Welcome to our book review site go-pdf.online!
You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
The Descent from the Mountain
This 'close reading' of Exodus 19-40 focuses on the repetition of the 'encounter on the mountain'. This double encounter is expressed in a narrative structure of preparatory episodes climaxed by the theophany. The tension of the narrative is linked to 'the people' as the unlikely heroes of encounter and solved by the divine descent from the divine mountain to the man-made tent. The new situation of permanent encounter is foregrounded by the juxtaposed stories of pre- and post- Sinai journey, and the theme of the 'substitution of Moses' underlines a radical reinterpretation of traditional concepts, inviting the reader to embark on a process of identification.
Seeking a Homeland
This book illuminates sojourn language in Genesis using an innovative application of sociological theory about ethnic myths. Close exegetical investigation reveals that sojourn, despite its connotations of alienation, is a significant contributor to a strong communal identity for biblical Israel.
The Construction of Shame in the Hebrew Bible
This book explores the phenomenon of shame in the Hebrew bible. It focuses particularly on the major prophets, because shame vocabulary is most prominent there. Shame has been widely discussed in the literature of psychology and anthropology; the book discusses the findings of both disciplines in some detail. It emphasises the social-anthropological honour/shame model, which a considerable number of biblical scholars since the early 1990s have embraced enthusiastically. The author highlights the shortcomings of this heuristic model and proposes a number of alternative critical approaches.
Between Sheol and Temple
As against traditional cultic and sociological interpretations of the 'I' Psalms, this original study stresses the 'I' as a literary figure. Yet on the other hand, the historical interest of the traditional models is retained, here with emphasis on 'original' function and intent. There is a common set of central motifs related to the 'I'-figure, most easily discernible when referring to categories of locality. The 'I' is depicted in a sacred landscape of contrasting localities-'Sheol' and 'Temple' connected by the concept of 'Way'. This motif structure deploys an ideological language in which the 'I' figure is an embodiment of a religious paradigm, that attests a process of actualization and integration. The religiosity of these texts is of a mystical character, pointing to some religious practice of intense personal character aimed at experience of a divine reality. No doubt the social location of such experience was among the elite, but some texts hint at a possible 'democratization' of the religious practice they portray.
Witch-hunts, Purity, and Social Boundaries
The anthropological approach to the expulsion of the foreign women from the post-exilic community argues that it was the result of a witch-hunt. Its comparative approach notes that the community responded to its weak social boundaries in the same fashion as societies with similar social weaknesses. This book argues that the post-exilic community's decision to expel the foreign women in its midst was the direct result of the community's inability to enforce a common morality among its members. This anthropological approach to the expulsion shows how other societies with weak social moralities tend to react with witch-hunts, and it suggests that the expulsion in Ezra 9-10 was precisely such an activity. It concludes with an examination of the political and economic forces that could have eroded the social morality of the community.
Sentence Conjunctions in the Gospel of Matthew
An application of current linguistic research on discourse markers to sentence conjunctions in Matthew's Gospel. This treatment combines linguistic insights with a detailed examination of Matthew's use of kai, de and similar conjunctions in narrative passages, culminating in a verse by verse commentary on the structure of Matthew's ;miracle chapters', Matthew 8-9. Black breaks new ground in linguistic theory by modelling the interplay between features such as sentence conjunction, word order, and verb tense in the portrayal of continuity and discontinuity in Greek narrative. A volume of interest to New Testament scholars, classicists, discourse analysts and linguists alike.
New Perspectives on Old Testament Prophecy and History
In New Perspectives on Old Testament Prophecy and History, colleagues, students, and friends of Hans M. Barstad offer essays in honour of his esteemed career in biblical studies. Contributions on prophecy include: the debate on prophets as historical figures, the biblical books of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos, and Micah, and issues of methodology and interpretation. Essays devoted to history address various historiographic issues as well as specific historical topics such as the monarchy in ancient Israel, the relationship of Judah to Edom, and the ritual of reading the law. In ways that reflect Hans Barstad’s innovative insights and methodological critiques, this collection of essays probes beyond the oft-trodden paths of biblical studies and challenges the status quo within the field.
Circumscribing the Prostitute
In Jeremiah 3.1-4.4 the prophet employs the image of Israel as God's unfaithful wife, who acts like a prostitute. The entire passage is a rich and complex rhetorical tapestry designed to convince the people of Israel of the error of their political and religious ways, and their need to change before it is too late. As well as metaphor and gender, another important thread in the tapestry is intertextuality, according to which the historical, political and social contexts of both author and reader enter into dialogue and thus produce different interpretations. But, as Shields shows in her final chapter, it is in the end the rhetoric of gender that actually constructs the text, providing the frame, the warp and woof, of the entire tapestry, and thus the prophet's primary means of persuasion.
The Search for Quotation
A thorough study of quotation within ancient and modern literatures is the background for this new approach to alleged quotations within the prophetic writings. The common claim that specific verbal parallels result from the conscious repetition of the words of a predecessor is beset by difficulties. After examining quotation in non-prophetic (ancient Near Eastern, early Jewish, Old Testament wisdom and narrative, and modern Western) literatures, Schultz proposes a new model for interpreting verbal parallels that utilizes several criteria for identifying quotation and combines diachronic with synchronic analysis. He then applies this model to five representative verbal parallels involving the book of Isaiah. This book illustrates how an awareness of the versatility of quotation facilitates a more accurate interpretation of verbal parallels, and at the same time calls for greater caution in employing them in support of various theories.
