John R. Levison – författare

Liberator, ancestor, cosmic Christ, and Black Messiah: these are just some of the ways that Jesus is viewed in the world. This rare book provides a global tour of the Christologies emerging in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, and those of North American feminist and African American theologies.

In Return to Babel, each of ten historically significant biblical texts is interpreted by three scholars: one Latin American, one African, and one Asian. Geographic locales range from a tiny village in the Philippines to the city of Nairobi, Kenya; from Gwangju, South Korea, with its one million inhabitants, to the frontier city of Wiwili in the northern mountains of Nicaragua. The result is a collection of essays that shed new light on familiar texts and make the reader aware of the ways in which culture can shape our understanding of Scripture.

Containing meticulous, up-to-date scholarship yet written in a flowing, enjoyable style, this comprehensive book takes readers on a journey through a breathtaking array of literary texts, encompassing the literature of Israel, early Judaism, the Greco-Roman world, and the New Testament. John R. Levison’s skill with ancient texts—already demonstrated in his acclaimed The Spirit in First-Century Judaism—is here extended to a myriad of other expressions of the Spirit in antiquity.

This book provides the most thorough and systematic analysis of early Jewish interpretations of Adam currently available. With detailed exegesis Levison demonstrates that each early Jewish author painted a unique portrait of Adam by utilizing Adam to express a particular, preconceived theological Tendenz. This study therefore displaces the notion that a unified Adam mythology existed in early Judaism with the recognition that each author readily adapted the early chapters of Genesis according to specific needs and aims. Alongside an introduction which surveys studies of early Jewish interpretations of Adam and studies on the Adam cycle, this book contains analyses of all relevant passages from Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon, Philo, Jubilees, Josephus, 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, Apocalypse of Moses and Vita Adae et Evae. This monograph is an indispensable tool for both Old and New Testament studies, providing a variety of early Jewish examples of biblical exegesis from c. 200 BCE to 135 CE, as well as insight into the milieu within which Paul and other early Christian writers formulated their own unique interpretations of Adam.

With his latest book, The Holy Spirit before Christianity, John R. Levison again changes the face and foundation of Christian belief in the Holy Spirit. The categories Christians have used, the boundaries they have created, the proprietary claims they have made - all of these evaporate, now that Levison has looked afresh at Scripture. In a study that is both poignant and provocative, Levison takes readers back five hundred years before Jesus, where he discovers history's first grasp of the Holy Spirit as a personal agent. The prophet Haggai and the author of Isaiah 56-66, in their search for ways to grapple with the tragic events of exile and to articulate hope for the future, took up old exodus traditions of divine agents - pillars of fire, an angel, God's own presence - and fused them with belief in God's Spirit. Since it was the Spirit of God who led Israel up from Egypt and formed them into a holy nation, now, the prophets assured their hearers, the Spirit of God would lead and renew those returning from exile. Taking this point of origin as our guide, Christian pneumatology - belief in the Holy Spirit - is less about an exclusively Christian experience or doctrine and more about the presence of God in the grand scheme of Israel's history, in which Christianity is ancient Israel's heir. This explosive observation traces the essence of Christian pneumatology deep into the heart of the Hebrew Scriptures. The implications are fierce: the priority of Israelite tradition at the headwaters of pneumatology means that Christians can no longer hold stubbornly to the Holy Spirit as an exclusively Christian belief. But the implications are hopeful as well, offering Christians a richer history, a renewed vocabulary, a shared path with Judaism, and the promise of a more expansive and authentic experience of the Holy Spirit.

In his trailblazing studies of the spirit in Jewish and Christian Antiquity, John R. (Jack) Levison shatters theological and exegetical taxonomies. Should the spirit be understood as breath or Spirit--or both? Is the spirit directed to creation or salvation--or both? Is the spirit a force or an angel--or both? Does the spirit inspire ecstasy or wisdom--or both? When Levison transfers the starting point of pneumatology from the New Testament to the Hebrew Bible, from Christianity to Judaism, questions swell, assumptions detonate, and expectations flourish. Consequently, Levison''s studies are considered "impressive and provocative" (Review of Biblical Literature), "delightful, engaging" (Catholic Biblical Quarterly), "compelling, eloquent, sensitive" (Word and World), and "a remarkable read" (Themelios), with "profound ramifications for both Jewish and New Testament Studies" (Journal of Jewish Studies). Now, for the first time, selections of his breathtaking array of studies are available in three accessible volumes. This volume, in which you will discover some of the programmatic studies Levison published on the biblical literature of both testaments, reveals why Reading Religion: A Publication of the American Academy of Religion forecasts that "Levison will continue to be at the center of our most fruitful discussions of pneumatology."

