A people tall and smooth-skinned : the rhetoric of Isaiah 18 /
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This volume delivers an analysis of the persuasive artistry of Isaiah 18, id est how Isa 18 is designed in order to persuade an ancient audience. The analysis is pursued from four angles: the textual design, the motifs, the rhetoric of the text and finally, it is shown how the various strophes within each stanza of Isa 18 relate to one another. The present analysis demonstrates that Isa 18 is an example of Hebrew rhetoric, and that the text can be read as a coherent whole - even though the majority of scholars analysing Isa 18 have found this chapter confusing. In this volume, it is argued that Isa 18 is shaped in a confusing way in order to make the audience believe that someone else is judged (the Cushites, 18:1-2.7), and not themselves. This volume sheds new light on the understanding of and old text, and the volume is important for exegetes interested in the persuasive artistry of Isa 18.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [239]-256 ) and index. :
9789047411222 :
0083-5889 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Isaiah among the ancient Near Eastern prophets : a comparative study of the earliest stages of the Isaiah tradition and the Neo-Assyrian prophecies /
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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.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [467]-496) and indexes. :
9789047422617 :
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Animal imagery in the book of Proverbs /
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Any treatment of the figurative and symbolic function of animal imagery in biblical literature requires special attention to its contextual meaning and cultural evaluation. The present study aims to demonstrate how this is particularly true of the Book of Proverbs, in which faunal imageries serve as a didactic means for delving into the more obvious truths of human behavior. This book makes a methodological contribution toward understanding the didactic function of Proverb's animal imageries by offering an ongoing three-pronged analysis: a. Zoological identification and literary perception of the animal in the Bible; born Hermeneutic dynamics between the specific animal simile and its literary adaptation; c. Rhetorical function of the animal imagery within the conceptual framework of the Book of Proverbs.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 169-179) and indexes. :
9789047423621 :
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Head of all years : astronomy and calendars at Qumran in their ancient context /
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Rather than being an isolated, primitive body of knowledge the Jewish calendar tradition of 364 days constituted an integral part of the astronomical science of the ancient world. This tradition-attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the Pseudepigrapha-stands out as a coherent, novel synthesis, representing the Jewish authors' apocalyptic worldview. The calendar is studied here both "from within"-analyzing its textual manifestations -and "from without"-via a comparison with ancient Mesopotamian astronomy. This analysis reveals that the calendrical realm constituted a significant case of inter-cultural borrowing, pertinent to similar such cases in ancient literature. Special attention is given to the "Book of Astronomy" (1 Enoch 72-82) and a variety of calendrical and liturgical texts from Qumran.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [289]-307) and indexes. :
9789047424192 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Exile and suffering : a selection of papers read at the 50th anniversary meeting of the Old Testament Society of South Africa OTWSA/OTSSA, Pretoria, August 2007 /
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At the fiftieth anniversary of the Old Testament Society of South Africa a conference was organized on the theme Exile and Suffering. This volume contains a selection of the papers presented. Focal questions are such themes as: What do we really know about the Exile? To what degree did suffering take place? How did the Ancient Israelites cope with the disaster? Where the ancinet traditions sufficient to deal with the Exile? Or did this period produce new forms of 'theology'? The significance of the Exile as a matrix for understanding suffering until this day is also dealt with.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047424352 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Promises to keep : the oath in biblical narrative /
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While many studies explore the literary role of the oath in general literature, none have contended with the role of the oath in the biblical narratives. This study seeks to fill that vacuum. The first section of this study examines the literary significance of the various oath formulae that appear in biblical narratives, focusing on anomalous formulations of the respective oath formulae. The second section of this study explores the narratives surrounding two characters, Saul and David, both of whom frequently engage in oath-making. The oaths taken by, to and about these characters mirror the narrative itself, and function as a prism through which the character's career is refracted. This study demonstrates that by perceiving the oath as a literary device for plot and character development, additional or more precise meanings may be revealed in the biblical stories.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [271]-286) and indexes. :
9789047433774 :
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The Gospel of Judas in context : proceedings of the First International Conference on the Gospel of Judas, Paris, Sorbonne, October 27th-28th, 2006 /
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The papers gathered in this book were presented at the First International Conference (held in Paris, University of Sorbonne, October 27th-28th 2006), devoted to the newly discovered Gospel of Judas, preserved in the 4th century Coptic Codex Tchacos. These essays explore several crucial literary, historical and doctrinal issues related to this gospel, composed in the second half of the 2nd century. This unexpected discovery sheds a new light on the role attributed to Judas by some Gnostic Christian movements. A hotly debated question is precisely the significance of Judas in this gospel: hero or villain? Special attention is given to the sources - Greek, Jewish, Christian and even Iranian - used by the unknown author. This book will be of special interest for historians of late Antiquity religions and scholars in New Testament studies, Gnosticism and Coptic literature.
