Andrew Mein - Böcker

Whereas much recent work on the ethics of the Hebrew Bible addresses the theological task of using the Bible as a moral resource for today, this book aims to set Ezekiel's ethics firmly in the social and historical context of the Babylonian Exile. The two 'moral worlds' of Jerusalem and Babylonia provide the key. Ezekiel explains the disaster in terms familiar to his audience's past experience as members of Judah's political elite. He also provides ethical strategies for coping with the more limited possibilities of life in Babylonia, which include the ritualization of ethics, an increasing emphasis on the domestic and personal sphere of action, and a shift towards human passivity in the face of restoration. Thus the prophet's moral concerns and priorities are substantially shaped by the social experience of deportation and resettlement. They also represent a creative response to the crisis, providing significant impetus for social cohesion and the maintenance of a distinctively Jewish community.

Whereas much recent work on the ethics of the Hebrew Bible addresses the theological task of using the Bible as a moral resource for today, this book aims to set Ezekiel's ethics firmly in the social and historical context of the Babylonian Exile. The two 'moral worlds' of Jerusalem and Babylonia provide the key. Ezekiel explains the disaster in terms familiar to his audience's past experience as members of Judah's political elite. He also provides ethical strategies for coping with the more limited possibilities of life in Babylonia, which include the ritualization of ethics, an increasing emphasis on the domestic and personal sphere of action, and a shift towards human passivity in the face of restoration. Thus the prophet's moral concerns and priorities are substantially shaped by the social experience of deportation and resettlement. They also represent a creative response to the crisis, providing significant impetus for social cohesion and the maintenance of a distinctively Jewish community.

Cognitive Perspectives on Israelite Identity breaks new ground in the study of ethnic identity in the ancient world through the articulation of an explicitly cognitive perspective. In presenting a view of ethnicity as an epistemological rather than an ontological entity, this work seeks to correct the pronounced tendency towards ‘analytical groupism' in the academic literature. Challenging what Pierre Bourdieu has called ‘our primary inclination to think the world in a substantialist manner,' this study seeks to break with the vernacular categories and ‘commonsense primordialisms' encoded within the Biblical texts, whilst at the same time accounting for their tenacious hold on our social and political imagination. It is the recognition of the performative and reifying potential of these categories of ethno-political practice that disqualifies their appropriation as categories of social analysis.

Among linguistic philosophers, speech act theory has illuminated the fact that uttering a sentence does not merely convey information; it may also involve the performing of an action. The concept of communicative action provides additional tools to the exegetical process as it points the interpreter beyond the assumption that the use of language is merely for descriptive purposes. Language can also have performative and self-involving dimensions. Despite their clear hermeneutical importance, the notions expressed within speech act theory have been generally neglected by biblical interpreters. The few who have applied speech act theory to the OT typically subsume the discipline into an eclectic type of literary/rhetorical criticism. Such an approach, though, tends to discount the distinctive notions expressed by theoreticians. This dissertation presents the basic philosophical concepts of speech act theory in order to accurately implement them alongside other interpretive tools. The above analysis leads to applying these concepts to "Isaiah" 41:21-29, 49:1-6, 50:4-10, and 52:13-53:12.These four sections intricately function within the overall prophetic strategy of chapters 40-55: the call to return or turn to Yahweh. The way these chapters describe the nature of this return is for the reader to forsake sin, acknowledge and confess Yahweh as God alone. The first passage represents the basic concerns of chapters 40-48 and specifically Jacob-Israel's deliverance from Babylon through Yahweh's Cyrus illocutionary act. The final three passages represent the servant leitmotif running throughout the chapters and implore the reader through self-involvement to embrace the role of Yahweh's servant.

Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus proposes a provocative new theory regarding the date and circumstances of the composition of the Pentateuch. Gmirkin argues that the Hebrew Pentateuch was composed in its entirety about 273-272 BCE by Jewish scholars at Alexandria that later traditions credited with the Septuagint translation of the Pentateuch into Greek. The primary evidence is literary dependence of Gen. 1-11 on Berossus' Babyloniaca (278 BCE) and of the Exodus story on Manetho's Aegyptiaca (c. 285-280 BCE), and the geo-political data contained in the Table of Nations. A number of indications point to a provenance of Alexandria, Egypt for at least some portions of the Pentateuch. That the Pentateuch, drawing on literary sources found at the Great Library of Alexandria, was composed at almost the same date as the Septuagint translation, provides compelling evidence for some level of communication and collaboration between the authors of the Pentateuch and the Septuagint scholars at Alexandria's Museum.The late date of the Pentateuch, as demonstrated by literary dependence on Berossus and Manetho, has two important consequences: the definitive overthrow of the chronological framework of the Documentary Hypothesis, and a late, 3rd century BCE date for major portions of the Hebrew Bible which show literary dependence on the Pentateuch.

It is not surprising that non-academic bible readers largely ignore Nahum. Comprising only a few pages, it is easily overlooked in the midst of the twelve Minor Prophets. When a reader does stop in passing, the book appears to be brief, brutish, and uncomfortably violent. Looking more closely, however, readers may observe echoes of other much greater prophets, such as Isaiah and Ezekiel, perhaps even of the Psalms, and conclude that the book is a rather second-rate pastiche of other writings, although some rather brilliant poetry is woven into it. Who Will Lament Her? takes a fresh look at Nahum. It explores further the presence of the feminine in the book of Nahum, the extent to which it is present in the text, how the structure of the text makes the feminine both present and absent, and the possible reasons why this is so. Lanner takes two methodological approaches. The first sets out to show that it is possible that a feminine deity is present in the text of Nahum. The second approach engages three theories of the literary fantastic with the text, taking into consideration the findings of the historical and exegetical work.Using these two approaches hand in hand results in a fresh reading of Nahum.

This book evaluates the relationship between Samuel and Chronicles in a single synoptic story: David's transfer of Israel's sacred ark to Jerusalem in 2 Samuel 6 and 1 Chronicles 13, 15-16. Chapter 1 establishes the framework of the investigation. In this chapter Rezetko surveys three areas of research related to Samuel and Chronicles, including views on the composition of these books on the whole, the story of David's ark transfer in particular, and the characteristics of the textual witnesses to these books. Chapter 2 introduces the methodology of the study. In this chapter Rezetko surveys issues related to synchronic and diachronic approaches to Samuel and Chronicles. Specifically, he suggests that the standoff between alternative approaches to these books may be bridged by taking a textual-exegetical approach, that is, by combining textual and literary criticism in an analysis of their stories. Chapters 3-6 are a close examination of textual, linguistic, and literary facets of 2 Samuel 6 and the synoptic portions of 1 Chronicles 13, 15-16. On the basis of parallel aligned Hebrew and Greek texts of these passages, Rezetko studies in varying degrees of detail the ancient texts of David's ark transfer story in order to understand better its different formulation and shape in the received Hebrew texts of Samuel and Chronicles in their Masoretic dress (MT) in particular.

Traditional interpertations in both Judaism and Christianity argue that the Akedah presents not only an ethical question but also an ethical reply. But for the intervention of the angel, Abraham would have killed his son. Obedience to God take precedence over morality as humanly conceived. Yet, the angel of YHWH that appears to Abraham is a later addition to the text; thus, in the original narrative Abraham actually disobeys the divine command to slay his son, and sacrifices a ram instead. The first part of the book shows how the "original" version of the narrative did not contain the angelic figure. The second part of the book re-examines various religious interpretations of the text to show that exegetes such as Maimonides and his followers did point out Abraham's disobedience. According to these writers the esoteric layer of the story in fact declares that disobedience to God's command was Abraham's true affirmation of faith. In th ethird part of the book, Boehm re-opens the philosophical debate between Kant and Kierkegaard. Boehm concludes the book by contending that the monotheistic model of faith presented by Abraham was actually a model of disobedience.

