Download or read book The Interpreting Angel Motif in Prophetic and Apocalyptic Literature written by David P. Melvin and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2013-08-01 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Melvin traces the emergence and development of the motif of angelic interpretation of visions from late prophetic literature (Ezekiel 40-48; Zechariah 1-6) into early apocalyptic literature (1 Enoch 17-36; 72-82; Daniel 7-8). Examining how the historical and socio-political context of exilic and post-exilic Judaism and the broader religious and cultural environment shaped Jewish angelology in general, Melvin concludes that the motif of the interpreting angel served a particular function. Building upon the work of Susan Niditch, Melvin concludes that the interpreting angel motif served a polemical function in repudiating divination as a means of predicting the future, while at the same time elevating the authority of the visionary revelation. The literary effect is to reimagine God as an imperial monarch who rules and communicates through intermediaries-a reimagination that profoundly influenced subsequent Jewish and Christian tradition.

Download or read book Interpreting Apocalyptic Literature written by Richard A. Taylor and published by Kregel Academic. This book was released on 2016-07-27 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An appreciation for the rich diversity of literary genres in Scripture is one of the positive features of evangelical scholarship in recent decades." —David M. Howard Jr., series editor At one time, Old Testament apocalyptic literature was relegated to the more obscure reaches of biblical scholarship, acceptable to occasionally refer to, but too thorny to delve into deeply. However, in recent decades it has moved to the forefront of research. The rich veins of insight to be mined in the book of Daniel and other apocalyptic texts are being rediscovered. Richard A. Taylor has crafted a handbook to explore those riches and uncover a way to understand apocalyptic literature more fully. Taylor begins with a helpful introduction to the genre; surveys the purpose, message, and primary themes of Old Testament apocalyptic literature; and then discusses critical questions and key works for further study. He also provides guidelines for interpreting apocalyptic texts, followed by Old Testament passages that serve to illustrate those guidelines. While primarily written for pastors and graduate students, Interpreting Apocalyptic Literature is nonetheless accessible to those who simply want to study the texts more deeply than previously possible.

Download or read book Angels a Messenger by Any Other Name in the Judeo Christian and Islamic Traditions written by John Tracy Greene and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2018-07-26 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What were/are angels and what was/were their purpose(s) still agitates many readers of the many documents in which they are mentioned. This topic proved to both interest and challenge the presenters at the Seminar in Biblical Characters in Seoul, South Korea, from which this book is derived. Communication between the heavenly realms and the earth were/are at the core of the human consideration of, and openness to the existence of beings from the heavens who can and have visited us humans. Humans have constructed a taxonomy of types of what we employ with the catch-all term angels. Some are identified with warfare, others with healing, yet others with informing. Even others are associated with the role of guardian and teacher. These, however, do not exhaust the possibilities. What, apparently, humans volunteer is to acknowledge in their experiences is that extra or ultra-beings have, and continue to influence their lives and destinies. The essays contained in this volume reflect some of the thoughtful responses to this abiding concern.

Download or read book Yahweh s Council written by Ellen White and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2014-04-28 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ellen White explores the depiction of the divine council under the authority of Yahweh in the type-scenes of the Hebrew Bible. She proposes criteria for determining a Council of Yahweh type-scene and membership requirements. Following these criteria the Council of Yahweh texts are Isaiah 6, 1 Kings 22, Job 1-2, Zechariah 3, and Daniel 7. After determining a cast of characters, the author explores the structure of the council and realizes that the structure contains three tiers with two divisions on tiers 2 and 3. The first tier belongs to the chief god, the second tier is called the Councilors and the two divisions are Judicial Officials and Advisors. The third tier is the Agents and the two divisions on this tier are the Court Officers and Commissioned. Characters who play a role relating to the council, but are not themselves members of the council are also analyzed. Finally, Ellen White evaluates the potential for conceptual evolution, especially in relationship to monotheism and the participation of human beings within the Council of Yahweh.