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xv, 404 p. ; 25 cm. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [361]-374) and indexes. :
9789047442851 :
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Theologies in conflict in 4 Ezra : wisdom, debate, and apocalyptic solution /
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Recent scholarship on 4 Ezra has taken two divergent approaches, the first reading the dialogues between Ezra and Uriel as a reflection of theological debates in the author's time, and the second focusing on the psychological development of the protagonist. Combining the two approaches, this book offers a new interpretation of the dialogues as a literary representation of a debate between covenantal and eschatological wisdom, two branches of Jewish wisdom that emerged in the late Second Temple period. The inconclusive quality of the dialogues indicates the author's dissatisfaction with Uriel's attempt at a rational theodicy. Ezra's subsequent transformation points to the symbolic visions as the locus of the author's apocalyptic solution to the intractable theological problems raised in the dialogues.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [237]-252) and indexes. :
9789047441809 :
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Walking on the water : reading Mt. 14:22-33 in the light of its Wirkungsgeschichte /
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The concept of Wirkungsgeschichte is gaining ground in New Testament Studies. It involves the gathering of diverse interpretations of a text, but can it offer significant exegetical results or is it merely a form of cultural stamp collecting? This book explores the background of Wirkungsgeschichte in the philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer and applies the theory to a single pericope, Mt 14:22-33. Traditional historical and literary examinations of this story are brought into conversation with six works of art and a number of nineteenth century theological texts. The result is an enriched interpretation which fruitfully alerts us to the narrowness of the vision of our own time and place.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [203]-213) and indexes. :
9789047423355 :
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Protest or propaganda : war in the Old Testament book of Kings and in contemporaneous ancient Near Eastern texts /
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In this study, the war stories from the Old Testament book of Kings are compared to ten extrabiblical texts. Narratological analysis is applied to deconstruct the ideology of the respective literary compositions. The Old Testament ideology of war seems to be neither typically Israelite, as Gerhardt von Rad put it, nor commonly Ancient Near Eastern, as Manfred Weippert thought it to be. This poses the question whether the reading experience of biblical war stories is so very different from, for instance, Assyrian royal inscriptions, both in terms of its literary value and its ideological bias. Narratological analysis turns out to be a strong tool for explaining the similarities and distinctive features of the respective texts.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [689]-700) and indexes. :
9789047443414 :
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Studies in the book of Ben Sira : papers of the Third International Conference on the Deuterocanonical books, Shime'on Centre, Pápa, Hungary, 18-20 May, 2006 /
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This volume contains the proceedings of the third international conference on the deuterocanonical literature organised by the Shime'on Centre in Pápa, Hungary. Renowned international scholars of the field treat questions of text in the Book of Ben Sira, the underlying traditions and theological questions. In the first part, the authors deal with introductory problems of the complex oeuvre of Ben Sira; the second main part of the volume focuses primarily on the wisdom part of book; finally, the reader will find papers dealing with particular pericopae of the Praise of the Fathers section of Ben Sira.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047443643 :
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The Pericope Adulterae, the Gospel of John, and the literacy of Jesus /
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Although consistently overlooked or dismissed, John 8.6, 8 in the Pericope Adulterae is the only place in canonical or non-canonical Jesus tradition that portrays Jesus as writing. After establishing that John 8.6, 8 is indeed a claim that Jesus could write, this book offers a new interpretation and transmission history of the Pericope Adulterae . Not only did the pericope's interpolator place the story in John's Gospel in order to highlight the claim that Jesus could write, but he did so at John 7.53-8.11 as a result of carefully reading the Johannine narrative. The final chapter of the book proposes a plausible socio-historical context for the insertion of the story.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [261]-290) and index. :
