Results by title
484 books match the query 'Biblical Studies' and 26 start with s
Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement in Early Judaism and Christianity
Constituents and CritiqueHenrietta L. Wiley
SBL Press, 2016
Critical and creative studies that offer fresh perspectives on ancient ideas and practices
The contributions to this volume deal in various ways with the cult at the Jerusalem Temple that epitomized the religious, cultural, and socio-political identity of Judaism for many centuries. Some essays examine ancient constitutive practices and concepts, such as purification rituals, sacrifices, atonement, or sacred authorities at the temple, with the goal of interpreting their meanings for modern readers. Other essays explore alternatives to ancient cultic meaning and practice. Essays critique established traditions, attempt to renegotiate them, or use metaphor and spiritualization to expand the potential of these phenomena to serve as terminological and ideological resources. Thus they examine and affirm the continuing relevance of ancient Jewish cultic notions long after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.
- An international group of scholars representing different fields and diverse religious backgrounds
- A thorough examination of traditions as through the lens of contemporaneous interpretive traditions such as Jewish prophecy, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Early Christian literature
- Examination of topics such as purification, sacrifice, and atonement, and the depiction and development of sacred authority throughout the Bible
Sarah the Priestess
The First Matriarch of GenesisSavina Teubal
Ohio University Press, 1984
In a patriarchal environment such as the Canaan of Genesis, the situation is discordant and problematic. Dr. Teubal suggests that the difficulty is eliminated, however, if we understand that Sarah and the other matriarchs mentioned in the narratives acted within the established, traditional Mesopotamian role of priestess, of a class of women who retained a highly privileged position vis-a-vis their husbands.
Dr. Teubal shows that the “Sarah tradition” represents a nonpatriarchal system struggling for survival in isolation, in the patriarchal environment of what was for Sarah a foreign society. She further indicates that the insistence of Sarah and Rebekah that their sons and heirs marry wives from the old homeland had to do not so much with preference for endogamy and cousin marriage as with their intention of ensuring the continuation of their old kahina-tradition against the overwhelming odds represented by patriarchal Canaan.
Sargon II, King of Assyria
Josette Elayi
SBL Press, 2017
A critical resource that traces the reign of Sargon in context
Josette Elayi's book is the only existing biography of Sargon II, the famous Assyrian king, who was a megalomaniac and a warlord. Elayi addresses such important questions, including what was his precise role in the disappearance of the kingdom of Israel; how did Sargon II succeed in enlarging the borders of the Assyrian Empire by several successful campaigns; how did he organize his empire (administration, trade, agriculture, libraries), and what was the so-called sin of Sargon?
Features:
- Interpretations of decisive events during the life and reign of the Assyrian king
- An evaluation of Sargon II s reign
- Maps, tables, and illustrations
Saul, Benjamin, and the Emergence of Monarchy in Israel
Biblical and Archaeological PerspectivesJoachim J. Krause
SBL Press, 2020
Ponder questions of the united monarchy under Saul and David in light of current historical and archaeological evidence
Reconstructing the emergence of the Israelite monarchy involves interpreting historical research, approaching questions of ancient state formation, synthesizing archaeological research from sites in the southern Levant, and reexamining the biblical traditions of the early monarchy embedded in the books of Samuel and Kings. Integrating these approaches allows for a nuanced and differentiated picture of one of the most crucial periods in the history of ancient Israel. Rather than attempting to harmonize archaeological data and biblical texts or to supplement the respective approach by integrating only a portion of data stemming from the other, both perspectives come into their own in this volume presenting the results of an interdisciplinary Tübingen–Tel Aviv Research Colloquium.
Features:
- Essays on Israel's monarchy by experts in biblical archaeology and biblical studies
- Methods for integrating archaeology and biblical traditions in reconstructing ancient Israel's history
- New research on the sociopolitical process of state formation in Israel and Judah
Science and the Bible
Evidence-Based Christian BeliefTed Burge
Templeton Press, 2005
Does scientific evidence give credence to religious belief? Ted Burge, a highly respected physicist in the United Kingdom, draws on his background in the fields of science and theology to address the issue.