Two fundamental experiences of Yahweh in the Old Testament are an encounter with the 'word' of Yahweh and an encounter with the 'spirit' or 'wind' or 'breath' (rva-) of Yahweh. This thesis explores 'word', rva-, and their relationship in the book of Ezekiel. According to the dominant paradigm for explaining the emphasis on rva- and its relation to Yahweh's word within the book of Ezekiel, the prophet Ezekiel is recovering from the pre-classical prophets, or even pioneering, an emphasis on rva- in prophecy that is conspicuously absent from the classical, writing prophets. This reading interprets the emphasis on rva- in Ezekiel in terms of the self-authentication of the ministry of the prophet. This book examines the relationship between rva- and prophecy in Ezekiel and in the rest of the Old Testament, and shows that the dominant paradigm requires modification. The emphasis on Yahweh's rva- in Ezekiel, even the 'prophetic spirit', is best understood in relation to the book's concern for the transformation of its addressees.The prophet Ezekiel's experience of Yahweh's rva- and his own obedience to Yahweh's call are clearly contrasted with the disobedience of the prophet's addressees in order to present Ezekiel as a model for the addressees of the book. His experience illuminates for them how the dramatic vision of the future can become a reality in their experience. Yahweh's rva- has a fundamental role in the envisaged obedient response to Yahweh's word, both of Ezekiel and of the book's addressees.

Among the many strategies of persuasive speech, biblical prophets often employ a rhetoric of horror. Prophets use verbal threats and graphic images of destruction to terrify their audience. Contemporary horror theory provides insight into the rhetoric of horror employed by the prophets. In this book, Amy Kalmanofsky applies horror theory to the book of Jeremiah and considers the nature of biblical horror and the objects that provoke horror, as well as the ways texts like Jeremiah work to elicit horror from their audience.Kalmanofsky begins by analyzing the emotional response of horror as reflected in characters' reactions to terrifying entities in the book of Jeremiah. Horror, she concludes, is a composite emotion consisting of fear in response to a threatening entity and a corresponding response of shame either directed toward one's self or felt on behalf of another. Having considered the nature of horror, she turns to the objects that elicit horror and consider their ontological qualities and the nature of the threat they pose. There are two central monstrous figures in the book of Jeremiah-aggressor God and defeated Israel. Both of these monsters refuse to be integrated into and threaten to disintegrate the expected order of the universe. She then presents a close, rhetorical reading of Jeremiah 6 and consider the way this text works to horrify its audience. The book concludes by considering fear's place within religious experience and the theological implications of a rhetoric that portrays God and Israel as monsters.

This book explores, by way of narrative analysis, the story of Jehu's revolt in 2 Kings 9 and 10, and the tensions and ambiguities surrounding the evaluation of Jehu that it contains. In the narrative, the Deuteronomist writes in many voices: the prophet(s), the Lord, the narrator, even Jehu himself. The tension within the Jehu narrative arises in the interaction of the various voices, and careful study of these narrative voices reveals two primary criteria for evaluating Jehu: (1) faithful observance of correct Deuteronomistic worship, that is, true Yahwistic worship in the Jerusalem Temple; and (2) faithful obedience to the prophetic word. Each criterion is expressed in the narrative and, as a means of finally resolving the ambiguity of the evaluative voices, the narrative presents the criterion of worship in supersession over the criterion of the prophetic word. The narrative analysis shows how the Jehu narrative connects linguistically, thematically, and analogically to the larger Deuteronomistic History and provides rubrics under which a Deuteronomistic theology of kingly legitimation can be examined. The theology that arises from the Jehu narrative in respect of kingly legitimation, traced through the criteria of proper worship and the prophetic word, at times adds unique emphases to the theology of kingly legitimation presented in the history. At other times, it stands seamlessly with the theology of the larger history. At all times, the theology of worship and word shows the Jehu narrative ultimately cannot be read successfully or fully in isolation from the surrounding text and the theology presented there.

