
£60.00
Chorus in the Dark invites attention to the treaty negotiated by the voices of Lamentations. The issues of God's justice and human rights are at the centre of a forceful discussion embodied in the five poems of Lamentations. Difficult questions are subtly raised: How can God's justice be recognized and honoured in the midst of suffering? How can the human right to protest against mistreatment be respected? How can loss, grief, and shame be overcome? What future is there for the victims? How can these sensitive issues be negotiated without loss? Zion is the first major speaker in Lamentations. Zion projects the voice of a woman crying by the grave. Her pain is intense, her loss is vast, her anger is uncontrollable. Zion is unable to see any future. God is indeed just in destroying her, but her surviving children do not deserve her fate. The other major speaker is the man of Lamentations 3. He too speaks of the pain, grief, anger, and desire for vengeance of a victim bent under the yoke of affliction. Yet, like a Davidic king, he dares to claim covenant promises and hope that darkness will eventually turn to light. Through both harmony and discord, and with a profound ambivalence toward the future, the separate voices of Lamentations resonate in a timbre that transcends the sum of its parts. The five poems, while having unique value individually, are meant to be read together as a living documentation of a moment of suspension, a great turning point in the history of Israel.
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Chorus in the Dark: The Voices of the Book of Lamentations

£60.00
Chorus in the Dark invites attention to the treaty negotiated by the voices of Lamentations. The issues of God's justice and human rights are at the centre of a forceful discussion embodied in the five poems of Lamentations. Difficult questions are subtly raised: How can God's justice be recognized and honoured in the midst of suffering? How can the human right to protest against mistreatment be respected? How can loss, grief, and shame be overcome? What future is there for the victims? How can these sensitive issues be negotiated without loss? Zion is the first major speaker in Lamentations. Zion projects the voice of a woman crying by the grave. Her pain is intense, her loss is vast, her anger is uncontrollable. Zion is unable to see any future. God is indeed just in destroying her, but her surviving children do not deserve her fate. The other major speaker is the man of Lamentations 3. He too speaks of the pain, grief, anger, and desire for vengeance of a victim bent under the yoke of affliction. Yet, like a Davidic king, he dares to claim covenant promises and hope that darkness will eventually turn to light. Through both harmony and discord, and with a profound ambivalence toward the future, the separate voices of Lamentations resonate in a timbre that transcends the sum of its parts. The five poems, while having unique value individually, are meant to be read together as a living documentation of a moment of suspension, a great turning point in the history of Israel.
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‘Say You Are My Sister’: Danger, Seduction and the Foreign in Biblical Literature and Beyond

Published: Oct 2013
£50.00
Throughout biblical and Jewish literature we encounter a repeated story of a Hebrew or Jewish character who becomes involved in a dangerous erotic relationship. The sexual tension in these tales articulates the ambivalence between the national identities of the character and of the foreign other. The first exemplification of the topos occurs in Genesis, where the matriarchs Sarah and Rebekah are handed over (or almost so) by their husbands to a foreign king. The other biblical cases are those of Joseph, who experiences the danger of seduction by Potiphar's wife, and Esther, who is taken by force into the harem of the Persian emperor. In modern Hebrew literature, the theme reappears in the short story by the Nobel Prize winner S.Y. Agnon, 'The Lady and the Pedlar' from 1943, in which the Jewish pedlar is at risk of becoming the prey of a foreign cannibalistic woman, and in the novel Inta Omri (1994) by the poet-author Smadar Herzfeld, which describes a desperate love affair between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man against the backdrop of the Intifada in the late 1980s. Between the chapters devoted to these works lies a discussion of the film by the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, The Touch (1971), the story of a Jewish archaeologist who falls in love with a Swedish woman, which Keshet reads as another instance of the same theme, but this time as a metaphor of Jewish —Christian relations from the perspective not of the Jewish character but of the foreign other.
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‘Say You Are My Sister’: Danger, Seduction and the Foreign in Biblical Literature and Beyond

£50.00
Throughout biblical and Jewish literature we encounter a repeated story of a Hebrew or Jewish character who becomes involved in a dangerous erotic relationship. The sexual tension in these tales articulates the ambivalence between the national identities of the character and of the foreign other. The first exemplification of the topos occurs in Genesis, where the matriarchs Sarah and Rebekah are handed over (or almost so) by their husbands to a foreign king. The other biblical cases are those of Joseph, who experiences the danger of seduction by Potiphar's wife, and Esther, who is taken by force into the harem of the Persian emperor. In modern Hebrew literature, the theme reappears in the short story by the Nobel Prize winner S.Y. Agnon, 'The Lady and the Pedlar' from 1943, in which the Jewish pedlar is at risk of becoming the prey of a foreign cannibalistic woman, and in the novel Inta Omri (1994) by the poet-author Smadar Herzfeld, which describes a desperate love affair between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man against the backdrop of the Intifada in the late 1980s. Between the chapters devoted to these works lies a discussion of the film by the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, The Touch (1971), the story of a Jewish archaeologist who falls in love with a Swedish woman, which Keshet reads as another instance of the same theme, but this time as a metaphor of Jewish —Christian relations from the perspective not of the Jewish character but of the foreign other.
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Toward Understanding the Hebrew Canon: A Form-Critical Approach

