Vetus Testamentum, Supplements - Böcker

This volume is concerned with the origin and development of the Targum to the Prophets, focusing for this purpose upon the Twelve Prophets (from Nahum to Malachi).A wide-ranging introductory chapter sets current research in context by surveying almost two centuries of Targumic study. It is argued that the evidence in the extant text for a Second Commonwealth phase in the Targum's history is meagre and that, in particular, the Qumran Habakkuk pesher is not dependent upon the Targum to Habakkuk.Other issues discussed are the Hebrew Vorlage of the Targum, incipit formulae, 'Additional Targum' and the standard Targum, the haggadah in the Targum to Zechariah 3 in the light of a (so-called) Eastern Aramaic linguistic element, Targum and Peshiṭta, land and divine presence, and the final redaction of the Targum.

Scribes and Translators is a critical reflection on the textual pluralism as reflected in the book of Kings.The first part of the book examines the diverse texts transmitted by the manuscripts. Special attention is paid to the Antiochene text of the Septuagint that is being edited in Madrid. The second part is devoted to the analysis of Old Latin readings, transmitted by a Spanish family of Vulgate Bibles, with no support in any of the known manuscripts. Finally, the whole evidence is discussed in the frame of the plurality of texts confirmed by the Qumran documents for those books.Based on Old Latin material recently published it sheds light on the text transmission of Kings and on the translation techniques and the history of the Biblical texts in general.

The second part of a 2-volume work, this study combines recent approaches that treat the formation and early interpretation of the final form of the book of Isaiah with the more conventional historical-critical methods that treat the use of traditions by Isaiah's authors and editors. Studies investigate Isaiah's use of early sacred tradition, the editing and contextualization of oracles within the Isaianic tradition itself, and the interpretation of the book of Isaiah in later traditions (as seen in the various versions of the text and various communities).Contributors of this volume include virtually all of the major scholars of Isaiah and the leading scholars of biblical interpretation in the intertestamental, New Testament, and early Jewish periods.

This is the first detailed study that critically compares and contrasts the wisdom sentences of the Book of Proverbs with classical and post-classical Arabic proverbs; reference is also made to current Arabic proverbs.The wisdom tradition of Solomon is examined and is compared to that of the Arab sage Luqmân. The book deals with three main themes that are of special significance both in the Book of Proverbs and in Arabic proverbial works: royalty, speech and silence, wealth and poverty.The book concludes with a study of some form-critical and traditio-historical aspects of the treated proverbs.Hundreds of classical Arabic proverbs and wisdom sayings of Prophet Muḥammad appear for the first time in English.

This book deals with central and universal issues of reward, punishment and forgiveness for the first time in a compact and comprehensive way. Until now these themes have received far too little attention in scholarly research both in their own right and in their interrelationship. The scope of this study is to present them in relation to the foundations of our culture. These and related issues are treated primarily within the Hebrew Bible, using the methods of literary analysis. The centrality of these themes in all religions and all cultures has resulted, however, in a comparative investigation, drawing attention to the problem of terminology, the importance of Greek culture for the European tradition, and the fusion of Greek and Jewish-Christian cultures in our modern philosophical and theological systems. This broad perspective shows that the biblical personalist understanding of divine authority and of human righteousness or guilt provides the personalist key to the search for reconciliation in a divided world.

This volume honors the lifetime of scholarly contribution and leadership of Professor Emanuel Tov, Judah L. Magnes professor of Bible at the Department of Bible, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Colleagues from all over the world have contributed significant studies in the three areas of Tov’s primary interest and expertise: the Hebrew Bible, its Greek translations, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.This Festschrift is a fitting tribute to one of the generation’s leading scholars, whose dedicated efforts as editor-in-chief have brought about the complete publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

This study applies several linguistic approaches to the book of Samuel in order to investigate the defining features of metaphor and the way metaphor and other forms of figurative language operate in biblical narrative. The book begins with an exploration of how to identify and interpret the metaphors in 1 Samuel 25. Next, the metaphors in 2 Samuel 16:16-17:14 are compared with other tropes, primarily metonymy and simile. Then the notion of “dead” metaphors is challenged while examining the figurative language in 1 Samuel 24. An in-depth analysis of the figurative language in these texts results in a better understanding of the mechanics of metaphor, and a richer, more nuanced reading of these stories, their characters, and language.

This book is the first detailed investigation of the translation of the Hebrew verbs of Chronicles into Greek, especially from the perspective of two diachronic developments: that of the Hebrew verbal system and that of the trend toward a more literal translation of the Bible. The translation provides a view of the Hebrew verbal system in the Hellenistic period (approx. 150 BCE) as part of the continuum in the development of the Hebrew verbal system from classical biblical Hebrew to Mishnaic Hebrew. The translation also testifies to the trend in the process of the translation of the Bible from the freer (but still literal) translation of the Pentateuch and Samuel/Kings to the slavishly literal translation of Aquila.

Focusing on the phenomenon of prophecy in the ancient Near East, this study offers a comparison between parts of First Isaiah and the Assyrian prophecies. In the first part, the material from First Isaiah and from seventh-century Assyria is investigated in its own right. The second part is a comparison of the Isaiah tradition in its earliest shape with the prophetic material from seventh-century Assyria. The topics dealt with in the comparison are the interrelation of prophetic oracles and historical events, the functions of the prophets, and the literary development of prophecy. The study shows that ancient Israelite prophecy, of which the historical Isaiah was an exponent, was much in conformity with ancient Near Eastern prophecy in general.

