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This book invites a close textual encounter with the first 11 chapters of Genesis as an intimate drama of marginalised peoples wrestling with the rise of the world's first grain states in the Mesopotamian alluvium.The initial 11 chapters of Genesis are often considered discordant and fragmentary, despite being a story of beginnings within the context of the Bible. Readers discover how these formative chapters cohere as a cross-generational account of peoples grappling with the hegemonic spread of domesticated grain production and the concomitant rise of the pristine states of Mesopotamia. The book reveals how key episodes from the Genesis narrative reflect major societal revolutions of the Neolithic period in Mesopotamia through a three-fold hermeneutical method: literary analysis of the Bible and contemporary cuneiform texts; modern scholarship from archaeological, anthropological, ecological, and historical sources; and relevant exegesis from the Second Temple and rabbinical era. These three strands entwine to recount a generally sequential story of the earliest archaic states as narrated by non-elites at the margins of these emerging state spaces.The Dawn of Agriculture and the Earliest States in Genesis 1–11 provides a fascinating reading of the first 11 chapters of Genesis, appealing to students and scholars of the Hebrew Bible and the Near East, as well as those working on ecological injustice from a religious vantage point.

This book uses three examples of violent biblical stories about women, explored through the lens of conceptual metaphor theory in relation to culinary language used within these texts, to examine wider issues of gender and sexual violence in the Hebrew Bible.Utilising the tools of conceptual metaphor theory, feminist criticism, and classic textual analysis, Brownsmith interrogates some of the most troubling biblical passages for women—neither by redeeming them nor by condemning them, but by showing how they are intrinsically shaped by the enduring metaphor of woman as food in the Hebrew Bible, ancient Near East, and beyond. The volume explores three main case studies: the Levite's “concubine” (Judges 19); Tamar and Amnon (2 Sam 13); and the life and death of Jezebel (primarily 1 Kings 21 and 2 Kings 9). All depict violence toward a woman as perpetrated by a man, interwoven with culinary language that cues their metaphorical implications. In these sensitive but critical readings of violent tales, Brownsmith also draws on a broad range of interdisciplinary connections from Ricoeur to ancient Ugaritic epics to modern comic books. Through this approach, readers gain new insights into how the Bible shapes its narratives through conceptual metaphors, and specifically how it makes meaning out of women's brutalized bodies.Gendered Violence in Biblical Narrative: The Devouring Metaphor is suitable for students and scholars working on gender and sexual violence in the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East more broadly, as well as those working on conceptual metaphor theory and feminist criticism.

This volume presents an anthology of 19 seminal studies, some for the first time in English, that explore the history and tradition of the ancient relationship between Samaritans and Jews.The book is arranged into three parts: Methods, Traditions, and History; Samaritan and Jewish Pentateuchs; and Studies in Bible and Tradition, each of which is chronologically ordered. It represents a collection of the author's previous publications on the relationship between Samaritans and Jews, expanding and supplementing the conclusions of her published books. Recent archaeological developments on Mount Gerizim have demonstrated that our paradigms for writing the ancient histories of the kingdoms and provinces of Samaria and Judah in the Iron II, Persian, and Hellenistic periods must change. These developments also affect how we evaluate and read ancient literary traditions, and several chapters offer challenging new perspectives on well-known themes, narratives, and compositions in this subject area.Samaritans and Jews in History and Tradition: Changing Perspectives 10 will be of interest to students and scholars of biblical studies, theology, comparative religion, the ancient Near East, and in particular, Samaritan and Jewish studies.

This volume by the late Bernd J. Diebner presents an anthology of studies previously published only in German from 1971 to 2020 on a wide range of topics in biblical studies.The 18 essays in this collection offer profound insight into the works of German scholarship which have strongly influenced biblical studies and related research in the 20th century. Being an important, but lesser recognized ‘member'of the Copenhagen school, Diebner voiced serious criticism of contemporary biblical scholarship which is discussed in the first seven chapters. The remaining chapters offer challenging new perspectives on well-known themes, narratives, and compositions related to history, ideology, and archaeology, on the one hand, and text and canon, on the other, as alternatives to traditional historical–critical approaches.Now published in English for the first time, this volume makes these essays available to Anglophone students and scholars of biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies.

Jerusalem is the center of the universe, the hub of the three great monotheistic religions, yet how did a city located on the desert fringe, in the semi-arid southern highlands of Israel with little tillable land achieve such dominance? To provide answers to this enduring riddle, Israel Finkelstein has collected twenty-four of his best articles and essays covering the Middle Bronze Age to the late Hellenistic period. With critical and well-informed care, he analyzes archaeological evidence that often stands in tension with the biblical text. Topics of particular interest include the archaeology of the tenth century BCE; Saul, David, and Solomon in the Bible and archaeology; the first expansion of the city in the ninth century; its full growth in the late eighth to seventh centuries; Jerusalem and Judah under the Assyrian Empire; the days of King Josiah; and transformations in the Persian-Hellenistic era. Short addenda update the reader on recent developments.

The collection of essays in this book represents more than twenty years of research on the history and archeology of Judah, as well as the study of the Biblical literature written in and about the period that might be called the “Age of Empires”. This 600-year-long period, when Judah was a vassal Assyrian, Egyptian and Babylonian kingdom and then a province under the consecutive rule of the Babylonian, Persian, Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires, was the longest and the most influential in Judean history and historiography. The administration that was shaped and developed during this period, the rural economy, the settlement pattern and the place of Jerusalem as a small temple, surrounded by a small settlement of (mainly) priests, Levites and other temple servants, characterize Judah during most of its history.This is the formative period when most of the Hebrew Bible was written and edited, when the main features of Judaism were shaped and when Judean cult and theology were created and developed.The 36 papers contained in this book present a broad picture of the Hebrew Bible against the background of the Biblical history and the archeology of Judah throughout the six centuries of the “Age of Empires”.