In his trailblazing studies of the spirit in Jewish and Christian antiquity, John R. (Jack) Levison shatters theological and exegetical taxonomies. Should the spirit be understood as breath or Spirit--or both? Is the spirit directed to creation or salvation--or both? Is the spirit a force or an angel--or both? Does the spirit inspire ecstasy or wisdom--or both? When Levison transfers the starting point of pneumatology from the New Testament to the Hebrew Bible, from Christianity to Judaism, questions swell, assumptions detonate, and expectations flourish. Consequently, Levison''s studies are considered "impressive and provocative" (Review of Biblical Literature), "delightful, engaging" (Catholic Biblical Quarterly), "impressive" (Journal of Ancient Judaism) and "a significant shift in research on understandings of the spirit in Judaism" (Journal of Theological Studies), with "profound ramifications for both Jewish and New Testament Studies" (Journal of Jewish Studies). Now, for the first time, selections of his breathtaking array of studies are available in three accessible volumes. In this volume, you will encounter Levison''s unprecedented and probing studies of the spirit in early Judaism in the context of Greek and Roman thought, from Sirach to the Tosefta, from the Dead Sea Scrolls to Philo of Alexandria, from Judith to Josephus. As they engage, readers will understand why Reading Religion: A Publication of the American Academy of Religion forecasts that "Levison will continue to be at the center of our most fruitful discussions of pneumatology."

The Spirit Says offers a stunning collection of articles by an influential assemblage of scholars, all of whom lend considerable insight to the relationship between inspiration and interpretation. They address this otherwise intractable question with deft and occasionally daring readings of a variety of texts from the ancient world, including—but not limited to—the scriptures of early Judaism and Christianity. The thrust of this book can be summed up not so much in one question as in four: o What is the role of revelation in the interpretation of Scripture? o What might it look like for an author to be inspired? o What motivates a claim to the inspired interpretation of Scripture? o Who is inspired to interpret Scripture? More often than not, these questions are submerged in this volume under the tame rubrics of exegesis and hermeneutics, but they rise in swells and surges too to the surface, not just occasionally but often. Combining an assortment of prominent voices, this book does not merely offer signposts along the way. It charts a pioneering path toward a model of interpretation that is at once intellectually robust and unmistakably inspired.

The Spirit Says offers a stunning collection of articles by an influential assemblage of scholars, all of whom lend considerable insight to the relationship between inspiration and interpretation. They address this otherwise intractable question with deft and occasionally daring readings of a variety of texts from the ancient world, including—but not limited to—the scriptures of early Judaism and Christianity.

The thrust of this book can be summed up not so much in one question as in four:

o What is the role of revelation in the interpretation of Scripture?

o What might it look like for an author to be inspired?

o What motivates a claim to the inspired interpretation of Scripture?

o Who is inspired to interpret Scripture?

More often than not, these questions are submerged in this volume under the tame rubrics of exegesis and hermeneutics, but they rise in swells and surges too to the surface, not just occasionally but often. Combining an assortment of prominent voices, this book does not merely offer signposts along the way. It charts a pioneering path toward a model of interpretation that is at once intellectually robust and unmistakably inspired.

The Spirit Says offers a stunning collection of articles by an influential assemblage of scholars, all of whom lend considerable insight to the relationship between inspiration and interpretation. They address this otherwise intractable question with deft and occasionally daring readings of a variety of texts from the ancient world, including—but not limited to—the scriptures of early Judaism and Christianity.

The thrust of this book can be summed up not so much in one question as in four:

o What is the role of revelation in the interpretation of Scripture?

o What might it look like for an author to be inspired?

o What motivates a claim to the inspired interpretation of Scripture?

o Who is inspired to interpret Scripture?

More often than not, these questions are submerged in this volume under the tame rubrics of exegesis and hermeneutics, but they rise in swells and surges too to the surface, not just occasionally but often. Combining an assortment of prominent voices, this book does not merely offer signposts along the way. It charts a pioneering path toward a model of interpretation that is at once intellectually robust and unmistakably inspired.

The Greek Life of Adam and Eve is a brooding epic that explores experiences of disease, death, and hope through a riveting reinvention of the stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Seth. Now, for the first time, Jack Levison offers the English-speaking world its first comprehensive commentary on this saga. The introduction offers analyses, sweeping in scope and rich in detail, for which no comparable discussions exist in any language. Chapter one details literary character—narrative flow, characters, and reconstructions of literary growth. With consummate clarity, chapter two brings order to the scholarly chaos surrounding Greek manuscripts, Greek text forms, versions (Latin, Armenian, Georgian, Slavonic), and the history of research. Chapter three investigates provenance: external references to the Greek Life and evidence for either a Jewish or Christian origin; Levison demonstrates that arguments for either a Jewish or Christian provenance cannot bear the weight scholars have laid on them. The commentary is equally comprehensive, with far-reaching discussions of the Greek illuminated by the foreground of Jewish scripture and the milieu of ancient Greek and Hebrew literature. With a fresh translation and bibliography.