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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Isaiah 1-12 as Written and Read in Antiquity
Published: Jun 2013
£60.00
This scrupulous study foregrounds an often forgotten element of the Masoretic texts of these important prophetic chapters: the Masoretic systems of indicating smaller and larger parts of the text through the use of spaces and accents.
The Masoretes were not only transmitters of the biblical text but also exegetes and interpreters of it, so taking the Masoretic text divisions seriously should be an essential part of our contemporary exegesis. That is not to say, however, that the Masoretic text divisions should be followed uncritically; de Bruin compares the Masoretic delimitation of textual units with his own structural analysis of the text based on its internal characteristics, as well as with the text division in other ancient manuscripts of Isaiah 1 —12. He concludes that such comparisons show the reliability of the Masoretic system and its value for modern exegetes.
Finally, the multitude of data reported here on text division in ancient Hebrew, Greek, Syriac and Latin witnesses, including commentaries of the Church Fathers Eusebius and Jerome, and the discussion of their interpretative consequences, make this book a treasure house of information for every exegete and Bible reader seeking to gain a clearer insight into Isaiah 1 —12.
Isaiah 1-12 as Written and Read in Antiquity
£60.00
This scrupulous study foregrounds an often forgotten element of the Masoretic texts of these important prophetic chapters: the Masoretic systems of indicating smaller and larger parts of the text through the use of spaces and accents.
The Masoretes were not only transmitters of the biblical text but also exegetes and interpreters of it, so taking the Masoretic text divisions seriously should be an essential part of our contemporary exegesis. That is not to say, however, that the Masoretic text divisions should be followed uncritically; de Bruin compares the Masoretic delimitation of textual units with his own structural analysis of the text based on its internal characteristics, as well as with the text division in other ancient manuscripts of Isaiah 1 —12. He concludes that such comparisons show the reliability of the Masoretic system and its value for modern exegetes.
Finally, the multitude of data reported here on text division in ancient Hebrew, Greek, Syriac and Latin witnesses, including commentaries of the Church Fathers Eusebius and Jerome, and the discussion of their interpretative consequences, make this book a treasure house of information for every exegete and Bible reader seeking to gain a clearer insight into Isaiah 1 —12.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ben Sira and the Men Who Handle Books: Gender and the Rise of Canon-Consciousness
Published: May 2013
£50.00
What have women to do with the rise of canon-consciousness in early Judaism? Quite a lot, Claudia Camp argues, if the book written by the early second-century BCE scribe, Ben Sira, is any indication. One of the few true misogynists in the biblical tradition, Ben Sira is beset with gender anxiety, fear that his women will sully his honor, their shame causing his name to fail from the eternal memory of his people. Yet the same Ben Sira appropriates the idealized figure of cosmic Woman Wisdom from Proverbs, and identifies her with 'the book of the covenant of the most high God, the law that Moses commanded us'.
This, then, is Ben Sira's dilemma: a woman (Wisdom) can admit him to eternity but his own women can keep him out. It is Camp's thesis that these conflicted perceptions of gender are fundamental to Ben Sira's appropriation and production of authoritative religious literature, and that a critical analysis of his gender ideology is thus essential for understanding his relationship to an emerging canon. Ben Sira writes a book, and writes himself into his book, creating a possession into which he can sublimate his anxiety about the women he cannot truly possess and the God he cannot truly trust.
What is more, if Ben Sira can be considered representative of his scribal class and context, his work may also provide a window into aspects of the larger cultural process of canon building, including the question of whether we would have a canon at all —or have the canon we have —if the men in that particular patriarchal culture had not coded it in the gendered terms that Ben Sira did.
Ben Sira and the Men Who Handle Books: Gender and the Rise of Canon-Consciousness
£50.00
What have women to do with the rise of canon-consciousness in early Judaism? Quite a lot, Claudia Camp argues, if the book written by the early second-century BCE scribe, Ben Sira, is any indication. One of the few true misogynists in the biblical tradition, Ben Sira is beset with gender anxiety, fear that his women will sully his honor, their shame causing his name to fail from the eternal memory of his people. Yet the same Ben Sira appropriates the idealized figure of cosmic Woman Wisdom from Proverbs, and identifies her with 'the book of the covenant of the most high God, the law that Moses commanded us'.
This, then, is Ben Sira's dilemma: a woman (Wisdom) can admit him to eternity but his own women can keep him out. It is Camp's thesis that these conflicted perceptions of gender are fundamental to Ben Sira's appropriation and production of authoritative religious literature, and that a critical analysis of his gender ideology is thus essential for understanding his relationship to an emerging canon. Ben Sira writes a book, and writes himself into his book, creating a possession into which he can sublimate his anxiety about the women he cannot truly possess and the God he cannot truly trust.
What is more, if Ben Sira can be considered representative of his scribal class and context, his work may also provide a window into aspects of the larger cultural process of canon building, including the question of whether we would have a canon at all —or have the canon we have —if the men in that particular patriarchal culture had not coded it in the gendered terms that Ben Sira did.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Son of Man: An African Jesus Film
Published: Apr 2013
£50.00
The remarkable, award-winning film, Son of Man (2005), directed by the South African Mark Dornford-May, sets the Jesus story in a contemporary, fictional southern African Judea. While news broadcasts display the political struggles and troubles of this postcolonial country, moments of magical realism point to supernatural battles between Satan and Jesus as well. Jesus' Judean struggle with Satan begins with a haunting reprise of Matthew's 'slaughter of the innocents' and moves forward in a Steve Biko-like non-violent, community-building ministry, captured in graffiti and in the video footage that Judas takes to incriminate Jesus. Satan and the powers seemingly triumph when Jesus 'disappears', but then Mary creates a community that challenges such injustice by displaying her son's dead body upon a hillside cross. The film ends with shots of Jesus among the angels and everyday life in Khayelitsha (the primary shooting location), auguring hope of a new humanity (Genesis 1.26).
This book's essays situate Son of Man in its African context, exploring the film's incorporation of local customs, music, rituals, and events as it constructs an imperial and postcolonial 'world'. The film is to be seen as an expression of postcolonial agency, as a call to constructive political action, as an interpretation of the Gospels, and as a reconfiguration of the Jesus film tradition. Finally, the essays call attention to their interested, ideological interpretations by using Son of Man to raise contemporary ethical, hermeneutical, and theological questions. As the film itself concisely asks on behalf of the children featured in it and their politically active mothers, 'Whose world is this'?
Son of Man: An African Jesus Film
£50.00
The remarkable, award-winning film, Son of Man (2005), directed by the South African Mark Dornford-May, sets the Jesus story in a contemporary, fictional southern African Judea. While news broadcasts display the political struggles and troubles of this postcolonial country, moments of magical realism point to supernatural battles between Satan and Jesus as well. Jesus' Judean struggle with Satan begins with a haunting reprise of Matthew's 'slaughter of the innocents' and moves forward in a Steve Biko-like non-violent, community-building ministry, captured in graffiti and in the video footage that Judas takes to incriminate Jesus. Satan and the powers seemingly triumph when Jesus 'disappears', but then Mary creates a community that challenges such injustice by displaying her son's dead body upon a hillside cross. The film ends with shots of Jesus among the angels and everyday life in Khayelitsha (the primary shooting location), auguring hope of a new humanity (Genesis 1.26).