Vergewisserungsprozesse, auch die des christlichen Glaubens, sind Zeicheninterpretationsprozesse. Die theologischen Entwürfe des 19. und beginnenden 20. Jahrhunderts versuchen die Glaubensgewißheit auf der Grundlage des Erfahrungsbegriffs zu begründen oder zu rechtfertigen und sind daher mit Schwierigkeiten belastet. Gesche Linde schlägt vor, den Erfahrungsbegriff durch den Begriff der Interpretation und damit den des Zeichens zu ersetzen. Der Umstand, daß das Zeichen für die Theoriebildung insgesamt keine größere Rolle gespielt hat, führt sie auf den Einfluß Augustins zurück, der den Erkenntnisprozeß von der Vermittlungsleistung des Zeichens abkoppelt. Sie liest Martin Luther als einen Autor, der unter humanistischem Einfluß die Gewißheitsfrage wieder neu mit dem Begriff des Zeichens verbindet: Vergewisserung ist ein trinitarisch bestimmter Prozeß, der auf Zeichen zurückgreift. Schließlich führt die Autorin den integrativen Zeichenbegriff des späten Peirce ein und rekonstruiert zu diesem Zweck erstmals dessen zehntrichotomisches Klassifikationssystem, auf dessen Grundlage sich alle denkbaren Formen von Bewußtseinsprozessen beschreiben und auf ihre logischen Voraussetzungen hin explizieren lassen sollen, von der Manifestation vorbegrifflicher Gefühlsqualitäten über Handlungen bis hin zu Denk- bzw. Sprachprozessen. Auf diese Weise läßt sich die christliche Gewißheitsbildung schließlich in einem Kontext von Gewißheitsbildung überhaupt ansiedeln, sich als vielschichtiges Phänomen unterschiedlicher Interpretantenformen verstehen und sich als Ergebnis logisch valider Interpretationsprozesse analysieren, ohne daß die Einsicht in diese seine eigene Strukturbedingung den christlichen Glauben zur Relativierung seines Wahrheitsanspruches nötigen oder ihn seines Gewißheitscharakters berauben würde.

Das Buch Exodus ist sowohl Teil des Pentateuch, der Tora, als auch der großen Sammlung von Erzählungen über die Ursprünge Israels im Hexateuch. Reinhard Achenbach unternimmt im vorliegenden Band eine durchgehende Kommentierung, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf der Untersuchung der redaktionsgeschichtlichen Prozesse in der Entstehung der Gesamtkomposition liegt. Ausgangspunkt bilden demnach zunächst selbständige literarische Texte aus vorexilischer Zeit, u.a. eine Mose-Exodus-Erzählung, eine Mose-Gottesberg-Erzählung und das Bundesbuch. In exilischer und früh-nachexilischer Zeit kamen deuteronomistische Horeb-Bundes-Erzählungen hinzu, die ihre Fortführung in einer Landnahmeerzählung fanden, und eine priesterschriftliche Erzählung vom Exodus und von der Offenbarung Gottes am Sinai, die ihrerseits mit einer Schöpfungs- und Erzelternerzählung verbunden war. Diese Quellen wurden durch Schriftgelehrte der Zeit des Zweiten Tempels zunächst in einer Hexateuch-Komposition miteinander verbunden und sodann im Kontext mit den Erweiterungen der Sinaiperikope um die Torot des Heiligkeitsgesetzes zum Teil einer Pentateuch-Komposition fortgeschrieben. In einer dritten Phase der Bearbeitung durch priesterliche Schriftgelehrte im Horizont einer Theologie des Königtums Gottes, die sog.'Theokratische Bearbeitung', gewann das Buch mit einer umfänglichen Ausgestaltung der Legende vom Heiligtum am Sinai seine endgültige Gestalt. Die Studie ist Teil einer neuen Gesamtkonzeption über die Entstehung des Pentateuch.

The history of the Israelite priesthood in the early first millennium BCE is shrouded in mystery. While images of priests, prayer, and sacrifice play a significant role in all biblical periods, reconstructing the practices and organization of the early priesthood is beset by a host of historical, chronological, and methodological problems. In 1973, Frank Moore Cross published a landmark proposal tying the history of the priesthood to the character of Moses and the establishment of the United Monarchy—the so-called “Mushite Hypothesis”—providing a historical foothold for the study of each. Building on the work of Cross, Matthew R. Rasure investigates traces of the early priesthood through narrative analysis of geography, kinship, and the memory of the characters of Moses and Aaron. Rasure posits the existence of two spectra on which different biblical voices may be positioned: a polarity between geographical center and periphery, and a polarity concerning understandings of Aaron and Moses. What emerges from these oppositions is a picture of two priestly identities active in distinct regions. The interactions between these priesthoods shape the history, politics, and cult of the United Monarchy, the Divided Monarchy, and beyond.

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. This book investigates rabbinic treatises relating to animals, humans, and other life-forms. Through an original analysis of creaturely generation and species classification by late ancient Palestinian rabbis and other thinkers in the Roman Empire, Rafael Rachel Neis shows how rabbis blurred the lines between humans and other beings, even as they were intent on classifying creatures and tracing the contours of what it means to be human. Recognizing that life proliferates by mechanisms beyond sexual copulation between two heterosexual “male” and “female” individuals of the same species, the rabbis proposed intricate alternatives. In parsing a variety of creatures, they considered overlaps and resemblances across seemingly distinct species, upsetting in turn unmitigated claims of human distinctiveness. When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven enters conversations in animal studies, queer theory, trans theory, and feminist science studies to provincialize sacrosanct ideals of reproduction in favor of a broader range that spans generation, kinship, and species. The book thereby offers powerful historical alternatives to the paradigms associated with so-called traditional ideas.