The book begins with an analysis of evidence found in the text of the Bible in different translations, proceeds to an examination of interpretations of the Old and New Testaments, and then looks at evidence from the sciences, including archeological findings, geological mappings, and carbon-dating, alongside data from the arts, hymns, literature, and historians' testimonies.
Evidence is presented on:
•Physical, geological, and biological evolution, and their relation to the Genesis story of creation•Original sin, the origin of death, and the immortality of the soul, as described in Babylonian and other stories, including the Flood and the Tower of Babel
•The Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus, Incarnation and Atonement
•Free will and the nature of love
•Miracles as described in the Bible
•The evolution of belief
•Meditation and prayer as a "conscious interchange of thoughts with God"
Knowledge of science is knowledge of God's creation and often helps to identify some of the things we can say about God, the author points out.
Scribal Habits in Greek New Testament Manuscripts
Andrew W. Wilson
SBL Press, 2026
Scribal Memory and Word Selection
Text Criticism of the Hebrew BibleRaymond F. Person Jr.
SBL Press, 2023
What were ancient scribes doing when they copied a manuscript of a literary work? This question is especially problematic when we realize that ancient scribes preserved different versions of the same literary texts. In Scribal Memory and Word Selection: Text Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, Raymond F. Person Jr. draws from studies of how words are selected in everyday conversation to illustrate that the same word-selection mechanisms were at work in scribal memory. Using examples from manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, Person provides new ways of understanding the cognitive-linguistic mechanisms at work during the composition/transmission of texts. Person reveals that, while our modern perspective may consider textual variants to be different literary texts, from the perspective of the ancient scribes and their audiences, these variants could still be understood as the same literary text.
Scripturalizing Revelation
An African American Postcolonial Reading of EmpireLynne St. Clair Darden
SBL Press, 2015
A fresh contribution to the growing body of New Testament scholarship on empire, both ancient and modern
Darden’s reading of Revelation examines John the Seer’s rhetorical strategy, in general, and imperial cult imagery in chapters 4 and 5, in particular, through the lens of an African American scripturalization supplemented by postcolonial theory. The scripturalization proposes that John the Seer’s signifyin(g) on empire demonstrated that he was well aware of the oppressive nature of Roman imperialism on the lives of provincial Asian Christians. Yet, ironically, John reinscribed imperial processes and practices. Darden argues that African American biblical scholarship must now attend adequately to these complex cultural negotiations lest it find itself inadvertently feeding the imperial beast.
Features:
- Relates the potential for African American cooption by the U.S. Empire to the cooption by the Roman Empire both thematized and performed in Revelation
- Book-length study on postcolonial African American biblical hermeneutics
- A reading supplemented by postcolonial theory that better addresses the hybridity of African American identity
Sea Voyages and Beyond
Emerging Strategies in Socio-Rhetorical InterpretationVernon K. Robbins
SBL Press, 2018
Explore insights, methodologies, and advances in socio-rhetorical interpretation
Essays in this volume from Vernon K. Robbins merge social and rhetorical strategies of interpretation and set the stage for how socio-rhetorical interpretation has developed in the context of research into the rhetoric of religious antiquity. This book contains “By Land and By Sea: The We Passages and Ancient Sea Voyages” (1978), which initially received widespread praise and then became an object of significant criticism. The volume includes Robbins’s varied, detailed responses to both encouragement and critique of his approach.
Features:
- Introduction to the collection by David B. Gowler
- Twelve essays that programmatically study early Christian texts using resources from the social sciences
- Reflections on the future of socio-rhetorical criticism
Sea of Readings
The Bible in the South PacificJione Havea
SBL Press, 2018
Readings by South Pacific islanders
This book offers readings of the Bible by native biblical critics from the South Pacific (Pasifika). An essay from editor Jione Havea introduces the volume by locating these essays within islander criticism and by explaining the flow of the book. Essays are presented in three sections. “Island Twists” offers readings that twist, like a whirlpool, biblical texts around insights of Pasifika novelists, composers, poets, and sages. “Island Turns” contains contextual readings that turn biblical texts toward Pasifika. “Across the Sea” contains responses by biblical critics from across the sea.