It is customarily assumed that the Hebrew word BMH denotes a high place, first a topographical elevation and derivatively a cult place elevated either by location or construction.This book offers a fresh, systematic, and comprehensive examination of the word in those biblical and post-biblical passages where it supposedly carries its primary topographical sense.Although the word is used in this way in only a handful of its attestations, they are sufficiently numerous and contextually diverse to yield sound systematic, rather than ad hoc, conclusions as to its semantic content.Special attention is paid to its likely Semitic and unlikely Greek cognates, pertinent literary, compositional, and text-critical matters, and the ideological and iconographical ambiance of each occurrence.This study concludes that the non-cultic word BMH is actually *bomet, carrying primarily (if not always) an anatomical sense approximate to English back, sometimes expanded to the body itself.The phrase bmty-rs (Amos 4:13, Micah 1:3, and CAT 1.4 VII 34; also Deut. 32:13a, Isa. 58:14ab-ba, and Sir.46:9b) derives from the international mythic imagery of the Storm-God:it refers originally to the mythological mountains, conceptualized anthropomorphically, which the god surmounts in theophany, symbolically expressing his cosmic victory and sovereignty.There is no instance where this word (even 2 Sam. 1:19a and 1:25b) is unequivocally a topographical reference. The implications of these findings for identifying the bamah-sanctuary are briefly considered.

No biblical historian is included in the standard dictionaries of historians. Banks study examines the boundaries as well as the links that exists between history writing in biblical studies and the practice of history in university departments of history. She argues that while the influence of the profession of writing history is apparent, there are countervailing forces as well. The presupposition that the Bible is a book of history conditions the outcome of historical research in biblical studies. Banks argues that Julius Wellhausens history of Israel set in motion the general tendency toward ever greater congruence between historiography in biblical studies and in academic departments of history; that the initial tension caused by Wellhausens work produced a reaction which effectively stalled the movement toward accommodation between secular, academic history and biblical studies; and that a new generation of scholars applying the methods used by secular historians has revived and continued the tendency to promote the practice of secular, academic historiography in biblical studies. Banks applies her method to Wellhausen, Martin Noth, John Bright, and Thomas Thompson.

*Uses both a narratological and historical-critical method to read these specific passages of Jeremiah *Demonstrates that the story of Jeremiah and Zedekiah is not the typical god prophet/bad king story found in much of prophetic literature and the Deuteronomic History *Provides an intertextual reading of the passages which connects Jeremiah to other figures in the Old Testament The book offers a narratological and intertextual reading of Jeremiah 37:1-40:6, a text that features the dynamic interaction between the prophet Jeremiah and King Zedekiah in the context of events surrounding the fall of Jerusalem. While there have been many literary studies of biblical texts, there has been little such work on the narratives in the book of Jeremiah. This fact is surprising since the Jeremianic stories are narrated in a lively and sophisticated manner and contain complex characters and vivid dialogue and action, reminiscent of texts in the Primary History which have received much more literary attention. Roncace's book begins to uncover the richness of the prophetic narratives in Jeremiah.The study focuses on issues of characterization and point of view as well as the text's connections with other passages in the book of Jeremiah and those beyond it, particularly the Deuteronomistic History. Roncace argues that the text develops complex images of both Zedekiah and Jeremiah. It is not a story of the good prophet and the bad king; times as chaotic and confusing as the final days of Jerusalem do not call for a black-and-white story. Rather the text invites both sympathy and criticism for Jeremiah and Zedekiah. Jeremiah is the embattled prophet of God; yet at times he appears deceptive and manipulative, more concerned about his own well-being than that of the people, and his message can be ambiguous and in the end is not fully correct. Zedekiah, for his part, appears receptive to Jeremiah's word and protects the prophet from others who would harm him; yet he is too irresolute to take any action to save the city. The ambiguity in the portrayals of both figures is further developed by intertextual connections.Jeremiah can be compared to Moses, the Rabshakeh, Daniel, Joseph, Samuel, Nathan, and Micaiah, while Zedekiah can be compared to the monarchs that correspond to these figures (Pharaoh, Hezekiah, Saul, David, and Ahab).

