Download or read book The Vanishing Hebrew Harlot written by Irene E. Riegner and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2009 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Vanishing Hebrew Harlot is written with two objectives: First, to recover the core meaning of the Hebrew stem ZNH as a complex of non-Yahwist rituals, deities, institutions and beliefs prevalent in ancient Israel and Judah. With this understanding, the author assigns the translation value «participate in non-Yahwist religious praxis» to ZNH. The second objective is to understand how this core meaning came to be encrusted with promiscuity, prostitution, and detestable things, and, above all, with adultery, a capital offense, as well as with religious contamination and its destructive consequences. In the biblical texts, the stem ZNH, which encompasses a complex of non-Yahwist religious practices, operates in a powerful, adversarial relationship to the Yahwist complex of religious practices. Since non-Yahwist sacrifices signify the repudiation of Yahweh, non-Yahwist sacrifices arouse fierce opposition. The prophets Hosea and Jeremiah grasp this adversarial relationship and in their advocacy for Yahweh infuse non-Yahwist praxis with images of illicit sexual encounters and with the production of religious contamination that will lead to the devastation of Israel and Judah and to the exile of their inhabitants. The new structure of ZNH that emerges with Hosea and Jeremiah is one that re-visions ZNH activities by incorporating repugnant sexual imagery and devastating theological contamination into the core of non-Yahwist praxis. However, ZNH also has a sexual signification in contexts that are independent of and distinct from cultic contexts. The stem ZNH is examined in its Ancient Near Eastern environment, but the thrust of this research is the analysis of ZNH in its Hebrew textual environment using concepts from cognitive linguistics: network of associations, associated commonplaces, and blending.
Download or read book Sexual Pollution in the Hebrew Bible written by Eve Levavi Feinstein and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-09-01 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concepts of purity and pollution are fundamental to the worldview reflected in the Hebrew Bible, yet the ways biblical texts apply these concepts to sexual relationships remain largely overlooked. Sexual Pollution in the Hebrew Bible argues that, when applied to sexual relations, pollution language usually reflects a conception of women as sexual property susceptible to being "ruined" for particular men through contamination by others. In contrast, however, the Holiness legislation of the Pentateuch applies such language to men who engage in transgressive sexual relations, conveying the idea that male bodily purity is a prerequisite for individual and communal holiness. This understanding of sexual pollution, found in Leviticus 18, has a profound impact on later texts. In the book of Ezekiel, it contributes to a broader conception of pollution resulting from Israel's sins, which bring about the Babylonian exile. In the book of Ezra, it figures in a view of the Israelite community as a body of males contaminated by foreign women. Drawing on psychological and cross-cultural studies as well as philological and historical-critical analysis of biblical texts, Eve Feinstein's study illuminates the reasons why the idea of pollution adheres to particular domains of experience, including sex, death, and certain types of infirmity.
Download or read book Harlot or Holy Woman written by Phyllis A. Bird and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2020-01-16 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Harlot or Holy Woman? presents an exhaustive study of qedešah, a Hebrew word meaning “consecrated woman” but rendered “prostitute” or “sacred prostitute” in Bible translations. Reexamining biblical and extrabiblical texts, Phyllis A. Bird questions how qedešah came to be associated with prostitution and offers an alternative explanation of the term, one that suggests a wider participation for women as religious specialists in Israel’s early cultic practice. Bird’s study reviews all the texts from classical antiquity cited as sources for an institution of “sacred prostitution,” alongside a comprehensive analysis of the cuneiform texts from Mesopotamia containing the cognate qadištu and Ugaritic texts containing the masculine cognate qdš. Through these texts, Bird presents a portrait of women dedicated to a deity, engaged in a variety of activities from cultic ritual to wet-nursing, and sharing a common generic name with the qedešah of ancient Israel. In the final chapter she returns to biblical texts, reexamining them in light of the new evidence from the ancient Near East. Considering alternative models for constructing women’s religious roles in ancient Israel, this wholly original study offers new interpretations of key texts and raises questions about the nature of Israelite religion as practiced outside the royal cult and central sanctuary.
Download or read book Thinking Sex with the Great Whore written by Luis Menéndez-Antuña and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-04-17 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many scholars in Biblical and Revelation studies have written at length about the imperial and patriarchal implications of the figure of the Whore of Babylon. However, much of the focus has been on the links to the Roman Empire and ancient attitudes towards gender. This book adds another layer to the conversation around this evocative figure by pursuing an ideological critique of the Great Whore that takes into account contemporary understandings of sexuality, and in so doing advances a de-moralization of apparent sexual deviancy both in the present and in the past. Offering an emancipatory reading of Revelation 17-18 using Foucauldian, postcolonial and queer historiographies, this study sets out alternative paths for identity construction in Biblical texts. By using these alternative critical lenses, the author argues that the common neglect of the ethical and political impact of Biblical texts in the present can be overcome. This, in turn, allows for fresh reflection on the study of the Bible and its implications for progressive politics. Situated at the intersection of Revelation Studies, Biblical Studies and Hermeneutics, as well as Contextual/Liberationist Theologies and Queer and Postcolonial Criticism, this is a cutting edge study that will be of keen interest to scholars of Theology and Religious Studies.
