Download or read book Centres and Peripheries in the Early Second Temple Period written by Ehud Ben Zvi and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What can "centre and periphery" frameworks, in all their present diversity and in their various "re-conceptualizations," contribute to the study of the early Second Temple period? The essays in this volume address this question through the prism of the location of Jerusalem, diasporic communities, the literary history of some texts, gender, and more. - back of book.
Download or read book Social Memory among the Literati of Yehud written by Ehud Ben Zvi and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2019-07-22 with total page 772 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ehud Ben Zvi has been at the forefront of exploring how the study of social memory contributes to our understanding of the intellectual worldof the literati of the early Second Temple period and their textual repertoire. Many of his studies on the matter and several new relevant works are here collected together providing a very useful resource for furthering research and teaching in this area. The essays included here address, inter alia, prophets as sites of memory, kings as sites memory, Jerusalem as a site of memory, a mnemonic system shaped by two interacting ‘national’ histories, matters of identity and othering as framed and explored via memories, mnemonic metanarratives making sense of the past and serving various didactic purposes and their problems, memories of past and futures events shared by the literati, issues of gender constructions and memory, memories understood by the group as ‘counterfactual’ and their importance, and, in multiple ways, how and why shared memories served as a (safe) playground for exploring multiple, central ideological issues within the group and of generative grammars governing systemic preferences and dis-preferences for particular memories.
Download or read book Imagined Worlds and Constructed Differences in the Hebrew Bible written by Jeremiah W. Cataldo and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-08-22 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this volume is twofold: to introduce readers to the study of cultural memory and identity in relation to the Hebrew Bible, and to set up strategies for connecting studies of the historical contexts and literature of the Bible to parallel issues in the present day. The volume questions how we can better understand the divide between insider and outsider and the powerful impact of prejudice as a basis for preserving differences between "us" and "them"? In turn the contributors question how such frameworks shape a community's self-perception, its economics and politics. Guided by the general framework of Anderson's theory of nationalism and the outsider, such issues are explored in related ways throughout each of the contributions. Each contribution focuses on social, economic, or political issues that have significantly shaped or influenced dominant elements of cultural memory and the construction of identity in the biblical texts. Together the contributions present a larger proposal: the broad contours of memory and identity in the Bible are the products of a collective desire to reshape the social-political world.
Download or read book Pesher and Hypomnema A Comparison of Two Commentary Traditions from the Hellenistic Roman Period written by Pieter B. Hartog and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2017-11-06 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Pesher and Hypomnema Pieter B. Hartog compares ancient Jewish commentaries on the Hebrew Bible with papyrus commentaries on the Iliad. Hartog shows that members of the Qumran movement adopted classical commentary writing and adapted it to their own needs.
Download or read book Centralizing the Cult written by Julia Rhyder and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2019-10-16 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Back cover: In this work, Julia Rhyder examines the Holiness legislation in Leviticus 17-26 and cultic centralization in the Persian period. Rather than presuming centralization as an established norm, Leviticus 17-26 forge a distinctive understanding of centralization around a central sanctuary, standardized ritual processes, and a hegemonic priesthood
Download or read book Persian Royal Judaean Elite Engagements in the Early Teispid and Achaemenid Empire written by Jason M. Silverman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-11-14 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jason Silverman presents a timely and necessary study, advancing the understanding of Achaemenid ideology and Persian Period Judaism. While the Achaemenid Persian Empire (c. 550–330 BCE) dwarfed all previous empires of the Ancient Near East in both size and longevity, the royal system that forged and preserved this civilisation remains only rudimentarily understood, as is the imperial and religious legacy bequeathed to future generations. In response to this deficit, Silverman provides a critically sophisticated and interdisciplinary model for comparative studies. While the Achaemenids rebuilt the Jerusalem temple, Judaean literature of the period reflects tensions over its Persian re-establishment, demonstrating colliding religious perspectives. Although both First Zechariah (1–8) and Second Isaiah (40–55) are controversial, the greater imperial context is rarely dealt with in depth; both books deal directly with the temple's legitimacy, and this ties them intimately to kings' engagements with cults. Silverman explores how the Achaemenid kings portrayed their rule to subject minorities, the ways in which minority elites reshaped this ideology, and how long this impact lasted, as revealed through the Judaean reactions to the restoration of the Jerusalem temple.
Download or read book Art as Biblical Commentary written by J. Cheryl Exum and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-05-23 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Art as Biblical Commentary is not just about biblical art but, more importantly, about biblical exegesis and the contributions visual criticism as an exegetical tool can make to biblical exegesis and commentary. Using a range of texts and numerous images, J. Cheryl Exum asks what works of art can teach us about the biblical text. 'Visual criticism' is her term for an approach that addresses this question by focusing on the narrativity of images-reading them as if, like texts, they have a story to tell-and asking what light an image's 'story' can shed on the biblical narrator's story. In Part I, Exum elaborates on her approach and offers a personal testimony to the value of visual criticism. Part 2 examines in detail the story of Hagar in Genesis 16 and 21. Part 3 contains chapters on erotic looking and voyeuristic gazing in the stories of Bathsheba, Susanna, Joseph and Potiphar's wife and the Song of Songs; on the distribution of renown among Jael, Deborah and Barak; on the Bible's notorious women, Eve and Delilah; and on the sacrificed female body in the stories of the Levite's wife (Judges 19) and Mary the mother of Jesus.