This book's essays situate Son of Man in its African context, exploring the film's incorporation of local customs, music, rituals, and events as it constructs an imperial and postcolonial 'world'. The film is to be seen as an expression of postcolonial agency, as a call to constructive political action, as an interpretation of the Gospels, and as a reconfiguration of the Jesus film tradition. Finally, the essays call attention to their interested, ideological interpretations by using Son of Man to raise contemporary ethical, hermeneutical, and theological questions. As the film itself concisely asks on behalf of the children featured in it and their politically active mothers, 'Whose world is this'?
Small Screen Revelations: Apocalypse in Contemporary Television
Published: Mar 2013
£50.00
Representations of apocalyptic themes and motifs in popular culture has a long history, and a number of books and edited collections have examined their influence on popular film and music. Small Screen Revelations shifts the attention to popular television, examining the ways in which contemporary television drama and news draw on both the language and imagery of apocalyptic texts.
Essays in the collection examine topics such as the representation of apocalyptic prophecies and prophets in television news and documentaries; how news of natural disasters draws on apocalyptic language to frame the events, and how drama series use, develop and sometimes seek to subvert apocalyptic motifs. Thus, Small Screen Revelations offers a repositioning of the importance of television in representing the apocalypse, while providing a pertinent addition to the examination of how and for what purpose the apocalypse is used in popular culture.
Small Screen Revelations: Apocalypse in Contemporary Television
£50.00
Representations of apocalyptic themes and motifs in popular culture has a long history, and a number of books and edited collections have examined their influence on popular film and music. Small Screen Revelations shifts the attention to popular television, examining the ways in which contemporary television drama and news draw on both the language and imagery of apocalyptic texts.
Essays in the collection examine topics such as the representation of apocalyptic prophecies and prophets in television news and documentaries; how news of natural disasters draws on apocalyptic language to frame the events, and how drama series use, develop and sometimes seek to subvert apocalyptic motifs. Thus, Small Screen Revelations offers a repositioning of the importance of television in representing the apocalypse, while providing a pertinent addition to the examination of how and for what purpose the apocalypse is used in popular culture.
Poetry and Theology in the Book of Lamentations: The Aesthetics of an Open Text
Published: Mar 2013
£60.00
The book of Lamentations is a challenge to its readers. Its ambiguous theology, strident protestations against its deity, and haunting imagery confound interpreters. This monograph engages the enigma of Lamentations by assessing its theology. It does so, however, neither by tracing a single theological perspective through the book nor by reconstructing the history of the composition of the book. Rather, Heath Thomas assesses the poetry of Lamentations by offering a close analysis of each poem in the book. He reconsiders the acrostic as the foundational structure for the poetry, reads the book as an intentionally composed whole, and assesses the pervasive use of repetition, metaphor, and allusion.
For the first time in the field, the analysis here is grounded on the insights of the Italian semiotician Umberto Eco. Drawing upon Eco's distinction between 'open' and 'closed' textualities, Thomas argues that Lamentations represents a distinctively 'open' text, one that presents its reader with a myriad of surprising avenues to interpret the poetry. This distinctive approach avoids a polarization in the portrait of God in Lamentations, arguing that its poetry neither justifies God outright nor does it exonerate God's people in the exilic age. Rather, it enables these theological visions to interrelate with each another, inviting the reader to make sense of the interaction.
The ambiguous theological vision of Lamentations, then, is not a problem that the reader is intended to overcome but an integral feature in the construction of meaning. This original monograph offers a new perspective on how the poetry informs our appreciation of theological thought in the exilic age.
Poetry and Theology in the Book of Lamentations: The Aesthetics of an Open Text
£60.00
The book of Lamentations is a challenge to its readers. Its ambiguous theology, strident protestations against its deity, and haunting imagery confound interpreters. This monograph engages the enigma of Lamentations by assessing its theology. It does so, however, neither by tracing a single theological perspective through the book nor by reconstructing the history of the composition of the book. Rather, Heath Thomas assesses the poetry of Lamentations by offering a close analysis of each poem in the book. He reconsiders the acrostic as the foundational structure for the poetry, reads the book as an intentionally composed whole, and assesses the pervasive use of repetition, metaphor, and allusion.
For the first time in the field, the analysis here is grounded on the insights of the Italian semiotician Umberto Eco. Drawing upon Eco's distinction between 'open' and 'closed' textualities, Thomas argues that Lamentations represents a distinctively 'open' text, one that presents its reader with a myriad of surprising avenues to interpret the poetry. This distinctive approach avoids a polarization in the portrait of God in Lamentations, arguing that its poetry neither justifies God outright nor does it exonerate God's people in the exilic age. Rather, it enables these theological visions to interrelate with each another, inviting the reader to make sense of the interaction.
The ambiguous theological vision of Lamentations, then, is not a problem that the reader is intended to overcome but an integral feature in the construction of meaning. This original monograph offers a new perspective on how the poetry informs our appreciation of theological thought in the exilic age.
Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism 8 (2011-2012)
Published: Feb 2013
£80.00
This is the eighth volume of the hard-copy edition of a journal that has been published online (www.jgrchj.net) since 2000. Volume 1 was for 2000, Volume 2 was for 2001 —2005, Volume 3 was for 2006, Volume 4 was for 2007, Volume 5 was for 2008, Volume 6 was for 2009, Volume 7 was for 2010 and Volume 8 is for 2011-2012. As they appear, the hardcopy editions will replace the online materials. The scope of JGRChJ is the texts, language and cultures of the Graeco-Roman world of early Christianity and Judaism. The papers published in JGRChJ are designed to pay special attention to the 'larger picture' of politics, culture, religion and language, engaging as well with modern theoretical approaches.
Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism 8 (2011-2012)
£80.00
This is the eighth volume of the hard-copy edition of a journal that has been published online (www.jgrchj.net) since 2000. Volume 1 was for 2000, Volume 2 was for 2001 —2005, Volume 3 was for 2006, Volume 4 was for 2007, Volume 5 was for 2008, Volume 6 was for 2009, Volume 7 was for 2010 and Volume 8 is for 2011-2012. As they appear, the hardcopy editions will replace the online materials. The scope of JGRChJ is the texts, language and cultures of the Graeco-Roman world of early Christianity and Judaism. The papers published in JGRChJ are designed to pay special attention to the 'larger picture' of politics, culture, religion and language, engaging as well with modern theoretical approaches.
Psalms 1-2: Gateway to the Psalter
Published: Jan 2013
£50.00
As against the form-critical approach, which sees the first two psalms as more or less random examples of the torah and royal types, this study argues for a deliberate and cogent arrangement of Psalms 1 and 2.
