Ronald Hendel – författare

The first volume of a groundbreaking two-part commentary on the book of Genesis by leading biblical scholar Ronald Hendel  The first eleven chapters of Genesis narrate the origin of the universe; the creation of the first human beings; the beginnings of moral reasoning, society, and culture; and the cataclysmic global flood. By showing how life and civilization came into being, Genesis 1–11 offers a richly drawn map for understanding the world as a meaningful cosmos and an ethical guide for human purpose and responsibility within it.  The culmination of over thirty years of research, this long-awaited study by leading Genesis scholar Ronald Hendel is the first comprehensive scholarly commentary on Genesis 1–11 in a generation. Drawing on archaeological discoveries from Israel and the ancient Near East as well as contemporary methods of scholarship, it presents a multilayered view of the classic text. The extensive introduction, notes, and comments explore ancient textual versions and editions, historical contexts, literary style and design, compositional history, cosmology, ethics, and the book’s interpretive life in Judaism and Christianity. Featuring numerous illustrations, this engagingly written commentary is an indispensable, field-defining guide to the first eleven chapters of the Bible.

According to an old tradition preserved in the Palestinian Targums, the Hebrew Bible is 'the Book of Memories.' The sacred past recalled in the Bible serves as a model and wellspring for the present. The remembered past, says Ronald Hendel, is the material with which biblical Israel constructed its identity as a people, a religion, and a culture. In Israel's formative years, these memories circulated orally in the context of family and tribe. Over time they came to be crystallized in various written texts. The Hebrew Bible is a vast compendium of writings, spanning a thousand-year period from roughly the twelfth to the second century BCE, and representing perhaps a small slice of the writings of that period. The texts are often overwritten by later texts, creating a complex pastiche of text, reinterpretation and commentary. The religion and culture of ancient Israel are expressed by these texts, and in no small part, also created by them, as various texts formulate new or altered conceptions of the sacred past. This book explores the interplay of culture, history, and memory in the Hebrew Bible, particularly in relation to issues of the formation and transformations of religious and ethnic identity. This accessibly written book (Hendel writes a column for the popular journal Bible Review) represents the mature thought of one of our leading scholars of the Hebrew Bible. It should be required reading for everyone in the field.

From two expert scholars comes a comprehensive study of the dating of the Hebrew BibleThe age of the Hebrew Bible is a topic that has sparked controversy and debate in recent years. The scarcity of clear evidence allows for the possibility of many views, though these are often clouded by theological and political biases. This impressive, broad‑ranging book synthesizes recent linguistic, textual, and historical research to clarify the history of biblical literature, from its oldest texts and literary layers to its youngest. In clear, concise language, the authors provide a comprehensive overview that cuts across scholarly specialties to create a new standard for the historical study of the Bible. This much‑needed work paves the path forward to dating the Hebrew Bible and understanding crucial aspects of its historical and contemporary significance.

Reading Genesis presents a panoramic view of the most vital ways that Genesis is approached in modern scholarship. Essays by ten eminent scholars cover the perspectives of literature, gender, memory, sources, theology, and the reception of Genesis in Judaism and Christianity. Each contribution addresses the history and rationale of the method, insightfully explores particular texts of Genesis, and deepens the interpretive gain of the method in question. These ways of reading Genesis, which include its classic past readings, map out a pluralistic model for understanding Genesis in - and for - the modern age.

Reading Genesis presents a panoramic view of the most vital ways that Genesis is approached in modern scholarship. Essays by ten eminent scholars cover the perspectives of literature, gender, memory, sources, theology, and the reception of Genesis in Judaism and Christianity. Each contribution addresses the history and rationale of the method, insightfully explores particular texts of Genesis, and deepens the interpretive gain of the method in question. These ways of reading Genesis, which include its classic past readings, map out a pluralistic model for understanding Genesis in - and for - the modern age.

An essential biography of one of the Bible's most influential booksDuring its 2,500-year life, the book of Genesis has been the keystone to important claims about God and humanity in Judaism and Christianity, and it plays a central role in contemporary debates about science, politics, and human rights. Ronald Hendel provides a panoramic history of this iconic book, exploring its impact on Western religion, philosophy, literature, art, and more. From debates about slavery, gender, and sexuality to struggles over creationism and evolution, Genesis has left its indelible mark on our world and continues to do so today. This wide-ranging account tells the remarkable life story of an incomparable spiritual masterpiece, tracing how Genesis has shaped views of reality—and how changing views of reality have shaped interpretations of Genesis.

The relationship between the biblical representations of the past and the history of the second and early first millennia BCE is best comprehended by the concept of cultural memory. This volume investigates the dynamics of cultural memory in the Hebrew Bible, with case studies on the ancestors, the Exodus, the conquest, and Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The texts create a monumental past by a mixture of memory, forgetting, revision, and re-actualization, motivated in various measures by religion, politics, the landscape, ethnic relationships, and cultural self-fashioning. The archaeology of the Levant illuminates the complicated pathways between history and biblical memory.

The relationship between the biblical representations of the past and the history of the second and early first millennia BCE is best comprehended by the concept of cultural memory. This volume investigates the dynamics of cultural memory in the Hebrew Bible, with case studies on the ancestors, the Exodus, the conquest, and Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The texts create a monumental past by a mixture of memory, forgetting, revision, and re-actualization, motivated in various measures by religion, politics, the landscape, ethnic relationships, and cultural self-fashioning. The archaeology of the Levant illuminates the complicated pathways between history and biblical memory.