It has long been noted that the "Book of Lamentations" shares, at least in part, a theological outlook with the prophetic literature that the destruction of Jerusalem was the result of Yahweh's decisive action against the sins of the nation. Too often, however, this relationship has simply been presupposed, or assumed to be a relationship of shared perspective. To date, there has been no systematic exploration of how it is that Lamentations accepts and/or modifies the theological outlook of the prophetic literature. In addition, when the theology of the prophets has been discussed in relation to "Lamentations", there has been a tendency to group all the prophetic books together as if they existed as a homogeneous whole, and shared amongst themselves a singular outlook. This tendency to simplify the theological complexity of the prophetic literature coincides with a similar tendency to reduce the theology of "Lamentations" to simple, monotheistic assertions. Drawing on the literary insights of Mikhail Bakhtin, this study explores in detail the nature of the relationship between "Lamentations" and the pre-exilic/exilic prophetic literature.Drawing on the notions of dialogism, polyphony and double-voicing, the study argues that "Lamentations" enters into a dialogic relationship with prophetic literature, a relationship that both affirms and subverts that literature. Central to the acknowledgement of the dialogic interaction between Lamentations and the prophetic literature is the recognition of "Lamentations" as a multivalent, polyphonic text in which unmerged viewpoints exist in a tension-filled relationship.

In order to assess the purpose and function of the incest narratives in the Pentateuch and the incest prohibitions of Leviticus 18, McClenney-Sadler's book offers a formal examination of ancient Israelite kinship terminology. According to anthropologists, only through a formal analysis of kin terms can incest prohibitions be properly understood. A "formal" analysis of kinship terms is a method employed by ethnographers to compare the kinship system of any given society with one of the six conventionally recognized kinship systems worldwide. There are very specific culturally patterned and expected behaviors that every society adopts in relation to post-marital residence, rules of descent, kinship terminology and incest prohibitions. These patterns are socially conditioned and eventually produce either of the six kinship systems. A close reading of the biblical textual evidence in light of Syro-Palestinian archaeology allows ut to conclude that the kinship system of ancient Israel was Normal Hawaiian. Furthermore, the internal logic and structure of Leviticus 18 becomes clear once we recognize that descent is not biological but jural in nature.Reading Leviticus 18 with this idea in view, we find that a Normal Hawaiian kinship system is reflected in both the Genesis incest narratives and the jual-legal form of Leviticus 18. A hierarchy of kinship becomes transparent in the form and structure of Leviticus 18. In particular, we see in this form that wives and mothers were treated as heads of family in biblical law and endowed with spousal and parental rights and authority over every other family member, not only in incest laws, but in all matters. The jural authority of mothers and wives is structurally represented as second only to that of Yahweh.

This work argues that 2 Sam 8:15-20:26 is a literary unit designed to show how David and his house failed to establish "justice and righteousness" during David's reign over all Israel. After an introductory chapter and a chapter on critical methodology the rest of the work is a close reading of 2 Sam 8:15-20:26 that pays special attention to narrative ethics. Chapter 3 makes a case for reading 2 Sam 8:15-20:26 as a coherent literary unit reflecting an ethical world-view grounded in kindness and having as its main theme "the failure of justice and righteousness to be established during David's reign." Chapter 4 presents a case for reading 2 Sam 8:15-10:19 as an account of the beginnings of justice and righteousness during David's reign in which David's kindness towards Mephibosheth is presented as analogous to a Mesopotamian royal declaration and was performed as an inaugural act of charity upon David's ascent to the throne.