Download or read book Paul a New Covenant Jew written by Brant Pitre and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2019-08-08 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the landmark work of E. P. Sanders, the task of rightly accounting for Paul's relationship to Judaism has dominated the last forty years of Pauline scholarship. Pitre, Barber, and Kincaid argue that Paul is best viewed as a new covenant Jew, a designation that allows the apostle to be fully Jewish, yet in a manner centered on the person and work of Jesus the Messiah. This new covenant Judaism provides the key that unlocks the door to many of the difficult aspects of Pauline theology. Paul, a New Covenant Jew is a rigorous, yet accessible overview of Pauline theology intended for ecumenical audiences. In particular, it aims to be the most useful and up to date text on Paul for Catholic Seminarians. The book engages the best recent scholarship on Paul from both Protestant and Catholic interpreters and serves as a launching point for ongoing Protestant-Catholic dialogue.

Download or read book I Lifted My Eyes and Saw written by Elizabeth R. Hayes and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-07-31 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume addresses the function and impact of vision and dream accounts in the Hebrew Bible. The contributors explore the exegetical, rhetorical, and structural aspects of the vision and dream accounts in the Hebrew Bible, focusing on prophetic vision reports. Several contributors employ a diachronic approach as they explore the textual relationship between the vision reports and the oracular material. Others focus on the rhetorical aspects of the vision reports in their final form and discuss why vision reporting may be used to convey a message. Another approach employed looks at reception history and investigates how this type of text has been understood by past exegetes. A few chapters consider the inter-textual relationship of the various vision reports in the Hebrew Bible, focusing on shared themes and motifs. There are also papers that deal with the ways in which select texts in the Hebrew Bible portray dream/vision interpreters and their activities.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Christmas written by Timothy Larsen and published by Oxford Handbooks. This book was released on 2020 with total page 657 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The origins of Christmas lie in an Egyptian festival on 6 January, which spread to much of the Christian world as a celebration of the birth and/or baptism of Christ and known as the Epiphany or Theophany. The church at Rome did not adopt this festival but later instituted a celebration of the nativity of Christ on 25 December, which gradually supplanted its observance on 6 January in other churches, leaving this latter occasion as a commemoration of Christ's baptism alone, or of the visit of the Magi in those churches like Rome that had not observed that date previously. This essay traces that evolution and examines the merits of the two competing scholarly theories that have sought to explain the original choice of these particular dates"--

Download or read book Muhammad written by Juan Cole and published by Bold Type Books. This book was released on 2018-10-09 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the midst of the dramatic seventh-century war between two empires, Muhammad was a spiritual seeker in search of community and sanctuary. Many observers stereotype Islam and its scripture as inherently extreme or violent-a narrative that has overshadowed the truth of its roots. In this masterfully told account, preeminent Middle East expert Juan Cole takes us back to Islam's-and the Prophet Muhammad's-origin story. Cole shows how Muhammad came of age in an era of unparalleled violence. The eastern Roman Empire and the Sasanian Empire of Iran fought savagely throughout the Near East and Asia Minor. Muhammad's profound distress at the carnage of his times led him to envision an alternative movement, one firmly grounded in peace. The religion Muhammad founded, Islam, spread widely during his lifetime, relying on soft power instead of military might, and sought armistices even when militarily attacked. Cole sheds light on this forgotten history, reminding us that in the Qur'an, the legacy of that spiritual message endures. A vibrant history that brings to life the fascinating and complex world of the Prophet, Muhammad is the story of how peace is the rule and not the exception for one of the world's most practiced religions.