Published: Sep 2013
£50.00
Toward Understanding the Hebrew Canon: A Form-Critical Approach explores in an original and reflective way the relations between the linguistic forms, ideas and life involvements of biblical genres. The various forms of the Hebrew Bible reflect and correspond to the richly diverse life experiences of the Hebrew people, which include varied legal, cultic and erotic interactions. Divine speech is a prominent literary form in the Hebrew Bible, according to Buss's analysis. It has an emotive character, and is highly personal. Such speech establishes a series of Origin events that run from creation to the foundation of kingship; it both provides norms for life and struggles with human recalcitrance. Divine speech also provides evaluative assessments of present and envisaged situations, and it promises a truly good End. The humans to whom divine speech is directed are called on to acknowledge the divine reality, which they can do through self-transcendence, as a part of selfhood. In ethics, a receptive attitude acknowledges the unconditional worth of others, which is supported by Deity. Human speech is usually also emotive, although on occasion it is concerned rather with dry historical actualities. It is intertwined with divine speech in narratives and prophecies. In these fourteen essays (one of them previously unpublished) the renowned biblical scholar Martin Buss gathers an array of his work from many years, bringing to bear on the Hebrew Bible his extensive researches in cross-cultural data and in other disciplines such as philosophy and social psychology.
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Toward Understanding the Hebrew Canon: A Form-Critical Approach

£50.00
Toward Understanding the Hebrew Canon: A Form-Critical Approach explores in an original and reflective way the relations between the linguistic forms, ideas and life involvements of biblical genres. The various forms of the Hebrew Bible reflect and correspond to the richly diverse life experiences of the Hebrew people, which include varied legal, cultic and erotic interactions. Divine speech is a prominent literary form in the Hebrew Bible, according to Buss's analysis. It has an emotive character, and is highly personal. Such speech establishes a series of Origin events that run from creation to the foundation of kingship; it both provides norms for life and struggles with human recalcitrance. Divine speech also provides evaluative assessments of present and envisaged situations, and it promises a truly good End. The humans to whom divine speech is directed are called on to acknowledge the divine reality, which they can do through self-transcendence, as a part of selfhood. In ethics, a receptive attitude acknowledges the unconditional worth of others, which is supported by Deity. Human speech is usually also emotive, although on occasion it is concerned rather with dry historical actualities. It is intertwined with divine speech in narratives and prophecies. In these fourteen essays (one of them previously unpublished) the renowned biblical scholar Martin Buss gathers an array of his work from many years, bringing to bear on the Hebrew Bible his extensive researches in cross-cultural data and in other disciplines such as philosophy and social psychology.
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The Necessary King: A Postcolonial Reading of the Deuteronomistic Portrait of the Monarchy

Published: Sep 2013
£80.00
The Necessary King explains why Israel needed a king according to the Deuteronomistic History, and why its exilic readers can expect no future except under Davidic rule. Given Israel's tendency to rebellion against its divine suzerain, the king is the necessary agent of God's colonization of Israel, making and keeping it a loyal subject. The Deuteronomistic History with its pro-Davidic narrative has three prongs, each of which relies on an imitation of the imperial ideology of Judah's colonial masters. First, Dtr imitates the discourse of Neo-Assyrian treaties and Mesopotamian royal inscriptions, replacing the imperial suzerain with God. Second, having established this client —suzerain relationship in Deuteronomy, Dtr then goes on to imitate imperial portrayals of the disloyal and wicked foreign enemies whom the Mesopotamian king colonizes. Israel is a foreign enemy in God's eyes, repetitively proving their disloyalty to their divine suzerain and so demonstrating the need for an Israelite king who will colonize them —for their own good. Third, Dtr imitates the ideology of the Mesopotamian powers in its portrayal of the monarchy. Dtr presents the Davidides' relation to Judah/Israel just as the Mesopotamian colonial powers present their kings' relation to the foreign peoples they have conquered: their colonial rule is necessary, and actually benefits the peoples whom they colonize. Disqualifying prophets, priests, and judges as potential leaders of Israel, and presenting the people as far too sinful to live without leadership, the Deuteronomistic History portrays the Davidic monarchy as a necessity.
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The Necessary King: A Postcolonial Reading of the Deuteronomistic Portrait of the Monarchy

£80.00
The Necessary King explains why Israel needed a king according to the Deuteronomistic History, and why its exilic readers can expect no future except under Davidic rule. Given Israel's tendency to rebellion against its divine suzerain, the king is the necessary agent of God's colonization of Israel, making and keeping it a loyal subject. The Deuteronomistic History with its pro-Davidic narrative has three prongs, each of which relies on an imitation of the imperial ideology of Judah's colonial masters. First, Dtr imitates the discourse of Neo-Assyrian treaties and Mesopotamian royal inscriptions, replacing the imperial suzerain with God. Second, having established this client —suzerain relationship in Deuteronomy, Dtr then goes on to imitate imperial portrayals of the disloyal and wicked foreign enemies whom the Mesopotamian king colonizes. Israel is a foreign enemy in God's eyes, repetitively proving their disloyalty to their divine suzerain and so demonstrating the need for an Israelite king who will colonize them —for their own good. Third, Dtr imitates the ideology of the Mesopotamian powers in its portrayal of the monarchy. Dtr presents the Davidides' relation to Judah/Israel just as the Mesopotamian colonial powers present their kings' relation to the foreign peoples they have conquered: their colonial rule is necessary, and actually benefits the peoples whom they colonize. Disqualifying prophets, priests, and judges as potential leaders of Israel, and presenting the people as far too sinful to live without leadership, the Deuteronomistic History portrays the Davidic monarchy as a necessity.
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Where the Wild Ox Roams: Biblical Essays in Honour of Norman C. Habel