A detailed linguistic analysis of and comparison between these two apparently disparate psalms at the outset of the book reveals the purpose for their juxtaposition. The principal characters in the first psalm are further described in the second. The man of Psalm 1 is portrayed in eschatological terms as an impeccable royal, sacerdotal, and all-conquering military figure. He appears again in Psalm 2 but as a heavenly-enthroned victorious priest and king. His opponents, the wicked in Psalm 1, are identified in Psalm 2 as recalcitrant rulers and peoples who reject his rule and seek to do away with him.
However, the calculated divine response to their plotting assures their ultimate defeat unless they submit to him. This cohesive and coherent introductory pair of psalms sets a pattern at the beginning for reading all those that follow. Indeed, a thorough understanding of the first two psalms and their integrated message is a prerequisite for understanding the purpose of the entire book.
Psalms 1-2: Gateway to the Psalter
£50.00
As against the form-critical approach, which sees the first two psalms as more or less random examples of the torah and royal types, this study argues for a deliberate and cogent arrangement of Psalms 1 and 2.
A detailed linguistic analysis of and comparison between these two apparently disparate psalms at the outset of the book reveals the purpose for their juxtaposition. The principal characters in the first psalm are further described in the second. The man of Psalm 1 is portrayed in eschatological terms as an impeccable royal, sacerdotal, and all-conquering military figure. He appears again in Psalm 2 but as a heavenly-enthroned victorious priest and king. His opponents, the wicked in Psalm 1, are identified in Psalm 2 as recalcitrant rulers and peoples who reject his rule and seek to do away with him.
However, the calculated divine response to their plotting assures their ultimate defeat unless they submit to him. This cohesive and coherent introductory pair of psalms sets a pattern at the beginning for reading all those that follow. Indeed, a thorough understanding of the first two psalms and their integrated message is a prerequisite for understanding the purpose of the entire book.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Teaching the Bible in the Liberal Arts Classroom
Published: Oct 2012
£22.50 – £50.00
Teaching biblical studies in the undergraduate liberal arts classroom poses many challenges. Do biblical studies deserve a place at a secular liberal arts college? In church-affiliated colleges, should courses in Bible toe the denominational line? Can we claim that biblical studies advance the goals of liberal education, whatever we might think they are?
On a more practical level, how can an instructor engage the attention of students who are taking a course in biblical studies only to fulfill a requirement? How best to begin with students from non-religious backgrounds who begin a course with no real knowledge of the Bible at all? How best to deal with students who already think they know what the Bible is all about, and resist any ideas or approaches that might threaten their ideas?
This collection of pedagogical essays reflects the practical experience of instructors who have spent years teaching biblical studies successfully to undergraduates at liberal arts colleges. The essays address both methodological approaches and specific classroom strategies for teaching biblical studies effectively in a way that advances the skills of thinking and expression that are essential to a liberal arts education. The product of several years of conversation among working professors from an array of liberal arts colleges, these essays offer insights and inspiration for biblical studies instructors who work in a very specific and demanding academic environment.
Teaching the Bible in the Liberal Arts Classroom
£22.50 – £50.00
Teaching biblical studies in the undergraduate liberal arts classroom poses many challenges. Do biblical studies deserve a place at a secular liberal arts college? In church-affiliated colleges, should courses in Bible toe the denominational line? Can we claim that biblical studies advance the goals of liberal education, whatever we might think they are?
On a more practical level, how can an instructor engage the attention of students who are taking a course in biblical studies only to fulfill a requirement? How best to begin with students from non-religious backgrounds who begin a course with no real knowledge of the Bible at all? How best to deal with students who already think they know what the Bible is all about, and resist any ideas or approaches that might threaten their ideas?
This collection of pedagogical essays reflects the practical experience of instructors who have spent years teaching biblical studies successfully to undergraduates at liberal arts colleges. The essays address both methodological approaches and specific classroom strategies for teaching biblical studies effectively in a way that advances the skills of thinking and expression that are essential to a liberal arts education. The product of several years of conversation among working professors from an array of liberal arts colleges, these essays offer insights and inspiration for biblical studies instructors who work in a very specific and demanding academic environment.
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).
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).
Biblical Reception 1
Published: Oct 2012
£80.00
This is the first volume of a new journal, Biblical Reception (BibRec), published in November 2012.
It is high time, we believe, for the new and burgeoning field of the reception of the Bible to have a publication medium of its own. What the biblical text has meant to its readers down the centuries should be as much the subject of scholarly attention as any ‘original’ meaning.
Our new journal is a substantial annual volume covering all kinds of use of the Bible — in art, literature, music, film and popular culture, as well as in the history of interpretation.
Editorial Board Diane Apostolos-Cappadona (Washington, DC), Alan Cooper (New York), James Crossley (Sheffield), Andrew Davies (Birmingham), Tamara C. Eskenazi (Los Angeles), Philip Esler (Gloucester), Susanne Gillmayr-Bucher (Linz), John Harvey (Aberystwyth), Christine Joynes (Oxford), Carol Newsom (Atlanta), Martin O'Kane (Lampeter), Tina Pippin (Decatur, GA), John F.A. Sawyer (Durham), Reinhold Zwick (Münster).
Biblical Reception 1
£80.00
This is the first volume of a new journal, Biblical Reception (BibRec), published in November 2012.
It is high time, we believe, for the new and burgeoning field of the reception of the Bible to have a publication medium of its own. What the biblical text has meant to its readers down the centuries should be as much the subject of scholarly attention as any ‘original’ meaning.
Our new journal is a substantial annual volume covering all kinds of use of the Bible — in art, literature, music, film and popular culture, as well as in the history of interpretation.
Editorial Board Diane Apostolos-Cappadona (Washington, DC), Alan Cooper (New York), James Crossley (Sheffield), Andrew Davies (Birmingham), Tamara C. Eskenazi (Los Angeles), Philip Esler (Gloucester), Susanne Gillmayr-Bucher (Linz), John Harvey (Aberystwyth), Christine Joynes (Oxford), Carol Newsom (Atlanta), Martin O'Kane (Lampeter), Tina Pippin (Decatur, GA), John F.A. Sawyer (Durham), Reinhold Zwick (Münster).
Making a Difference: Essays on the Bible and Judaism in Honor of Tamara Cohn Eskenazi
Published: Oct 2012
£75.00
Tamara Cohn Eskenazi has a special place in contemporary biblical scholarship. Among the first to bring a focus of scholarly attention to the period of ancient Israel's creativity after the Exile, she has also been a leader in foregrounding the Jewish tradition within the interpretative discourse of biblical scholars. And as a woman scholar, she has advanced the study of issues in the Hebrew Bible that impinge on the concerns of women ancient and modern.
Tamara Eskenazi was awarded the 2008 National Jewish Book Award for her volume The Torah: A Women's Commentary and the 2011 National Jewish Book Award in Women's Studies for her commentary on Ruth in the Jewish Publication Society Bible Commentary series.
The 26 articles offered to Tamara Eskenazi by her friends in this volume represent the range of her interests in all things biblical and Jewish. From the Book of Genesis to the New Testament to modern Hebrew fiction, from technical studies on the prophets or Qumran to penetrating insights on her beloved philosopher Levinas, this volume beautifully represents the range and depth of Jewish culture.