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.

The studies collected in this volume were written in honour of Johann Cook, emeritus professor of the Department of Ancient Studies at Stellenbosch University. They cover a variety of subjects including the translation of Hebrew expressions into Greek, the reception of LXX texts in various contexts, topics related to wisdom and the LXX versions of sapiential literature, Ben Sira as a scribe of the Second Temple period, themes in the works of Philo and Josephus and the references to Sumkhos ben Joseph in rabbinic writings. The contributions therefore focus on the Septuagint, early Jewish sages and ancient scriptures. They present the results of original research, identify new lines and topics of inquiry and make novel contributions to existing insights.

In the last two decades, research on the Book of the Twelve has shown that this corpus is not just a collection of twelve prophetic books. It is rather a coherent work with a common history of formation and, based upon this, with an overall message and intention. The individual books of the Book of the Twelve are thus part of a larger whole in which they can be interpreted in a fruitful manner. The volume The Book of the Twelve: Composition, Reception, and Interpretation features 30 articles, written by renowned scholars, that explore different aspects regarding the formation, interpretation, and reception of the Book of the Twelve as a literary unity.

Die Untersuchung zeichnet die Entstehung des Levitismus nach. Dieser kommt erst in der spätvorexilischen Zeit als judäische Innovation des Stammeskonzeptes auf. Überlieferungen über den Jakobsohn Levi werden nach 722 in Juda zur Formung einer Gruppenidentität der Beamten und literalen Eliten genutzt. Mose und Aaron als Beamte des Gottes Israel werden Protagonisten dieser Gruppierung, weswegen man auch das Priestertum am Zentralheiligtum als Teil der Beamtenschaft integrierte, sodass u.a. im Deuteronomium von levitischen Priestern gesprochen wird. In der nachexilischen Zeit wurden eine Reihe von Berufen und Gruppen unter der Bezeichnung „Leviten“ als eine Art Tempelbeamtentum der Priesterschaft unterstellt. Damit wurde eine Professionalisierung des Kultbetriebes und eine radikale Trennung von kultischen und nichtkultischen Bereichen und Tätigkeiten verbunden. Nach diesem Konzept agierten die Leviten für das Volk und repräsentierten es in den nichtkultischen Bereichen des Tempeldienstes.The study tracks the origins of the Biblical Levitism. It only emerged in the late pre-exilic period as a Judean innovation of the tribal concept. After 722, traditions about Jacob's son Levi were used in Judah to form a group identity of officials and literal elites. Moses and Aaron, as officials of the God of Israel, became protagonists of this group. Therefore, the priests at the central shrine were also integrated as part of the officials, so that Deuteronomy, for example, speaks of Levitical priests. In the post-exilic period, a number of professions and groups were subordinated to the priesthood under the designation "Levites" as a kind of temple office. In the process, a professionalisation of the cultic sector and a radical separation of cultic and non-cultic areas and activities took place. In this, the Levites acted on behalf of the people and represented them in the non-cultic areas of the temple.

Twenty-eight rewritten and updated essays on the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, and the Dead Sea Scrolls mainly published between 2019 and 2022 are presented in the fifth volume of the author's collected essays. They are joined by an unpublished study, an unpublished "reflection" on the development of text-critical research in 1970-2020 and the author's academic memoirs. All the topics included in this volume are at the forefront of textual research.

While the last four years has seen a renewed interest in dress in biblical studies, much of this work focuses on dress as object—what it is, looks like, and who wears it. In consequence, the symbolic and rhetorical function of dress in metaphors is often reduced to its function in “real life.” In response, this study bridges the conversation from what dress is to what dress is doing. By focusing on dress as subject and a concept, this study identifies constellations that hold prophetic metaphors of the investiture/divestiture of dress together with respect to identity formation/deformation, suffering, and destruction.

★ Winner of the 2025 Biblical Archaeology Society Publication Award for Best Book on the Hebrew Bible★ Winner of the 2025 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise★ Honorable Mention at the 2025 SHARP Book History Book PrizeDeuteronomy and the inscribed texts depicted within it are often called “books.” Moreover, its treatment of writing has earned it a prominent place in historical accounts of the religion of ancient Israel and Judah. Neither Deuteronomy nor its text-artifacts, however, are books in any conventional sense of the term. This interdisciplinary study reorients the analysis of Deuteronomic textuality around the materiality, visuality, and rhetoric of ancient rather than modern media. It argues that the Deuteronomic composition adapts the media aesthetics of ancient treaty tablets and monumental inscriptions to a story that is itself transformed into an artifact of the past.

The question of why the prophet Elijah comes to hold such enduring significance in early Jewish and Christian tradition has previously remained largely unaddressed. Why is it Elijah, as opposed to any other prophet of the Hebrew tradition, who is associated with Israel’s future restoration? Why is his return predicted by the book of Malachi? Why are both Jesus and John the Baptist associated with Elijah in the New Testament Gospels? This study argues that Elijah’s literary character is portrayed and received throughout early Jewish and Christian literature as the paradigmatic prophet who simultaneously embodies the righteous people of God, and thereby, by his ongoing life, ensures a remnant’s survival and restoration.

Unlike Elijah's stories, Elisha’s, especially the short legends, have received little scholarly attention or deep analysis. Though this is changing, recent research often views them as critical of Elisha. This book aims to highlight their richness and complexity through literary analysis and to establish them as the earliest example in Israelite literature of Saint’s legends or prophetic hagiography