Published: Sep 2013
£75.00
Norman C. Habel, the most eminent Hebrew Bible scholar of our time in Australia, has claimed a special place in biblical hermeneutics through his untiring work in the last two decades to foreground environmental issues as the critical lens through which the Bible must be read, judged and interpreted. This centre of his most recent work has built on a long career of creative engagement with the biblical text, creativity that has witnessed not only major contributions in Hebrew Bible scholarship (most especially on Job and ideologies of 'the land') but in drama, poetry, liturgy, puppetry and music. Norm Habel has demonstrated the possibility of the academic being an activist and the activist being a scholar, all the while encouraging emerging and established scholarship to see further into the text and through the text to the justice demanding to be established in the world. Seventeen friends have joined to honour the man and esteem, through this collection of essays, some of the illustrious facets of his prodigious output — on Job (Mark Brett, David Clines), ecological hermeneutics (Elaine Wainwright, Vicky Balabanski, Alan Cadwallader, Alice Sinnott, Dianne Bergant, Anne Elvey, Philip Davies), the arts (William Urbrock, Carol Newsom), and issues in personal encounters (Martin Buss, Marie Turner, Robert Crotty, Terence Fretheim, Ralph Klein, Gary Stansell).
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Where the Wild Ox Roams: Biblical Essays in Honour of Norman C. Habel

£75.00
Norman C. Habel, the most eminent Hebrew Bible scholar of our time in Australia, has claimed a special place in biblical hermeneutics through his untiring work in the last two decades to foreground environmental issues as the critical lens through which the Bible must be read, judged and interpreted. This centre of his most recent work has built on a long career of creative engagement with the biblical text, creativity that has witnessed not only major contributions in Hebrew Bible scholarship (most especially on Job and ideologies of 'the land') but in drama, poetry, liturgy, puppetry and music. Norm Habel has demonstrated the possibility of the academic being an activist and the activist being a scholar, all the while encouraging emerging and established scholarship to see further into the text and through the text to the justice demanding to be established in the world. Seventeen friends have joined to honour the man and esteem, through this collection of essays, some of the illustrious facets of his prodigious output — on Job (Mark Brett, David Clines), ecological hermeneutics (Elaine Wainwright, Vicky Balabanski, Alan Cadwallader, Alice Sinnott, Dianne Bergant, Anne Elvey, Philip Davies), the arts (William Urbrock, Carol Newsom), and issues in personal encounters (Martin Buss, Marie Turner, Robert Crotty, Terence Fretheim, Ralph Klein, Gary Stansell).
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The Politics of Israel’s Past: The Bible, Archaeology and Nation-Building

Published: July 2013
£60.00
It is not uncommon that historical images —presented as simply given, self-evident and even indisputable —are employed in political readings of the past and used as a legitimizing tool. For that reason, the authors of this volume, biblical scholars, archaeologists, anthropologists and historians, undertake a deconstruction of modern biblical discourses on the Bible's production and the history of ancient Israel, enabling the exploration of critical approaches to ancient Palestine's past, to the history of the peoples of the region, to the history of the biblical text(s) and, last but not least, to the modern political uses of biblical narratives as legitimizing land ownership and nationalisms. Among the topics treated are the appearance of Judaism and its connection to the production of biblical literature, the politics of archaeological practice in Israel, the role of archaeology in the production of nationalist narratives of the past, the relationship between genetic studies and Jewish nationalism, and the prospects for writing critical histories of ancient Palestine beyond biblical images and religious and political aspirations. Each article illustrates the close relationship between the Bible, archaeology and processes of nation-building in the State of Israel. The Politics of Israel's Past concerns itself both with the ways in which contemporary politics affects the knowledge of the past and with the processes by which constructions of an ancient past legitimate modern political situations.
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The Politics of Israel’s Past: The Bible, Archaeology and Nation-Building

£60.00
It is not uncommon that historical images —presented as simply given, self-evident and even indisputable —are employed in political readings of the past and used as a legitimizing tool. For that reason, the authors of this volume, biblical scholars, archaeologists, anthropologists and historians, undertake a deconstruction of modern biblical discourses on the Bible's production and the history of ancient Israel, enabling the exploration of critical approaches to ancient Palestine's past, to the history of the peoples of the region, to the history of the biblical text(s) and, last but not least, to the modern political uses of biblical narratives as legitimizing land ownership and nationalisms. Among the topics treated are the appearance of Judaism and its connection to the production of biblical literature, the politics of archaeological practice in Israel, the role of archaeology in the production of nationalist narratives of the past, the relationship between genetic studies and Jewish nationalism, and the prospects for writing critical histories of ancient Palestine beyond biblical images and religious and political aspirations. Each article illustrates the close relationship between the Bible, archaeology and processes of nation-building in the State of Israel. The Politics of Israel's Past concerns itself both with the ways in which contemporary politics affects the knowledge of the past and with the processes by which constructions of an ancient past legitimate modern political situations.
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The Reception of the Hebrew Bible in the Septuagint and the New Testament: Essays in Memory of Aileen Guilding