Download or read book Angels written by Michael S. Heiser and published by Lexham Press. This book was released on 2018-09-19 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does the Bible really tell us about the heavenly host? Everyone knows that angels have wings, usually carry harps, and that each of us has our own personal guardian angel, right? We all have some preconceptions about angels from movies, television shows, and other media, but you might be surprised to know that a lot of those notions aren’t based on anything from the Bible. If you read Luke 1:26–38 and imagine the angel Gabriel standing before Mary with neatly folded white wings, you’re not getting that picture from anything the Bible itself says. What the Bible really says about angels is overlooked or filtered through popular myths. This book was written to help change that. It’s a book about the loyal members of God’s heavenly host, and while most people associate them with the word “angel,” that’s just one of many terms the Bible uses for supernatural beings. In The Unseen Realm Michael Heiser opened the eyes of thousands to seeing the Bible through the supernatural worldview of the ancient world it was written in. In his latest book, Angels, Dr. Heiser reveals what the Bible really says about God’s supernatural servants. Heiser focuses on loyal, holy heavenly beings because the Bible has a lot more to say about them than most people suspect. Most people presume all there is to know about angels is what has been passed on in Christian tradition, but in reality, that tradition is quite incomplete and often inaccurate. Angels is not guided by traditions, stories, speculations, or myths about angels. Heiser’s study is grounded in the terms the Bible itself uses to describe members of God’s heavenly host; he examines the terms in their biblical context while drawing on insights from the wider context of the ancient Near Eastern world. The Bible’s view on heavenly beings begins with Old Testament terms but then moves into literature from the Second Temple period—Jewish writings from around the fifth century BC to the first century AD. This literature from the time between the Old Testament and the New Testament influenced the New Testament writers in significant ways. With that important background established, the book focuses on what the New Testament tells us about God’s holy ones. Finally, the book reflects on common misconceptions about angels and addresses why the topic is still important and relevant for Christians today.

Download or read book Sight and the Ancient Senses written by Michael Squire and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-12-22 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is to Greek critical thinking about seeing that we owe our conceptual framework for theorizing the senses, and it is also to such thinking that we owe the lasting legacy of Greco-Roman imagery. Sight and the Ancient Senses is the first thorough introduction to the conceptualization of sight in the history, visual culture, literature and philosophy of classical antiquity. Examining how the Greeks and Romans interpreted what they saw, the collection also considers sight in relation to the other senses. This volume brings together a number of interdisciplinary perspectives to deliver a broad and balanced coverage of this subject. Contributors explore the cultural, social and intellectual backdrops that gave rise to ancient theories of seeing, from Archaic Greece through to the advent of Christianity in late antiquity. This series of specially commissioned thematic chapters demonstrate how theories about sight informed Graeco-Roman philosophy, science, poetry rhetoric and art. The collection also reaches beyond its Graeco-Roman visual framework, showcasing how ancient ideas have influenced the longue durée of western sensory thinking. Richly illustrated throughout, including a section of color plates, Sight and the Ancient Senses is a wide-ranging introduction to ancient theories of seeing which will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of classical antiquity.

Download or read book Early Christianity in Pompeian Light written by Bruce W. Longenecker and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars of early Christianity are awakening to the potential of Pompeii’s treasures for casting light on the settings and situations that were commonplace and conventional for the first urban Christians. The uncovered world of Pompeii, destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E., allows us to peer back in time, capturing a heightened sense of what life was like on the ground in the first century – the very time when the early Jesus-movement was beginning to find its feet. In light of the Vesuvian material remains, historians are beginning to ask fresh questions of early Christian texts and perceive new contours, nuances, and subtleties within the situations those texts address. The essays of this book explore different dimensions of Pompeii’s potential to refine our lenses for interpreting the texts and situations of early Christianity. The contributors to this book (including Carolyn Osiek, David Balch, Peter Oakes, Bruce Longenecker, and others) demonstrate that it is an exciting time to explore the interface between the Vesuvian contexts and the early Jesus-movement.

Download or read book Crucible of Faith written by Philip Jenkins and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2017-09-19 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of America's foremost scholars of religion examines the tumultuous era that gave birth to the modern Judeo-Christian tradition In The Crucible of Faith, Philip Jenkins argues that much of the Judeo-Christian tradition we know today was born between 250-50 BCE, during a turbulent "Crucible Era." It was during these years that Judaism grappled with Hellenizing forces and produced new religious ideas that reflected and responded to their changing world. By the time of the fall of the Temple in 70 CE, concepts that might once have seemed bizarre became normalized-and thus passed on to Christianity and later Islam. Drawing widely on contemporary sources from outside the canonical Old and New Testaments, Jenkins reveals an era of political violence and social upheaval that ultimately gave birth to entirely new ideas about religion, the afterlife, Creation and the Fall, and the nature of God and Satan.

