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Ernest Renan was one of the most renowned European intellectuals of the second half of the nineteenth century. Yet, the impact of his most popular work, Life of Jesus, has been underestimated when not altogether ignored. While commonplace now, the idea that Jesus was merely human was at one time a novelty, with significant socio-political, cultural, and religious implications. A case study in the Russian encounter with modernity, Orthodoxy, Modernity, and Authenticity: The Reception of Ernest Renan’s “Life of Jesus” in Russia demonstrates that Renan’s book has had long-lasting and broad appeal in Russia because it presents an alternative to a strictly materialist worldview on the one...
In this Festschrift, James Kugel's creative scholarship in biblical interpretation provides the inspiration for a wide-ranging collection of essays that treat the history of Jewish and Christian scriptural interpretation from antiquity to the present
An old prophet of Bethel lies to the man of God from Judah, only to lead him to disobey God's command and to die as a result. The man of God is killed for disobedience, while the old prophet lives on and eventually even benefits from the death (2 Kgs 23:18). Why did God punish his prophet who was deceived, not the one who deceived? The text keeps silent about this as well as about the motive of the old prophet's lying. This strange story takes up a big portion of the Jeroboam narrative (1 Kgs 11-14). For what purpose would the narrator have included the story in his coverage of Israel's history during the reign of King Jeroboam? Does this story have any relevance to the rise and fall of the first king of the northern kingdom? If so, how? As it untangles the difficult details of the story, this book reveals the narrator's perspective on the way God intervened in the history of Israel and focuses on the suffering that God's prophets sometimes had to undergo as bearers of God's words.
Targum Onkelos is the most literal of the Targumim, yet it contains thousands of deviations from the Masoretic text, both blatant and subtle. Dr. Drazin examines these deviations, comparing each with the renderings of the other extant Targums: Pseudo-Jonathan, Neofiti, and the Fragmenten-Targums. Where appropriate, the author takes note of the legal issues involved, and compares the Targumic rendering with rabbinic Halakhah. In this fifth volume of Ktav's annotated translations of Targum Onkelos on the Pentateuch, Dr. Drazin makes available a wealth of modern and ancient commentaries on Onkelos, including hitherto untranslated works such as Ohev Ger, Netinah la-Ger, and Be'urei Onkelos.
In The “God of Israel” in History and Tradition, Michael Stahl examines the historical and ideological significances of the formulaic title “god of Israel” (’elohe yisra’el) in the Hebrew Bible using critical theory on social power and identity.
This book introduces theological hermeneutics by giving a historical account of the development of hermeneutical thinking. It defines hermeneutics as the analysis of the obstacles to understanding. The history of hermeneutical thinking and responses to obstacles is told here, beginning with the allegorical interpretation of myths in Hellenism through to the contemporary view of the hermeneutical problem as universal. Following the opening chapters on the history of hermeneutical thought, the book presents an overview of the various contemporary hermeneutical schools of thought, and shows their rooted-ness in different parts of the hermeneutical tradition. The focus is clearly on biblical interpretation however it does also take account of developments outside the field of theology, as they influence the theological reflection on the hermeneutical problem. The questions raised and the possible answers suggested in this volume will be of interest to students of other disciplines, such as philosophy and literature.
Written by eleven biblical scholars, this study explores the theology of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53 and answers a number of imporant questions: What is a Christian interpretation of Isaiah 53? What is a Jewish interpretation of Isaiah 53? How did the New Testament writers understand Isaiah 53? How should forgiveness and salvation be understood in Isaiah 53? How can Isaiah 53 be used in Jewish evangelism? How do we preach Isaiah 53?
This Festschrift is presented to Professor Hans Jonas on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday, as affirmation of the contributors' respect and admiration. As a volume in the series 'Philosophy and Medicine' the contributions not only reflect certain interests and pursuits of the scholar to whom it is dedi cated, but also serve to bring to convergence the interests of the contributors in the history of humanity and medicine, the theory of organism, medicine in the service of the patient's autonomy, and the metaphysical, i.e., phenome nological foundations of medicine. Notwithstanding the nature of such personal gifts as the authors' contributions (which, with the exception of the late Hannah Arendt's, appear here for the first time), the essays also transcend the personal and serve to elaborate specific themes and theses disclosed in the numerous writings of Hans Jonas. The editor owes a personal debt of gratitude to many, including Hannah Arendt, who offered their assistance during the preparation of the volume.
Though many Old Testament scholars prefer no longer to speak of the Elohist source in the Pentateuch, Gnuse seeks to defend the existence of this pentateuchal tradition by responding to scholarly critics, isolating texts belonging to the source and offering a theological assessment of these texts. Dream reports in ancient Near Eastern texts from the seventh and sixth centuries BCE bear striking familiarity with the biblical dream reports in the Elohist. Prophetic narratives in the books of Samuel and Kings appear to have inspired the subsequent creation of the Elohist narratives in the Pentateuch. Thus, Gnuse situates the Elohist tradition in the seventh century BCE after the fall of the sta...
This study explores the four narratives regarding prophetic conflicts in the Deuteronomistic History via three steps: first, examining the narratives with a synchronic approach; second, discussing the date of the narratives as revised by the Deuteronomists in the Persian period; last, considering religious settings and rhetorical purposes of the narratives. The Deuteronomists were more interested in the theological questions of the "true Israel," "true YHWH," and the "true worship place" than the prophetic conflicts. The conflicts reflect the difficulty to distinguish between true and false prophecy, and the Deuteronomists sought to answer their questions by using the conflict narratives. Their answers aimed for the postexilic community to protect their ethnic identity and to worship YHWH alone, exclusively in Jerusalem.