Download or read book Sexual Hospitality in the Hebrew Bible written by Thalia Gur-Klein and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-20 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A woman's life in the ancient world was constrained by her social and economic status. As a daughter she was firmly under the aegis of her father and brothers, who would later allocate the woman to another man as his wife. The power of fathers and husbands extended to using their wives and daughters as sexual gifts to gain favour. Yet, alongside this, woman had certain socio-economic rights notably concerning inheritance and property - which they could use to protect themselves. 'Sexual Hospitality in the Hebrew Bible' examines sacred sexuality and ritual fecundity from patronymic marriage - where the husband claims exclusive rights over his wife's sexuality and attributes her offspring to his line and kin - to metronymic conjugal systems which allow a woman to remain in her home where the male consort joins her and her kin. Ranging across abstention, promiscuity, and holy offering, the sexual lives of women in biblical times reveal not only restriction but also female agency and resistance.
Download or read book Second Wave Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible written by Marianne Grohmann and published by SBL Press. This book was released on 2019-06-14 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An innovative collection of inner-biblical, intertextual, and intercontextual dialogues Essays from a diverse group of scholars offer new approaches to biblical intertextuality that examine the relationship between the Hebrew Bible, art, literature, sociology, and postcolonialism. Eight essays in part 1 cover inner-biblical intertextuality, including studies of Genesis, Judges, and Qoheleth, among others. The eight postbiblical intertextuality essays in part 2 explore Bakhtinian and dialogical approaches, intertextuality in the Dead Sea Scrolls, canonical critisicm, reception history, and #BlackLivesMatter. These essays on various genres and portions of the Hebrew Bible showcase how, why, and what intertextuality has been and presents possible potential directions for future research and application. Features: Diverse methods and cases of intertextuality Rich examples of hermeneutical theory and interpretive applications Readings of biblical texts as mutual dialogues, among the authors, traditions, themes, contexts, and lived worlds
Download or read book The Genre of Biblical Commentary written by Timothy D. Finlay and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2015-10-16 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The genre of biblical commentary is as old as the Bible itself, and remains very much alive as a point of illuminating contact between the ancient text and its modern readers. In this volume, fourteen international Old Testament experts reflect upon multiple challenges of contemporary biblical commentary as a scholarly endeavor. How does a commentator strike a balance between engagement with the biblical text and the commentary tradition that the text has generated over the centuries? How does academically rigorous commentary-writing remain relevant for pastoral and lay readers of the Bible? Ancient biblical writers are notoriously diverse in their theological and literary nuances. Modern readers approach the Bible from an equally wide spectrum of interests. How does today's commentator act responsibly for all the text's stakeholders? John E. Hartley is widely respected for the multiple volumes he has produced with these questions in mind. This collection of essays appears in celebration of his accomplishments in the genre of Old Testament biblical commentary.
Download or read book Altogether Lovely written by Havilah Dharamraj and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2018-06-01 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The frank eroticism of the Song of Songs has long seemed out of place in the Hebrew Bible. As a result, both Jewish and Christian interpreters have struggled to read it as an allegory of the relationship between God (as husband) and Israel or the church (as bride). Havilah Dharamraj approaches the Song with a clear vision of the gendering of power relationships in the ancient Near East and through an intertextual method centered not on production but on the reception of texts. She sets the Song's lyrical portrayal of passion and intimacy alongside other canonical portrayals of love spurned, lust, rejection, and sexual violence from Hosea, Ezekiel, and Isaiah. The result is a richly nuanced exposition of the possibilities of intimacy and remorse in interhuman and divine-human relationship. The intertextual juxtaposition of contrasting texts produces a third text, an intracanonical conversation in which patriarchal control and violence are answered in a tender and generous mutuality.
Download or read book Sexuality and Law in the Torah written by Hilary Lipka and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-03-19 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines many of the laws in the Torah governing sexual relations and the often implicit motivations underlying them. It also considers texts beyond the laws in which legal traditions and ideas concerning sexual behavior intersect and provide insight into ancient Israel's social norms. The book includes extended treatments on the nature and function of marriage and divorce in ancient Israel, the variation in sexual rules due to status and gender, the prohibition on male-with-male sex, and the different types of sexualities that may have existed in ancient Israel. The essays draw on a variety of methodologies and approaches, including narrative criticism, philological analysis, literary theory, feminist and gender theory, anthropological models, and comparative analysis. They cover content ranging from the narratives in Genesis, to the laws of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, to later re-interpretations of pentateuchal laws in Jeremiah and texts from the Second Temple period. Overall, the book presents a combination of theoretical discussion and close textual analysis to shed new light on the connections between law and sexuality within the Torah and beyond.
Download or read book Joshua 1 12 Volume 7A written by Trent C. Butler and published by Zondervan Academic. This book was released on 2017-10-10 with total page 791 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Trent C. Butler's excellent commentary on Joshua is updated and revised. This new edition takes into account the most recent scholarly work on the book of Joshua. The commentary includes Butler's translation of the text, explanatory notes, and commentary to help any professor, student, or pastor with research and writing. Features include: -solid biblical scholarship for teachers, pastors, and students -updated bibliography commentary for deeper study -thorough coverage of the biblical languages -close analysis of ancient manuscripts of Joshua The Word Biblical Commentary series offers the best in critical scholarship firmly committed to the authority of Scripture as divine revelation. It is perfect for scholars, students of the Bible, ministers, and anyone who wants a theological understanding of Scripture.