Good Figs, Bad Figs begins by reviewing how the Old Testament depicts YHWH exercising judgment in Israel. Three broad categories of judicial action are identified: selective, unselective, and national. It is noted that more than one of these may be juxtaposed within the same text, and that each is a corollary of a wider theological frame of reference. The rest of the study focuses on the concept of judicial differentiation in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 1 - 20 announce wrath upon all Judah, while chs. 30 - 33 prophesy restoration for the entire Diaspora. Elsewhere, however, YHWH's judicial action is more nuanced. Jer. 21 - 24 differentiates between those who stay in Jerusalem and those who surrender (21.1-10), between Israel's leaders and people (23.1-8), and between the exiles and non-exiles (24.1-10). Jeremiah 27 - 29 also distinguishes between exiled and non-exiled communities, but adds a 'people and prophets' polarity. Finally, Jer. 37 - 45 offers hope to those who surrender (38.1-3) or remain in the land (42.1-22), alongside salvation oracles for two individuals who do not conform to these conditions (39.15-18; 45.1-5). Three main conclusions are drawn. Firstly, the polarities of judgment and salvation in Jer. are more varied than has generally been appreciated. Secondly, this diversity of perspective is theologically significant; it is suggested that each polarity offers a valid though incomplete lens through which to interpret God's judicial action. Thirdly, the concepts of judicial differentiation and non-differentiation may offer a helpful framework in which to read the book of Jeremiah as a whole.

The Book of Job functions as literature of survival where the main character, Job, deals with the trauma of suffering, attempts to come to terms with a collapsed moral and theological world, and eventually re-connects the broken pieces of his world into a new moral universe, which explains and contains the trauma of his recent experiences and renders his life meaningful again. The key is Job's death imagery. In fact, with its depiction of death in the prose tale and its frequent discussions of death in the poetic sections, Job may be the most death-oriented book in the bible. In particular, Job, in his speeches, articulates his experience of suffering as the experience of death. To help understand this focus on death in Job we turn to the psychohistorian, Robert Lifton, who investigates the effects on the human psyche of various traumatic experiences (wars, natural disasters, etc). According to Lifton, survivors of disaster often sense that their world has "collapsed" and they engage in a struggle to go on living. Part of this struggle involves finding meaning in death and locating death's place in the continuity of life.Like many such survivors, Job's understanding of death is a flashpoint indicating his bewilderment (or "desymbolization") in the early portions of his speeches, and then, later on, his arrival at what Lifton calls "resymbolization," the reconfiguration of a world that can account for disaster and render death - and life - meaningful again.

The so-called Song of Deborah celebrates a decisive victory during the era of the Judges, and praises Jael and the Israelites for their defeat of a Canaanite coalition led by Sisera. Despite generations of scholarship, virtually every aspect of the poem remains disputed, because it has been misunderstood in previous research. This study explains both the enigmatic role of Yahweh of the poem and its heroic ethos through a comparative study of heroic poetry. Part I addresses preliminary critical issues, the most important being the poem's unity. Although the case for the poem's unity has merit, the stronger argument is that religious material was added. References to Yahweh occur in the original poem, but it is essentially profane, making it exceptional among comparable Hebrew poetry. How, then, do we account for a Yahwistic poem which primarily praises the human characters?Part II establishes a basis of comparison for the original poem through a survey of heroic poetry. After determining that the original poem is not the narrative type, subgenres of the lyric family are analyzed. Of these, the victory song corresponds most closely to the poem. The results of the survey of heroic poetry are then used to determine whether the poem is heroic. The poem is assessed for heroic and non-heroic features, and the results indicate that it is indeed a heroic victory song. The refinement of the generic classification reveals a new literary genre in the Hebrew Bible and the social context from which the poem arose as well as explains the enigmatic role of Yahweh in the poem.