The fall of Samaria is narrated in 2 Kings 17. The cuneiform inscriptions dealing with this event are prima facie contradictory: the conquest is ascribed to both Shalmaneser V and Sargon II. The surmise of H. Tadmor that Samaria was conquered twice is investigated. At the same time the events are interpreted in their socio-historical framework.Tadmor's assumption cannot be falsified, although his theory should be modified as regards the date of the first conquest: 723 B.C.E. The fall of Samaria can be interpreted as an inevitable result of the expansion of the Assyrian Empire in combination with internal struggles in Israel. Evidence of deportation reveals that deportees were treated as normal citizens.Thorough discussion of the sources and their interpretation is a feature of this book.

Urmas Nõmmik untersucht die Anfänge der Erzelternerzählungen im Kontext der Königshöfe im alten Israel und Juda. Die mit Literar- und Redaktionskritik kombinierte Motivgeschichte bzw. Motivkritik erlaubt einen Einblick in die Verbindungen zwischen den ältesten Genesis-Texten, anderen alttestamentlichen Texten und den altorientalischen Hoftraditionen. Einzelne Jakoberzählungen in Gen 25•, 27•, 28• und 32• sowie ihre älteste Kombination im Zyklus Gen 25-33•, aber auch die Isaakerzählung in Gen 26• und die Lot-Sodom-Erzählung in Gen 19• liefern zahlreiche Motivverbindungen zu nordwestsemitischen und mesopotamischen Texten. Besonders sind aber die strukturellen Parallelen in alttestamentlichen (Gen, Num, 1-2 Sam, 1-2 Kön), hethitischen und mesopotamischen Überlieferungen hervorzuheben. Unter den letzten sticht zumal die Gilgamesch-Tradition heraus, die sich mehr oder weniger in den Jakob-, Isaak-, Rebekka- und Lot-Erzählungen widerspiegelt.

150 Jahre intensiver archäologischer Forschung im Alten Vorderen Orient haben dem Erdboden unzählig viele Zeugnisse aus jener Zeit entrissen: Texte, Gebrauchsgegenstände und andere Spuren des menschlichen Lebens. Mit diesem Buch liefert der renommierte Ägyptologe Kenneth A. Kitchen nicht nur ein unentbehrliches archäologisches Nachschlagewerk für denjenigen, der sich für die Personen und Ereignisse interessiert, die uns aus dem Alten Testament bekannt sind und wissen will, wie sie sich in die Geschichte des Vorderen Orients einfügen. Er verbindet die archäologischen Hinweise mit biblischen Daten zu einem Gesamtbild und liefert viele Argumente zu Gunsten einer vertrauenswürdigen Haltung zur historischen Zuverlässigkeit des Alten Testaments.

Reinhard Achenbach legt hier eine Sammlung von Studien zur Redaktionsgeschichte des Pentateuch, zur Entwicklung der Institutionen und zum Fremden- und Völkerrecht in der Schriftgelehrten Tradition Judas und des Zweiten Tempels während der Herrschaft der Perser (539-333 v. Chr.) vor. Er behandelt den Wandel des Gottesbildes, priesterlicher Institutionen, sakraler Ordnungen und Reinheitsgebote im Spannungsfeld zwischen dem Bestreben nach religiöser Autonomie der Kultusgemeinde und universalen Geltungsansprüchen des jüdischen Monotheismus.

The essays in this volume, which has emerged from the Persian Period Seminar of the Society of Biblical Literature, explore biblical and comparative evidence to show how the Iron Age institutions of monarchy and temple shifted in both form and function in the Persian period. The weight given to the Davidic monarchy and Jerusalem temple in the historiography of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament invites a new examination of attitudes towards the same in Achaemenid Yehud in comparative perspective. The essays uncover new attitudes relating to the monarchy and cultic site as well as the influence, but also rejection of, Persian ideas and contribute to scholarly interest in the extent of Persian influence on the literature of ancient/biblical Israel. As such, the volume participates in, lays the groundwork for, and also shapes discussions of Persian period Yehud and its literature.

Beginning with Deut. 18:9ff and its condemnation of magicians and diviners, this book explores the window that this text gives us into magic and divination in Ancient Palestine and Syria. Investigating the wealth of language combined with the archaeological and historical evidence, it seeks to place the influence of these factors in the emerging Israelite religion. An integral part of Ancient Near Eastern cosmology and culture, magic and divination are never completely eradicated despite the ideological warfare led by the Old Testament writers.The first part examines the function of various magicians and diviners. This is followed by a chapter on dreams and visions. The third chapter looks at the techniques and devices used by the oracular practitioners. Other subjects covered include magic in warfare, in the treatment of diseases, and blessing and cursing.

In this volume, Benjamin D. Giffone shows that the coexistence of at least three cultic centralization models within the Pentateuch, including Northern, Benjaminite, and Southern traditions, helps to calibrate the level of theological consistency that may reasonably be expected of biblical texts. The scholarly tendency to view biblical narratives as late, tendentious fictions is not sufficient to explain the texts'final forms. The author explains how the use of earlier narrative and legal material within Chronicles and other Second Temple texts illumines instances of unevenness that later interpreters smoothed to a degree but retained in the text. Community memory existing outside the written texts provided limits on the changes that could be introduced by scribes but was sufficiently malleable to allow for changes. Narrativity as a key feature of the texts allowed certain memories to be retained, framed by various techniques to suit the storymakers'aims.

This English translation of the second edition of Christian Frevel's essential textbook Geschichte Israels (Kohlhammer, 2018) covers the history of Israel from its beginnings until the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 CE). Frevel draws on archaeological evidence, inscriptions and monuments, as well as the Bible to sketch a picture of the history of ancient Israel within the context of the southern Levant that is sometimes familiar but often fresh and unexpected. Frevel has updated the second German edition with the most recent research of archaeologists and biblical scholars, including those based in Europe. Tables of rulers, a glossary, a timeline of the ancient Near East, and resources arranged by subject make this book an accessible, essential textbook for students and scholars alike.