Download or read book The Making of Israel written by C.L. Crouch and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2014-06-10 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Making of Israel C.L. Crouch presents the southern Levant during the seventh century BCE as a major period for the formation of Israelite ethnic identity, challenging scholarship which dates biblical texts with identity concerns to the exilic and post-exilic periods as well as scholarship which limits pre-exilic identity concerns to Josianic nationalism. The argument analyses the archaeological material from the southern Levant during Iron Age II, then draws on anthropological research to argue for an ethnic response to the economic, political and cultural change of this period. The volume concludes with an investigation into identity issues in Deuteronomy, highlighting centralisation and exclusive Yahwism as part of the deuteronomic formulation of Israelite ethnic identity.
Download or read book Marriage by Capture in the Book of Judges written by Katherine Southwood and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-24 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the concepts of marriage, ethnicity, rape, and power in Judges 21 as means of ethnic preservation and exclusion.
Download or read book The Non Israelite Nations in the Book of the Twelve written by Daniel Timmer and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-08-11 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Non-Israelite Nations in the Book of the Twelve Daniel Timmer offers the first comprehensive survey of the ‘nations’ in the Minor Prophets. The study approaches this important but highly diverse theme through the lens of conceptual coherence and demonstrates the interrelation of synchronic/holistic and diachronic/compositional approaches. After exploring the theme in each of the individual books of the Twelve and noting the varying degrees of coherence evident in each case, Timmer brings his findings to bear on contemporary understandings of the Twelve as a collection, arguing for the theme’s coherence across the collection on the basis of each book’s unique treatment of the nations.
Download or read book Who is like Yahweh written by Juan Cruz and published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. This book was released on 2016-02-15 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent theology has seen a renewed vigour in debates about the nature and character of God. Juan Cruz turns to one of the prophetic books in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Micah, to consider the metaphors it uses to portray the God of Israel and what they reveal about the deity. The book of Micah contains two dominant types of metaphor for Yahweh, namely the legal metaphors in 1:2–16 and 6:1–16 and the pastoral metaphors in 2:12–13, 4:6–7, 5:1–4a and 7:14–20. The former type of metaphors presents Yahweh in a courtroom setting, where he accuses his people of their sins, brings a lawsuit against them, and pronounces their judgement. The pastoral metaphors, on the other hand, describe Yahweh as the shepherd of his people, primarily concerned with the restoration and well-being of Israel. The two sets of metaphors therefore respectively present Yahweh in a positive and a negative light. Drawing on insights from philosophy and literary studies, and making particular use of the theories of Benjamin Harshav, Juan Cruz explores the divine metaphors by analysing the arguments they make within their respective literary units and in the context of the whole book, as well as the significant tensions that develop between the metaphors. The volume provides helpful tools to analyse metaphors for God, which may be also used for analysis of non-divine metaphors, and should contribute to our theological understanding of God in the Hebrew Bible, most especially in the book of Micah, a book whose title bears the meaning, "Who is like Yahweh?".
Download or read book The Sons of God in Genesis 6 1 4 written by J.J.T. Doedens and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-03-19 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Sons of God in Genesis 6:1–4, Jaap Doedens offers an overview of the history of exegesis of the enigmatic biblical text about the ‘sons of God’, the ‘daughters of men’, and the ‘giants’.
Download or read book Hosea Micah Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Prophetic Books written by John Goldingay and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2021-01-19 with total page 554 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Highly regarded Old Testament scholar John Goldingay offers a substantive and useful commentary on Hosea through Micah and explores the contemporary significance of these prophetic books. This volume, the first in a new series on the Prophets, complements the successful series Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Wisdom and Psalms (series volumes have sold over 55,000 copies). Each series volume is both critically engaged and sensitive to the theological contributions of the text. Series editors are Mark J. Boda and J. Gordon McConville.
Download or read book Joshua Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Historical Books written by John Goldingay and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2023-04-18 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Goldingay is one of the most prolific and creative Old Testament scholars working today. In this book he draws on the best of biblical scholarship as well as the Christian tradition to offer a substantive and useful commentary on Joshua. The commentary is both critically engaged and sensitive to the theological contributions of the text. Goldingay treats Joshua as an ancient Israelite document that speaks to twenty-first-century Christians. He examines the text section by section--offering a fresh translation, textual notes, paragraph-level commentary, and theological reflection--and addresses important issues and problems that flow from the text and its discussion. This volume, the first in a new series on the Historical Books, complements other Baker Commentary on the Old Testament series: Pentateuch, Wisdom and Psalms, and Prophets. Each series volume is grounded in rigorous scholarship but is useful for those who preach and teach. The series editors are David G. Firth (Trinity College, Bristol) and Lissa M. Wray Beal (Wycliffe College, University of Toronto).
