The Sanctuary of Bethel and the Configuration of Israelite Identity

The Sanctuary of Bethel and the Configuration of Israelite Identity

Author: Jules Gomes

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 9783110189933

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After Jerusalem, Bethel is the most frequently cited sanctuary in the Hebrew Bible. The book offers a detailed analysis of Bethel and its sanctuary from archaeological and biblical evidence. It reconstructs the history of Bethel and by analysing the presence of pro- and anti-Bethel propaganda, it argues that the latter, with its own pro-Jerusalem/Judah bias, has resulted in an unfair denigration of Bethel as an idolatrous place of worship. The study suggests that Bethel was a legitimate Yahwistic shrine and continued to be so even after the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel to the Assyrians. Hence, Bethel in a real sense was the principal means of configuring Israelite identity.


The Sanctuary of Bethel and the Configuration of Israelite Identity

The Sanctuary of Bethel and the Configuration of Israelite Identity

Author: Jules Francis Gomes

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2012-02-14

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 3110925184

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After Jerusalem, Bethel is the most frequently cited sanctuary in the Hebrew Bible. The book offers a detailed analysis of Bethel and its sanctuary from archaeological and biblical evidence. It reconstructs the history of Bethel and by analysing the presence of pro- and anti-Bethel propaganda, it argues that the latter, with its own pro-Jerusalem/Judah bias, has resulted in an unfair denigration of Bethel as an idolatrous place of worship. The study suggests that Bethel was a legitimate Yahwistic shrine and continued to be so even after the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel to the Assyrians. Hence, Bethel in a real sense was the principal means of configuring Israelite identity.


The Hebrew Bible and History: Critical Readings

The Hebrew Bible and History: Critical Readings

Author: Lester L. Grabbe

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2018-12-27

Total Pages: 592

ISBN-13: 0567672689

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These critical readings explore the history of ancient Israel, from the Late Bronze Age to the Persian period, as it relates to the Bible. Selected by one of the world's leading scholars of biblical history, the texts are drawn from a range of highly respected international scholars, and from a variety of historical and religious perspectives, presenting the key voices of the debate in one convenient volume. Divided into five sections - each featuring an introduction by Lester Grabbe - the volume first covers general methodological principles, before following the chronology of Israel's earliest history; including two sections on specific cases studies (the reforms of Josiah and the wall of Nehemiah). A final chapter summarizes many of the historical principles that emerge in the course of studying Israelite history, and an annotated bibliography points researchers towards further readings and engagements with these key themes.


Reconstructing the Temple

Reconstructing the Temple

Author: Andrew R. Davis

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0190868961

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This book examines temple renovation as a rhetorical topic within royal literature of the ancient Near East. Unlike newly founded temples, which were celebrated for their novelty, temple renovations were oriented toward the past. Kings took the opportunity to rehearse a selective history of the temple, evoking certain past traditions and omitting others. In this way, temple renovations were a kind of historiography. Andrew R. Davis demonstrates a pattern in the rhetoric of temple renovation texts: that kings in ancient Mesopotamia, Israel, Syria and Persia used temple renovation to correct, or at least distance themselves from, some turmoil of recent history and to associate their reigns with an earlier and more illustrious past. Davis draws on the royal literature of the seventh and sixth centuries BCE for main evidence of this rhetoric. Furthermore, he argues for reading the story of Jeroboam I's placement of calves at Dan and Bethel (1 Kgs 12:25-33) as an eighth-century BCE account of temple renovation with a similar rhetoric. Concluding with further examples in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Reconstructing the Temple demonstrates that the rhetoric of temple renovation was a distinct and longstanding topic in the ancient Near East.


The Book of Amos

The Book of Amos

Author: M. Daniel Carroll R.

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2020-11-19

Total Pages: 510

ISBN-13: 1467459402

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In this commentary on the book of Amos, Daniel Carroll combines a detailed reading of the Hebrew text with attention to its historical background and current relevance. What makes this volume unique is its special attention to Amos’s literary features and what they reveal about the book’s theology and composition. Instead of reconstructing a hypothetical redactional history, this commentary offers a close reading of the canonical form against the backdrop of the eighth century BCE.


The “God of Israel” in History and Tradition

The “God of Israel” in History and Tradition

Author: Michael J. Stahl

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-03-22

Total Pages: 498

ISBN-13: 9004447725

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In The “God of Israel” in History and Tradition, Michael Stahl examines the historical and ideological significances of the formulaic title “god of Israel” (’elohe yisra’el) in the Hebrew Bible using critical theory on social power and identity.


Womanist Sass and Talk Back

Womanist Sass and Talk Back

Author: Mitzi J. Smith

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2018-01-25

Total Pages: 151

ISBN-13: 1498288871

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Womanist Sass and Talk Back is a contextual resistance text for readers interested in social (in)justice. Smith raises our consciousness about pressing contemporary social (in)justice issues that impact communities of color and the larger society. Systemic or structural oppression and injustices, police profiling and brutality, oppressive pedagogy, and gendered violence are placed in dialogue with sacred (con)texts. This book provides fresh intersectional readings of sacred (con)texts that are accessible to both scholars and nonscholars. Womanist Sass and Talk Back is for readers interested in critical interpretations of sacred (con)texts (ancient and contemporary) and in propagating the justice and love of God while engaging those (con)texts.


Hezekiah in History and Tradition

Hezekiah in History and Tradition

Author: Robb Andrew Young

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2012-05-03

Total Pages: 387

ISBN-13: 9004216081

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This study draws upon the biblical books of Kings, First Isaiah and Chronicles, in conjunction with Assyrian records and ancient Near Eastern archaeology, in order to provide an updated historical reconstruction of the influential Judean monarch Hezekiah.


The Origins of Yahwism

The Origins of Yahwism

Author: Jürgen van Oorschot

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2017-06-26

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 311044822X

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This compendium examines the origins of the God Yahweh, his place in the Syrian-Palestinian and Northern Arabian pantheon during the bronze and iron ages, and the beginnings of the cultic veneration of Yahweh. Contributors analyze the epigraphic and archeological evidence, apply fundamental considerations from the cultural and religious sciences, and analyze the relevant Old Testament texts.