Making a Difference: Essays on the Bible and Judaism in Honor of Tamara Cohn Eskenazi
£75.00
Tamara Cohn Eskenazi has a special place in contemporary biblical scholarship. Among the first to bring a focus of scholarly attention to the period of ancient Israel's creativity after the Exile, she has also been a leader in foregrounding the Jewish tradition within the interpretative discourse of biblical scholars. And as a woman scholar, she has advanced the study of issues in the Hebrew Bible that impinge on the concerns of women ancient and modern.
Tamara Eskenazi was awarded the 2008 National Jewish Book Award for her volume The Torah: A Women's Commentary and the 2011 National Jewish Book Award in Women's Studies for her commentary on Ruth in the Jewish Publication Society Bible Commentary series.
The 26 articles offered to Tamara Eskenazi by her friends in this volume represent the range of her interests in all things biblical and Jewish. From the Book of Genesis to the New Testament to modern Hebrew fiction, from technical studies on the prophets or Qumran to penetrating insights on her beloved philosopher Levinas, this volume beautifully represents the range and depth of Jewish culture.
Biblical Reception 2
Published: Oct 2012
£80.00
This is the second volume of the new journal, Biblical Reception (BibRec), published in November 2013. For the first volume, click here.
Our policy for the journal is this. It is high time, we believe, for the new and burgeoning field of the reception of the Bible to have a publication medium of its own. What the biblical text has meant to its readers down the centuries should be as much the subject of scholarly attention as any 'original' meaning.
Our journal is a substantial annual volume covering all kinds of use of the Bible — in art, literature, music, film and popular culture, as well as in the history of interpretation.
Biblical Reception 2
£80.00
This is the second volume of the new journal, Biblical Reception (BibRec), published in November 2013. For the first volume, click here.
Our policy for the journal is this. It is high time, we believe, for the new and burgeoning field of the reception of the Bible to have a publication medium of its own. What the biblical text has meant to its readers down the centuries should be as much the subject of scholarly attention as any 'original' meaning.
Our journal is a substantial annual volume covering all kinds of use of the Bible — in art, literature, music, film and popular culture, as well as in the history of interpretation.
Plotted, Shot, and Painted: Cultural Representations of Biblical Women, Second Revised Edition
Published: Oct 2012
£25.00
Plotted, Shot, and Painted stakes out new territory for feminist biblical criticism. It considers what happens to biblical women in popular culture, in art and in film, and it foregrounds questions about how gender interests affect interpretation and about the roles and responsibilities of commentators and readers. This second revised edition contains an additional chapter, 'Lot and his Daughters', and an expanded chapter on Delilah.
Plotted, Shot, and Painted: Cultural Representations of Biblical Women, Second Revised Edition
£25.00
Plotted, Shot, and Painted stakes out new territory for feminist biblical criticism. It considers what happens to biblical women in popular culture, in art and in film, and it foregrounds questions about how gender interests affect interpretation and about the roles and responsibilities of commentators and readers. This second revised edition contains an additional chapter, 'Lot and his Daughters', and an expanded chapter on Delilah.
The Death of Judas: The Characterization of Judas Iscariot in Three Early Christian Accounts of His Death
Published: Oct 2012
£60.00
Images of Judas across the centuries of Christian interpretation predominantly depict him as an object of horror and condemnation. Some modern interpreters have argued, however, that details about Judas in the canonical Gospels, such as his remorse and suicide, are tragic elements that vindicate Judas, to some extent at least. In addition, the recent discovery of the Gospel of Judas has provided further evidence that even in antiquity there were widely differing views of Judas. The question of the characterization of Judas in early Christianity remains open.
Ancient rhetorical handbooks and countless examples from the literature of the Greco-Roman period reveal that death-accounts were regarded as fertile opportunities for shaping the characterization of a figure. Authors and audiences shared the expectation that the manner of a person's death revealed character. This insight provides a new window into the interpretation of Judas in the early Christian era, since three accounts of the death of Judas have survived from before 150 CE through the Gospel of Matthew, the Acts of the Apostles, and the fragments of Papias.
Strategies for encomium and invective, and other elements of Greco-Roman and Jewish literary portraiture, vividly reveal the character-shaping significance of the details in the accounts of Judas's death. His final words, final actions, and the mode of his death —whether suicide by hanging, falling headlong and bursting, or swelling to the size of a wagon —all would have been understood to signify Judas's inner qualities and indicate his moral worth. To ancient auditors, the characterization of Judas in these texts could lead only to the assessment of Jesus, 'Woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born' (Matt. 26.24).
The Death of Judas: The Characterization of Judas Iscariot in Three Early Christian Accounts of His Death
£60.00
Images of Judas across the centuries of Christian interpretation predominantly depict him as an object of horror and condemnation. Some modern interpreters have argued, however, that details about Judas in the canonical Gospels, such as his remorse and suicide, are tragic elements that vindicate Judas, to some extent at least. In addition, the recent discovery of the Gospel of Judas has provided further evidence that even in antiquity there were widely differing views of Judas. The question of the characterization of Judas in early Christianity remains open.
Ancient rhetorical handbooks and countless examples from the literature of the Greco-Roman period reveal that death-accounts were regarded as fertile opportunities for shaping the characterization of a figure. Authors and audiences shared the expectation that the manner of a person's death revealed character. This insight provides a new window into the interpretation of Judas in the early Christian era, since three accounts of the death of Judas have survived from before 150 CE through the Gospel of Matthew, the Acts of the Apostles, and the fragments of Papias.
Strategies for encomium and invective, and other elements of Greco-Roman and Jewish literary portraiture, vividly reveal the character-shaping significance of the details in the accounts of Judas's death. His final words, final actions, and the mode of his death —whether suicide by hanging, falling headlong and bursting, or swelling to the size of a wagon —all would have been understood to signify Judas's inner qualities and indicate his moral worth. To ancient auditors, the characterization of Judas in these texts could lead only to the assessment of Jesus, 'Woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born' (Matt. 26.24).
The Death and Resurrection of the Author and Other Feminist Essays on the Bible
Published: Oct 2012
£45.00
Jane Dewar Schaberg (1938 —2012) is widely recognized as one of the foremothers of feminist biblical studies in North America, best known for her ground-breaking and controversial works, The Illegitimacy of Jesus (1987) and The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene (2002). The present volume brings together fourteen of her essays on feminist approaches to scholarship and teaching, studies on women in the Christian Scriptures, feminist scholarship and modern media, and responses to backlash against feminism. Many of these essays appear here for the first time. Included also are several of Schaberg's important essays on Mary Magdalene as well as new essays in which she explores further her proposal for 'Magdalene Christianity'.
These studies will be of interest not only to scholars, but also those teaching courses on women and the Bible, women's studies, religion and media, and the history of early Christianity. A distinctive feature of this volume is the way in which it honors the feminist commitment to acknowledging the voice and presence of the author in the text. Each of the five sections is introduced by a brief autobiographical sketch that invites the reader to hear the essays in dialogue with the context of Schaberg's life. These sketches offer the reader a glimpse of the values, commitments, and struggles that are the substratum out of which the scholarly essays emerge. Also woven throughout the volume are several of Schaberg's poems, providing commentary on the essays and drawing them into conversation with Schaberg's life experiences.