Features
- Contributions to islander criticism
- A showcase of texts by native writers, poets, and composers
- Crosscultural and postcolonial readings
Second Wave Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible
Marianne Grohmann
SBL Press, 2019
An innovative collection of inner-biblical, intertextual, and intercontextual dialogues
Essays from a diverse group of scholars offer new approaches to biblical intertextuality that examine the relationship between the Hebrew Bible, art, literature, sociology, and postcolonialism. Eight essays in part 1 cover inner-biblical intertextuality, including studies of Genesis, Judges, and Qoheleth, among others. The eight postbiblical intertextuality essays in part 2 explore Bakhtinian and dialogical approaches, intertextuality in the Dead Sea Scrolls, canonical critisicm, reception history, and #BlackLivesMatter. These essays on various genres and portions of the Hebrew Bible showcase how, why, and what intertextuality has been and presents possible potential directions for future research and application.
Features:
- Diverse methods and cases of intertextuality
- Rich examples of hermeneutical theory and interpretive applications
- Readings of biblical texts as mutual dialogues, among the authors, traditions, themes, contexts, and lived worlds
Sedulius, The Paschal Song and Hymns
Carl P. Springer
SBL Press, 2013
Semeia 47
Interpretation for LiberationKatie Geneva Cannon
SBL Press, 1989
Semeia 83/84
Slavery in Text and InterpretationAllen Dwight Callahan
SBL Press, 2001
Sennacherib, King of Assyria
Josette Elayi
SBL Press, 2018
A critical resource for students and scholars of the ancient Near East and the Bible
Josette Elayi’s Sennacherib, King of Assyria is the only biography of Sargon II’s famous son. Elayi traces the reign of Sennacherib in context in order to illuminate more fully the life and contributions of this warlord, builder, innovator, and social reformer—a unique figure among the Assyrian kings. Elayi offers both an evaluation of this royal figure and an assessment of the Assyrian Empire by interpreting the historical information surrounding the decisive events of his reign.
Features:
- Exploration of why Sennacherib did not seize Jerusalem or remove Hezekiah from the throne
- An extensive investigation of annals, royal inscriptions, letters, palace reliefs, clay tablets, and excavation reports
- Maps and tables
Sensing World, Sensing Wisdom
The Cognitive Foundation of Biblical MetaphorsNicole L. Tilford
SBL Press, 2017
Examine new insights into the conceptual worldview of biblical wisdom communities
The Bible is full of metaphors. On the surface, these metaphors seem like simple literary flourishes that have been added to the text for artistic effect. This book, however, argues that biblical metaphors reflect more basic, prelinguistic cognitive structures. These conceptual metaphors developed out of common concrete experiences and only gradually developed into the complex metaphors that one finds within biblical texts. This book explores how common sensory activities like seeing, hearing, touching, eating, breathing, and walking developed into the abstract metaphors for wisdom that one finds in Proverbs, Job, and Qohelet. Because it traces the cognitive development of a set of related metaphors across several congruent texts, it provides a model by which scholars can trace the cognitive development of biblical metaphors more generally in the Hebrew Bible and other early Jewish and Christian texts.
