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266 books match the query 'Exegesis & Hermeneutics' and 60 start with t

cover of They Were All Together in One Place? Toward Minority Biblical Criticism

They Were All Together in One Place? Toward Minority Biblical Criticism

Randall C. Bailey

SBL Press, 2009

Critics from three major racial/ethnic minority communities in the United States—African American, Asian American, and Latino/a American—focus on the problematic of race and ethnicity in the Bible and in contemporary biblical interpretation. With keen eyes on both ancient text and contemporary context, contributors pay close attention to how racial/ethnic dynamics intersect with other differential relations of power such as gender, class, sexuality, and colonialism. In groundbreaking interaction, they also consider their readings alongside those of other racial/ethnic minority communities. The volume includes an introduction pointing out the crucial role of this work within minority criticism by looking at its historical trajectory, critical findings, and future directions. The contributors are Cheryl B. Anderson, Francisco O. García-Treto, Jean-Pierre Ruiz, Frank M. Yamada, Gale A. Yee, Jae-Won Lee, Gay L. Byron, Fernando F. Segovia, Randall C. Bailey, Tat-siong Benny Liew, Demetrius K. Williams, Mayra Rivera Rivera, Evelyn L. Parker, and James Kyung-Jin Lee.

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cover of Thinking Biblically: Exegetical and Hermeneutical Studies

Thinking Biblically

Exegetical and Hermeneutical Studies

André LaCocque and Paul Ricoeur

University of Chicago Press, 1998

Unparalled in its poetry, richness, and religious and historical significance, the Hebrew Bible has been the site and center of countless commentaries, perhaps none as unique as Thinking Biblically. This remarkable collaboration sets the words of a distinguished biblical scholar, André LaCocque, and those of a leading philosopher, Paul Ricoeur, in dialogue around six crucial passages from the Old Testament: the story of Adam and Eve; the commandment "thou shalt not kill"; the valley of dry bones passage from Ezekiel; Psalm 22; the Song of Songs; and the naming of God in Exodus 3:14. Commenting on these texts, LaCocque and Ricoeur provide a wealth of new insights into the meaning of the different genres of the Old Testament as these made their way into and were transformed by the New Testament.

LaCocque's commentaries employ a historical-critical method that takes into account archaeological, philological, and historical research. LaCocque includes in his essays historical information about the dynamic tradition of reading scripture, opening his exegesis to developments and enrichments subsequent to the production of the original literary text. Ricoeur also takes into account the relation between the texts and the historical communities that read and interpreted them, but he broadens his scope to include philosophical speculation. His commentaries highlight the metaphorical structure of the passages and how they have served as catalysts for philosophical thinking from the Greeks to the modern age.

This extraordinary literary and historical venture reads the Bible through two different but complementary lenses, revealing the familiar texts as vibrant, philosophically consequential, and unceasingly absorbing.
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cover of To the Ends of the Earth: The Necropolitics of the Acts of the Apostles

To the Ends of the Earth

The Necropolitics of the Acts of the Apostles

Eric C. Smith

SBL Press, 2026

In this book, Eric C. Smith uses the postcolonial theory of necropolitics to interpret the Acts of the Apostles. Necropolitics, a way to account for how power makes claims on the lives of persons especially in colonial or imperial circumstances, is particularly relevant for the study of Acts because of its attention to those specific imperial situations and the way coercion, violence, intimidation, imprisonment, and fear show up in the lives of its characters. Necropolitics reveals a useful perspective for understanding Acts and its account of the aftermath of Jesus’s death, the expansion of the Jesus movement across the Mediterranean basin, and the movement’s many encounters with representatives of cultural, religious, and political power.
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cover of Torah: Functions, Meanings, and Diverse Manifestations in Early Judaism and Christianity

Torah

Functions, Meanings, and Diverse Manifestations in Early Judaism and Christianity

William M. Schniedewind

SBL Press, 2022

The present volume explores the ever-evolving understandings and diverse manifestations of the Hebrew notion of torah in early Jewish and Christian literature and the different roles torah played within those communities, whether in Judea or in the Hellenistic and early Roman diaspora. This collection of essays is purposefully wide-ranging, with contributors exploring and rethinking some of the most basic scholarly assumptions and preconceptions about the nature of torah in light of new critical approaches and methodologies. Contributors include Gabriele Boccaccini, Francis Borchardt, Calum Carmichael, Federico Dal Bo, Lutz Doering, Oliver Dyma, Paula Fredriksen, Robert G. Hall, Magnar Kartveit, Anne Kreps, David Lambert, Michael Legaspi, Jason A. Myers, Juan Carlos Ossandón Widow, Anders Klostergaard Petersen, Patrick Pouchelle, Jeremy Punt, Michael L. Satlow, Joachim Schaper, William Schniedewind, Elisa Uusimäki, Jacqueline Vayntrub, Jonathan Vroom, James W. Watts, Benjamin G. Wright III, and Jason M. Zurawski.

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cover of Toward a Latino/a Biblical Interpretation

Toward a Latino/a Biblical Interpretation

Francisco Lozada Jr.