La prééminence du droit est une notion qui sature le discours contemporain relatif à la démocratie libérale, où elle se trouve assimilée à l'idée de garantie des droits fondamentaux. D'où provient cependant l'idée selon laquelle les gouvernants doivent être soumis à un corps de règles et de principes intangibles? Dans son ouvrage The Origins of Political Order (2011), Francis Fukuyama suggère que cette idée n'a pu s'imposer historiquement que dans des civilisations qui ont été informées en profondeur par une grande religion transcendante. Ce numéro vise à soumettre la thèse de Fukuyama à un cas d'espèce, celui du judaïsme antique. Survit-elle à l'examen d'éminents historiens du Proche-Orient antique, de la Bible, de la loi juive? Plus largement, dit-elle quelque chose de l'effectivité juridique des idées religieuses? Peut-elle même conduire à se demander si la croyance et la sacralité ne sont pas nécessaires, au fond, à tout système qui prétend soumettre le pouvoir politique à des principes de droit intangibles?

Sister-Queens in the High Hellenistic Period is a cutting-edge exploration of ancient queenship and the significance of family politics in the dysfunctional dynasties of the late Hellenistic world.This volume, the first full-length study of Kleopatra III and Kleopatra Thea and their careers as queens of Egypt and Syria, thoroughly examines the roles and ideology of royal daughters, wives, and queens in Egypt, the ancient Near East, and ancient Israel and provides a comprehensive study of the iconography, public image, and titles of each queen and their cultural precedents. In addition, this book also offers an introduction to the critical concept of the ‘High Hellenistic Period'and the maturation of royal female power in the second century BCE.Sister-Queens in the High Hellenistic Period is suitable for students and scholars in ancient history, Egyptology, classics, and gender studies, as well as the general reader interested in ancient queenship, ancient Egypt, the Hellenistic world, and gender in antiquity.

Archaeological exploration in the Central Highlands of the Southern Levant conducted during the 1970s and 1980s dramatically transformed the scholarly understanding of the early Iron Age and led to the publication of From Nomadism to Monarchy: Archaeological and Historical Aspects of Early Israel, by Israel Finkelstein and Nadav Na'aman. This volume explores and reassesses the legacy of that foundational text. Using current theoretical frameworks and taking into account new excavation data and methodologies from the natural sciences, the seventeen essays in this volume examine the archaeology of the Southern Levant during the early Iron Age and the ways in which the period may be reflected in biblical accounts. The variety of methodologies employed and the historical narratives presented within these contributions illuminate the multifaceted nature of contemporary research on this formative period.Building upon Finkelstein and Na'aman's seminal study, this work provides an essential update. It will be welcomed by ancient historians, scholars of early Israel and the early Iron Age Southern Levant, and biblical scholars. In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume are Eran Arie, Erez Ben-Yosef, Cynthia Edenburg, Israel Finkelstein, Yuval Gadot, Assaf Kleiman, Gunnar Lehmann, Defna Langgut, Aren M. Maeir, Nadav Na'aman, Thomas Römer, Lidar Sapir-Hen, Katja Soennecken, Dieter Vieweger, Ido Wachtel, and Naama Yahalom-Mack.

The Apocalypse of Abraham is a pseudepigraphal work that narrates Abraham's rejection of idol worship and his subsequent ascent to heaven, where he is shown eschatological secrets through angelic mediation. This fascinating text was only preserved in Old Church Slavonic and must be studied as both a medieval Christian and an ancient Jewish text. This monograph addresses the following questions: -Why were medieval Slavs translating and reading Jewish pseudepigrapha? -How much, if at all, did they emend or edit the Apocalypse of Abraham? -When in antiquity was it most likely written? -What were its ancient Jewish social and theological contexts?

This book examines the relationship between mobility, lived religiosities, and conceptions of divine personhood as they are preserved in textual corpora and material culture from Israel, Judah, Egypt, and Mesopotamia.By integrating evidence of the form and function of religiosities in contexts of mobility and migration, this volume reconstructs mobility-informed aspects of civic and household religiosities in Israel and its world. Readers will find a robust theoretical framework for studying cultures of mobility and religiosities in the ancient past, as well as a fresh understanding of the scope and texture of mobility-informed religious identities that composed broader Yahwistic religious heritage.Cultures of Mobility, Migration, and Religion in Ancient Israel and Its World will be of use to both specialists and informed readers interested in the history of mobilities and migrations in the ancient Near East, as well as those interested in the development of Yahwism in its biblical and extra-biblical forms.

The Torah Unabridged is a detailed examination of legal reasoning in the Hebrew Bible. Focusing on the exegetical operations by which biblical laws related to intermarriage were applied to circumstances and persons that lie outside the sphere of their explicit content, this book reconstructs the ways in which laws regarding intermarriage evolved, were interpreted, and were applied across time and place.William A. Tooman argues that the “exegetical impulse” to expand upon the gaps left by laws relating to marriage in the Torah is expressed in several distinctive ways in later texts in the Hebrew Bible. Adopting a diachronic approach, Tooman examines the techniques biblical writers used in their appropriation, expansion, and manipulation of legal ideas within earlier biblical texts in order to apply the laws to more situations, circumstances, and people. Tooman's analysis reveals that from Exodus to Ezra-Nehemiah, legal reasoning on intermarriage moved in a singular direction: toward an ever-greater restriction of marriage between Israelites/Jews and gentiles. The final chapter sums up the ways that this was accomplished, summarizing the logical and exegetical operations executed in the process of expanding the relevance of these laws, and describing the hermeneutical assumptions that motivated the process.Grounded in a detailed philological analysis of the Hebrew texts, this tightly argued monograph is an important impetus to further debate in the field. It will be welcomed by biblical scholars and by specialists in the history of law.