Features:
- A synthesis of conceptual metaphor theory that provides a workable theory for examining biblical texts
- An analytical framework for studying sensory experience and sensory metaphors in biblical texts
- Diagrams
Septuagint Theology and Its Reception
Stellenbosch Congress on the Septuagint, 2022Johann Cook
SBL Press, 2024
In this follow-up to Toward a Theology of the Septuagint: Stellenbosch Congress on the Septuagint, 2018 (2020), contributors demonstrate what a theology of the Septuagint should look like. Essays address questions of methodology, and case studies from different books show the relevance and benefits of a theological approach. Examples are drawn from Exodus, Deuteronomy, Proverbs, Job, Tobit, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Hosea, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Ben Sira. Contributors include Nicholas Peter Legh Allen, Bryan Beeckman, Alma Brodersen, Johann Cook, Beate Ego, Karin Finsterbusch, Pierre Jordaan, Wolfgang Kraus, Jean Maurais, Cynthia L. Miller-Naudé, Mogens Müller, Jacobus A. Naudé, Peter Nagel, Larry Perkins, Martin Rösel, Barbara Schmitz, Frank Ueberschaer, Jan Willem van Henten, and Michael van der Meer.
Sex, Christ, and Embodied Cognition
Paul's Wisdom for CorinthRobert H. von Thaden Jr.
SBL Press, 2017
A sociorhetorical analysis of First Corinthians
Robert H. von Thaden Jr.'s sociorhetorical analysis examines Paul's construction of sexual Christian bodies in First Corinthians by utilizing new insights from conceptual integration (blending) theory about the embodied processes of meaning making. Paul's teaching about proper sexual behavior in this letter is best viewed as an example of early Christian wisdom discourse. This discourse draws upon apocalyptic and priestly cognitive frames to increase the rhetorical force of the argument. Reading Paul's argument through the lens of rhetorical invention, von Thaden demonstrates that Paul first attempts to show the Corinthians why sexual immorality is the worst of all bodily sins before shifting rhetorical focus to explain to them how they can best avoid this infraction against the body of Christ.
Features:
- A programmatic application of conceptual integration theory using a sociorhetorical mode of interpretation
- A vivid account of key aspects of conceptual integration theory and how they function in sociorhetorical interpretation
- A detailed application of these strategies to interpret 1 Corinthians 1-4; 6:12-7:7
Social Theory and the Study of Israelite Religion
Essays in Retrospect and ProspectSaul M. Olyan
SBL Press, 2012
Steps to a New Edition of the Hebrew Bible
Ronald Hendel
SBL Press, 2016
Understand the purpose and background of the new The Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition project
Our understanding of the textual history of the Hebrew Bible has been transformed in the wake of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Hendel explores and refines this new knowledge and formulates a rationale for a new edition of the Hebrew Bible. The chapters situate The Hebrew Bible; A Critical Edition project in a broad historical context, from the beginnings of textual criticism in late antiquity and the Renaissance to the controversies in contemporary theory and practice. This book combines close analysis with broad synthesis, yielding new perspectives on the text of the Hebrew Bible.
Features- Theory and practice of textual criticism
- Textual history of the Hebrew Bible
- History of text-critical scholarship
Stones, Bones, and the Sacred
Essays on Material Culture and Ancient Religion in Honor of Dennis E.Alan H. Cadwallader
SBL Press, 2016
A crucial text for any university course on the interaction of archaeology and the Bible
The world of early Christians was not a world lived in texts; it was a world saturated with material reality and concerns: what, where and when to eat or drink; how to present oneself in the space of bodily life and that of death; how to move from one place to another; what impacted status or the adjudication of legal charges. All these and more controlled so much of life in the ancient world. The Christians were not immune from the impact of these realities. Sometimes they absorbed their surrounds; sometimes they quite explicitly rejected the material practices bearing in on them; frequently they modified the practice and the rationale to create a significant Christian alternative. The collection of essays in this volume come from a range of international scholars who, for all their different interests and critical commitments, are yet united in treasuring research into the Greek and Roman worlds in which Christians sought to make their way. They offer these essays in honor of one who has made a lifetime's work in mining ancient material culture to extract nuggets of insight into early Christian dining practices: Dennis E. Smith.
Features
- Rich examples of method in the utilization of ancient material culture for biblical interpretation.
