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If Greek was the language by which Palestinian Jews talked to the Empire, then Aramaic and Hebrew were the languages by which they talked to themselves. In this context, what resulted when they translated the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic? Moments of the inner Jewish conversation about the meaning and relevance of Hebrew Scriptures frozen in Aramaic renditions. The scholars in this volume use these Aramaic translations, known as the Targums, like dioramas, peering through them to glimpse these moments in the development of Judaism and its theology. Dedicated to Ernest G. Clarke, the essays explore the variety of interpretations preserved in the different Targums from the Second Temple and post-Temple periods during which they were composed.
This volume, using multiple methods, seeks to bring together the best scholarship and insight-Jewish and Christian, past and present-that has contributed to our understanding and appreciation of the biblical book of Ruth. As a feminist commentary, it is particularly sensitive to issues of relationship and inclusion, power and agency. In addition to the voices of the primary co-authors, Alice Laffey and Mahri Leonard-Fleckman, the volume incorporates and integrates important contributing voices from diverse contemporary social contexts and geographical locations. In sum, the commentary seeks to allow Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz to speak again for the first time.
In The Origins of Midrash: From Teaching to Text, Paul Mandel presents a comprehensive study of the words darash and midrash from the Bible until the early rabbinic periods (3rd century CE). In contrast to current understandings in which the words are identified with modes of analysis of the biblical text, Mandel claims that they refer to instruction in law and not to an interpretation of text. Mandel traces the use of these words as they are associated with the scribe (sofer), the doresh ha-torah in the Dead Sea scrolls, the “exegetes of the laws” in the writings of Josephus and the rabbinic “sage” (ḥakham), showing the development of the uses of midrash as a form of instruction throughout these periods.
In The Plot-structure of Genesis Todd L. Patterson argues that Genesis is organized by a development from complication to dénouement. The question 'Will the righteous seed survive?' drives the narrative to climax. Gen 4 sets up the complication. Cain and Abel are the seed of the woman who should lead humanity back to God's creation-sanctuary. Because Cain does not master sin, his unrighteousness threatens the survival of the seed. Each narrative tôlĕdôt division develops this theme until dénouement in the Joseph narrative when God ensures the survival of the promised seed. By showing how plot integrates with the widely recognized tôlĕdôt structure, prominent motifs, and enigmatic features of the text, Todd L. Patterson provides a surprisingly novel interpretation of Genesis.
Lukan narrative takes its readers into God’s story: how his salvation plan in Jesus began on the slopes of Judea and at the Sea of Galilee, ending on the hill of Calvary and the Mount of Olives, yet moving on and telling how the Spirit descended onto the Temple Mount empowering God’s people, who then began to fulfill the given mandate in the presence of the Spirit. Yet, readers of Luke-Acts, throughout the centuries, have had a meandering journey as they have tried to understand the narrative’s persuasion and Spirit-references. This book seeks to bring awareness to these challenges by some of the most respected Pentecostal biblical scholars and systematicians. Here their vigorous labor...
Main description: It is a widespread idea that the roots of the Christian sermon can be found in the Jewish Derasha. But the story of the interrelation of the two homiletical traditions, Jewish and Christian, from New Testament times to the present day is still untold. This book offers the papers of the first international conference (Bamberg, Germany, 6th to 8th March 2007) which brought together Jewish and Christian scholars to discuss Jewish and Christian homiletics in their historical development and relationship and to sketch out common homiletical projects.
This remarkable survey introduces critical knowledge and insights that have emerged over the past forty years, including targum manuscripts discovered this century and targums known in Aramaic but only recently translated into English. Prolific scholars Flesher and Chilton guide readers in understanding the development of the targums; their relationship to the Hebrew Bible; their dates, language, and place in the history of Christianity and Judaism; and their theologies and methods of interpretation.
In this study, Robert B. Foster explores the intersection between the interpretation of Scripture and the construction of communal identities. He argues that in Rom 9, Paul applies prophetic texts from Malachi, Hosea, and Isaiah to the story of Abraham's children in Genesis. These interpretive maneuvers enable Paul to extrapolate from the patriarchal narratives a specific construal of election: it is the ironic privilege of being simultaneously God's chosen and rejected people. This understanding of election he in turn applies to Gentile Christ-followers, the remnant, and all Israel in order to build for them an all-encompassing yet differentiated Abrahamic identity for the messianic age.
In Justifying Christian Aramaism Eveline van Staalduine-Sulman explores how Christian scholars of the sixteenth and early seventeenth century justify their study of the Targums, the Jewish Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible. She focuses on the four polyglot Bibles – Complutum, Antwerp, Paris, and London –, and describes these books in the scholarly world of those days. It appears that quite a few scholars, Roman-Catholic, protestant, and Anglican, edited Targumic books and translated these into Latin. The book reveals a stimulating and conflicting period of the Targum reception history and is therefore relevant for Targum scholars and historians interested in the history of Judaism, Church history, the history of the book, and the history of Jewish-Christian relationships.