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Posts Tagged ‘biblical studies’

modern land conflict through the lens of ancient texts: Robert P. Gordon, Holy Land, Holy City. Sacred Geography and the Interpretation of the Bible

Posted in denkschrift, reseña, tagged , , , , on September 17, 2007| Leave a Comment »

The trajectory of this thoughtful book begins in the primeval history of Genesis, continues through texts of both Old and New Testaments, and finishes in the heated context of the contemporary Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the belligerent use that is frequently made of these same biblical sources. Holy Land, Holy City is well suited to the reader who is willing to engage complex argument on her way to a better understanding of the biblical and theological underpinnings of ‘land theology’ and contemporary conflicts over land. R.P. Gordon is the Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge and a highly regarded linguist and biblical interpreter. (more…)

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a snapshot of the 1980s IOSCS and LXX lexicography: Takamitsu Muraoka, Melbourne Symposium on Septuagint Lexicography (Septuagint and Cognate Studies Series)

Posted in denkschrift, reseña, tagged , , , on September 9, 2007| 2 Comments »

The lexicographer T. Muraoka gathers in this slim volume a selection of papers that demonstrate the concern to upgrade the tools and methodologies available to Septuagintalists that was expressed among the members of the International Organization of Septuagint and Cognate Studies in the late 1980s. (more…)

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a plausible reconstruction: Raymond F. Person, Jr., The Deuteronomic School. History, Social Setting, and Literature (Studies in Biblical Literature, Number 2)

Posted in denkschrift, reseña, tagged , , on September 9, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Largely a rebuttal to claims of ‘pan-deuteronomism’, Person writes at a time when many assumptions about things deuteronom(ist)ic that have seemed settled since Noth are openly questioned in the perhaps unpromising search for a new consensus. An introduction (pp. 1-16) brings the reader up to date on the proliferating meanings assigned terminology of which the definition once appeared to have been agreed, as well as on the tendency to multiply redactional layers in the Deuteronomistic literature beyond the two (Harvard School) and three (Gttingen School) that until recently seemed a sufficient menu from which to choose. Against the perceived expansionistic tendencies of deuteronomistic influence and redactions, some scholars have leveled accusations of ‘pan-Deuteronism’. In the face of this, Person defends a relatively broad definition of Deuteronomic (his preferred term) influence and literatures, as well as proposing ‘a way out of the confusion’ by means of a four-angled approach that considers (a) text-critical controls on redaction criticism, (b) post-exilic Deuteronomic redaction, (c) evidence from ANE scribal schools, and (4) the Deuteronomic school’s social location in an oral culture. (more…)

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So are we exiles then?: Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, A Biblical Theology of Exile (Overtures to Biblical Theology)

Posted in denkschrift, reseña, tagged , , on September 9, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Building upon his The Religion of the Landless: The Social Context of the Babylonian Exile (Meyer Stone, 1989), the author has produced a thoughtful work on a central biblical concept that is both historical and theological. Works on biblical theology are almost compelled to begin with an apology for the method employed. Smith-Christopher does not fail to do so (‘Biblical Theology: On Matters of Methodology’, 1-26), signalling in his comment upon post-modern metaphysical critiques that he does not intend to allow a hyper-critical or hyper-sceptical critique to claim exclusive legitimacy in the conversation. While attempting to be critical of his own assumptions, Smith-Christopher is persuaded that both history and theology can be carried out with integrity, especially when focussing upon a discrete theme like exile. ‘Discrete’, however, does not mean `miniscule’, for the author is convinced that one must see the exile of Judah not only as human catastrophe-its actual happening can be defended on historical grounds-but also as an event that engendered significant new social and theological enterprises. Smith-Christopher writes from his own participation in an historical ‘peace church’ and finds a promising correlation between the ‘stateless existence’ that was the destiny of the Jewish exiles and the kinds of church community that is praised by some Christian theologians. As a result, he is eager to question both Constantinian and Wellhausian views of ‘exile’ as an intrinsically negative socio-religious matrix that lost something essential. (more…)

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the birth of apocalyptic literature in Jerusalem’s ashes: William R. Millar, Isaiah 24-27 and the Origin of Apocalyptic (Harvard Semitic Monographs, No. 11.)

Posted in denkschrift, reseña, tagged , , on September 8, 2007| Leave a Comment »

This revised doctoral dissertation is useful principally for the material it draws together into one place and for its methodology, which attempts to develop a relative chronology of the evolution of apocalyptic and then to place Isaiah 24-27 at the proper place on that scale. (more…)

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Is Isaiah also among the wise?: J. William Whedbee, Isaiah and Wisdom

Posted in denkschrift, reseña, tagged , , on September 8, 2007| Leave a Comment »

In five well-balanced chapters, the author opens up the important question about the extent to which the prophet Isaiah—and thus the book that bears his name—was influenced by the strain of Israelite reflection that scholars call ‘wisdom’. In setting forth his apology and objectives, Whedbee recognizes the danger of explaining the prophets systematically based upon a narrow selection of texts. For some time, scholars drove a deep wedge between the ‘prophet’s word’ and the ‘sage’s counsel’. (more…)

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a master craftsman plies his trade in an open storefront: Walther Zimmerli, I Am Yahweh

Posted in denkschrift, reseña, tagged , , , on September 7, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Alongside Gerhard von Rad, Walther Zimmerli is one of the giants of 20th-century biblical theology. In his customarily lively prose, Brueggemann introduces this collection of four essays by showing how Zimmerli is a model of theologically-acute biblical criticism who `stays close to the text’ and therefore does not pay too high a price for the rebuttal of larger concepts like those put forth by von Rad, G.E. Wright and others of the time. Brueggemann paid his dues in the scholarly salt mines by editing and interpreting Zimmerli and H.W. Wolff relatively early in his career, labor that certainly enriched his own tradition criticism later on. The essay that introduces this volume contains some delicious irony, such as the observation that recent (in 1982) continental scholarship is `inclined to return to a critical, pretheological perspective’. This slightly acid turnabout on the terms `theological’ and `precritical’ anticipates criticism of the mature Brueggemann and sometime soul-mates like B. Childs for being `too theological’ and even `precritical’. (more…)

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tradition criticism with panache: Hans Walter Wolff and Walter Brueggemann, The Vitality of Old Testament Traditions

Posted in denkschrift, reseña, tagged , , on September 7, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Some books introduce their topic more clearly by analyzing its various components parts than by taking a standard survey approach. This is the case with Brueggemann and Wolff’s excellent analysis of the Pentateuchal sources. Readers will discover in this slim volume a clear introduction to the standard ‘sources’ of Pentateuchal criticism, but also a compelling presentation of form/tradition criticism in the tradition of G. von Rad. (more…)

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A pause to reflect: Brevard S. Childs, The Struggle To Understand Isaiah As Christian Scripture

Posted in clarity, reseña, tagged , , , on September 7, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Brevard Childs is a patient man. Few individuals could link such evident learning to a deep sympathy with the historical interpreters of the biblical book called Isaiah. The author’s empathy with the weighty labor of scholars who pour over an ancient work of such complexity is not only endearing. More importantly, it demonstrates that few of the book’s exegetes finished their work without achieving some mentionable merit, even when this is exceedingly modest by even Childs’ generous measure. (more…)

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