- Thirteen essays with a response from Dennis E. Smith
- Maps, diagrams, and plates
Strength to Strength
Essays in Honor of Shaye J. D. CohenMichael L. Satlow
SBL Press, 2018
Essays that engage the scholarship of Shaye J. D. Cohen
The essays in Strength to Strength honor Shaye J. D. Cohen across a range of ancient to modern topics. The essays seek to create an ongoing conversation on issues of identity, cultural interchange, and Jewish literature and history in antiquity, all areas of particular interest for Cohen. Contributors include: Moshe J. Bernstein, Daniel Boyarin, Jonathan Cohen, Yaakov Elman, Ari Finkelstein, Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert, Steven D. Fraade, Isaiah M. Gafni, Gregg E. Gardner, William K. Gilders, Martin Goodman, Leonard Gordon, Edward L. Greenstein, Erich S. Gruen, Judith Hauptman, Jan Willem van Henten, Catherine Hezser, Tal Ilan, Richard Kalmin, Yishai Kiel, Ross S. Kraemer, Hayim Lapin, Lee I. Levine, Timothy H. Lim, Duncan E. MacRae, Ivan Marcus, Mahnaz Moazami, Rachel Neis, Saul M. Olyan, Jonathan J. Price, Jeffrey L. Rubenstein, Michael L. Satlow, Lawrence H. Schiffman, Daniel R. Schwartz, Joshua Schwartz, Karen Stern, Stanley Stowers, and Burton L. Visotzky.
Features:
- A full bibliography of Cohen’s published works
- An essay on the contributions of Cohen
Studies in Josephus and the Varieties of Ancient Judaism
Louis H. Feldman Jubilee VolumeShaye J. D. Cohen
SBL Press, 2016
Now in paperback!
Former students, colleagues and friends of the eminent classicist and historian Louis H. Feldman are pleased to honor him with a Jubilee volume. While Feldman has long been considered an outstanding scholar of Josephus, his scholarly interests and research interests pertain to almost all aspects of the ancient world and Jews.
Features:
- Paperback format of an essential Brill resource
- Articles cover topics such as biblical interpretation, Judaism and Hellenism, Jews and Gentiles, history of the Mishnah and Talmud periods, and Jerusalem
- Contributors include the most prominent international scholars
Studies in the History of the Greek Text of the Apocalypse
The Ancient StemsJosef Schmid
SBL Press, 2018
Now available in English
Josef Schmid's landmark publication, Studien zur Geschichte des Griechischen Apokalypse-Textes, has been the standard work for understanding Revelation's Greek manuscript tradition and textual history for more than sixty years. Despite the fact that most major studies on the book are based on Schmid's work, the work itself has long been out of print, making it difficult for the broader scholarly community to reassess Schmid's conclusions in light of recent manuscript discoveries and technological advances. This new translation of the work makes Schmid's detailed review of the history of textual scholarship; his comprehensive examination of the origin, history, and development of the Greek manuscripts of the book of Revelation; and his assessment of John's peculiar linguistic writing style accessible to a new generation of scholars.
Features
- A critical introduction that places Schmid's work in its historical and theoretical context
- Definitions and explanations of Schmid's text-critical terms and categories used in his construction of Revelation's Greek manuscript tradition
- The latest available information used to correct, update, and supplement Schmid's Greek manuscript data and historical and text-critical conclusions
Supplement to Introduction to Classical and New Testament Greek
Michael Boler
Catholic University of America Press, 2024
Supplementation and the Study of the Hebrew Bible
Saul M. Olyan
SBL Press, 2018
Explore the role supplementation played in the development of the Hebrew Bible
This new volume includes ten original essays that demonstrate clearly how common, varied, and significant the phenomenon of supplementation in the Hebrew Bible is. Contributors examine instances of supplementation ranging from minor additions to aid pronunciation, to fill in abbreviations, or to clarify ambiguous syntax to far more elaborate changes, such as interpolations within a work of prose, in a prophetic text, or in a legal text. Scholars also examine supplementation by the addition of an introduction, a conclusion, or an introductory and concluding framework to a particular lyrical, legal, prophetic, or narrative text.
Features: