Download or read book Monotheism and Yahweh s Appropriation of Baal written by James S. Anderson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-08-27 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biblical scholarship today is divided between two mutually exclusive concepts of the emergence of monotheism: an early-monotheistic Yahwism paradigm and a native-pantheon paradigm. This study identifies five main stages on Israel's journey towards monotheism. Rather than deciding whether Yahweh was originally a god of the Baal-type or of the El-type, this work shuns origins and focuses instead on the first period for which there are abundant sources, the Omride era. Non-biblical sources depict a significantly different situation from the Baalism the Elijah cycle ascribes to King Achab. The novelty of the present study is to take this paradox seriously and identify the Omride dynasty as the first stage in the rise of Yahweh as the main god of Israel. Why Jerusalem later painted the Omrides as anti-Yahweh idolaters is then explained as the need to distance itself from the near-by sanctuary of Bethel by assuming the Omride heritage without admitting its northern Israelite origins. The contribution of the Priestly document and of Deutero-Isaiah during the Persian era comprise the next phase, before the strict Yahwism achieved in Daniel 7 completes the emergence of biblical Yahwism as a truly monotheistic religion.

Download or read book Hosea s God written by Mason D. Lancaster and published by SBL Press. This book was released on 2023-08-11 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book of Hosea is a labyrinth of juxtaposed images for God and God’s people, with such disparate metaphors as God the devouring lion and God the reviving dew. In Hosea’s God: A Metaphorical Theology, Mason D. Lancaster demonstrates that recent advances in metaphor theory help untangle these divergent portrayals of God. He analyzes fifteen metaphor clusters in Hosea 4–14 individually, then discerns patterns and reversals between the clusters. Finally, respecting the ancient value for emphasizing individual aspects of a depiction over a homogenized picture of the whole, the book identifies five characteristics of God prominent among the metaphors of Hosea. Based on this analysis, Lancaster asserts that Hosea’s metaphorical depiction of Yahweh ultimately derives from the primacy of Yahweh’s fidelity to Israel.

Download or read book The Law The Prophets and The Writings written by Andrew M King and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2021-07-05 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Old Testament is no ordinary text; it is a revelation of God’s will, character, purpose, and plan, inspired by the Spirit of God. That same Spirit continues to work within God’s people today as they read the Bible, even when the meaning is difficult to discern. In The Law, the Prophets, and the Writings, eighteen evangelical scholars analyze the Old Testament through a historical, literary, and theological hermeneutic, providing new insights into the meaning of the Scriptures. This festschrift in honor of Duane A. Garrett seeks to help Christians faithfully read and understand the Old Testament Scriptures.

Download or read book The Early History of God written by Mark S. Smith and published by Harper San Francisco. This book was released on 1990 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this history of the development of monotheism, the author explains how Israel's religion evolved from a cult of Yahweh as a primary deity among many to a fully defined monotheism with Yahweh as sole god. Repudiating the traditional scholarly premise that Israel was fundamentally different in culture and religion from its Canaanite neighbors, he shows that the two cultures were fundamentally similar.

Download or read book Prophetic Conflicts in the Deuteronomistic History written by Daewook Kim and published by Kohlhammer Verlag. This book was released on 2021-03-03 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study explores the four narratives regarding prophetic conflicts in the Deuteronomistic History via three steps: first, examining the narratives with a synchronic approach; second, discussing the date of the narratives as revised by the Deuteronomists in the Persian period; last, considering religious settings and rhetorical purposes of the narratives. The Deuteronomists were more interested in the theological questions of the "true Israel," "true YHWH," and the "true worship place" than the prophetic conflicts. The conflicts reflect the difficulty to distinguish between true and false prophecy, and the Deuteronomists sought to answer their questions by using the conflict narratives. Their answers aimed for the postexilic community to protect their ethnic identity and to worship YHWH alone, exclusively in Jerusalem.

Download or read book The Origins of Biblical Monotheism written by Mark S. Smith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2001-08-09 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the leading scholars of ancient West Semitic religion discusses polytheism vs. monotheism by covering the fluidity of those categories in the ancient Near East. He argues that Israel's social history is key to the development of monotheism.

