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Back cover: In this work, Julia Rhyder examines the Holiness legislation in Leviticus 17-26 and cultic centralization in the Persian period. Rather than presuming centralization as an established norm, Leviticus 17-26 forge a distinctive understanding of centralization around a central sanctuary, standardized ritual processes, and a hegemonic priesthood.
This study presents a revised view of Egyptian foreign relations in the eastern Mediterranean during the Old Kingdom (3rd-6th Dynasties) based on an extensive analysis of old and new archaeological data, and its relationship to the well-known textual sources. The material demonstrates that while Egypt's most important relationships were with Byblos and the Lebanese coast generally, it was an active participant in the geo-political and economic affairs of the Levant throughout much of the third millennium BCE. The archaeological data shows that the foundation of these relationships was established at the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period and essentially continued until the end of the 6th...
Recent tools and findings from the cognitive sciences illuminate religious thought and behaviour in ancient Israel and the Bible. Primarily intended for scholars of the Bible and religion, it is also relevant to cognitive scientists, researchers, and graduate students interested in the intersection of cognition and culture.
The first full-length study of the evolution of self and agency in ancient Israelite anthropology Conceptions of “the self” have received significant recent attention in philosophy, anthropology, and cultural history. Scholars argue that the introspective self of the modern West is a distinctive phenomenon that cannot be projected back onto the cultures of antiquity. While acknowledging such difference is vital, it can lead to an inaccurate flattening of the ancient self. In this study, Carol A. Newsom explores the assumptions that govern ancient Israelite views of the self and its moral agency before the fall of Judah, as well as striking developments during the Second Temple period. Sh...
The church in Africa is thriving, both numerically and in its boldness and fervour. Yet the challenge of African folk Christianity – a Christianity shaped more by traditional beliefs than the Bible – continues to loom large, and there remains an acute need for life and faith to be biblically informed. In this introduction to biblical theology, Prof. Peter Nyende draws from nearly two decades of experience teaching the next generation of African church leaders. Maintaining the vital importance of a holistic understanding of Scripture and its unified nature, he presents the central story of both Old and New Testaments as the restoration of God’s dwelling and kingdom in the world. He traces this narrative through its many stages of development — creation and fall, God’s covenants with Israel, exile — to its ultimate fulfilment in Jesus, the church and the new Jerusalem. Though written with pastors and theological students in mind, this book is accessible to any who desire to increase their biblical literacy and partner more fully with the work of God and his kingdom.
Biblical scholars frequently attempt to contextualize the Priestly ritual corpus by comparing it to other ancient Near Eastern ritual traditions. This comparative approach tends to detect a hidden polemic at work in the Priestly Source (P) which was meant to highlight its distinctly monotheistic outlook. Isabel Cranz reframes current understandings of P by comparing Priestly rituals of atonement to their Assyro-Babylonian counterparts. In this way she shows how the Priestly ritual corpus is highly specialized and concerns itself primarily with sanctuary maintenance. Viewing P in this new light in turn helps to demonstrate that the authors of P were not interested in discrediting foreign rituals or pushing a monotheistic agenda. Instead P primarily aimed to confirm the Aaronide priests as the only legitimate priestly group fit for service at the altar. Subsequently if a polemical agenda is present in P it can be shown to be directed against rivals and critics of the Aaronide priesthood, not other rituals of the ancient Near East.
This book offers a thorough analysis of demons in the Hebrew Bible and Septuagint in the wider context of the ancient Near East and the Greek world. Taking a fresh and innovative angle of enquiry, Anna Angelini investigates continuities and changes in the representation of divine powers in Hellenistic Judaism, thereby revealing the role of the Greek translation of the Bible in shaping ancient demonology, angelology, and pneumatology. Combining philological and semantic analyses with a historical approach and anthropological insights, the author both develops a new method for analyzing religious categories within biblical traditions and sheds new light on the importance of the Septuagint for ...
This volume sheds light on how Jews and Christians in Antiquity understood the nature and characteristics of demons. The contributions cover a wide range of corpora and explore aspects of continuity and change as ideas flowed between groups and cultures.
In the words of late Professor Moshe Kochavi, the Philistine repository pit at Yavneh is the kind of discovery made only once every fifty years. It is the richest repository pit ever found from Bronze and Iron Ages Israel/Palestine, containing thousands of cultic finds originating from a temple, including an unprecedented number - more than a hundred - of cult stands (so-called 'architectural models') carrying rich figurative art, dozens of fire-pans, chalices and other objects. The present volume includes the full publication of the excavation, the stratigraphy, the cult stands and the figures detached from cult stands, several clay and stone altars and some pottery vessels related to burni...
Wenn die gewaltigen ökologischen Herausforderungen der Gegenwart bewältigt werden sollen, braucht es klare ethische Orientierungen und tiefe Quellen innerer Kraft. Der Autor reflektiert die Potenziale der christlichen Tradition für eine Ethik und Spiritualität der Schöpfung. Dafür greift er auf biblische und liturgische Impulse ebenso zurück wie auf die Enzyklika Laudato si von Papst Franziskus und setzt sie mit naturwissenschaftlichen, soziologischen und ökonomischen Überlegungen in Beziehung. Auf dieser Grundlage entwickelt es eine Handlungs- und Hoffnungsperspektive, die durch Schwierigkeiten und Enttäuschungen hindurch tragfähig ist.