Even before the biblical canon became fixed, writers have revisited and reworked its stories. The author of Joshua takes the haphazard settlement of Israel recorded in the Book of Judges and retells it as an orderly military conquest. The writer of Chronicles expurgates the David cycle in Samuel I and II, offering an upright and virtuous king devoid of baser instincts. This literary phenomenon is not contained to inner-biblical exegesis. Once the telling becomes known, the retellings begin: through the New Testament, rabbinic midrash, medieval mystery plays, medieval and Renaissance poetry, nineteenth century novels, and contemporary literature, writers of the Western world have continued to occupy themselves with the biblical canon. However, there exists no adequate vocabulary-academic or popular, religious or secular, literary or theological-to describe the recurring appearances of canonical figures and motifs in later literature. Literary critics, bible scholars and book reviewers alike seek recourse in words like adaptation, allusion, echo, imitation and influence to describe what the author, for lack of better terms, has come to call retellings or recastings. Although none of these designations rings false, none approaches precision. They do not tell us what the author of a novel or poem has done with a biblical figure, do not signal how this newly recast figure is different from other recastings of it, and do not offer any indication of why these transformations have occurred. Sustaining Fictions sets out to redress this problem, considering the viability of the vocabularies of literary, midrashic, and translation theory for speaking about retelling.

An introduction reviews previous scholarship, and concludes that the cultic aspects of Judges 17-18 have not been examined in any depth. It then goes on to deal with the historical and redactional issues which previous scholars have found interesting. The issues of provenance and dating are then examined with the conclusion that the text was written down in the immediate aftermath of the Assyrian conquest of Dan in an attempt to preserve its sacred traditions. The text therefore reflects the self-understanding of the priests of Dan in the period immediately prior to its fall. The text of Judges 17-18 is then subjected to a rhetorical critical examination, followed by a more traditional form critical study. The next section is a comparison of similar cultic foundation stories from other cultures. Three major chapters examine the three major cultic issues raised by the text itself: images, priests and divination. Each chapter draws on evidence from the Hebrew Bible and its environment in an attempt to clarify the nature of the cult of Dan.Broadly, each chapter concludes that although there were some features peculiar to the cult reflected by Dan, in general, the Danite cult was not greatly different from that of its neighbours. A final chapter deals with what the text says about the tribe of Levi, with the conclusion that according to Judges 17-18, there was once a secular tribe of Levi. The conclusion draws a brief picture of cultic life in Dan in its final years.

This book argues that literary features and ritual dynamics within the book of Leviticus enlighten each other. The first two chapters establish that one may read Leviticus as a coherent literary work and define the genre of Leviticus as "narrativized ritual," a complex blending of descriptive narrative and prescriptive ritual. In conversation with Catherine Bell, they present several aspects of the text that are ritualized and show how this ritualization implies a negotiation of power relations among participants. The third and fourth chapters examine the first half of Leviticus, both the legal sections in Lev. 1-7 and 11-15 and the narratives in Lev. 8-10 and 16. These sections alternate between establishing the ritual system and exposing gaps and ambiguities in that system.Chapter 5 turns to the second half of Leviticus, traditionally called the Holiness Code. The ritual language found in this section is less formal and precise, mirroring the way in which the concept of holiness is expanded and extended to the whole people. As this material concludes the book, it relativizes and democratizes the strict ritual system contained in the first half.

The juxtaposition of 'favour' and 'righteousness' in the flood narrative raises an interpretative and theological problem: Is Noah chosen because of divine favour or because of his piety ? Source-critical scholars identify two different theologies by J and P: J understands Noah's election to be an act of grace whereas P emphasizes Noah's righteousness as the basis for his election. Scholars who interpret the flood narrative according to its final form argue that Noah is chosen because he is righteous. This view is problematic, however, since in the primaeval history grace is shown to the 'undeserving', thus it is characteristically unmerited. This book entails an exegetical analysis of, and according to, the final form of the text, with particular attention being given to the meaning and function of these verses in the Toledot structure. Kaminski argues against the commonly held view that Noah finds favour because he is righteous, and seeks to demonstrate that divine favour is unmerited in accordance with the theme of grace in the primaeval history and in Genesis as a whole. Thus what sets the flood story in motion is not Noah's righteousness, but the divine favour he finds.

