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In this book the author attempts to unravel the original narratives which underlie the biblical Book of Esther. She reconstructs the contents of three non-Jewish narratives: A wedding story, in which the foreign beauty (Esther) takes the place of the disobedient queen, and two court narratives, telling the story of the rivalry between two courtiers at the Persian court. In exilic and postexilic times these basic narratives were merged into one topical and literarily well developed narrative, which expressed the problems connected with Jewish life in the diaspora. The author shows that this text has been redactionally revised once more, in an attempt to adjust Palestinian Judaism to the Jewish communities that flourished in the diaspora. This redaction bears the hallmarks of Judaism’s clash with Hellenised political forces; Purim emerges as a succesful defense.
In the light of the research undertaken in this book the author concludes that the so called "anti-Jewish" texts in Johannine Gospel are not directed against the Jews being an ethnic or religious community. The object of the polemic and attacks is not the entire Jewish nation across the span of all the ages but a group of the Jewish leaders or opponents to Jesus in the First Century AD. Looking through the prism of the aposynagogal polemics, one can notice that the state of tension between the Johannine community and the rabbinic Judaism is inter-Jewish, not anti-Jewish, in character. The source of the polemical language of the Fourth Gospel is the Christological discussion in the historical and sociological context (the Messianic confession, the excommunication from the Synagogue, the presence of Samaritans in the Johannine community, the struggle for the preservation of the identity).
Widely praised as a seminal contribution to the study of the Old Testament when it first appeared, Michael V. Fox's Character and Ideology in the Book of Esther is now available in a second edition, complete with an up-to-date critical review of recent Esther scholarship. Fox's commentary, based on his own translation of the Hebrew text, captures the meaning and artistry of Esther's inspiring story. After laying out the background information essential for properly reading Esther, Fox offers commentary on the text that clearly unpacks its message and relevance. Fox also looks in depth at each character in the story of Esther, showing how they were carefully shaped by the book's author to teach readers a new view of how to live as Jews in foreign lands.
This book deals with many aspects of the land of Israel. In the first part, the emphasis is on descriptions of the land in Joshua and other books of the Hebrew anf Greek Bible. In the second part, the focus shifts to the land in history and theology: reception-history of biblical texts dealing with the land, archaeology of Palestine, and theological-hermeneutical implications of taking the land traditions of the Bible seriously. The result is a rich collection of articles on one of the main themes of the Old Testament; a theme that has a fascinating, although not always unproblematic reception history.
This collection of essays covers the four major periods of Israel's history and explores the theological, literary, historical, and archaeological dimensions of each era.
The proceedings of a symposium entitled Esther 2000 held in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska in April 2000, the book contains a collection of essays that engages all aspects of the biblical book of Esther. From questions of textual criticism to the history of rabbinic interpretation to speculation on the modern form of commentary, this collection is sure to contain something for everyone interested in the book of Esther. Contributors include such well-known Esther scholars as Michael Fox, David Clines, and Carey Moore.
The series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) covers all areas of research into the Old Testament, focusing on the Hebrew Bible, its early and later forms in Ancient Judaism, as well as its branching into many neighboring cultures of the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world. BZAW welcomes submissions that make an original and significant contribution to the field; demonstrate sophisticated engagement with the relevant secondary literature; and are written in readable, logical, and engaging prose.
The Book of Esther is one of the five Megillot. It tells the story of a Jewish girl in Persia, who becomes queen and saves her people from a genocide. The story of Esther forms the core of the Jewish festival of Purim. The commentary presents a literary analysis of the text, taking into account the inclusion and arrangement of different pericopes, and an analysis of the narration. Likewise, it will discuss the style, the syntax, and the vocabulary. The examination of the intellectual context of the book, biblical and extrabiblical textual traditions on which the book is based and with which it is in intertextual dialogue, leads to a discussion of the redactional process and the historical and social contexts in which the authors and redactors worked.