Together, the essays, autobiographical sketches and poems speak to the importance of claiming one's own voice and identifying absent voices in the texts. They also speak to the importance of recognizing the context(s) in which one reads and writes, and the need to uncover the hard realities that silence many voices within those contexts. The volume is, in short, a stunning and remarkable representation of a life dedicated to feminist scholarship. For those who read it, it is also a call to action.
The Death and Resurrection of the Author and Other Feminist Essays on the Bible
£45.00
Jane Dewar Schaberg (1938 —2012) is widely recognized as one of the foremothers of feminist biblical studies in North America, best known for her ground-breaking and controversial works, The Illegitimacy of Jesus (1987) and The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene (2002). The present volume brings together fourteen of her essays on feminist approaches to scholarship and teaching, studies on women in the Christian Scriptures, feminist scholarship and modern media, and responses to backlash against feminism. Many of these essays appear here for the first time. Included also are several of Schaberg's important essays on Mary Magdalene as well as new essays in which she explores further her proposal for 'Magdalene Christianity'.
These studies will be of interest not only to scholars, but also those teaching courses on women and the Bible, women's studies, religion and media, and the history of early Christianity. A distinctive feature of this volume is the way in which it honors the feminist commitment to acknowledging the voice and presence of the author in the text. Each of the five sections is introduced by a brief autobiographical sketch that invites the reader to hear the essays in dialogue with the context of Schaberg's life. These sketches offer the reader a glimpse of the values, commitments, and struggles that are the substratum out of which the scholarly essays emerge. Also woven throughout the volume are several of Schaberg's poems, providing commentary on the essays and drawing them into conversation with Schaberg's life experiences.
Together, the essays, autobiographical sketches and poems speak to the importance of claiming one's own voice and identifying absent voices in the texts. They also speak to the importance of recognizing the context(s) in which one reads and writes, and the need to uncover the hard realities that silence many voices within those contexts. The volume is, in short, a stunning and remarkable representation of a life dedicated to feminist scholarship. For those who read it, it is also a call to action.
Beyond the End: The Future of Millennial Studies
Published: Oct 2012
£60.00
There are promising signs that millennial studies is now being recognized by the wider academic community as a profitable pursuit that merits serious scholarly attention. More than ever before, the horizons of academic engagement with millennial ideologies and their historical and cultural ramifications are being expanded over a multiplicity of disciplinary perspectives.
Historians, theologians, literary critics and social scientists have all been able to establish a compelling unanimity in attesting to the vital historical significance and critical contemporary relevance of millennial thought. Thanks to such interdisciplinary efforts, millennial hope is now identified as a vital aspect of the human condition and as a dynamic force that has motivated diverse world-historical individuals from Zoroaster and Francis of Assisi to Adolf Hitler and Mao Zedong.
Contributors to the volume are Jennie Chapman, Andrew Crome, Eugene V. Gallagher, Crawford Gribben, Robert Glenn Howard, Andrew Pierce, Joshua Searle, Timothy Stunt and Kenneth G.C. Newport. There is a substantial Preface by Richard Landes.
Beyond the End: The Future of Millennial Studies
£60.00
There are promising signs that millennial studies is now being recognized by the wider academic community as a profitable pursuit that merits serious scholarly attention. More than ever before, the horizons of academic engagement with millennial ideologies and their historical and cultural ramifications are being expanded over a multiplicity of disciplinary perspectives.
Historians, theologians, literary critics and social scientists have all been able to establish a compelling unanimity in attesting to the vital historical significance and critical contemporary relevance of millennial thought. Thanks to such interdisciplinary efforts, millennial hope is now identified as a vital aspect of the human condition and as a dynamic force that has motivated diverse world-historical individuals from Zoroaster and Francis of Assisi to Adolf Hitler and Mao Zedong.
Contributors to the volume are Jennie Chapman, Andrew Crome, Eugene V. Gallagher, Crawford Gribben, Robert Glenn Howard, Andrew Pierce, Joshua Searle, Timothy Stunt and Kenneth G.C. Newport. There is a substantial Preface by Richard Landes.
Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus: Memoir of a Discovery
Published: Sep 2012
£18.95
In the past forty years, while historical-critical studies were seeking with renewed intensity to reconstruct events behind the biblical texts, not least the life of Jesus, two branches of literary studies were finally reaching maturity. First, researchers were recognizing that many biblical texts are rewritings or transformations of older texts that still exist, thus giving a clearer sense of where the biblical texts came from; and second, studies in the ancient art of composition clarified the biblical texts' unity and purpose, that is to say, where biblical texts were headed.
The primary literary model behind the gospels, Brodie argues, is the biblical account of Elijah and Elisha, as R.E. Brown already saw in 1971. In this fascinating memoir of his life journey, Tom Brodie, Irishman, Dominican priest, and biblical scholar, recounts the steps he has taken, in an eventful life in many countries, to his conclusion that the New Testament account of Jesus is essentially a rewriting of the Septuagint version of the Hebrew Bible, or, in some cases, of earlier New Testament texts. Jesus' challenge to would-be disciples (Luke 9.57-62), for example, is a transformation of the challenge to Elijah at Horeb (1 Kings 19), while his journey from Jerusalem and Judea to Samaria and beyond (John 2.23 —4.54) is deeply indebted to the account of the journey of God's Word in Acts 1 —8.
The work of tracing literary indebtedness and art is far from finished but it is already possible and necessary to draw a conclusion: it is that, bluntly, Jesus did not exist as a historical individual. This is not as negative as may at first appear. In a deeply personal coda, Brodie begins to develop a new vision of Jesus as an icon of God's presence in the world and in human history.
Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus: Memoir of a Discovery
£18.95
In the past forty years, while historical-critical studies were seeking with renewed intensity to reconstruct events behind the biblical texts, not least the life of Jesus, two branches of literary studies were finally reaching maturity. First, researchers were recognizing that many biblical texts are rewritings or transformations of older texts that still exist, thus giving a clearer sense of where the biblical texts came from; and second, studies in the ancient art of composition clarified the biblical texts' unity and purpose, that is to say, where biblical texts were headed.
The primary literary model behind the gospels, Brodie argues, is the biblical account of Elijah and Elisha, as R.E. Brown already saw in 1971. In this fascinating memoir of his life journey, Tom Brodie, Irishman, Dominican priest, and biblical scholar, recounts the steps he has taken, in an eventful life in many countries, to his conclusion that the New Testament account of Jesus is essentially a rewriting of the Septuagint version of the Hebrew Bible, or, in some cases, of earlier New Testament texts. Jesus' challenge to would-be disciples (Luke 9.57-62), for example, is a transformation of the challenge to Elijah at Horeb (1 Kings 19), while his journey from Jerusalem and Judea to Samaria and beyond (John 2.23 —4.54) is deeply indebted to the account of the journey of God's Word in Acts 1 —8.