Download or read book Prophets Priests and Promises written by Gary N. Knoppers and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-05-03 with total page 471 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents collected essays of Gary N. Knoppers (1956–2018) on the historical books of the Hebrew Bible, among them seven thoroughly revised and eight newly published ones. An introduction by H.G.M. Williamson acknowledges their significance for Knoppers’ oeuvre.
Download or read book The Book of the Twelve written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-04-28 with total page 652 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Book of the Twelve: Composition, Reception, and Interpretation, an international group of biblical scholars discuss different aspects of the formation, interpretation, and reception of the Book of the Twelve as a literary unity.
Download or read book End of History and the Last King written by David Janzen and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-02-11 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines community identity in the post-exilic temple community in Ezra-Nehemiah, and explores the possible influences that the Achaemenids, the ruling Persian dynasty, might have had on its construction. In the book, David Janzen reads Ezra-Nehemiah in dialogue with the Achaemenids' Old Persian inscriptions, as well as with other media the dynasty used, such as reliefs, seals, coins, architecture, and imperial parks. In addition, he discusses the cultural and religious background of Achaemenid thought, especially its intersections with Zoroastrian beliefs. Ezra-Nehemiah, Janzen argues, accepts Achaemenid claims for the necessity and beneficence of their hegemony. The result is that Ezra-Nehemiah, like the imperial ideology it mimics, claims that divine and royal wills are entirely aligned. Ezra-Nehemiah reflects the Achaemenid assertion that the peoples they have colonized are incapable of living in peace and happiness without the Persian rule that God established to benefit humanity, and that the dynasty rewards the peoples who do what they desire, since that reflects divine desire. The final chapter of the book argues that Ezra-Nehemiah was produced by an elite group within the Persian-period temple assembly, and shows that Ezra-Nehemiah's pro-Achaemenid worldview was not widely accepted within that community.
Download or read book The Making of the Bible written by Konrad Schmid and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2021-11-30 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The Making of the Bible is invaluable for anyone interested in Scripture and in the intertwined histories of Judaism and Christianity.” —John Barton, author of A History of the Bible: The Book and Its Faiths The authoritative new account of the Bible’s origins, illuminating the 1,600-year tradition that shaped the Christian and Jewish holy books as millions know them today. The Bible as we know it today is best understood as a process, one that begins in the tenth century BCE. In this revelatory account, a world-renowned scholar of Hebrew scripture joins a foremost authority on the New Testament to write a new biography of the Book of Books, reconstructing Jewish and Christian scriptural histories, as well as the underappreciated contest between them, from which the Bible arose. Recent scholarship has overturned popular assumptions about Israel’s past, suggesting, for instance, that the five books of the Torah were written not by Moses but during the reign of Josiah centuries later. The sources of the Gospels are also under scrutiny. Konrad Schmid and Jens Schröter reveal the long, transformative journeys of these and other texts en route to inclusion in the holy books. The New Testament, the authors show, did not develop in the wake of an Old Testament set in stone. Rather the two evolved in parallel, in conversation with each other, ensuring a continuing mutual influence of Jewish and Christian traditions. Indeed, Schmid and Schröter argue that Judaism might not have survived had it not been reshaped in competition with early Christianity. A remarkable synthesis of the latest Old and New Testament scholarship, The Making of the Bible is the most comprehensive history yet told of the world’s best-known literature, revealing its buried lessons and secrets.
Download or read book Postcolonial Commentary and the Old Testament written by Hemchand Gossai and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-11-01 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first volume to provide a wide range of postcolonial interpretations of and commentaries upon significant texts in the Hebrew Bible. The volume intersects with the work of the key theorists in postcolonial studies such as Fanon, Senghor, Said and Spivak as well as with scholars such as Sugirtharajah, Kwok Pui-lan, and Segovia who have applied this theory to biblical studies. Texts have been chosen specifically for their relevance to postcolonial discourse, rather than seeking to cover each biblical document. This volume is designed to demonstrate how historical criticism, postmodernism, and the important concerns of postcolonial readings may be integrated to obtain an informed explanation of the Hebrew Bible and the writings of early Judaism. The chapters are written by scholars who represent a spectrum of national, indigenous, and diasporic contexts. Taken together these perspectives and the interpretations they yield represent a continued expansion of the manner in which Old Testament texts are read and interpreted through postcolonial lenses, reminding readers that the interpretive trajectories of these texts are almost inexhaustible. As such the volume serves as not only an addition to ongoing scholarship on postcolonialism but also as an expansion of the horizon for dialogue.
