Baruch Halpern – författare

An important reinterpretation of the Hebrew Bible as historiography, now available in paper.

Three major essays by Baruch Halpern, Brian Peckham and Paul E. Dion deal with traumatic changes in Israelite culture, in particular the transition from the traditional culture of Israel in Iron Age IIA (tenth-ninth centuries) to a new, more widely literate culture in the eighth-seventh centuries BCE. These essays throw into relief changes in legal, political and religious culture in Judah in the last 150 years of its independence. Their combined implications for the origins of Western law and civilization, and for the models from which Reformation and Enlightenment political theory were drawn, are substantial.

Three major essays by Baruch Halpern, Brian Peckham and Paul E. Dion deal with traumatic changes in Israelite culture, in particular the transition from the traditional culture of Israel in Iron Age IIA (tenth-ninth centuries) to a new, more widely literate culture in the eighth-seventh centuries BCE. These essays throw into relief changes in legal, political and religious culture in Judah in the last 150 years of its independence. Their combined implications for the origins of Western law and civilization, and for the models from which Reformation and Enlightenment political theory were drawn, are substantial.

This is a print on demand book and is therefore non- returnable. The Bible portrays King David as an exceptional man and a paragon of godly devotion. But was he? Some scholars deny that he existed at all. Did he? This challenging book examines the written and archaeological evidence critically in an effort to paint an accurate picture of one of the Bible's central figures. Neither defending nor rejecting the traditions about David, Baruch Halpern, a leading scholar of biblical history and the ancient Near East, traces the origins of development of David's persona. Because the biblical text clearly responds to concerns that can only be contemporary with David himself, we can believe that David was both real and a central actor in the historical drama of ancient Israel. Yet at the same time, the written record also shows that contemporaries understood David's character to be much more unsavory trhan the tradition has hitherto allowed. Halpern digs beneath the layers of tradition to understand David as an individual, as a person. The man he uncovers turns out to have been complex, ambiguous, and — above all — surprising. According to Halpern, the image of David grew over time. He was the founder of the dynasty that perpetuated the texts about him, and they progressively exaggerated his accomplishments. But in the earliest writings David remains a modest figure, as this book shows for the first time. To understand David as a human being, one must keep in mind that he was primarily a politicians who operated in a rough-and-tumble environment in which competitors were ready literally to slit throats. Halpern's work raises many provocative questions: Was David an Israelite or a Philistine? Was Solomon really David's son? Did David take the throne of Israel by the consent or against the will of the people? How many murders did he commit on his way to the crown? Indeed, was David someone it would have been wise to even invite to dinner? The challenging arguments in David's Secret Demons are sure to provoke all kinds of discussion among biblical scholars and general readers alike. In addition — a big bonus — Halpern's accessible, at times humorous prose will itself draw readers everywhere into the compelling story of David found between these covers.

Fourteen studies contributed in honor of Frank Moore Cross, Hancock Professor of Biblical and Other Oriental Language at Harvard University. Contributors include: J. A. Miles, Jr., C. L’Heureux, B. Halpern, W. Janzen, R. B. Coote, R. J. Clifford, J. D. Levenson, R. E. Friedman, R. Polzin, J. S. Ackerman, L. J. Greenspoon, J. D. Purvis, J. J. Collins, and A. Y. Collins.

The first in a series of volumes coming out of programs at the Department of Biblical and Judaic Studies at the University of California, San Diego, this book contains a number of essays originally presented at the Fourth Conversation in Biblical Studies held at UCSD, as well as pieces by each of the editors. Future volumes in the series will include both monographs and, like this one, collected essays.

Für die Entstehung des Westens war die Achsenzeit (800-400 v. Chr.) unentbehrlich. Baruch Halpern untersucht den Einfluß sich verändernder Kosmologien und sozialer Beziehungen auf den kulturellen Wandel dieser Epoche und insbesondere auf die Gebiete von Mesopotamien bis Israel und Griechenland, aber auch über den Mittelmeerraum hinaus bis Ägypten und Italien. Der Autor zeigt einen enormen Anstieg internationalen Handels und Austauschs: eine Renaissance, die zu einer Neudefinition des Selbst in verschiedenen Kulturen führte und damit zu einer Reformation beitrug. Dieser Prozeß beschleunigte unausweichlich eine Aufklärung. Er ist seit jeher Teil der Geschichte und findet periodisch in wissenschaftlichen oder kulturellen Bereichen statt. Er stellt die Basis für eine Modernisierung oder Verwestlichung dar, wo immer sie in irgendeiner Form stattfindet.

This collaborative commentary on, or dictionary of, Kings, explores cross-cutting aspects of Kings ranging from the analysis of its composition, historically regarded, to its transmission and reception. Ample attention is accorded sources, figures and peoples who play a part in the book. The commentary deals with Kings’ treatment in translation and role in later ancient literature. While our comments do not proceed verse by verse, the volume furnishes guidance, from contributors highly qualified to advance contemporary discussion, on the book's historical background, its literary intentions and characteristics, and on themes and motifs central to its understanding, both of itself and of the world from which it arose. This volume functions as a meta-commentary, offering windows into the secondary literature, but assembling data more fully than is the case in individual commentaries.

Karl Jaspers dubbed the period, 800-400 BCE, the Axial Age. Axial it was, for out of it emerged the idea of Greek culture, with its influence on Roman and later empires. Jaspers’ Axial Age was the chrysalis of culturally-meaningful modernity. Trade expands intellectual horizons. The economic and political effects permeate such social domains as technology, language and worldview. In the last category, many issues take on an emotional freight – the birth of science, monotheism, philosophy, even theory itself. Cultural Contact and Appropriation in the Axial-Age Mediterranean World: A Periplos, explores adaptation, resistance and reciprocity in Axial-Age Mediterranean exchange (ca. 800-300 BCE). Some essayists expand on an international discussion about myth, to which even the Church Fathers contributed. Others explore questions of how vocabulary is reapplied, or how the alphabet is reapplied, in a new environment. Detailed cases ground participants’ capacity to illustrate both the variety of the disciplinary integuments in which we now speak, one with the other, across disciplines, and the sheer complexity of constructing a workable programme for true collaboration.