Download or read book Biblical Reception 4 written by David Tollerton and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-12-01 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biblical Reception is rapidly becoming the go-to annual publication for all matters related to the reception of the bible. The annual addresses all kinds of use of the bible in art, music, literature, film and popular culture, as well as in the history of interpretation. For this fourth edition of the annual, guest editor David Tollerton has commissioned pieces specifically on the use of the bible in one film: Exodus: Gods and Kings and these chapters consider how the film uses the bible, and how the bible functions within the film.

Download or read book Revelation written by Grant R. Osborne and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2023-10-17 with total page 987 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Book of Revelation contains some of the most difficult passages in Scripture. Grant Osborne's commentary on Revelation interprets the text while also introducing readers to the perspectives of contemporary scholarship in a clear and accessible manner. Osborne begins with a thorough introduction to Revelation and the many difficulties involved in its interpretation. He discusses authorship, date of writing, and the social and cultural setting of the work. He also examines elements that complicate the interpretation of apocalyptic literature, including the use of symbols and figures of speech, Old Testament allusions, and the role of prophetic prediction. Osborne surveys various approaches commentators have taken on whether Revelation refers primarily to the past or to events that are yet future. Rather than exegeting the text narrowly in a verse-by-verse manner, Osborne examines larger sections in order to locate and emphasize the writer's central message and the theology found therein. Throughout, he presents his conclusions in an accessible manner. When dealing with particularly problematic sections, he considers the full range of suggested interpretations and introduces the reader to a broad spectrum of commentators. Revelation seeks to reach a broad audience with scholarly research from a decidedly evangelical perspective.

Download or read book Demons Angels and Writing in Ancient Judaism written by Annette Yoshiko Reed and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-16 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new explanation of the beginnings of Jewish angelology and demonology, drawing on non-canonical writings and Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls.

Download or read book Dictionary of New Testament Background written by CRAIG A EVANS and published by Inter-Varsity Press. This book was released on 2020-05-21 with total page 2089 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 'Dictionary of New Testament Background' joins the 'Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels', the 'Dictionary of Paul and his Letters' and the 'Dictionary of the Later New Testament and its Developments' as the fourth in a landmark series of reference works on the Bible. In a time when our knowledge of the ancient Mediterranean world has grown, this volume sets out for readers the wealth of Jewish and Greco-Roman background that should inform our reading and understanding of the New Testament and early Christianity. 'The Dictionary of New Testament Background', takes full advantage of the flourishing study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and offers individual articles focused on the most important scrolls. In addition, the Dictionary encompasses the fullness of second-temple Jewish writings, whether pseudepigraphic, rabbinic, parables, proverbs, histories or inscriptions. Articles abound on aspects of Jewish life and thought, including family, purity, liturgy and messianism. The full scope of Greco-Roman culture is displayed in articles ranging across language and rhetoric, literacy and book benefactors, travel and trade, intellectual movements and ideas, and ancient geographical perspectives. No other reference work presents so much in one place for students of the New Testament. Here an entire library of scholarship is made available in summary form. The Dictionary of New Testament Background can stand alone, or work in concert with one or more of its companion volumes in the series. Written by acknowledged experts in their fields, this wealth of knowledge of the New Testament era is carefully aimed at the needs of contemporary students of the New Testament. In addition, its full bibliographies and cross-references to other volumes in the series will make it the first book to reach for in any investigation of the New Testament in its ancient setting.

Download or read book The Things which My Father Saw written by Daniel Belnap and published by Deseret Book. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2011 Sperry Symposium volume explores the rich symbolism of Lehi's dream and Nephi's vision, placing such symbols as the mists of darkness, the great and spacious building, and the church of the Lamb of God in the context of the last days.