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In this book, Benjamin Wold builds on recent developments in the study of early Jewish wisdom literature and brings it to bear on the New Testament. This scholarship has been transformed by the discovery at Qumran of more than 900 manuscripts, including Hebrew wisdom compositions, many of which were published in critical editions beginning in the mid-1990s. Wold systematically explores the salient themes in the Jewish wisdom worldview found in these scrolls. He also presents detailed commentaries on translations and articulates the key debates regarding Qumran wisdom literature, highlighting the significance of wisdom within the context of Jewish textual culture. Wold's treatment of themes within the early Jewish and Christian textual cultures demonstrates that wisdom transcended literary form and genre. He shows how and why the publication of these ancient texts has engendered profound shifts in the study of early Jewish wisdom, and their relevance to current controversies regarding the interpretation of specific New Testament texts.
This volume of essays on Ben Sira is a Festschrift on the occasion of the 65th birthday of Prof. Nuria Calduch-Benages. The volume gathers the latest studies on Ben Sira's relationship with other Jewish traditions. With a variety of methods and approaches, the volume explores Ben Sira's interpretation of received traditions, his views on the prevailing issues of his time, and the subsequent reception of his work.
In The Hebrew Bible: A Millennium, manuscripts, texts, and methods applied in Hebrew Bible studies are considered through time. The Dead Sea Scrolls, the Cairo and European Genizot, as well as Late Medieval Biblical Manuscripts are examined.
This book presents the first comprehensive comparison of how moral agency is constructed in Sirach, 4QInstruction, and the Hodayot. World Kim argues that recent scholastic studies have overemphasized differences amongst various Second Temple texts and neglected the similarities between them. By employing four stages of comparison-description, juxtaposition, re-description, and rectification- Kim re-describes moral agency in Sirach, 4QInstruction, and the Hodayot, and aims to rectify the relationship between these texts. Kim demonstrates that moral agency cannot be described by categories such as affirmation or denial, and argues that such agency should instead be described in terms of degrees and shaped by various factors such as knowledge and desire, that will either decrease or increase moral agency. Through an extensive comparison of these texts, Kim concludes that the degree to which one internalizes and actualizes the teachings of their religious text increases one's capacity for moral agency, and that this agency must be conceived as dynamic rather than static.
How did New Testament authors use Israel’s Scriptures? Use, misuse, appropriation, citation, allusion, inspiration—how do we characterize the manifold images, paraphrases, and quotations of the Jewish Scriptures that pervade the New Testament? Over the past few decades, scholars have tackled the question with a variety of methodologies. New Testament authors were part of a broader landscape of Jewish readers interpreting Scripture. Recent studies have sought to understand the various compositional techniques of the early Christians who composed the New Testament in this context and on the authors’ own terms. In this landmark collection of essays, Matthias Henze and David Lincicum marsh...
In He Will Save You From the Deadly Pestilence, acclaimed religious scholar Philip Jenkins illustrates how the evolving uses of Psalm 91 allow us to map developing ideas about religion and the supernatural, theology and politics, medicine and mysticism.
The Dead Sea Scrolls continue to shed ancient light on both the text and interpretation of the Hebrew Bible during the Second Temple period. Among the scrolls are several copies of Genesis dating from the first century BC to the mid-first century AD that contain portions of text from the creation account. These fragmentary copies have provided an unprecedented glimpse into the condition of the text in antiquity and have also provided a unique window into certain scribal practices in the copying of the text. In addition, several texts from Qumran contain the most ancient surviving interpretations of the Genesis creation account, dating from the mid-second century BC to the first century AD. A literary analysis of these texts reveals how ancient Jews interpreted and employed the creation account. These diverse texts address issues such as the creation of various entities (the universe, angels, Eden, humanity), Adam’s dominion and knowledge in Eden, God’s election of Israel on the first Sabbath, the prohibition in the garden and Adam’s rebellion, and the Garden of Eden as an archetype of the sanctuary.
This study probes the significance of Paul's statement in 1 Corinthians 3:16 announced to a group of believers in Corinth: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells among you?" The question is framed in the Greek language such that Paul expected an affirmative response (i.e. ‘Yes, we know we are the temple of God’), and yet mapping such an idea onto a gathering of people is rather unprecedented in antiquity. By surveying relevant literary texts and material culture from the ancient Mediterranean (roughly 400 BCE—200 CE), the author shows how Paul appropriated the concept of temple in his exhortation to the Corinthians. A few key texts in 1 Corint...
In this study, Michael J. Morris examines aspects of synoptic gospel demonology; specifically, human responses to demonic evil. It is clear that early Christian demonology can be more fully understood against the background of early Jewish traditions. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, for instance, there are two fundamental ways by which protection against demons is sought. The first anti-demonic method is "exorcism," and the second is characterized by its preventative nature and is typically referred to as "apotropaism." Although many contributions have been made on the topic of exorcism in the gospels, less attention has been paid to the presence of apotropaic features in the gospel texts. Therefore, Michael J. Morris offers a timely examination of apotropaic tradition in early Judaism and its significance for demonological material in the synoptic gospels.