Download or read book Locations of God written by Mark G. Brett and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-10 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Hebrew Bible is hardly what might be called a "unified" account of the national history of Israel. The texts, with their myriad genres and competing perspectives, show the forming and re-forming of Ancient Israel's social body in a number of geographical settings. The communities are shown in and out of political power. We read about in-fighting and peace, good kings and bad, freedom and subjugation. Ultimately, the Hebrew Bible is a text about nationhood and empire in the ancient world. Critical reflection on the intersections of religious and political life--which includes such topics as sovereignty, leadership, law, peoplehood, hospitality, redemption, creation, and eschatology--can be broadly termed "Political Theology." In Locations of God, Mark G. Brett focuses primarily on the historical books of the Bible, comparing them against the lived realities of life under the Assyrian Empire that overshadowed much of ancient Israel's political life. Brett suggests that an imaginary nation and its imperial alternatives were woven into the biblical traditions by authors who enjoyed very little in the way of political sovereignty. Using political theology to motivate the discussion, Brett shows us just how the earthly situation of ancient Israel contributed to its theology as reflected in the Hebrew Bible.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Historical Books of the Hebrew Bible written by Brad E. Kelle and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-11-02 with total page 610 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Historical Books of the Hebrew Bible is a collection of essays that provide resources for the interpretation of the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. The volume is not exhaustive in its coverage, but examines interpretive aspects of these books that are deemed essential for interpretation or that are representative of significant trends in present and future scholarship. The individual essays are united by their focus on two guiding questions: (1) What does this topic have to do with the Old Testament Historical Books? and (2) How does this topic help readers better interpret the Old Testament Historical Books? Each essay critically surveys prior scholarship before presenting current and prospective approaches. Taking into account the ongoing debates concerning the relationship between the Old Testament texts and historical events in the ancient world, data from Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian culture and history are used to provide a larger context for the content of the Historical Books. Essays consider specific issues related to Israelite/Judean history (settlement, state formation, monarchy, forced migration, and return) as they relate to the interpretation of the Historical Books. This volume also explores the specific themes, concepts, and content that are most essential for interpreting these books. In light of the diverse material included in this section of the Old Testament, the Handbook further examines interpretive strategies that employ various redactional, synthetic, and theory-based approaches. Beyond the Old Testament proper, subsequent texts, traditions, and cultures often received and interpreted the material in the Historical Books, and so the volume concludes by investigating the literary, social, and theological aspects of that reception.
Download or read book Vision Narrative and Wisdom in the Aramaic Texts from Qumran written by Mette Bundvad and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran have attracted increasing interest in recent years. These texts predate the “sectarian” Dead Sea scrolls, and they are contemporary with the youngest parts of the Hebrew Bible. They offer a unique glimpse into the situation before the biblical canons were closed. Their highly creative Jewish authors reshaped and rewrote biblical traditions to cope with the concerns of their own time. The essays in this volume examine this fascinating ancient literature from a variety of different perspectives. The book grew out of an international symposium held at the University of Copenhagen in August 2017.
Download or read book Times of Transition written by Sylvie Honigman and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2021-06-30 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This multidisciplinary study takes a fresh look at Judean history and biblical literature in the late fourth and third centuries BCE. In a major reappraisal of this era, the contributions to this volume depict it as one in which critical changes took place. Until recently, the period from Alexander’s conquest in 332 BCE to the early years of Seleucid domination following Antiochus III’s conquest in 198 BCE was reputed to be poorly documented in material evidence and textual production, buttressing the view that the era from late Persian to Hasmonean times was one of seamless continuity. Biblical scholars believed that no literary activity belonged to the Hellenistic age, and archaeologists were unable to refine their understanding because of a lack of secure chronological markers. However, recent studies are revealing this period as one of major social changes and intense literary activity. Historians have shed new light on the nature of the Hellenistic empires and the relationship between the central power and local entities in ancient imperial settings, and the redating of several biblical texts to the third century BCE challenges the traditional periodization of Judean history. Bringing together Hellenistic history, the archaeology of Judea, and biblical studies, this volume appraises the early Hellenistic period anew as a time of great transition and change and situates Judea within its broader regional and transregional imperial contexts.
Download or read book Editorial Techniques in the Hebrew Bible written by Reinhard Müller and published by SBL Press. This book was released on 2022-05-06 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Editorial Techniques in the Hebrew Bible: Toward a Refined Literary Criticism presents and applies a model for understanding and reconstructing the diachronic development of the Hebrew Bible through historical criticism (or the historical-critical method). Reinhard Müller and Juha Pakkala refine the methodologies of literary and redaction criticism through a systematic investigation of the evidence of additions, omissions, replacements, and transpositions that are documented by divergent ancient textual traditions. At stake is not only historical criticism but also the Hebrew Bible as a historical source, for historical criticism has been and continues to be the only method to unwind those scribal changes that left no traces in textual variants.