Published: July 2013
£50.00
Aileen Guilding was Professor of Biblical History and Literature in the University of Sheffield from 1959 to 1965, and was known especially for her monograph The Fourth Gospel and Jewish Worship: A Study of the Relation of St. John's Gospel to the Ancient Jewish Lectionary System (Oxford, 1960), which enjoyed a succès d’estime in its day as an exceptionally fascinating and learned book. She is celebrated in Sheffield as the first female professor in the University; she was also the first woman to hold a chair in theology or religion in the United Kingdom. After her death at the age of 94 a conference on themes relevant to her special interests was held in Sheffield as part of a meeting of the Society for Old Testament Study, and the papers read there are presented in this volume, published in the 101st year after her birth.
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The Reception of the Hebrew Bible in the Septuagint and the New Testament: Essays in Memory of Aileen Guilding

£50.00
Aileen Guilding was Professor of Biblical History and Literature in the University of Sheffield from 1959 to 1965, and was known especially for her monograph The Fourth Gospel and Jewish Worship: A Study of the Relation of St. John's Gospel to the Ancient Jewish Lectionary System (Oxford, 1960), which enjoyed a succès d’estime in its day as an exceptionally fascinating and learned book. She is celebrated in Sheffield as the first female professor in the University; she was also the first woman to hold a chair in theology or religion in the United Kingdom. After her death at the age of 94 a conference on themes relevant to her special interests was held in Sheffield as part of a meeting of the Society for Old Testament Study, and the papers read there are presented in this volume, published in the 101st year after her birth.
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The Joseph of Genesis as Hellenistic Scientist

Published: July 2013
£75.00
To today's confrontations between religion and science Jovanovic contrasts the vibrant collaboration that characterizes Jewish, Christian, and Islamic beginnings. Designation of the patriarch Joseph as both a dream interpreter and a diviner (Gen. 44.4, 15) is a specific example of biblical appropriation of the ancient Mediterranean understanding of cup divination and dream interpretation as among the scientific activities of its social, spiritual and academic elite. Jovanovic argues that the image of Joseph as a Hellenistic scientist nourished the popularity of early Jewish and Christian literature on Joseph. The works of Josephus and Philo, Rabbinic midrashim, and the newly discovered The Ethiopic Story of Joseph, as well as Jubilees, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and Joseph and Aseneth, hold that Joseph's profession was that of a scientist of vision. The interpretation of the symbolic images in dreams and cup divination was a scientific method of communication with the divine and of prediction of the future, which Jovanovic calls 'revelation by visual effects'. Joseph's image as an Egyptian academic provoked varied responses in Hellenistic Jewish circles. The dismay expressed by Jubilees and Philo arose from Joseph's perceived betrayal of religious and traditional values. The acclamation of Josephus and The Ethiopic Story of Joseph demonstrates that a number of Hellenistic Jews believed that their creative integration into the vibrant Hellenistic culture could be successful and deepen their own Jewish identity. While previous scholarship has focused on representations of Joseph either as an ethical model or as a type of Christ, this is the first major work that explores the image of Joseph as an ancient scholar and spiritual expert.
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The Joseph of Genesis as Hellenistic Scientist

£75.00
To today's confrontations between religion and science Jovanovic contrasts the vibrant collaboration that characterizes Jewish, Christian, and Islamic beginnings. Designation of the patriarch Joseph as both a dream interpreter and a diviner (Gen. 44.4, 15) is a specific example of biblical appropriation of the ancient Mediterranean understanding of cup divination and dream interpretation as among the scientific activities of its social, spiritual and academic elite. Jovanovic argues that the image of Joseph as a Hellenistic scientist nourished the popularity of early Jewish and Christian literature on Joseph. The works of Josephus and Philo, Rabbinic midrashim, and the newly discovered The Ethiopic Story of Joseph, as well as Jubilees, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and Joseph and Aseneth, hold that Joseph's profession was that of a scientist of vision. The interpretation of the symbolic images in dreams and cup divination was a scientific method of communication with the divine and of prediction of the future, which Jovanovic calls 'revelation by visual effects'. Joseph's image as an Egyptian academic provoked varied responses in Hellenistic Jewish circles. The dismay expressed by Jubilees and Philo arose from Joseph's perceived betrayal of religious and traditional values. The acclamation of Josephus and The Ethiopic Story of Joseph demonstrates that a number of Hellenistic Jews believed that their creative integration into the vibrant Hellenistic culture could be successful and deepen their own Jewish identity. While previous scholarship has focused on representations of Joseph either as an ethical model or as a type of Christ, this is the first major work that explores the image of Joseph as an ancient scholar and spiritual expert.
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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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Jesus and the People of God: Reconfiguring Ethnic Identity