9789047440192 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
"Convinced that God had called us" : dreams, visions, and the perception of God's will in Luke-Acts /
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Dream and vision scenes figure prominently in Luke-Acts. Following a discussion of methodology, historical background, and critical scholarship, this study provides a comprehensive examination of the dreams and visions in the Lukan narrative. Special attention is given to those scenes that feature significant interpretation by characters in the story (e.g., Zechariah and Mary [Luke 1-2], Saul's/Paul's conversion [Acts 9, 22, and 26], the Cornelius-Peter episode [Acts 10:1-11:18], and Paul's dream at Troas [Acts 16:9-10]). While a number of studies have highlighted the importance of dreams and visions for Luke's portrayal of God, the present study suggests that the human side of these visionary encounters is equally important. Just as Lukan dreams and visions depict God's active involvement in the events of human history, they also depict God's people attempting to perceive God's will through these visionary encounters.
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Revision of the author's thesis (doctoral)--Princeton Theological Seminary. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [245]-257) and indexes. :
9789047411420 :
0928-0731 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The New Testament and rabbinic literature /
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The present book brings together the contributions of the foremost specialists on the relationship of the New Testament and Rabbinic Literature. It contains the proceedings of a Symposium held at the K.U.Leuven in January 2006. The contributors, from different European countries as well as from Israel, present in detail the history of rabbinical scholarship by Christian scholars and deal with the main issues in the study of rabbinic materials. As could be expected, much attention is given to halakhic issues, but literary questions in Midrash, Targum and Mystical Literature are also dealt with. All contributions are in English, and the volume is completed with a very large "cumulative bibliography" which will enhance its usefulness.
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"It contains the proceedings of a Symposium held at the K.U.Leuven on January 2006. The contributors, from different European countries as well as from Israel, present in detail the history of rabbinical scholarship by Christian scholars and deal with the main issues in the study of rabbinic materials"--ECIP data view. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [471]-508) and indexes. :
9789047429326 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
African and European readers of the Bible in dialogue : in quest of a shared meaning /
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Far too long, the relationship between European and African biblical scholarship has been a non-relationship. Divergent insights into how biblical texts should be interpreted and made fruitful for the current context, cultural differences, colonial past and post-colonial future, radically different social situations - this all made companionship and real interaction difficult. This rich and multilayered volume (result of a Stellenbosch conference 2006) attempts to disclose new modes of dialogue between readers of the Bible from those two worlds. More than twenty theologians from Africa and Europe reflect together on how readers from radically different contexts - professional and ordinary alike -, may become allies in an ethically accountable way of relating the biblical text to their current (global) situations and how a process of mutual learning may be established. This book provides important insights in intercultural hermeneutics, the relationship between classical historico-literary approaches and new forms of interpretation. It also gives examples of new forms of how to read the Bible in the secularised European context and the HIV/Aids stricken Africa. Particularly enriching is that every contribution is followed by a personal letter of response of another contributor to the book, giving impulses for further dialogue and debate. The book is useful for all biblical scholars and students, in particular for those interested in how to do contextual exegesis in a manner that also takes into account the context of the other.
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Result of a conference held in Stellenbosch, South Africa in January 2006. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047442400 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Enduring exil e the metaphorization of exile in the Hebrew Bible /
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During the Second Temple period, the Babylonian exile came to signify not only the deportations and forced migrations of the sixth century B.C.E., but also a variety of other alienations. These alienations included political disenfranchisement, dissatisfaction with the status quo, and an existential alienation from God. Enduring Exile charts the transformation of exile from a historically bound and geographically constrained concept into a symbol for physical, mental, and spiritual distress. Beginning with preexilic materials, Halvorson-Taylor locates antecedents for the metaphorization of exile in the articulation of exile as treaty curse; continuing through the early postexilic period, she recovers an evolving concept of exile within the intricate redaction of Jeremiah's Book of Consolation (Jeremiah 30-31), Second and Third Isaiah (Isaiah 40-66), and First Zechariah (Zechariah 1-8). The formation of these works illustrates the thought, description, and exegesis that fostered the use of exile as a metaphor for problems that could not be resolved by a return to the land- and gave rise to a powerful trope within Judaism and Christianity: the motif of the "enduring exile."
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [205]-213) and index. :
9789004203716 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Sight and blindness in Luke-Acts : the use of physical features in characterization /
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The ancient world often thought in terms of physiognomics-the idea that character can be discerned by studying outward, physical features. That physical descriptions carry moral freight in characterization has been largely missed in modern biblical scholarship, and this study brings that to the forefront. Specifically, this is a study of one particular physical marker-blindness. When we look at Greco-Roman literature, a kind of literary topos begins to emerge, a set of assumptions that ancient audiences would typically make when encountering blind characters. Luke-Acts makes use of such a topos in a way that becomes programmatic, serving as a kind of interpretive key to Luke-Acts that is generally unnoticed in modern scholarship.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047432968 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
I am large, I contain multitude s lyric cohesion and conflict in Second Isaiah /
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This book joins the notion that Second Isaiah is a poetic text with the task of interpreting it as a unified whole. In so doing, it makes methodological suggestions for applying a lyric poetic approach to biblical texts. The practical application of this approach shows Second Isaiah to be characterized by tension, conflict, and juxtaposition. The lyric model shows these conflicts, such as the presence of searing indictments in the 'book of comfort,' to be integral elements of the mode by which Second Isaiah addresses its audience. This book highlights the tonalities of the divine voice as central to Second Isaiah's particularly poetic mode of cohesion and essential to the conflicted comfort Second Isaiah offers its reader.
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Revised version of the author's thesis (Ph.D.)--Emory University, 2009. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [301]-313) and indexes. :
9789004194441 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Between evidence and ideolog y essays on the history of ancient Israel read at the joint meeting of the Society for Old Testament Study and the Oud Testamentisch Werkgezelschap, Li...
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The historiography of Ancient Israel is much debated. The various approaches are never void of ideology and some reckon more with the available evidence than others. This volume consists of a set of case-studies that reveal the difficulties that arise when trying to write a history as honestly as possible. This implies that both the archaeology of Ancient Palestine - the finds and their interrogation - as well as the Philosophy of History - their models and their implications - are discussed. The outcome is a variety of approaches that inform the reader of current views on the history of Ancient Israel.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004203228 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
From conquest to coexistenc e ideology and antiquarian intent in the historiography of Israel's settlement in Canaan /
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Current research on ancient historiography concentrates on the relation between history and ideology, while the archaeology of the Southern Levant is more and more viewed as a discipline of its own. What happens when these new directions are applied to the historiography of Israel's settlement in Canaan? This study offers a fresh analysis of scholarly debate, a synchronic and diachronic reading of Joshua 9:1-13:7, and a critical evaluation of all the relevant archaeological evidence. This leads to a new historical picture of the Late Bronze - Iron Age transition in the Cisjordanian Southern Levant and to the fascinating conclusion that it was the ideology of the Israelite scribes reworking this episode that instigated them to explore their antiquarian intent.
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Based on the author's thesis (Ph.D.)--Theological University, Kampen, 2010. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [611]-652) and indexes. :
9789004194816 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.