"With admirable erudition, Lopez-Ruiz brings to life intimacies and exchanges between the ancient Greeks and their Northwest Semitic neighbors, portraying the ancient Mediterranean as a fluid, dynamic contact zone. She explains networks of circulation, shows creative uses of traditional material by peoples in motion, and radically transforms our understanding of ancient cosmogonies."---Page duBois, author of Out of Athens: The New Ancient Greeks --
Annotation A study of the phenomenon of prophecy as documented in ancient Near Eastern texts and the Hebrew Bible as well as Greek sources, from the twenty-first century BCE to the second century CE.
This volume presents the work of the international, interdisciplinary research project Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions (CSTT), whose members focused on cultural, ideological, and material changes in the period when the sacred traditions of the Hebrew Bible were created, transmitted, and transformed. Specialists in the textual study of the Hebrew and Greek Bibles, archaeology, Assyriology, and history, working across their fields of expertise, trace how changes occurred in biblical and ancient Near Eastern texts and traditions. Contributors Tero Alstola, Anneli Aejmelaeus , Rick Bonnie, Francis Borchardt, George J. Brooke, Cynthia Edenburg, Sebastian Fink, Izaak J. deHulster , Patrik Jansson, Jutta Jokiranta, Tuukka Kauhanen, Gina Konstantopoulos, Lauri Laine, Michael C. Legaspi, Christoph Levin, Ville Mäkipelto, Reinhard Müller, Martti Nissinen, Jessi Orpana, Juha Pakkala, Dalit Rom-Shiloni, Christian Seppänen, Jason M. Silverman, Saana Svärd, Timo Tekoniemi, Hanna Tervanotko, Joanna Töyräänvuori, and Miika Tucker demonstrate that rigorous yet respectful debate results in a nuanced and complex understanding of how ancient texts developed.
Twenty-three colleagues, friends, and former students of Richard Nelson honor him by contributing essays to this volume. Nelson is the fromer Kraft Professor of Biblical Studies at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, PA, and current W. J. A. Power Professor of Biblical Hebrew and Old Testament Interpretation as well as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas. He is the author of numerous books, commentaries, and articles. Raising Up a Faithful Exegete centers around topics of particular interest to Prof. Nelson, especially Deuteronomy, the Former Prophets, priesthoods, social interactions, and theology. In fact, this book could be seen as a one-volume summation of current thinking on Deuteronomy, the Former Prophets, Deuteronomism, and Biblical Theology, disguised as a Festschrift. “For eleven years, I had the distinct pleasure and honor of having Richard Nelson as a senior faculty colleague. He has served as a fine model of what it means to be a dynamic and innovative teacher, an insightful mentor, a world-class scholar, a supportive friend, a dedicated leader in the church, and a person who takes sheer delight in all facets of his calling.”—Richard P. Carlson, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg, PA “Rich Nelson is a truly rare breed of man. He is not only a passionate and respected scholar, thoroughly trained and representative of historical-critical approaches to the Hebrew Bible. But he is also open and interested in the whole spectrum of different ways in which the Bible is read and understood both in the church and the academy. He is a remarkable role-model.”—Roy L. Heller, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas “Rich Nelson was one of the best graduate students I ever taught. In a seemingly effortless manner, he did basic, significant research that provided the grounds for a major but to that point generally undeveloped reading of the Deuteronomistic History. Out of that early study and his later scholarly work, he has rightly become one of our leading interpreters of Deuteronomy and the history that evolved out of its circle.”—Patrick D. Miller, Jr., Princeton Theological Seminary
Myth as a category is often explicitly denied as being present in the Bible. Studies of Israelite religion take a largely historical approach. 'The Archaeology of Myth' highlights the importance of mythological categories in discussing any religion, and especially Israelite religion. The essays explore key biblical narratives and themes - Jacob's dream, the story of Dinah and Shechem, the seventy sons of Athirat, the old men of Deuteronomy - tracing their development from primitive forms to biblical text. The book offers a theoretical analysis of the biblical treatment of myth and its role in the shaping of memories and values.
Formerly known by its subtitle “Internationale Zeitschriftenschau für Bibelwissenschaft und Grenzgebiete”, the International Review of Biblical Studies has served the scholarly community ever since its inception in the early 1950’s. Each annual volume includes approximately 2,000 abstracts and summaries of articles and books that deal with the Bible and related literature, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, Pseudepigrapha, Non-canonical gospels, and ancient Near Eastern writings. The abstracts – which may be in English, German, or French - are arranged thematically under headings such as e.g. “Genesis”, “Matthew”, “Greek language”, “text and textual criticism”, “exegetical methods and approaches”, “biblical theology”, “social and religious institutions”, “biblical personalities”, “history of Israel and early Judaism”, and so on. The articles and books that are abstracted and reviewed are collected annually by an international team of collaborators from over 300 of the most important periodicals and book series in the fields covered.
A cultural and ecological history of the Mediterranean region argues that the world's present environmental crisis is a result of the Western world's abandonment of a harmonious interrelationship between human communities and the natural world.
For millennia, people have universally engaged in ecstatic experience as an essential element in ritual practice, spiritual belief and cultural identification. This volume offers the first systematic investigation of its myriad roles and manifestations in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. The twenty-nine contributors represent a broad range of scholarly disciplines, seeking answers to fundamental questions regarding the patterns and commonalities of this vital aspect of the past. How was the experience construed and by what means was it achieved? Who was involved? Where and when were rites carried out? How was it reflected in pictorial arts and written records? What was its relation to other components of the sociocultural compact? In proposing responses, the authors draw upon a wealth of original research in many fields, generating new perspectives and thought-provoking, often surprising, conclusions. With their abundant cross-cultural and cross-temporal references, the chapters mutually enrich each other and collectively deepen our understanding of ecstatic phenomena thousands of years ago. Another noteworthy feature of the book is its illustrative content, including commissioned reconstructions of ecstatic scenarios and pairings of works of Bronze Age and modern psychedelic art. Scholars, students and other readers interested in antiquity, comparative religion and the social and cognitive sciences will find much to explore in the fascinating realm of ecstatic experience in the ancient world.
This volume is concerned with field of cutting tools in Biblical Hebrew texts and deals with the interface of philogical, semantic, and archeological evidence.