The Torah Unabridged is a detailed examination of legal reasoning in the Hebrew Bible. Focusing on the exegetical operations by which biblical laws related to intermarriage were applied to circumstances and persons that lie outside the sphere of their explicit content, this book reconstructs the ways in which laws regarding intermarriage evolved, were interpreted, and were applied across time and place.William A. Tooman argues that the “exegetical impulse” to expand upon the gaps left by laws relating to marriage in the Torah is expressed in several distinctive ways in later texts in the Hebrew Bible. Adopting a diachronic approach, Tooman examines the techniques biblical writers used in their appropriation, expansion, and manipulation of legal ideas within earlier biblical texts in order to apply the laws to more situations, circumstances, and people. Tooman's analysis reveals that from Exodus to Ezra-Nehemiah, legal reasoning on intermarriage moved in a singular direction: toward an ever-greater restriction of marriage between Israelites/Jews and gentiles. The final chapter sums up the ways that this was accomplished, summarizing the logical and exegetical operations executed in the process of expanding the relevance of these laws, and describing the hermeneutical assumptions that motivated the process.Grounded in a detailed philological analysis of the Hebrew texts, this tightly argued monograph is an important impetus to further debate in the field. It will be welcomed by biblical scholars and by specialists in the history of law.

This book is the first in-depth comparative analysis of envy, jealousy, and vengefulness experienced by divine personalities in the Hebrew Bible and ancient Greek texts and the functions served by attributing negative emotions and traits to one's gods.Readers are informed about the vigorous debates concerning the nature of emotion, a field with rapidly growing interest, including the specific emotions of envy, jealousy, and vengefulness. The book charts the complex, multi-faceted presentation of divine beings in the Hebrew Bible and ancient Greek literature, including their negative emotions. While the detailed readings of key biblical and Greek texts can stand on their own, Lasine's comparative analyses allow readers to appreciate the uniqueness of each tradition. Finally, examining the functions served by envisioning one's God or gods as jealous, envious, and vengeful offers readers a fresh perspective on biblical theology and the ways in which Greek poets and dramatists imagined the nature of their deities.Divine Envy, Jealousy, and Vengefulness in Ancient Israel and Greece is intended for biblical, classical, and literary scholars, as well as the general reader interested in the Hebrew Bible and/or ancient Greek literature.

Where did the idea of sin arise from? In this meticulously argued book, David Konstan takes a close look at classical Greek and Roman texts, as well as the Bible and early Judaic and Christian writings, and argues that the fundamental idea of'sin'arose in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, although this original meaning was obscured in later Jewish and Christian interpretations. Through close philological examination of the words for'sin,'in particular the Hebrew hata'and the Greek hamartia, he traces their uses over the centuries in four chapters, and concludes that the common modern definition of sin as a violation of divine law indeed has antecedents in classical Greco-Roman conceptions, but acquired a wholly different sense in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament.

In this wide-ranging collection, Michael Fishbane investigates the complex and diverse relationships between the'biblical text'and'exegetical culture.'The author demonstrates the multiple literary dimensions and interpretative strategies that came to form the Hebrew Bible in the context of the ancient Near East, the Dead Sea Scrolls in the context of an emergent biblical-Jewish culture, and the classical rabbinic Midrash in the context of an emergent rabbinic civilization in late antiquity. Within each study, and in the collection as a whole, the author shows a broad range of creative methods, always with a scholarly concern to illuminate the religious ideas of Scripture as it was perceived through diverse hermeneutical lenses and exegetical methodologies. The studies range from the purely literary to the highly analytic, from myth to law, and from studies of symbols to the study of exegetical methods.

Male alliances, partnerships, and friendships are fundamental to the Hebrew Bible. This book offers a detailed and explicit exploration of the ways in which shared sexual use of women and women's bodies engenders, sustains, and nourishes such relationships in the Hebrew Bible.Hebrew Bible narratives demonstrate that women and women's bodies are not merely used to foster and cultivate male homosociality, male friendship, and toxic hegemonic masculinity, but rather to engender them and make them possible in the first place. Thiede argues that homosocial bonds between divine and mortal males are part of a continual competition for power, rank, and honor, and that this competition depends on women's bodies for its expression. In a final chapter, she also explores whether female characters in the Hebrew Bible use male bodies to form friendships and alliances to advance female power, status, and rank. The book concludes by arguing that women are essential to the toxic biblical hegemonic masculinity we find in the Hebrew Bible, but only because their bodies are used to make it possible in the first place.This book is intended for scholars of the Hebrew Bible, as well as advanced undergraduate and graduate students in religious studies, women and gender studies, masculinity studies, queer studies, and like fields. The book can also be read profitably by lay students of biblical literature, seminary students, and clergy.

One of the not frequently mentioned characteristics of us as humans is both an interest in the past and a desire to leave records of our own time, place or selves. This is not necessarily, however, the same thing as'history', which has a very clear meaning, namely'enquiry'. The very essence of history is the asking of questions and the search for answers to them. These questions concern especially causation (why?), or responsibility (who?). This book is a bold attempt to survey narratives from the beginning of written records in Egypt and Mesopotamia through the major pre-classical cultures down to Herodotos, whom Cicero named'The Father of History', to test the accuracy of that epithet, against a current fashion of denigration of the Greek's achievement. The fascinating pre-classical cultures, usually neglected by classicists, were certainly interested in the past and recording the present, but never asked questions about them. The narrative was already fixed, governed overwhelmingly by divine control and designed usually to glorify the ruler in question. An entirely new world is revealed by Herodotos, who never stopped asking questions. History was born.