Download or read book Yahweh before Israel written by Daniel E. Fleming and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-12-03 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Yahweh is the proper name of the biblical God. His early character is central to understanding the foundations of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic monotheism. As a deity, the name appears only in connection with the peoples of the Hebrew Bible, but long before Israel, the name is found in an Egyptian list as one group in the land of tent-dwellers, the Shasu. This is the starting-point for Daniel E. Fleming's sharply new approach to the god Yahweh. In his analysis, the Bible's 'people of Yahweh' serve as a clue to how one of the Bronze Age herding peoples of the inland Levant gave its name to a deity, initially outside of any relationship to Israel. For 150 years, the dominant paradigm for Yahweh's origin has envisioned borrowing from peoples of the desert south of Israel. Fleming argues in contrast that Yahweh was not taken from outsiders. Rather, this divine name is evidence for the diverse background of Israel itself.

Download or read book Understanding the Spiritual Meaning of Jerusalem in Three Abrahamic Religions written by Antti Laato and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-08-05 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understanding the Spiritual Meaning of Jerusalem in Three Abrahamic Religions analyses spiritual images and theological constructions related to Jerusalem in Christian, Islamic and Jewish literature, including the Bible, Qur’an, and Second Temple Jewish writings.

Download or read book The King and the Land written by Stephen C. Russell and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-10-03 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The King and the Land offers an innovative history of space and power in the biblical world. Stephen C. Russell shows how the monarchies in ancient Israel and Judah asserted their power over strategically important spaces such as privately-held lands, religious buildings, collectively-governed towns, and urban water systems. Among the case studies examined are Solomon's use of foreign architecture, David's dedication of land to Yahweh, Jehu's decommissioning of Baal's temple, Absalom's navigation of the collective politics of Levantine towns, and Hezekiah's reshaping of the tunnels that supplied Jerusalem with water. By treating the full range of archaeological and textual evidence available for the Iron Age Levant, this book sets Israelite and Judahite royal and tribal politics within broader patterns of ancient Near Eastern spatial power. The book's historical investigation also enables fresh literary readings of the individual texts that anchor its thesis.

Download or read book Cultures of Mobility Migration and Religion in Ancient Israel and Its World written by Eric M. Trinka and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-02-28 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the relationship between mobility, lived religiosities, and conceptions of divine personhood as they are preserved in textual corpora and material culture from Israel, Judah, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. By integrating evidence of the form and function of religiosities in contexts of mobility and migration, this volume reconstructs mobility-informed aspects of civic and household religiosities in Israel and its world. Readers will find a robust theoretical framework for studying cultures of mobility and religiosities in the ancient past, as well as a fresh understanding of the scope and texture of mobility-informed religious identities that composed broader Yahwistic religious heritage. Cultures of Mobility, Migration, and Religion in Ancient Israel and Its World will be of use to both specialists and informed readers interested in the history of mobilities and migrations in the ancient Near East, as well as those interested in the development of Yahwism in its biblical and extra-biblical forms.

Download or read book Divine Doppelg ngers written by Collin Cornell and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bible says that YHWH alone is God and that there is none like him—but texts and artwork from antiquity show that many gods looked very similar. In this volume, scholars of the Hebrew Bible and its historical contexts address the problem of YHWH’s ancient look-alikes, providing recommendations for how Jews and Christians can think theologically about this challenge. Sooner or later, whether in a religion class or a seminary course, students bump up against the fact that God—the biblical God—was one among other, comparable gods. The ancient world was full of gods, including great gods of conquering empires, dynastic gods of petty kingdoms, goddesses of fertility, and personal spirit guardians. And in various ways, these gods look like the biblical God. Like the God of the Bible, they, too, controlled the fates of nations, chose kings, bestowed fecundity and blessing, and cared for their individual human charges. They spoke and acted. They experienced wrath and delight. They inspired praise. All of this leaves Jews and Christians in a bind: how can they confess that the God named YHWH was (and is) the true and living God, in view of this God’s profound similarities to all these others? The essays in this volume address the theological challenge these parallels create, providing reflections on how Jews and Christians can keep faith in YHWH as God while acknowledging the reality of YHWH’s divine doppelgängers. It will be welcomed by undergraduates studying religion; seminarians and graduate students of Bible, theology, and the ancient world; and adult education classes.

