Divine Perogative and Royal Pretension
Divine Perogative and Royal Pretension

Author: Donald F. Murray

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 1998-09-01

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 0567231011

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In this close reading of a text central to the story of David, the author, using the tools of linguistic pragmatics and poetics, exposes the text's promotion of a prophetic-based ideology, through a polemical rhetoric that polarizes David and Yahweh around the opposed notions of king (melek) and leader (nagid). He then goes on to analyse the context, in ancient Near Eastern royal ideology and in Samuel, for how the text develops this opposition, and finally reflects on its promulgation of the supreme mediacy of the prophetic word.

God and Earthly Power
God and Earthly Power

Author: J. G. McConville

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2008-09-30

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 0567045706

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Compares perspectives from critical methodologies in Old Testament study with perspectives from the history of interpretation of key Old Testament political texts

The Religion of the Patriarchs
The Religion of the Patriarchs

Author: Augustine Pagolu

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 1998-11-01

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 9781850759355

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Patriarchal religion was distinct from both ancient Near Eastern and Israelite religions, and compatible only with the patriarchal lifestyle portrayed in Genesis. Since Wellhausen, the study of patriarchal religion has been chiefly confined either to the divine names or to the social and legal practices attested in Genesis and has neglected the patriarchal cultic practices-altars, pillars, tithes, vows and purifications-frequently attested there. In this study, Pagolu investigates such aspects in the light of second-millennium ancient Near Eastern and Israelite parallels, concluding that the patriarchal practices bore no comparison to those of the ancient Near East or of Israel, in that the patriarchs themselves offered sacrifices, conducted prayer, raised pillars and offered worship, all without the aid of an established cult. Thus patriarchal religion was distinct both from ancient Near Eastern religions and from the religion of Israel itself. It is peculiar to the world of Genesis.

Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan
Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan

Author: John Day

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2002-12-01

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0826468306

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This masterly book is the climax of over twenty-five years of study of the impact of Canaanite religion and mythology on ancient Israel and the Old Testament. It is John Day's magnum opus in which he sets forth all his main arguments and conclusions on the subject. The work considers in detail the relationship between Yahweh and the various gods and goddesses of Canaan, including the leading gods El and Baal, the great goddesses (Asherah, Astarte and Anat), astral deities (Sun, Moon and Lucifer), and underworld deities (Mot, Resheph, Molech and the Rephaim). Day assesses both what Yahwism assimilated from these deities and what it came to reject. More generally he discusses the impact of Canaanite polytheism on ancient Israel and how monotheism was eventually achieved.

The King-Priest in Samuel
The King-Priest in Samuel

Author: Nicholas Majors

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2023-05-23

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13: 1666766011

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Scholars studying the ANE have noticed that Canaanite kings ruled as a representative of their god and served in a priestly role. Yahweh allows Israel to have a king "like all the nations" (Deut 17:14), but he shapes the monarchy according to his covenant. A key question remains, does God's allowance for a king "like all the nations" include a king-priest model? This study presents a synchronic view of the king as a priest within the MT of Samuel, analyzing the motif and considering how the narrator heightens the hope for the coming anointed one, whom the narrator describes as both king (1 Sam 2:10) and priest (2:35-36). This study will argue that, from the monarchy's inception, Yahweh considered Israel's kingship a sacral task. My study examined the king as a priest through a synchronic literary-theological approach.

Understanding Dan
Understanding Dan

Author: Mark Walter Bartusch

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2003-06-01

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0826439756

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This book investigates the Dan/Danite tradition in the Hebrew Bible to determine not only what the Bible tells us about Dan, but also how far traditions about the territory, city, ancestor and tribe may have influenced each other. Bartusch argues that the political and theological interests reflected in the relatively late work of the Deuteronomistic Historian have cast a shadow over some earlier traditions, and that by combining social-science models and newer literary criticism with the more traditional historical-critical methodologies, the original meaning of the traditions of Dan may be recovered and clarified. The conclusion of such a study is that the Hebrew Bible as a whole does not entirely support the negative portrayal of Dan in its later traditions.

The Lord of the Dreams
The Lord of the Dreams

Author: Ron Pirson

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2003-04-01

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 0567279065

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A fascinating and highly original new look at the Joseph-narrative which relies a good deal on syntactic and semantic analyses. Pirson shows that there are many elements in this story that provoke a significantly different reading of the story of Joseph and his brothers, especially when these are combined with some textual aspects previously unnoticed or neglected. Special attention is given to the meaning of Joseph's dreams, to the question of who actually sold Joseph, and to the brothers' role in the narrative. Pirson also asks why Joseph did not call home after his release from prison, and-the most important question-why did Joseph, who was Jacob's favourite son, disappear from the biblical history of Israel?

Chronicles and Exodus
Chronicles and Exodus

Author: William Johnstone

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 1998-01-12

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0567377393

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This collection of inter-related essays argues that the way in which Chronicles incorporates and develops material from Samuel-Kings offers an analogy for the way in which the final edition of Exodus was produced. Embedded within the text of Exodus there is an earlier Deuteronomistic version recoverable from the reminiscences of the exodus in Deuteronomy. This, it is suggested, is the most objective method available for recreating the literary history of Exodus and must constitute the first stage in any analysis of Exodus. Already, it produces some surprisingly radical results.

A Time to Tell
A Time to Tell

Author: Eric S. Christianson

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 1998-01-01

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 9781850759829

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Using a variety of approaches from art criticism to structuralist analysis, this book draws out largely neglected narrative elements of Qoheleth's text, including the strategies of framing, autobiography and the 'use' of Solomon. In locating the self as the central concern of this narrative, Christianson shows that although Qoheleth passionately observes the world's transience, he desires that his own image be fixed and remembered. His story is thereby concerned with identity and the formation of character. In the guise of Solomon that concern is almost satirical and somewhat playful. Through the strategy of the frame narrative the complex relations of all such elements are brought into question, particularly the reader's relation to the framed material, as well as the relation of the framer to the one framed.