Over the course of the last decade, the field of Ancient Near Eastern Studies has seen an uptick in studies devoted to the research of identity building in various cuneiform cultures. Despite these contributions the construct network character of identities remains understudied for the Ancient Near East. The conference'The King as a Nodal Point of Neo-Assyrian Identity'sought to fill in some gaps by focussing on the pivotal role of the Assyrian monarch in identity constructs formative for the Neo-Assyrian empire and society. The conference's goal was to develop a fresh look on the Assyrian ruler not as the all-defining pinnacle of societal identity, but as an important nodal point within a complex network of elite, yet delicate power relations. By following such a network approach, the role of the monarch becomes decentralized as it gets embedded into a web of power alliances that define both the monarchy as well as its elite carriers. Regrettably, we are lacking substantial sources that enable us to reliably tackle the identities prominent in the lower strata of societies beyond the economic sector. No written accounts pertaining to such matters are available to us, and it is highly doubtful that any will surface at all. We are thus forced to approach these questions by studying the qualities of elite power constructions which might enable us to draw cautious conclusions on identity effects on the middle and lower segments of Assyrian society.

The title of the Melammu Workshop'Making Peace in Antiquity'points to two intertwined aims. The first consists in the analysis of the events, conditions, decisions and rules that led to and/or contributed to building and maintaining peace in particular periods and circumstances of the ancient world. The second consists in considering the idea and instruments of peace and making peace as evolving over time in a process that has distant roots. For instance, it is possible to trace this path, which certainly was not linear, in the stipulation of treaties, a practice which is attested since the 25th century BC, and in the formulation of international law 4,500 years ago. Moreover, it is worth considering the expectations and the meanings attributed to peace in their historical development and change. Section I presents'Key Note Lectures'by Paolo Matthiae, Marc Van De Mieroop and Kurt A. Raaflaub. Section II is devoted to'Ancient Near East and Egypt'encompassing the histories of peace in Babylonian, Assyrian, Hittite, Biblical and Achaemenid realms. Section III,'The Mediterranean Worlds and Beyond'focusses on making peace from Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods.

This volume contains the proceedings of an international interdisciplinary workshop held in December 2019 by the Minerva Center for the Relations between Israel and Aram in Biblical Times at Leipzig University. The authors present a variety of studies from the fields of archaeology, history, and biblical studies that focus on the multifaceted relations between Jerusalem and the Mediterranean coast of Israel/Palestine in the period from c. 1200 to 300 BCE. It becomes clear that both regions were connected by a constantly changing economic, cultural, and social exchange.

Plato's Timaeus and the Biblical Creation Accounts argues that the creation of the world in Genesis 1 and the story of the first humans in Genesis 2-3 both draw directly on Plato's famous account of the origins of the universe, mortal life and evil containing equal parts science, theology and myth. This book is the first to systematically compare biblical, Ancient Near Eastern and Greek creation accounts and to show that Genesis 1-3 is heavily indebted to Plato's Timaeus and other cosmogonies by Greek natural philosophers. It argues that the idea of a monotheistic cosmic god was first introduced in Genesis 1 under the influence of Plato's philosophy, and that this cosmic Creator was originally distinct from the lesser terrestrial gods, including Yahweh, who appear elsewhere in Genesis. It shows the use of Plato's Critias, the sequel to Timaeus, in the stories about the Garden of Eden, the intermarriage of'the sons of God'and the daughters of men, and the biblical flood. This book confirms the late date and Hellenistic background of Genesis 1-11, drawing on Plato's writings and other Greek sources found at the Great Library of Alexandria.This study provides a fascinating approach to Genesis that will interest students and scholars in both biblical and classical studies, philosophy and creation narratives.

Charity is central to the Jewish tradition. In this formative study, Gregg E. Gardner takes on this concept to examine the beginnings of Jewish thought on care for the poor. Focusing on writings of the earliest rabbis from the third century c.e., Gardner shows how the ancient rabbis saw the problem of poverty primarily as questions related to wealth—how it is gained and lost, how it distinguishes rich from poor, and how to convince people to part with their wealth. Contributing to our understanding of the history of religions, Wealth, Poverty, and Charity in Jewish Antiquity demonstrates that a focus on wealth can provide us with a fuller understanding of charity in Jewish thought and the larger world from which Judaism and Christianity emerged.

This volume honors Dennis G. Pardee, Henry Crown Professor of Hebrew Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago and one of the preeminent experts in Northwest Semitic languages and literatures, particularly Ugaritic studies. The thirty-seven essays by colleagues and former students reflect the wide range of Professor Pardee's research interests and include, among other topics, new readings of inscriptions, studies of poetic structure, and investigations of Late Bronze Age society.

The Encyclopedia of Material Culture in the Biblical World (EBW) builds on the German'Standardwerk'Biblisches Reallexikon (BRL), edited by Kurt Galling 1937, second edition 1977 (2BRL). It is a reference book for biblical scholars, historians, and archaeologists. The EBW focusses on the material culture from the Neolithic Age to the Hellenistic period, giving attention to the material from the Bronze and Iron Ages, including the Persian period. The geographic regions covered by the entries include primarily the records of Palestine (= the Southern Levant) limited by (excl.) the southern fringe of Lebanon and Hermon (North), the Wadi al-Ariš, the Sinai peninsula and North-Arabia (South), the Mediterranean Sea (West) and the Transjordanian desert (East). If appropriate to the entry, the neighboring evidence from Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Mesopotamia is included. The Encyclopedia presents and documents the material culture based on the archaeological, epigraphical, and iconographical data in historical order and documents the state of current research. The entries do not only list or mention the most important material data, but try to synthesize and interpret it within the horizon of a history of Southern Levantine culture, economy, technical development, art, and religion. The EBW consists of around 120 articles and an introductory part pertaining to the chronology of the EBW, archaeology and cultural History, epigraphy, and iconography, written by specialists from 15 different countries.