Published: May 2013
£19.50£50.00
How did the Jesus movement —a messianic sectarian version of Palestinian Judaism —transcend its Judaean origins and ultimately establish itself in the Roman East as the multi-ethnic socio-religious experiment we know as early Christianity? In this major work, Hellerman, drawing upon his background as a social historian, proposes that a clue to the success of the Christian movement lay in Jesus' own conception of the people of God, and in how he reconfigured its identity from that of ethnos to that of family. Pointing first to Jesus' critique of sabbath-keeping, the Jerusalem temple, and Jewish dietary laws —practices central to the preservation of Judaean social identity —he argues that Jesus' intention was to destabilize the idea of God's people as a localized ethnos. In its place he conceived the social identity of the people of God as a surrogate family or kinship group, a social entity based not on common ancestry but on a shared commitment to his kingdom programme. Jesus of Nazareth thus functioned as a kind of ethnic entrepreneur, breaking down the boundaries of ethnic Judaism and providing an ideological foundation and symbolic framework for the wider expansion of the Jesus movement.
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Jesus and the People of God: Reconfiguring Ethnic Identity

£19.50£50.00
How did the Jesus movement —a messianic sectarian version of Palestinian Judaism —transcend its Judaean origins and ultimately establish itself in the Roman East as the multi-ethnic socio-religious experiment we know as early Christianity? In this major work, Hellerman, drawing upon his background as a social historian, proposes that a clue to the success of the Christian movement lay in Jesus' own conception of the people of God, and in how he reconfigured its identity from that of ethnos to that of family. Pointing first to Jesus' critique of sabbath-keeping, the Jerusalem temple, and Jewish dietary laws —practices central to the preservation of Judaean social identity —he argues that Jesus' intention was to destabilize the idea of God's people as a localized ethnos. In its place he conceived the social identity of the people of God as a surrogate family or kinship group, a social entity based not on common ancestry but on a shared commitment to his kingdom programme. Jesus of Nazareth thus functioned as a kind of ethnic entrepreneur, breaking down the boundaries of ethnic Judaism and providing an ideological foundation and symbolic framework for the wider expansion of the Jesus movement.
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The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume VIII Sin-Taw

Published: Dec 2012
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary. Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts. This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrences of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited. Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography (from Volume 2 onward) and an English–Hebrew index in each volume.
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The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume VIII Sin-Taw

£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary. Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts. This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrences of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited. Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography (from Volume 2 onward) and an English–Hebrew index in each volume.
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Admen and Eve: The Bible in Contemporary Advertising

Published: Nov 2012
£50.00
This remarkable new book, the first of its kind, is an analysis of a phenomenon that biblical scholars have scarcely taken notice of, much less studied critically —the use of the Bible in advertising. Focussing on the figure of Eve, Admen and Eve shows how she has become the ultimate postfeminist icon of female sexual and consumer power, promoting self-regarding individual choice over collective political action for today's 'I'm not a feminist but ...' generation. Contemporary advertising, Edwards shows, deploys a collage of images simultaneously reflecting and dictating the ideals and ideologies that inform much of Western culture. Exploiting the cultural mythology that surrounds Eve, advertisers constantly recycle images of this biblical figure because she is easily recognizable by the target consumer. In so doing, they are shaping how women and men see each other and themselves and how they treat each other and themselves, persuading them to become their culturally dictated dream through the products they consume. Eve in advertising is then a revealing example of how the Bible functions today. But Admen and Eve is not a value-free and apolitical analysis; it is an incitement to the exposure and subversion of today's dominant cultural attitudes to gender roles.
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Admen and Eve: The Bible in Contemporary Advertising

£50.00
This remarkable new book, the first of its kind, is an analysis of a phenomenon that biblical scholars have scarcely taken notice of, much less studied critically —the use of the Bible in advertising. Focussing on the figure of Eve, Admen and Eve shows how she has become the ultimate postfeminist icon of female sexual and consumer power, promoting self-regarding individual choice over collective political action for today's 'I'm not a feminist but ...' generation. Contemporary advertising, Edwards shows, deploys a collage of images simultaneously reflecting and dictating the ideals and ideologies that inform much of Western culture. Exploiting the cultural mythology that surrounds Eve, advertisers constantly recycle images of this biblical figure because she is easily recognizable by the target consumer. In so doing, they are shaping how women and men see each other and themselves and how they treat each other and themselves, persuading them to become their culturally dictated dream through the products they consume. Eve in advertising is then a revealing example of how the Bible functions today. But Admen and Eve is not a value-free and apolitical analysis; it is an incitement to the exposure and subversion of today's dominant cultural attitudes to gender roles.
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The Book of Isaiah: Its Composition and Final Form

Published: Oct 2012
£80.00
Study of the book of Isaiah has in recent times been strongly marked by a tension between synchronic and diachronic approaches. The first is favoured mainly by English-speaking, the second by German-speaking scholars. Berges's book attempts to mediate between the two poles, arguing that the final form analysis and the tracing of the development of that form are deeply interdependent. This new research paradigm is applied here to the entire text of the book of Isaiah. Berges works consistently from the synchronic to the diachronic and back again to the evolved synchronous final form. Features that have been repeatedly observed —the cross-connections, key word associations, resumption of themes, and especially the bracketing of the book by chaps. 1 and 66 —are traces of a deliberate interweaving of various small compositions as well as of larger literary redactions. The paradigm most suited to the book of Isaiah in all its complexity is not that of one comprehensive overall structure or final redaction, but that of smaller compositions that build on one another, come into conversation with one another, and, each in its own way, bring into play specific contemporary problems. We should not force a common thematic denominator on the book, but it becomes clear that Jerusalem and Zion belong to the basic tenor of the book of Isaiah as it was developed and refashioned through the centuries. The Book of Isaiah: Its Composition and Final Form is translated by Millard C. Lind from its German original, Das Buch Jesaja: Komposition und Endgestalt (Freiburg: Herder, 1998).
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The Book of Isaiah: Its Composition and Final Form

£80.00
Study of the book of Isaiah has in recent times been strongly marked by a tension between synchronic and diachronic approaches. The first is favoured mainly by English-speaking, the second by German-speaking scholars. Berges's book attempts to mediate between the two poles, arguing that the final form analysis and the tracing of the development of that form are deeply interdependent. This new research paradigm is applied here to the entire text of the book of Isaiah. Berges works consistently from the synchronic to the diachronic and back again to the evolved synchronous final form. Features that have been repeatedly observed —the cross-connections, key word associations, resumption of themes, and especially the bracketing of the book by chaps. 1 and 66 —are traces of a deliberate interweaving of various small compositions as well as of larger literary redactions. The paradigm most suited to the book of Isaiah in all its complexity is not that of one comprehensive overall structure or final redaction, but that of smaller compositions that build on one another, come into conversation with one another, and, each in its own way, bring into play specific contemporary problems. We should not force a common thematic denominator on the book, but it becomes clear that Jerusalem and Zion belong to the basic tenor of the book of Isaiah as it was developed and refashioned through the centuries. The Book of Isaiah: Its Composition and Final Form is translated by Millard C. Lind from its German original, Das Buch Jesaja: Komposition und Endgestalt (Freiburg: Herder, 1998).
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Words, Ideas, Worlds: Biblical Essays in Honour of Yairah Amit

Published: Aug 2012
£75.00
This volume brings together fourteen essays by Israeli, European and American scholars honouring the distinct contribution of Yairah Amit to the literary study of the Hebrew Bible and to her public role, fostering especially the place of the Hebrew Bible in Israeli education. In biblical studies she has made significant contributions to the study of redactional and editorial activity, which she has always viewed from a rhetorical and literary point of view. These aspects were uniquely developed in her work on the books of Judges and Chronicles, in which literary considerations always lead to the recognition of the ideology behind the redactor’s work. Another key theme of hers has been overt and hidden polemics expressed or suggested by the narrative text. The studies assembled in the present volume deal with the many aspects of Amit’s work, from the biblical and post-biblical down to the mediaeval and the modern period. Central fields are the art of the redactor and inner-biblical polemics (Diana Edelman, Cynthia Edenburg, Nadav Na’aman, Meira Polliack, Dalit Rom-Shiloni), literary scrutiny (Ed Greenstein, Lillian Klein Abensohn, Frank Polak), ideology in social and religious contexts (Ehud Ben Zvi, Israel Knohl), and feminist and cultural studies in a wider sense (Athalya Brenner, Cheryl Exum, Yael Feldman, Shulamit Valler). This is the fifth volume of the Amsterdam Studies in the Bible and Religion (ed. Athalya Brenner), a sub-series of the Bible in the Modern World and Hebrew Bible Monographs.
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Words, Ideas, Worlds: Biblical Essays in Honour of Yairah Amit

£75.00
This volume brings together fourteen essays by Israeli, European and American scholars honouring the distinct contribution of Yairah Amit to the literary study of the Hebrew Bible and to her public role, fostering especially the place of the Hebrew Bible in Israeli education. In biblical studies she has made significant contributions to the study of redactional and editorial activity, which she has always viewed from a rhetorical and literary point of view. These aspects were uniquely developed in her work on the books of Judges and Chronicles, in which literary considerations always lead to the recognition of the ideology behind the redactor’s work. Another key theme of hers has been overt and hidden polemics expressed or suggested by the narrative text. The studies assembled in the present volume deal with the many aspects of Amit’s work, from the biblical and post-biblical down to the mediaeval and the modern period. Central fields are the art of the redactor and inner-biblical polemics (Diana Edelman, Cynthia Edenburg, Nadav Na’aman, Meira Polliack, Dalit Rom-Shiloni), literary scrutiny (Ed Greenstein, Lillian Klein Abensohn, Frank Polak), ideology in social and religious contexts (Ehud Ben Zvi, Israel Knohl), and feminist and cultural studies in a wider sense (Athalya Brenner, Cheryl Exum, Yael Feldman, Shulamit Valler). This is the fifth volume of the Amsterdam Studies in the Bible and Religion (ed. Athalya Brenner), a sub-series of the Bible in the Modern World and Hebrew Bible Monographs.
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The Book of Job in Post-Holocaust Thought

Published: Aug 2012
£40.00
The story of Job's suffering has often been appealed to by those responding to the Holocaust. This book explores a rich variety of such receptions of the Book of Job, highlighting the need to appreciate the tensions present in both the biblical text of Job and in perceptions of the Holocaust's meaning. Attention is given to the often creative modes of reading used by those appealing to Job, and the presence of complex interactions between theology, textual interpretation, and historical analysis. Receptions of Job examined include those presented by key post-Holocaust thinkers such as Emil Fackenheim, Elie Wiesel and Richard Rubenstein. Bringing together elements of biblical studies and Holocaust studies, David Tollerton shows that Job has been harnessed for an array of purposes, from asserting the continuity of Jewish faith amid the traumas of twentieth-century history, to resisting the idea that there can be any decisive religious 'answer' to the Holocaust. Despite the diversity of ways in which Job has been cited, it is shown that such reception is nonetheless controversial, doubts being repeatedly raised whether Job is appropriate to the Holocaust context. While ultimately proposing that Job does indeed have a valuable role to play, The Book of Job in Post-Holocaust Thought argues that in some cases such doubts are in order, and that some receptions should be queried on textual, historical or ethical grounds. This book will be of interest to readers concerned with the modern reception of wisdom literature, theological responses to the Holocaust, or simply the manner in which the Bible has been used by communities attempting to make sense of modernity's darkest aspects.
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The Book of Job in Post-Holocaust Thought

£40.00
The story of Job's suffering has often been appealed to by those responding to the Holocaust. This book explores a rich variety of such receptions of the Book of Job, highlighting the need to appreciate the tensions present in both the biblical text of Job and in perceptions of the Holocaust's meaning. Attention is given to the often creative modes of reading used by those appealing to Job, and the presence of complex interactions between theology, textual interpretation, and historical analysis. Receptions of Job examined include those presented by key post-Holocaust thinkers such as Emil Fackenheim, Elie Wiesel and Richard Rubenstein. Bringing together elements of biblical studies and Holocaust studies, David Tollerton shows that Job has been harnessed for an array of purposes, from asserting the continuity of Jewish faith amid the traumas of twentieth-century history, to resisting the idea that there can be any decisive religious 'answer' to the Holocaust. Despite the diversity of ways in which Job has been cited, it is shown that such reception is nonetheless controversial, doubts being repeatedly raised whether Job is appropriate to the Holocaust context. While ultimately proposing that Job does indeed have a valuable role to play, The Book of Job in Post-Holocaust Thought argues that in some cases such doubts are in order, and that some receptions should be queried on textual, historical or ethical grounds. This book will be of interest to readers concerned with the modern reception of wisdom literature, theological responses to the Holocaust, or simply the manner in which the Bible has been used by communities attempting to make sense of modernity's darkest aspects.
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Isaiah: The Prophet and His Book

Published: July 2012
£21.00
The book of Isaiah presents one of the most challenging pieces of literature in the Hebrew Bible. Over a period of some four hundred years (from the end of the eighth century down to the end of the fourth century BCE), the great prophet Isaiah and his disciples in the Assyrian period, as well as later scholars in Babylonian and Persian times, worked on this marvellous prophetic text. In its final form it resembles a mediaeval cathedral constructed by many gifted people across the centuries. Each piece has its own history, place and function in the whole structure. In this lucid study, Berges interprets the scroll of Isaiah as a 'literal cathedral', written by many hands and empowered by the experience of sorrow and disaster, liberation and joy. In the centre of the book (Isaiah 36 —39) and of its theology stands the threat and redemption of Zion. The nations that in the first part were taking action against God's city are invited to join the exiled and dispersed people of Israel as it travels home. The reader too is called to journey the same path and to join the congregation of Israel and the nations on their way to the New Jerusalem — not in heaven but on a renewed earth. Methodologically, the book combines synchronic and diachronic perspectives and paves the way to a fruitful conversation between them. The vast reception history of the Book of Isaiah in the Septuagint, the New Testament, and in rabbinic and Christian traditions, as well as in painting and music, is also illustrated by some of the most illuminating examples.
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Isaiah: The Prophet and His Book

£21.00
The book of Isaiah presents one of the most challenging pieces of literature in the Hebrew Bible. Over a period of some four hundred years (from the end of the eighth century down to the end of the fourth century BCE), the great prophet Isaiah and his disciples in the Assyrian period, as well as later scholars in Babylonian and Persian times, worked on this marvellous prophetic text. In its final form it resembles a mediaeval cathedral constructed by many gifted people across the centuries. Each piece has its own history, place and function in the whole structure. In this lucid study, Berges interprets the scroll of Isaiah as a 'literal cathedral', written by many hands and empowered by the experience of sorrow and disaster, liberation and joy. In the centre of the book (Isaiah 36 —39) and of its theology stands the threat and redemption of Zion. The nations that in the first part were taking action against God's city are invited to join the exiled and dispersed people of Israel as it travels home. The reader too is called to journey the same path and to join the congregation of Israel and the nations on their way to the New Jerusalem — not in heaven but on a renewed earth. Methodologically, the book combines synchronic and diachronic perspectives and paves the way to a fruitful conversation between them. The vast reception history of the Book of Isaiah in the Septuagint, the New Testament, and in rabbinic and Christian traditions, as well as in painting and music, is also illustrated by some of the most illuminating examples.
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In Praise of Editing in the Hebrew Bible: Collected Essays in Retrospect

Published: Jun 2012
£75.00
Yairah Amit is a leading Israeli scholar of the Hebrew Bible who has published some of her articles only in Hebrew. Most of them are here translated for the first time. As she compiled the volume, she discovered that this collection of 19 essays had a common denominator: they are all about the process of editing that has gone on in the creation of the Hebrew Bible, a process that Amit looks on with some favour. Hence her title, In Praise of Editing . The Bible, she argues, is a long carefully edited book, which means that it is not a chance agglomeration of materials bound together, but rather a complete and carefully selected library. Among the essays in this volume are: Who Decided to Open the Torah with the Creation of the Sabbath?, The Garden of Eden as Utopia, Repetition as Poetic Principle, Who Is Afraid of Multiple Voices?, Editorial Considerations Regarding Ending, Who Is Lent to the Lord? Ask the Editor, To Include or Not to Include? Editorial Considerations Regarding the Whole. What makes this volume unique among collections of essays is her decision to add a personal preface to each article, highlighting it from an additional subjective angle. Sometimes the preface reflects her relationship to the subject and its ideology, sometimes the circumstances in which the article was written or published. At other times, readers may learn about the teachers who guided her first steps in the field, and about her own relationship to various issues in biblical research. These prefaces, she believes, show the researcher not as a rigid professional, but as a more rounded human person. This is the fourth volume of the Amsterdam Studies in the Bible and Religion (ed. Athalya Brenner), a sub-series of the Bible in the Modern World and Hebrew Bible Monographs.
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In Praise of Editing in the Hebrew Bible: Collected Essays in Retrospect

£75.00
Yairah Amit is a leading Israeli scholar of the Hebrew Bible who has published some of her articles only in Hebrew. Most of them are here translated for the first time. As she compiled the volume, she discovered that this collection of 19 essays had a common denominator: they are all about the process of editing that has gone on in the creation of the Hebrew Bible, a process that Amit looks on with some favour. Hence her title, In Praise of Editing . The Bible, she argues, is a long carefully edited book, which means that it is not a chance agglomeration of materials bound together, but rather a complete and carefully selected library. Among the essays in this volume are: Who Decided to Open the Torah with the Creation of the Sabbath?, The Garden of Eden as Utopia, Repetition as Poetic Principle, Who Is Afraid of Multiple Voices?, Editorial Considerations Regarding Ending, Who Is Lent to the Lord? Ask the Editor, To Include or Not to Include? Editorial Considerations Regarding the Whole. What makes this volume unique among collections of essays is her decision to add a personal preface to each article, highlighting it from an additional subjective angle. Sometimes the preface reflects her relationship to the subject and its ideology, sometimes the circumstances in which the article was written or published. At other times, readers may learn about the teachers who guided her first steps in the field, and about her own relationship to various issues in biblical research. These prefaces, she believes, show the researcher not as a rigid professional, but as a more rounded human person. This is the fourth volume of the Amsterdam Studies in the Bible and Religion (ed. Athalya Brenner), a sub-series of the Bible in the Modern World and Hebrew Bible Monographs.
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Three Old Testament Theologies for Today: Helge S. Kvanvig, Walter Brueggemann and Erhard Gerstenberger

Published: Jun 2012
£50.00
This book is a critical analysis and comparison of three Old Testament theologies, those by Helge S. Kvanvig, Historisk Bibel og bibelsk historie (1999), Walter Brueggemann, Theology of the Old Testament (1997), and Erhard S. Gerstenberger, Theologies of the Old Testament (2002). Since Kvanvig's book is written in Norwegian, his book is not generally known among Old Testament scholars outside Scandinavia. The three volumes have different theological profiles. Kvanvig, unlike other Old Testament theologians, allows theology to develop from his analyses of the biblical narratives and the strategies available to readers. Gerstenberger presents Old Testament theology as a plurality of theologies, and his book is as much a history of Israelite religion and ancient Israel's social history as a theology proper. Brueggemann sees Old Testament theology within the framework of a virtual trial between Israel and Yahweh. All three books are to some degree postmodern in their approach to Old Testament theology, Gerstenberger to a lesser degree, Brueggemann to a greater degree. Hagelia argues that Kvanvig's book could with profit be read as a prolegomenon to Brueggemann's book, whereas Gerstenberger's book follows a different track. On the basis of these three eminent contributions, the author outlines a possible future for the business of writing Old Testament theologies, suggesting that future theologies will be much more in conversation with contemporary issues, ethical, political and social, than the traditional theologies of the past have been.
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Three Old Testament Theologies for Today: Helge S. Kvanvig, Walter Brueggemann and Erhard Gerstenberger

£50.00
This book is a critical analysis and comparison of three Old Testament theologies, those by Helge S. Kvanvig, Historisk Bibel og bibelsk historie (1999), Walter Brueggemann, Theology of the Old Testament (1997), and Erhard S. Gerstenberger, Theologies of the Old Testament (2002). Since Kvanvig's book is written in Norwegian, his book is not generally known among Old Testament scholars outside Scandinavia. The three volumes have different theological profiles. Kvanvig, unlike other Old Testament theologians, allows theology to develop from his analyses of the biblical narratives and the strategies available to readers. Gerstenberger presents Old Testament theology as a plurality of theologies, and his book is as much a history of Israelite religion and ancient Israel's social history as a theology proper. Brueggemann sees Old Testament theology within the framework of a virtual trial between Israel and Yahweh. All three books are to some degree postmodern in their approach to Old Testament theology, Gerstenberger to a lesser degree, Brueggemann to a greater degree. Hagelia argues that Kvanvig's book could with profit be read as a prolegomenon to Brueggemann's book, whereas Gerstenberger's book follows a different track. On the basis of these three eminent contributions, the author outlines a possible future for the business of writing Old Testament theologies, suggesting that future theologies will be much more in conversation with contemporary issues, ethical, political and social, than the traditional theologies of the past have been.
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