Download or read book Intolerance Polemics and Debate in Antiquity written by George H. van Kooten and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 615 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Intolerance, Polemics, and Debate in Antiquity politico-cultural, philosophical, and religious forms of critical conversation in the ancient Near Eastern, Biblical, Graeco-Roman, and early-Islamic world are discussed. The contributions enquire into the boundaries between debate, polemics, and intolerance, and address their manifestations in both philosophy and religion.

Download or read book Made in the Image of God written by Michael Fuller and published by Sacristy Press. This book was released on 2021-05-15 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it mean to be human and made in the image of God? This collection of essays explores the question from a wide range of theological and philosophical perspectives.

Download or read book Trinity and Incarnation written by Steven Nemes and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2023-08-28 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that the doctrine of God taken for granted in the catholic tradition (divine transcendence, creatio ex nihilo, divine simplicity) makes it impossible to give an intelligible and coherent interpretation of the verbal formulas of the catholic dogmas of Trinity and incarnation. By way of response to this apparent incoherence at the heart of the catholic theological tradition, it proposes an alternative post-catholic take on these central doctrines in the light of a qualified monistic conception of God and a “Spirit Christological” interpretation of Jesus’s relation to God the Father as presented in the New Testament.

Download or read book Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan written by John Day and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2010-06-15 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This masterly book is the climax of over twenty-five years of study of the impact of Canaanite religion and mythology on ancient Israel and the Old Testament. It is John Day's magnum opus in which he sets forth all his main arguments and conclusions on the subject. The work considers in detail the relationship between Yahweh and the various gods and goddesses of Canaan, including the leading gods El and Baal, the great goddesses (Asherah, Astarte and Anat), astral deities (Sun, Moon and Lucifer), and underworld deities (Mot, Resheph, Molech and the Rephaim). Day assesses both what Yahwism assimilated from these deities and what it came to reject. More generally he discusses the impact of Canaanite polytheism on ancient Israel and how monotheism was eventually achieved.

Download or read book Religion Power and Illusion written by Patrick J. Hurley and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-12-07 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to anthropologists, religion arose in the Neolithic period, a time that began 12 thousand years ago when people abandoned the hunter-gatherer lifestyle and started settling down in communities. By the time of the ancient Egyptians, religion had reached a significant level of development. The spirits of the seeds and the weather had evolved into gods. In the end, the gods numbered more than a thousand; every god required a temple, and every temple needed a priest, or several of them. Following the death of Jesus, for the Christian god to reach its final form took an additional three hundred years. It was accomplished through the work of dozens of bishops who wrestled with the problem of how a god consisting of three persons could really be one entity. Religious orthodoxy as we know it today is the result of the countless solutions proposed by priests, not the result of divinely inspired texts or teachings, with various bishops condemning some proposals as heretical and blessing others as conventional. But how were orthodoxy and heresy distinguished? Any position that increased the power of the bishops was, by definition, orthodox, and any position that undermined it was heretical. Thus, the Christian god that we have today is a construct assembled over many years, and for two thousand years it has served to augment and solidify the power of the bishops who created it and who sustain it. Religion, Power & Illusion concludes that priestly power is so firmly rooted in the human condition that religion is not likely to disappear any time soon. It also explores the defective logic used by religious promoters, and what is necessary for experiences to be non-illusory.

Download or read book Violence in the Hebrew Bible written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-07-27 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Violence in the Hebrew Bible scholars reflect on texts of violence in the Hebrew Bible, as well as their often problematic reception history. Authoritative texts and traditions can be rewritten and adapted to new circumstances and insights. Texts are subject to a process of change. The study of the ways in which these (authoritative) biblical texts are produced and/or received in various socio-historical circumstances discloses a range of theological and ideological perspectives. In reflecting on these issues, the central question is how to allow for a given text’s plurality of possible and realised meanings while also retaining the ability to form critical judgments regarding biblical exegesis. This volume highlight that violence in particular is a fruitful area to explore this tension.