Spektakuläre Textfunde sowie methodische Neuansätze zur Erforschung der Literatur- und Religionsgeschichte des Alten Testaments haben unser Bild von Israel und dem antiken Judentum im ersten Jahrtausend v. Chr. auf eine neue Grundlage gestellt. Reinhard Gregor Kratz bietet drei Überblicke zu Gebieten, die von diesen Neuerungen in besonderer Weise betroffen sind: die Geschichte Israels, die Entstehung des Alten Testaments und jüdische Archive. Während die Geschichte Israels und Judas den historischen Rahmen absteckt, in dem die biblische Tradition entstanden ist, widmet sich der dritte Überblick Orten, an denen jüdische Handschriften gefunden wurden (Elephantine, Qumran) oder mit deren Namen sich das Alte Testament verbindet (Garizim, Jerusalem, Alexandria). Im Zentrum steht die noch ungelöste Frage, unter welchen historischen und soziologischen Bedingungen die Hebräische Bibel bzw. das Alte Testament zur heiligen Schrift des Judentums wie des Christentums geworden ist.

This volume combines the papers held at the Minerva Center's'Research on Israel and Aram in Biblical Times'conference (Leipzig 2018) on the subject of writing and re-writing history by deliberate destruction in the regions of Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia. An international group of scholars studies the subject using a multi-perspective and interdisciplinary approach. Archeological studies, ancient Near Eastern studies, and biblical studies focused on the destruction of ancient sites in Israel and Judah in the 1st millennium BC. The perspective of the defeated Israelites, Jerusalemites, and Judeans is described in detail in the Old Testament and in postbiblical literature and shows that the destructions in the past were a cultural and identity creator of the first magnitude. The longue durée of the practice of reshaping the past through the deliberate destruction of a cultural heritage in order to shape the present according to current interests becomes evident based on the Neo-Assyrian Empire's practice up to the modern era and is demonstrated by the example of the Arabian-Muslim conquest of Aram as well as current Turkish politics.

This volume focuses on the major issues and debates in the study of Jews and Judaism in late antiquity (third to seventh century C.E.), providing cutting-edge surveys of the state of scholarship, main topics and research questions, methodological approaches, and avenues for future research. Based on both Jewish and non-Jewish literary and material sources, this volume takes an interdisciplinary approach involving historians of ancient Judaism, scholars of rabbinic literature, archaeologists, epigraphers, art historians, and Byzantinists. Developments within Jewish society and culture are viewed within the respective regional, political, cultural, and socioeconomic contexts in which they took place. Special focus is given to the impact of the Christianization of the Roman Empire on Jews, from administrative, legal, social, and cultural points of view. The contributors examine how the confrontation with Christianity changed Jewish practices, perceptions, and organizational structures, such as, for example, the emergence of local Jewish communities around synagogues as central religious spaces. Special chapters are devoted to the eastern and western Jewish Diaspora in Late Antiquity, especially Sasanian Persia but also Roman Italy, Egypt, Syria and Arabia, North Africa, and Asia Minor, to provide a comprehensive assessment of the situation and life experiences of Jews and Judaism during this period. The Routledge Handbook of Jews and Judaism in Late Antiquity is a critical and methodologically sophisticated survey of current scholarship aimed primarily at students and scholars of Jewish Studies, Study of Religions, Patristics, Classics, Roman and Byzantine Studies, Iranology, History of Art, and Archaeology. It is a valuable resource for anyone interested in Judaism and Jewish history.

Anhand der insgesamt zehn Erzählungen von Israels Murren in der Wüste zeigt Walter Bührer, dass und wie Auslegung und deutende Aneignung der biblisch gewordenen Texte kein erst nachbiblisches Phänomen, sondern bereits prägend für Entstehungs- und Kanonisierungsprozesse der Texte selbst sind. An den Murrerzählungen können Fortschreibungs- und Auslegungsprozesse in den biblisch gewordenen Texten syn- und diachron in den einzelnen Erzählungen, Kapitel und Buch übergreifend, im Rahmen der Textgeschichte und im Vergleich mit weiteren alttestamentlichen Textcorpora aufgezeigt werden. Dabei zeigt sich, dass das Murren Israels zunehmend negativ gedeutet wird. Die Arbeit leistet damit gleichermaßen einen Beitrag zur aktuellen Pentateuchforschung sowie zur Klärung des Phänomens der sogenannten'innerbiblischen Schriftauslegung'.

In The Rephaim: Sons of the Gods, Jonathan Yogev provides a new theory regarding the mysterious characters, known as'Rephaim,'in Biblical and ancient Near Eastern literature. The Rephaim are associated with concepts such as death and the afterlife, divinity, healing, giants and monarchy among others. They appear in Ugaritic, Phoenician and Biblical texts, yet it is difficult to pinpoint their exact function and meaning. This study offers a different perspective, along with full texts, detailed epigraphic analysis and commentary for all of the texts that mention the Rephaim, in order to determine their specific importance in societies of the ancient Levant.

A comprehensive history of a state on Judah's border Edom at the Edge of Empire combines biblical, epigraphic, archaeological, and comparative evidence to reconstruct the history of Judah's neighbor to the southeast. Crowell traces the material and linguistic evidence, from early Egyptian sources that recall conflicts with nomadic tribes to later Assyrian texts that reference compliant Edomite tribal kings, to offer alternative scenarios regarding Edom's transformation from a collection of nomadic tribes and workers in the Wadi Faynan as it relates to the later polity centered around the city of Busayra in the mountains of southern Jordan. This is the first book to incorporate the important evidence from the Wadi Faynan copper mines into a thorough account of Edom's history, providing a key resource for students and scholars of the ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible.

