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Although scholars have for centuries primarily been interested in using the study of ancient Israel to explain, illuminate, and clarify the biblical story, Megan Bishop Moore and Brad E. Kelle describe how scholars today seek more and more to tell the story of the past on its own terms, drawing from both biblical and extrabiblical sources to illuminate ancient Israel and its neighbors without privileging the biblical perspective. Biblical History and Israel s Past provides a comprehensive survey of how study of the Old Testament and the history of Israel has changed since the middle of the twentieth century. Moore and Kelle discuss significant trends in scholarship, trace the development of ideas since the 1970s, and summarize major scholars, viewpoints, issues, and developments.
Complex and unstable, in 922 BC the kingdom of Ancient Israel was divided into Judah, in the South, and Israel, in the North. For the next 200 years, there was almost constant warring between these kingdoms and their neighbors. These bitter feuds eventually led to the collapse of Israel, leaving Judah as a surviving nation until the emergence of the Babylonian Empire, the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, and the exile of the Judean people. Using ancient Jewish, Biblical, and other contemporary sources, this title examines the politics, fighting, and consequences of Israel's battles during this period. Focusing on the turbulent relationship between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, this book explains Israel's complex, often bloody, foreign policy, and provides a definitive history of these ancient conflicts.
Prophetic sayings are generally a reaction to immediate realities, and therefore attempts to understand prophetic literature without the benefit of the prophet's historical milieu are limited or inaccurate. Contrary to the prevailing opinion that Joel is post-exilic, the book is located within the exilic period, recognising the lack of any rebuke consistent with a people experiencing deep despair. The Book of Joel places great emphasis on the motif of the divine presence residing in the midst of Israel, and it is asserted that the prophet's main purpose was to bring the people to renew their connection with the Lord after the destruction of the Temple, which, though physically ruined, had not lost its religious significance. A literary and rhetorical analysis demonstrates how the prophet sought to influence his audience. Literary devices and rhetorical tools are investigated, and their relevance and contribution to the book's meanings are explored. One central feature of the book is its focus on a detailed discussion of the position and purpose of the locust plague, employing recent literary approaches.
The New Beacon Bible Commentary is an engaging, indispensable reference tool to aid individuals in every walk of life in the study and meditation of God's Word. Written from the Wesleyan theological perspective, it offers insight and perceptive scholarship to help you unlock the deeper truths of Scripture and garner an awareness of the history, culture, and context attributed to each book of study. Readable, relevant, and academically thorough, it offers scholars, pastors, and laity a new standard for understanding and interpreting the Bible in the 21st century.EACH VOLUME FEATURES: Completely New Scholarship from notable experts in the Wesleyan tradition Convenient Introductory Material for...
The history of Israel is a much-debated topic in Old Testament studies. On one side are minimalists who find little of historical value in the Hebrew Bible. On the other side are those who assume the biblical text is a precise historical record. Many serious students of the Bible find themselves between these two positions and would benefit from a careful exploration of issues in Israelite history. This substantive history of Israel textbook values the Bible's historical contribution without overlooking critical issues and challenges. Featuring the latest scholarship, the book introduces students to the current state of research on issues relevant to the study of ancient Israel. The editors and contributors, all top biblical scholars and historians, discuss historical evidence in a readable manner, using both canonical and chronological lenses to explore Israelite history. Illustrative items, such as maps and images, visually support the book's content. Tables and sidebars are also included.
It is no surprise that the Bible is filled with stories of violence, having come into being through the crucible of trauma, cultural conflict, and warfare. But the more obvious acts of physical or sexual violence in the Hebrew Bible often overshadow its subtler forms throughout Scripture and belie the variety of perspectives on violence embedded in biblical narratives. This hinders readers' ability to recognize the full spectrum of human engagement with violence, both in texts and in their lived experiences. Uncovering Violence: Reading Biblical Narratives as an Ethical Project seeks to provide a theoretical vocabulary for the various forms that violence can take—including textual violence...
The acclaimed Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics (DSE), written to respond to the movement among biblical scholars and ethicists to recover the Bible for moral formation, offered needed orientation and perspective on the vital relationship between Scripture and ethics. This book-by-book survey of the Old Testament features key articles from the DSE, bringing together a stellar list of contributors to introduce students to the use of the Old Testament for moral formation. It will serve as an excellent supplementary text. The stellar list of contributors includes Bruce Birch, Mark Boda, William Brown, Stephen Chapman, Daniel Harrington, and Dennis Olson.
This book discusses the depictions of the cult and its personnel in the twelve prophetic books commonly referred to as "The Book of the Twelve" or "The Minor Prophets." The articles in the volume explore the following questions: How did these prophetic writers envision the priests and the Levites? What did they think about the ritual aspects of ancient Israelite faith, including not only the official temple cult in Jerusalem but also cultic expressions outside the capital? What, in their views, characterized a faithful priest and what should the relationship be between his cultic performance and the ways in which he lived his life? How does the message of each individual author fit in with the wider Israelite traditions? Finally, who were these prophetic authors, in which historical contexts did they live and work, and what stylistic tools did they use to communicate their message?
In this study, Wu explores how the concepts honor, shame, and guilt function in the book of Ezekiel, as well as in the wider contexts of their general use in anthropological or social-scientific approaches to biblical studies. He frames Ezekiel's key terms for honor (kabod), shame (bosh ), and guilt ('awah) within an analysis of a broad perspective on these terms in the body of the Old Testament as a way of forming the "concept spheres" within which the specific instances of each term in Ezekiel sit. Wu gleans insight from the dominant contemporary definitions of honor, shame, and guilt in the fields of psychology and anthropology and their application to biblical studies, and he reflects on how this broader context informs and is informed by his analysis of Ezekiel. The study concludes by drawing together the implications and contribution of the analysis of Ezekiel and applying them to the development of social-scientific models for the future.
While honoring the historical context and literary diversity of the Old Testament, Telling the Old Testament Story is a thematic reading that construes the OT as a complex but coherent narrative. Unlike standard, introductory textbooks that only cover basic background and interpretive issues for each Old Testament book, this introduction combines a thematic approach with careful exegetical attention to representative biblical texts, ultimately telling the macro-level story, while drawing out the multiple nuances present within different texts and traditions. The book works from the Protestant canonical arrangement of the Old Testament, which understands the story of the Old Testament as the ...