Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies – serie

The Literary Coherence of the Book of Micah puts forth a framework to understand the nature of literary coherence. This enables an analysis of the sources and dimensions of the coherence found in the book of Micah by the primary scholarly proposals for understanding the structure and connectedness of the whole book. Each of these proposals ultimately fails to account for all the features found in the text. The author then explains a new reading of the final form of the text of Micah, based on the placement of the references concerning the remnant. A brief exposition of the text as a canonical whole indicates the flow and development in the final form of the book. The framework formulated earlier provides a basis to evaluate the coherence that this understanding of the book of Micah uncovers and to show that this means of reading the canonical book best accounts for the greatest number of features in the text.

This volume brings together experts in the study of ancient prayers and divination methods to analyse the variety of means by which human beings sought to communicate with their gods and by which the gods were seen to communicate with their worshippers. In a departure from previous scholarship, the volume brings together the study of prophecy, as an intuitive form of divination, with the study of technical methods of communication and other forms of institutionalised communication such as prayer. Such a format allows divine-human communication to be studied in both directions simultaneously: the means by which the divine communicates to human beings through divination, and the means by which human beings communicate with the divine through prayer. This new perspective on the study of divine-human-divine communication allows scholars to better appreciate the way in which communication and the relationship between heaven and earth was conceived in the ancient near East.

An investigation of the literary structure and rhetorical challenge that prompted the book's production. Moller argues that the book of Amos captures and presents the debate between Amos and his eighth-century audience. When read in the light of Israel's fall, the presentation of Amos struggling (and failing) to convince his contemporaries of the imminent divine punishment functions as a powerful warning to subsequent Judaean readers.

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.

At a time when the focus of Psalms research has increasingly shifted from the form-critical concerns of Hermann Gunkel and his followers, Defining the Sacred Songs argues for the continued importance of genre as an interpretative category in the post-critical era. Drawing on insights from the Psalms' long interpretative tradition, Nasuti is able to bring a fresh perspective on the role that the genre definition of these texts plays in both contemporary scholarship and the life of the communities that use them. The result is a better appreciation of the peculiar power of the Psalms and a new understanding of the nature of genre analysis in modern biblical studies.

The Old Testament, and biblical scholarship itself, distinguishes between mythical and historical. This book argues that only historical thing in the Bible is the Bible itself, a superb product of Jewish thought. What is narrated in the Bible is only myth. But this myth about Israel's past was still built with fragments of history, or rather with written traditions that were different from those expressed in the actual text, and obviously more ancient. These essays follow in the spirit of his controversial History and Ideology in Ancient Israel, which combine detailed philological reseaerch, a wide knowledge of ancient Near Eastern literature and Biblical Archaeology--and a radical way of understanding what the biblical text is really telling us. This is an erudite and thought-provoking book, which should not be ignored by anyone who finds the origin of the Bible a fascinating and still largely unknown phenomenon.

This book examines, in greater detail than previously undertaken, the presence of Priestly and Deuteronomic language and concepts in the book of Ezekiel. It asks: what is the nature of the relationship between Ezekiel and the Priestly Source? What is the nature of the relationship between Ezekiel, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomistic History? Where does the book of Ezekiel stand in the evolution of Israelite history, theology and literature-specifically, what can Ezekiel teach us about the composition of the Torah?

Why do the books of Chronicles regard the performance of choral music as an integral part of the sacrificial ritual at the temple, despite the lack of sanction for it in the Pentateuch? And why do they stress that it must be synchronized with the presentation of the regular public burnt offering at the temple? These and other questions are answered in this challenging new volume. After an introductory chapter defining the scope of the study as an analysis of the ritual function and theological significance of sacred song, the author examines the divine institution and royal establishment of the Levitical choir in Jerusalem. This is followed by an examination of the components of the Lord's song in terms of its contents, location, times, instruments and performers. A chapter on the function of sacred song as determined by its place within the sacrificial ritual follows, and the fifth chapter deals with its theological significance as the proclamation of the Lord's presence with his people.

This study is an investigation into the lexical meanings of Hebrew terms for the human life cycle in the Old Testament. The investigation differs from previous studies in that the terms are studied from the perspective of a specific semantic domain (age) and not in isolation from each other. In addition, other modern linguistic approaches are applies, including syntagmatic and paradigmatic 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.

(Per)mutations of Qohelet explores the question, Who is Qohelet? Rather than peering behind or through the text to answer this question in terms of authorship, Koosed analyzes the identity that is created through the words on the page. The text is not a transparent medium connecting reader with author; instead, it is an opaque body - it has weight, substance, skin. Koosed begins with an analysis of the ways in which words construct identities and the reasons why words can affect us so profoundly, relying primarily on the work of Judith Butler and Elaine Scarry. She then explores autobiography and how the genre of autobiography - as reconfigured by Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida - relates to Qohelet. These two chapters then set the framework for what follows: an analysis of the various bodily organs and sensations contained within the book of Qohelet. The body is embedded in the text through the naming of body parts (eye, hand, heart). And this same body is encoded in form, structure, and syntax, so that the text becomes a body with organs, systems, and even a life of its own. The book is a body and the book speaks of bodies.It speaks of the body's organs and senses; it concerns itself with the pleasures and pains of the body, the gendered body, the dying body. Finally, the ritual body is highlighted in the final passage of this enigmatic book.

The book is a Festschrift for Prof. Gordon Wenham. Its chosen theme is intended to reflect his central interests in his long career of writing on the Old Testament, in which he has exemplified the highest standards of scholarship, but also written for practitioners of biblical interpretation. The topic of 'reading the law' has three aspects which will be treated by the various contributions, namely: 1. Reading the Pentateuch: Pentateuchal criticism, narrative readings, rhetorical-critical readings; 2. Reading the Law: the law codes in historical and/or literary context, anthropological readings, the law in relation to prophets, wisdom, worship; 3. Reading the Bible ethically: e.g. ethics of marriage, war. Contributors Prof. John Barton (Oxford University) Prof. Hugh Williamson (Oxford University) Prof. Ronald Clements (London University) Prof. Robert Gordon (Cambridge University) Prof. John Rogerson (Sheffield University) Prof. Raymond Westbrook (Johns Hopkins University) Prof. Alan Millard (Liverpool University) Dr. Walter Moberly (Durham University) Prof. Richard Hess (Denver Seminary) Prof. Nobuyoshi Kiuchi (Tokyo Christian University) Prof. Craig Bartholomew (Redeemer University College) Dr. Desmond Alexander (Queen's University, Belfast) Dr. Thomas Renz (Oak Hill College) Dr. Robin Parry (Paternoster Press) Dr. Pekka PitkSnen (University of Gloucestershire) Dr. Paul Barker (Holy Trinity Church, Doncaster, Victoria)

Hebrew tradition presents Haggai and Zechariah as prophetic figures arising in the wake of the Babylonian exile with an agenda of restoration for the early Persian period community in Yehud. This agenda, however, was not original to these prophets, but rather drawn from the earlier traditions of Israel. In recent years there has been a flurry of scholarly attention on the relationship between these Persian period prophets and the earlier traditions with a view to the ways in which these prophets draw on earlier tradition in innovative ways. It is time to take stock of these many contributions and provide a venue for dialogue and evaluation.

" This volume is an inquiry into the complex relationship of the prophetic texts and Israelite history. Taken as a whole, the book provides a "round-table" discussion that examines the thesis that the study of prophetic literature (i.e., Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve) and the history of Israel are best undertaken in interaction with one another. This topic appropriately honors John Hayes's long-standing scholarly contributions in prophetic interpretation and historical research, as well as his interest in the possibilities of the intersection of these two areas. The volume also promises to contribute to the body of knowledge about prophets and Israel's past in general by affording twenty-four historians and prophetic scholars the opportunity to explore their areas of interest in fresh ways while in dialogue with a central thesis. All twenty-four contributors have engaged John's ideas about prophets and/or history as students, colleagues, or in their research and publications. Thus, the question of what impact the fields of prophetic research and Israelite history can and should have on one another unites the articles.The book's individual parts, however, are contributions of historians and prophetic scholars who enter the discussion from their own perspectives and examine the possibilities and problems of the intersection of these two topics. The articles from historians will focus on questions about the usefulness of prophetic texts for reconstructing Israel's history, and will also branch out and address topics such as the social location of the prophets and the benefits of other ancient texts, as well as archaeology, to understanding the prophets. Scholars coming from the prophetic "side" will offer different perspectives on prophetic identity, experience, and rhetoric, and their possible correlations with historical contexts. These articles will engage broad issues such as how history may form the "context of prophets' thought" (to quote contributor J. Gordon McConville), and will explore specific texts and issues drawn from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos, Zechariah, along with Daniel and Deuteronomy."

This collection of essays advances psalms studies through a concerted focus on the persuasive aim of psalmic poetry, and it offers unique perspectives on rhetorical devices within the psalms. These essays include discussions not only of structure, literary devices, and rhetorical strategies, but the authors also dialogue with classical rhetoric, modern psalms research, and current trends in rhetoric and cognitive science.Part One discusses various theoretical issues. Several articles discuss lament within the psalms, including the function of appeals to pathos, lament's compensation for monotheistic piety, and the need for more attention to the laments' poetry and rhetoric to understand their meaning. Other essays address the psalmists' self-presentation, the ideological identity of the wicked within the psalms, faunal imagery with regard to tenor and vehicle, the topoi related to God in call to praise psalms, the function of gaps in prayers for help, and the rhetoric of kingship psalms as attempts to persuade readers of the legitimacy and efficacy of kingship.Part Two consists of rhetorical analyses of several psalms or psalm pairs, each with distinctive emphases. These include a discussion of Psalm 8 from a bodily perspective, the nature and implication of nature language within Psalm 23, the structure of Psalm 102 within Book IV of the Psalter along with its theology and lament, the forensic case of Psalms 105 and 106 emphasizing the role of narrative in forensic rhetoric and comparing the results with classical rhetoric, and an analysis of the rhetorical aim of Psalm 147, subjected to developments within cognitive science.

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 volume comprises fifteen essays classified in three major sections. Some of these essays raise theoretical and methodological issues while others focus on specific topics. The time span ranges from late biblical period to the present. The volume reflects the current thought of some of the major scholars in the field in various shapes and contexts as well as from a variety of perspectives: inner-biblical, qumranic, New Testament, various rabbinic literature (targumic, midrashic, halachic, and Medieval kabalistic), and some modern interpretation. The essays reflects the contemporary thought of some of the foremost scholars in the field of biblical exegesis from a variety of standpoints, move the biblical exegesis well beyond its conventional limits, and enrich the knowledge and deeper the understanding of the readers.