It is often presumed that biblical redaction was invariably done using conventional scribal methods, meaning that when editors sought to modify or compile existing texts, they would do so in the process of rewriting them upon new scrolls. There is, however, substantial evidence pointing to an alternative scenario: Various sections of the Hebrew Bible appear to have been created through a process of material redaction. In some cases, ancient editors simply appended new sheets to existing scrolls. Other times, they literally cut and pasted their sources, carving out patches of text from multiple manuscripts and then gluing them together like a collage. Idan Dershowitz shows how this surprising technique left behind telltale traces in the biblical text - especially when the editors made mistakes - allowing us to reconstruct their modus operandi. Material evidence from the ancient Near East and elsewhere further supports his hypothesis.'This is an extremely stimulating study that will have a lasting impact on the scholarly discourse. [...] The Dismembered Bible is an outstanding example of what biblical studies can learn from neighboring disciplines and hopefully marks only the beginning of a more intense dialogue between exegesis and research on material aspects of textual production.'Translation of Anja Klein in Theologische Revue, 117. Jahrgang, September 2021, https://doi.org/10.17879/thrv-2021–3568

In this volume, Niels Peter Lemche and Emanuel Pfoh present an anthology of seminal studies by Mario Liverani, a foremost scholar of the Ancient Near East.This collection contains 18 essays, 11 of which have originally been published in Italian and are now published in English for the first time. It represents an important contribution to Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies, exposing the innovative interpretations of Liverani on many historical and ideological aspects of ancient society. Topics range from the Amarna letters and the Ugaritic epic, to the ‘origins'of Israel. Historiography, Ideology and Politics in the Ancient Near East and Israel will be an invaluable resource for Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical scholars, as well as graduate and post-graduate students.

This volume deals with historical and exegetical problems of the Abraham story in the book of Genesis. The first part describes the results of archaeological investigations at Hebron and Mamre in Southern Palestine including remarks on the status of the province of Judah in the first millennium BCE, especially in the Babylonian and Persian period. The second part presents exegetical comments on Genesis chapter 13 and 18. The concluding part of the volume relates the historical and exegetical aspects. The Abraham story is interpreted as a product of the Judaean people of the Babylonian and Persian Period.

This collection of essays explores the rhetoric and practices surrounding views on life after death and the end of the world, including the fate of the individual, apocalyptic speculation and hope for cosmological renewal, in a wide range of societies from Ancient Mesopotamia to the Byzantine era.The 42 essays by leading scholars in each field explore the rich spectrum of ways in which eschatological understanding can be expressed, and for which purposes it can be used. Readers will gain new insight into the historical contexts, details, functions and impact of eschatological ideas and imagery in ancient texts and material culture from the twenty-fifth century BCE to the ninth century CE. Traditionally, the study of “eschatology” (and related concepts) has been pursued mainly by scholars of Jewish and Christian scripture. By broadening the disciplinary scope but remaining within the clearly defined geographical milieu of the Mediterranean, this volume enables its readers to note comparisons and contrasts, as well as exchanges of thought and transmission of eschatological ideas across Antiquity. Cross-referencing, high quality illustrations and extensive indexing contribute to a rich resource on a topic of contemporary interest and relevance.Eschatology in Antiquity is aimed at readers from a wide range of academic disciplines, as well as non-specialists including seminary students and religious leaders. The primary audience will comprise researchers in relevant fields including Biblical Studies, Classics and Ancient History, Ancient Philosophy, Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Art History, Late Antiquity, Byzantine Studies and Cultural Studies. Care has been taken to ensure that the essays are accessible to undergraduates and those without specialist knowledge of particular subject areas.

This volume examines biblical wisdom literature both in its historical context and as it relates to a host of contemporary themes, including overcoming social divisions, reading from a place of inclusion, healing from trauma, and challenging religious attitudes toward climate change and animals.This volume delivers fresh insights on biblical wisdom texts, exploring ways in which wisdom literature speaks perennially to the human condition despite the differences in societies then and now. Employing both biblical studies and theological approaches, the diverse group of authors in this collection examine biblical wisdom literature from a variety of perspectives and methodologies to illuminate the relevance of wisdom for ancient audiences such as exiles, scribes, and leaders, as well as for contemporary audiences concerned with challenges such as climate change, social division, and healing from trauma. Its eleven chapters utilize an accessible style that brings erudite scholarship on biblical wisdom to a broader audience.Biblical Wisdom, Then and Now will be an invaluable resource for undergraduates, graduates, and specialists in biblical studies, as well as the more general reader with an interest in biblical literature and its reception.

This volume is a collection of paper by colleagues, friends and students, in honor of Jeffrey Chadwick. The papers cover the various topic that he has dealt with in his career, including biblical historical geography, and the archaeology and history of the Levant and its environs during the Bronze and Iron Ages, and the Second Temple Period.Following a preface and introduction about the honoree, the volume is divided into 4 sections: Biblical Historical Geography; Bronze Age Canaan and its Neighbors; Iron Age Israel and its Neighbors; Second Temple Israel.

Ritual in Deuteronomy explores the symbolic world of Deuteronomy's ritual covenant and curses through a lens of religious studies and anthropology, drawing on previously unexamined Mesopotamian material.This book focuses on the ritual material in Deuteronomy including commands regarding sacrifice, prayer objects, and especially the dramatic ritual enactment of the covenant including curses. The book's most unique feature is an entirely new comparative study of Deut 27–30 with two ritual texts from Mesopotamia. No studies to date have undertaken a comparison of Deut 27–30 with ancient Near Eastern ritual texts outside of the treaty oath tradition. This fresh comparison illuminates how the ritual life of ancient Israel shaped the literary form of Deuteronomy and concludes that the performance of oaths was a social strategy, addressing contemporary anxieties and reinforcing systems of cultural power.This book offers a fascinating comparative study which will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students in biblical studies, classical Hebrew, theology, and ancient Near Eastern studies. The book's more technical aspects will also appeal to scholars of the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy, Biblical Law, Ancient Near Eastern History, Mesopotamian Studies, and Classics.