SBL Press, 2017

Engage an interdisciplinary approach

In Toward a Latino/a Biblical Interpretation Francisco Lozada Jr. explores the complex and diverse issues related to Latino/a biblical interpretation. After laying the theoretical foundation, he offers three sample readings of biblical texts to lead readers through the intricacy of interpretation that has historically and culturally surrounded understanding what it means to do Latino/a biblical interpretation. Throughout, Lozada attempts to work out various strategies that Latinos/as have employed to read biblical texts. He argues that Latino/a biblical interpretation is concerned with identity and belongingness with a goal of transforming/liberating the Latino/a community.

Features

  • An introduction to what it means to do Latino/a biblical interpretation
  • A demonstration of three different reading strategies (correlation, dialogical, and ideological) that Latinos/as employ in reading biblical texts
  • An exploration of whether one has to be Latino/a to do Latino/a biblical interpretation
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cover of Toward a Theology of the Septuagint: Stellenbosch Congress on the Septuagint, 2018

Toward a Theology of the Septuagint

Stellenbosch Congress on the Septuagint, 2018

Johann Cook

SBL Press, 2020

Innovative Septuagint research from an international group of scholars

Toward a Theology of the Septuagint: Stellenbosch Congress on the Septuagint, 2018 focuses on the question of whether it is appropriate and possible to formulate a theology of the Septuagint. Nineteen English and German essays examine Old Testament, New Testament, and extrabiblical texts from a variety of methodological perspectives to demonstrate that such a theology is indeed necessary and possible.

Features

  • Nuanced discussion of whether and how a theology of the Septuagint can be written
  • Extensive methodological discussions
  • Close textual studies of biblical, Greek philosophical, and Jewish sources
  • Abstracts of each essay
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    cover of Tradition and Innovation: English and German Studies on the Septuagint

    Tradition and Innovation

    English and German Studies on the Septuagint

    Martin Rösel

    SBL Press, 2018

    Explore the opportunities and challenges of Septuagint studies

    Recent research into the Septuagint has revealed numerous examples of modifications of the meaning of the Hebrew text in the course of its translation into Greek. This collection of essays by one of the leading scholars on the Septuagint shows how complex the translation of individual books was, provides reasons for differences between the Hebrew and Greek Bibles, and paves the way for a theology of the Septuagint. Articles introduce the field of Septuagint studies, the problem of the Letter of Aristeas, and the Hellenistic environment and the hermeneutics of Hellenistic Judaism.

    Features:

    • A methodological discussion of whether and how a theology of the Septuagint can be written
    • Essays introducing the field of Septuagint studies and its Hellenistic environment and the hermeneutics of Hellenistic Judaism
    • Fifteen English and German essays covering twenty-five years of Septuagint research
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    cover of Transformations in Translation: Comparing Qumran Aramaic Job and Old Greek Job

    Transformations in Translation

    Comparing Qumran Aramaic Job and Old Greek Job

    Alun Morton Thomas

    SBL Press, 2026

    Using insights gleaned from translation studies, Alun Morton Thomas compares the earliest known Aramaic and Greek translations of the book of Job to explore how translators dealt with idiomatic and linguistic difficulties in translating the Hebrew text. Thomas demonstrates that many of the scribal techniques used in both the Qumran and Old Greek versions of Job resemble practices attested in other Second Temple Jewish texts. The scribal choices Thomas reveals provide insights into early interpretations of the book of Job which stem from the Second Temple period. The volume also delves into how earlier Aramaic and Greek translations relate to later translation attempts in these two languages. Transformations in Translation is a critical resource for scholars and students interested in some of the most difficult passages to translate from Hebrew.
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    cover of Transgender, Intersex, and Biblical Interpretation

    Transgender, Intersex, and Biblical Interpretation

    Teresa Hornsby

    SBL Press, 2016

    A call for “trans literacy” within biblical scholarship

    In this volume Hornsby and Guest introduce readers to terms for the various identities of trans people and how the Bible can be an affirmation of those deemed sexually other by communities. This book offers readings of well known (e.g., Gen 1; Revelation) and not so well known (2 Sam 6; Jer 38) narratives to illustrate that the Bible has been translated and interpreted with a bias that makes heterosexuality and a two sex, two gender system natural, and thus divinely ordained. The authors present examples that show gender was never a binary, and in the Bible gender and sex are always dynamic categories that do, and must, transition.

    Features:

  • Definitions of key terms, including transsexual, transgender, cissexism, heterosexism, intersex, eunuch
  • Critique of how biblical texts are used in Christian positional statements on transsexuality
  • Statistics concerning rates of violence against trans persons
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    cover of Trauma and the Failure of History: Kings, Lamentations, and the Destruction of Jerusalem

    Trauma and the Failure of History

    Kings, Lamentations, and the Destruction of Jerusalem

    David Janzen

    SBL Press, 2019

    A theoretical and exegetical exploration of trauma in the Hebrew Bible

    David Janzen discusses the concepts of history and trauma and contrasts the ways historians and trauma survivors grapple with traumatic events, a contrast embodied in the very different ways the books of Kings and Lamentations react to the destruction of Jerusalem. Janzen’s study warns that explanations in histories will tend to silence the voices of trauma survivors, and it challenges traditional approaches that sometimes portray the explanations of traumatic events in biblical literature as therapeutic for victims.

    Features:

    • Exploration of history as a narrative explanation that creates a past readers can recognize to be true
    • Examination of how trauma results in a failure of victims to fully experience or remember traumatic events.
    • A case for why the past is a construction of cultures and historians
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