The work of tracing literary indebtedness and art is far from finished but it is already possible and necessary to draw a conclusion: it is that, bluntly, Jesus did not exist as a historical individual. This is not as negative as may at first appear. In a deeply personal coda, Brodie begins to develop a new vision of Jesus as an icon of God's presence in the world and in human history.
Yearning for You: Psalms and the Song of Songs in Conversation with Rock and Worship Songs
Published: Sep 2012
£60.00
From your lips she drew the Hallelujah' (Leonard Cohen). Romance and sexual desire are expressed in some of today's most popular songs using religious language. Conversely, the latest Christian worship songs sometimes invite worshippers to speak to God in the language of desire and romance. Contemporary western culture and spirituality blur the boundaries between desire for God and sexual desire. This innovative book stages a conversation first between biblical songs and then between biblical and contemporary songs. Desire for intimacy is the topic of conversation. Texts from the Song of Songs are first in dialogue with some of the Psalms, exploring their themes of desire, absence, longing, hearing, delight, feasting, physicality, mutuality and security. The circle of conversation is then widened, to consider the voices of contemporary rock and worship songs in the light of what has been uncovered in the biblical songs, and to hear what questions today's songs may ask of the ancient texts. The biblical voices resist any suggestion, Goodman argues, that human sexual experience may be a means of encounter with God, or a sacrament of such an encounter. They also highlight the disparity in power between God and human beings which weighs against any sense of a balanced mutuality in yearning. Yet eros or romance may serve as a metaphor for a divine —human relationship, if used alongside a variety of other metaphors. At points of intersection, where they converge and conflict, these different metaphors can create a deeper understanding of the yearning for intimacy, both human and divine.
Yearning for You: Psalms and the Song of Songs in Conversation with Rock and Worship Songs
£60.00
From your lips she drew the Hallelujah' (Leonard Cohen). Romance and sexual desire are expressed in some of today's most popular songs using religious language. Conversely, the latest Christian worship songs sometimes invite worshippers to speak to God in the language of desire and romance. Contemporary western culture and spirituality blur the boundaries between desire for God and sexual desire. This innovative book stages a conversation first between biblical songs and then between biblical and contemporary songs. Desire for intimacy is the topic of conversation. Texts from the Song of Songs are first in dialogue with some of the Psalms, exploring their themes of desire, absence, longing, hearing, delight, feasting, physicality, mutuality and security. The circle of conversation is then widened, to consider the voices of contemporary rock and worship songs in the light of what has been uncovered in the biblical songs, and to hear what questions today's songs may ask of the ancient texts. The biblical voices resist any suggestion, Goodman argues, that human sexual experience may be a means of encounter with God, or a sacrament of such an encounter. They also highlight the disparity in power between God and human beings which weighs against any sense of a balanced mutuality in yearning. Yet eros or romance may serve as a metaphor for a divine —human relationship, if used alongside a variety of other metaphors. At points of intersection, where they converge and conflict, these different metaphors can create a deeper understanding of the yearning for intimacy, both human and divine.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Abject Bodies in the Gospel of Mark
Published: July 2012
£22.50 – £50.00
Basing himself on Judith Butler’s notion of gender, abjectness, vulnerability, and the precariousness of the human body, Manuel Villalobos offers a compelling study of a number of characters in Mark’s passion narrative whom he finds to be transgressing boundaries and disrupting their assigned gender roles. He then applies the same methodology to Jesus, queering the Markan passion narrative, and concludes that because it was subject to all kinds of physical abuses Jesus’ body is the way by which God becomes identified and fully implicated in the life of those who live at the margins of society.
The whole book, exegetically rich and imaginative, is grounded on a hermeneutic which Villalobos terms Del otro lado / from the other side, because it celebrates the kind of ambiguity produced by gender, racial, cultural, and ethnic otherness, interweaving (often harrowing) tales of village life in Mexico with interpretations of specific Markan episodes. In so doing he hopes to initiate a dialogue between the Northern and the Southern hemispheres, a dialogue that crosses the boundaries that separate and exclude people because of economic and legal statuses and, specially, sexual orientation. The end product is a fresh and totally destabilizing reading that accomplishes the difficult task of bringing to the fore those voices neglected by the history of the interpretation of the text.
Abject Bodies in the Gospel of Mark
£22.50 – £50.00
Basing himself on Judith Butler’s notion of gender, abjectness, vulnerability, and the precariousness of the human body, Manuel Villalobos offers a compelling study of a number of characters in Mark’s passion narrative whom he finds to be transgressing boundaries and disrupting their assigned gender roles. He then applies the same methodology to Jesus, queering the Markan passion narrative, and concludes that because it was subject to all kinds of physical abuses Jesus’ body is the way by which God becomes identified and fully implicated in the life of those who live at the margins of society.
The whole book, exegetically rich and imaginative, is grounded on a hermeneutic which Villalobos terms Del otro lado / from the other side, because it celebrates the kind of ambiguity produced by gender, racial, cultural, and ethnic otherness, interweaving (often harrowing) tales of village life in Mexico with interpretations of specific Markan episodes. In so doing he hopes to initiate a dialogue between the Northern and the Southern hemispheres, a dialogue that crosses the boundaries that separate and exclude people because of economic and legal statuses and, specially, sexual orientation. The end product is a fresh and totally destabilizing reading that accomplishes the difficult task of bringing to the fore those voices neglected by the history of the interpretation of the text.
Beyond Feminist Biblical Studies
Published: July 2012
£40.00
In today's postfeminist, post-structuralist milieu, feminist biblical studies —despite its now well-established place in the discipline —can seem out on a limb, too narrowly concerned with the interests of women: women in the text, women in history, women readers. Its connections with studies in masculinities, with queer theories, with lesbian and gay studies may appear thin and flimsy. As the current terminology shifts perceptibly to 'gender criticism', this book examines the continued place of feminist biblical studies within the discipline. Is it now the time, Deryn Guest asks, for feminist biblical scholars to resist more strongly than ever the threats of a diluted feminist agenda and feminist politics, the erasure of women's concerns from public consciousness, the loss of autonomy for feminist space? Or is it the time to make a definite shift and abandon the language of 'feminism'? Readers of this scintillating volume will find themselves invited into a sophisticated discussion of the question as they consider how far feminist biblical scholarship should be more inclusive of the newer critical voices emerging from trans- and intersex studies, testing the extent to which it can examine the construction of heterosexuality and make the apparatus of biblically prescribed heteronormativity an object of critical study. The book closes with the intriguing possibilities available for 'queer straight' practitioners of biblical studies with an armoury of genderqueer strategies in their hermeneutical toolbox.
Beyond Feminist Biblical Studies
£40.00
In today's postfeminist, post-structuralist milieu, feminist biblical studies —despite its now well-established place in the discipline —can seem out on a limb, too narrowly concerned with the interests of women: women in the text, women in history, women readers. Its connections with studies in masculinities, with queer theories, with lesbian and gay studies may appear thin and flimsy. As the current terminology shifts perceptibly to 'gender criticism', this book examines the continued place of feminist biblical studies within the discipline. Is it now the time, Deryn Guest asks, for feminist biblical scholars to resist more strongly than ever the threats of a diluted feminist agenda and feminist politics, the erasure of women's concerns from public consciousness, the loss of autonomy for feminist space? Or is it the time to make a definite shift and abandon the language of 'feminism'? Readers of this scintillating volume will find themselves invited into a sophisticated discussion of the question as they consider how far feminist biblical scholarship should be more inclusive of the newer critical voices emerging from trans- and intersex studies, testing the extent to which it can examine the construction of heterosexuality and make the apparatus of biblically prescribed heteronormativity an object of critical study. The book closes with the intriguing possibilities available for 'queer straight' practitioners of biblical studies with an armoury of genderqueer strategies in their hermeneutical toolbox.
Out of Stock
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.
Out of Stock
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.
Out of Stock
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.
Out of Stock
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.
Out of Stock
The End Will Be Graphic: Apocalyptic in Comic Books and Graphic Novels
Published: Jun 2012
£45.00
This collection is based on the premise that apocalyptic imagery and themes pervade not only cultural products that employ specifically biblical imagery but are also found in media that do not purport to impart biblical or even religious messages. Comic books and graphic novels are the focus here because, it is suggested, they are the medium that comes the closest to the imaginative malleability found in the history of biblical interpretation. In Part One, the focus is on Indie/Creator-owned works. Emily Laycock demonstrates the overwhelming influence of Herbert W. Armstrong and his apocalyptic Worldwide Church of God on Basil Wolverton's work, especially his biblical art. Aaron Kashtan then introduces us to Kevin Huizenga's short 'Jeepers Jacobs', in which the title character —a theologian whose main area of research is the Christian doctrine of Hell —tries to convert an acquaintance with odd and fatal results. In her chapter, Diana Green examines Alan Moore's Promethea , a character whose purpose is to initiate an Apocalypse but whose journey is much more complicated. Finally, A. David Lewis engages humorous and profane examples of apocalyptic imagery in the recent Indie comics Battle Pope and The Chronicles of Wormwood . Part Two examines more mainstream works and begins with Terry Ray Clark's adroit examination of how Kingdom Come utilizes both the functions and forms of ancient apocalyptic literature. Greg Stevenson then analyses a variety of texts —including X-Men: The Age of Apocalypse and issues 666 of Superman and Batman —to discern the way(s) in which the mythological language of apocalyptic and the mythology of superheroes interact. And finally, Greg Garrett provides a broad and thoughtful rumination on the two most widely read mainstream comics that deal with the End of Days: Kingdom Come and Watchmen . This is the fifth volume in the series Apocalypse and Popular Culture; see also (1) Walliss and Quinby, Reel Revelations , (2) Gribben and Sweetnam, Left Behind and the Evangelical Imagination , (3) Howard, Network Apocalypse , (4) Partridge, Anthems of Apocalypse , and (6) Aston and Walliss, Small Screen Revelations .
Out of Stock
The End Will Be Graphic: Apocalyptic in Comic Books and Graphic Novels
£45.00
This collection is based on the premise that apocalyptic imagery and themes pervade not only cultural products that employ specifically biblical imagery but are also found in media that do not purport to impart biblical or even religious messages. Comic books and graphic novels are the focus here because, it is suggested, they are the medium that comes the closest to the imaginative malleability found in the history of biblical interpretation. In Part One, the focus is on Indie/Creator-owned works. Emily Laycock demonstrates the overwhelming influence of Herbert W. Armstrong and his apocalyptic Worldwide Church of God on Basil Wolverton's work, especially his biblical art. Aaron Kashtan then introduces us to Kevin Huizenga's short 'Jeepers Jacobs', in which the title character —a theologian whose main area of research is the Christian doctrine of Hell —tries to convert an acquaintance with odd and fatal results. In her chapter, Diana Green examines Alan Moore's Promethea , a character whose purpose is to initiate an Apocalypse but whose journey is much more complicated. Finally, A. David Lewis engages humorous and profane examples of apocalyptic imagery in the recent Indie comics Battle Pope and The Chronicles of Wormwood . Part Two examines more mainstream works and begins with Terry Ray Clark's adroit examination of how Kingdom Come utilizes both the functions and forms of ancient apocalyptic literature. Greg Stevenson then analyses a variety of texts —including X-Men: The Age of Apocalypse and issues 666 of Superman and Batman —to discern the way(s) in which the mythological language of apocalyptic and the mythology of superheroes interact. And finally, Greg Garrett provides a broad and thoughtful rumination on the two most widely read mainstream comics that deal with the End of Days: Kingdom Come and Watchmen . This is the fifth volume in the series Apocalypse and Popular Culture; see also (1) Walliss and Quinby, Reel Revelations , (2) Gribben and Sweetnam, Left Behind and the Evangelical Imagination , (3) Howard, Network Apocalypse , (4) Partridge, Anthems of Apocalypse , and (6) Aston and Walliss, Small Screen Revelations .
Out of Stock
The Thematic Unity of the Book of the Twelve
Published: Jun 2012
£75.00
“Return to me”, declares Yhwh of Hosts, “and I will return to you”, declares Yhwh of Hosts. The sentence stands at the head of the prophecy of Zechariah (1.3). But what does it mean to 'return to Yhwh?' And what does it mean that Yhwh 'will return to you'? LeCureux argues that it is this call to repentance, and Yhwh's responses to it, that form the unifying and organizing theme of return for the Book of the Twelve. While studies on the development and composition of the Twelve have proved fruitful in recent years, this book attempts to expand on those works by looking closely at the final form of the Twelve, particularly of its opening and closing books (Hosea —Joel, Zechariah —Malachi), and the role that canonical position and theme play within the Book. This project begins by defining the function of theme in biblical books, and then compares the role theme plays in Isaiah with its role in the Twelve, before engaging in the primary task of exegesis. LeCureux examines the use of 'return' in the Twelve, showing that it is the call to return that controls the events of the Day of Yhwh. Going further, the exegesis uncovers the links between the return imperatives of Hosea 14, Joel 2, Zechariah's own calls to return and Malachi's concluding question, 'How are we to return?'(3.7). What is ultimately revealed is the multifaceted nature of God's relationship with his people, one that involves the people's struggle to turn from covenantal disobedience toward Yhwh in repentance, as well as Yhwh's own turning from judgment toward his people in blessing.
Out of Stock
The Thematic Unity of the Book of the Twelve
£75.00
“Return to me”, declares Yhwh of Hosts, “and I will return to you”, declares Yhwh of Hosts. The sentence stands at the head of the prophecy of Zechariah (1.3). But what does it mean to 'return to Yhwh?' And what does it mean that Yhwh 'will return to you'? LeCureux argues that it is this call to repentance, and Yhwh's responses to it, that form the unifying and organizing theme of return for the Book of the Twelve. While studies on the development and composition of the Twelve have proved fruitful in recent years, this book attempts to expand on those works by looking closely at the final form of the Twelve, particularly of its opening and closing books (Hosea —Joel, Zechariah —Malachi), and the role that canonical position and theme play within the Book. This project begins by defining the function of theme in biblical books, and then compares the role theme plays in Isaiah with its role in the Twelve, before engaging in the primary task of exegesis. LeCureux examines the use of 'return' in the Twelve, showing that it is the call to return that controls the events of the Day of Yhwh. Going further, the exegesis uncovers the links between the return imperatives of Hosea 14, Joel 2, Zechariah's own calls to return and Malachi's concluding question, 'How are we to return?'(3.7). What is ultimately revealed is the multifaceted nature of God's relationship with his people, one that involves the people's struggle to turn from covenantal disobedience toward Yhwh in repentance, as well as Yhwh's own turning from judgment toward his people in blessing.
Out of Stock
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.
Out of Stock
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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Anthems of Apocalypse: Popular Music and Apocalyptic Thought
Published: Mar 2012
£50.00
Popular music is no stranger to apocalyptic discourse. Whether focusing on biblical or secular apocalypses, musicians often want to tell us things about the end of the world we may not have wanted to know in ways we may not have thought about before. This volume seeks to introduce readers to some of these messengers and their anthems of apocalypse. Roland Boer's discussion of Nick Cave indicates that references to the portents and monsters of the apocalypse have been used to refer, not to an age to come, but to the authorities and demons of the present world. Likewise, Kennet Granholm's chapter on the vegan straight edge band Earth Crisis shows that biblical apocalyptic provides a lens through which to examine environmental politics. This is also true of the work of Rage against the Machine's Tom Morello, who, as Michael Gilmour discusses, provides a powerful socialist critique of capitalism, American imperialism, new left-activism and identity politics. Along with these 'secular' uses of biblical apocalyptic are, of course, the more conspicuously Christian theological treatments: Mark Sweetnam discusses dispensationalism in Johnny Cash's music; Marcus Moberg explores eschatological themes in Christian heavy metal; and Steve Knowles looks at the uses of apocalyptic imagery in the music of Extreme. Alongside these are the perennially popular esoteric interpretations of biblical apocalyptic thought. These are explored in Rupert Till's analysis of heavy metal and SÌ©rgio Fava's discussion of apocalyptic folk. This is the fourth volume in the series Apocalypse and Popular Culture; see also (1) Walliss and Quinby, Reel Revelations , (2) Gribben and Sweetnam, Left Behind and the Evangelical Imagination , (3) Howard, Network Apocalypse , (5) Clanton, The End Will Be Graphic , and (6) Aston and Walliss, Small Screen Revelations .
Out of Stock
Anthems of Apocalypse: Popular Music and Apocalyptic Thought
£50.00
Popular music is no stranger to apocalyptic discourse. Whether focusing on biblical or secular apocalypses, musicians often want to tell us things about the end of the world we may not have wanted to know in ways we may not have thought about before. This volume seeks to introduce readers to some of these messengers and their anthems of apocalypse. Roland Boer's discussion of Nick Cave indicates that references to the portents and monsters of the apocalypse have been used to refer, not to an age to come, but to the authorities and demons of the present world. Likewise, Kennet Granholm's chapter on the vegan straight edge band Earth Crisis shows that biblical apocalyptic provides a lens through which to examine environmental politics. This is also true of the work of Rage against the Machine's Tom Morello, who, as Michael Gilmour discusses, provides a powerful socialist critique of capitalism, American imperialism, new left-activism and identity politics. Along with these 'secular' uses of biblical apocalyptic are, of course, the more conspicuously Christian theological treatments: Mark Sweetnam discusses dispensationalism in Johnny Cash's music; Marcus Moberg explores eschatological themes in Christian heavy metal; and Steve Knowles looks at the uses of apocalyptic imagery in the music of Extreme. Alongside these are the perennially popular esoteric interpretations of biblical apocalyptic thought. These are explored in Rupert Till's analysis of heavy metal and SÌ©rgio Fava's discussion of apocalyptic folk. This is the fourth volume in the series Apocalypse and Popular Culture; see also (1) Walliss and Quinby, Reel Revelations , (2) Gribben and Sweetnam, Left Behind and the Evangelical Imagination , (3) Howard, Network Apocalypse , (5) Clanton, The End Will Be Graphic , and (6) Aston and Walliss, Small Screen Revelations .
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The Other Face of God: ‘I Am That I Am’ Reconsidered
Published: Feb 2012
£75.00
‘I am that I am’ (Exodus 3.14) has been an exegetical puzzle to many generations of biblical scholars as well as theologians: is it about the present or the future, is it about God’s presence or his hiddenness? Den Hertog argues that such exegetical questions
have been framed too narrowly, and that this deeply suggestive statement about God needs to be set in a broader context.
Firstly, the statement must be understood within the narrative of Moses’ call as an answer to his problem: how can his being launched on a radically new, prophetic mission be reconciled with the features of the God of the patriarchs? This book
substantiates the view that the meaning of the statement is deliberately indefinite: ‘I may be who I may be’. In its context, it points to Yhwh’s other face, the possibility of his manifesting himself differently from the way he is thought to be.
Secondly, the after-history of this text should also be considered, since it has shaped our understanding in one way or another. This book pays particular attention to the renderings by the ancient and early modern versions (including the King James Version). The point of departure is the Septuagint rendering ‘I am the one being’, which has traditionally been associated with the Greek philosophical concept of absolute Being. This rendering, however, appears to have originally signified God’s active
presence: ‘I am the one who shows himself to be there’.
Thirdly, this fundamental theological statement invites further a psychoanalytic interpretation. Den Hertog adopts a Lacanian perspective, according to which ‘I am that I am’ represents an irruption of an ‘I’ from nowhere, from beyond usual thought and
expectation. In its context this means that in a situation of crisis a new orientation is born, one that undermines the pharaonic powers.
Out of Stock
The Other Face of God: ‘I Am That I Am’ Reconsidered
£75.00
‘I am that I am’ (Exodus 3.14) has been an exegetical puzzle to many generations of biblical scholars as well as theologians: is it about the present or the future, is it about God’s presence or his hiddenness? Den Hertog argues that such exegetical questions
have been framed too narrowly, and that this deeply suggestive statement about God needs to be set in a broader context.
Firstly, the statement must be understood within the narrative of Moses’ call as an answer to his problem: how can his being launched on a radically new, prophetic mission be reconciled with the features of the God of the patriarchs? This book
substantiates the view that the meaning of the statement is deliberately indefinite: ‘I may be who I may be’. In its context, it points to Yhwh’s other face, the possibility of his manifesting himself differently from the way he is thought to be.
Secondly, the after-history of this text should also be considered, since it has shaped our understanding in one way or another. This book pays particular attention to the renderings by the ancient and early modern versions (including the King James Version). The point of departure is the Septuagint rendering ‘I am the one being’, which has traditionally been associated with the Greek philosophical concept of absolute Being. This rendering, however, appears to have originally signified God’s active
presence: ‘I am the one who shows himself to be there’.
Thirdly, this fundamental theological statement invites further a psychoanalytic interpretation. Den Hertog adopts a Lacanian perspective, according to which ‘I am that I am’ represents an irruption of an ‘I’ from nowhere, from beyond usual thought and
expectation. In its context this means that in a situation of crisis a new orientation is born, one that undermines the pharaonic powers.