A perusal of Old Testament covenant studies shows that Berit Olam lacks significant scholarly attention. This is surprising since even a quick glance at the eighteen instances shows that though the phrase occurs relatively infrequently it resides within very important passages in the Old Testament, and is connected to some of the most prominent figures of the Old Testament story. Moreover, when Berit Olam is addressed in scholarship it is generally conceived as an unbreakable, unilateral promise. But is this an accurate assessment of Berit Olam? What is an eternal covenant? How does an eternal covenant work? What are the relationships between the respective eternal covenants? What ideas of the text are we referring to when talk about an eternal covenant?This book answers these sorts of questions involving eternal covenant in the Bible by beginning with an exegetical study of Berit Olam in the Pentateuch. While word studies on Olam and Berit do exist, this study is interested in identifying the ideas and themes associated with each instance of the phrase within the final-form of the text in order to understand its meaning and significance. By addressing each instance in canonical order (Genesis 9, 17; Exodus 31; Leviticus 24; Numbers 18, 25), the study reveals that Berit Olam actually represents a bilateral and conditional arrangement that reflects certain common themes as it is used within distinct passages. The study serves as a starting point for grasping the contours of this elusive phrase within the Old Testament.

This work examines text-referencing practices and ideas about sacred texts in antiquity. This book shows how Ezekiel, an ancient Israelite author, borrowed from and transformed an earlier text containing religious instruction. Ezekiel used this earlier text (Lev 17-26, the "Holiness Code") in order to explain the sixth-century destruction of his city and the exile of its inhabitants, and to create hope for the exilic community of which he was a part. It was precisely because he regarded this text as authoritative and paradigmatic for his own day that he borrowed its words and phrases and transformed them for inclusion in his own work. The techniques behind these transformations include syntactic modification, inversion of word order, creation of word pairs, split-up and recombination of locutions, creation of word clusters, conflation, wordplay, and reversals.By transforming the Holiness Code's legal instructions and covenant rhetoric into accusations and descriptions of imminent or recent punishment, Ezekiel could explain the tragedy by creating a causal connection between the people's behavior and the disaster they experienced. By selectively and paradigmatically using the Holiness Code's covenant blessings, Ezekiel envisioned a future characterized by physical and spiritual restoration. Ezekiel transformed law into prophecy in his attempt to meet the needs of his community.

An examination of the evidence that the Festival of Weeks was the occasion for the celebration of the renewal of the covenant in the Second Temple period, encompassing chapters on the Hebrew Bible, book of Jubilees, Qumran Scrolls, and the New Testament (Luke-Acts and Ephesians).

This book analyzes the thirteen historical psalms (3, 7, 18, 34, 51, 52, 54, 56, 57, 59, 60, 63, 142) in the Psalter that refer to crucial moments in King David's life as recorded in the Samuel narrative (1 Sam 16-1 Kings 2). Because most Psalms research focuses on the original setting, the so-called Sitz-im-Leben, of these late additions to the book of Psalms, they have received little attention. Using a text-based analysis, Johnson has found that these historical psalms focus on episodes of King David's life in which he experienced trouble. For example, Psalm 3 refers to the coup started by his son Absalom, Psalm 59 refers to the evening when Saul tried to kill David, and Pslam 57 refers to David's days as a fugitive fleeing from Saul. By highlighting situations of David during his times of distress, these historical psalms tend to recast him as a man who prayed to his God in every moment of difficulty. This recasting of David adds to the various portraits representations of David found in biblical narrative.

This book examines the character and function of the documents mentioned in the biblical texts in relation to comparable references in literature from wider antiquity. Citing various references to written documents in the Hebrew Bible, Stott takes into consideration both those references that may point to external sources, for example, the many literary citations in the books of Kings and Chronicles, as well as certain other documents that play a role in the narrative, such as "the book of the law" in 2 Kings, the scrolls of Jeremiah, and the tablets of the law. The aim of this study is not to determine to which texts external to the world of the narrative, if any, these documents refer, or to identify the content of these documents, or to reconstruct their origins and historical development. Instead, the primary focus is to understand these references within their literary context, asking why indeed they are mentioned at all and what purpose they serve in the narrative, regardless of whether they existed or not in the "external world", or whether the stories about them have basis in historical reality "as it happened