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484 books match the query 'Biblical Studies' and 113 start with t

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 This Abled Body: Rethinking Disabilities in Biblical Studies

This Abled Body

Rethinking Disabilities in Biblical Studies

Hector Avalos

SBL Press, 2007

The burgeoning field of disability studies has recently emerged within the humanities and social sciences and, as a result, disability is no longer seen as the biological condition of an individual body but as a complex product of social, political, environmental, and biological discourses. The groundbreaking essays of This Abled Body engage biblical studies in conversation with the wider field of disability studies. They explore the use of the conceptual category “disability” in biblical and Near Eastern texts and examine how conceptions of disability become a means of narrating, interpreting, and organizing human life. Employing diverse approaches to biblical criticism, scholars explore methodological issues and specific texts related to physical and cognitive disabilities. Responses to the essays by established disability activists and academics working in the social sciences and humanities conclude the volume. The contributors are Martin Albl, Hector Avalos, Bruce C. Birch, Carole R. Fontaine, Thomas Hentrich, Nicole Kelley, Janet Lees, Sarah J. Melcher, David Mitchell, Jeremy Schipper, Sharon Snyder, Holly Joan Toensing, Neal H. Walls, and Kerry H. Wynn.
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cover of Tiglath-pileser III, Founder of the Assyrian Empire

Tiglath-pileser III, Founder of the Assyrian Empire

Josette Elayi

SBL Press, 2022

Most modern historians consider Tiglath-pileser III, king of Assyria, to be the true founder of the Assyrian Empire. In Josette Elayi's latest work, she takes up this issue in her biography and history of his reign (745-727 BCE). Elayi explores questions surrounding how Tiglath-pileser managed to expand the Assyrian Empire after a period of weakness, what effects Assyrian domination had on Israel and Judah, and how the two kingdoms' fates differed. Using archaeological and textual remains from the period, she completes her trilogy of biographies, which includes Tiglath-pileser's successors, son Sargon II and grandson Sennacherib, who later led the Assyrian Empire to its greatest heights. Elayi provides yet another essential resource for scholars and students of Assyrian history and the Hebrew Bible.
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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 Translation Technique and Literary Structures in Greek Isaiah 13:1–14:23

    Translation Technique and Literary Structures in Greek Isaiah 13

    1–14:23

    Matthew J. Albanese

    SBL Press, 2025

    Matthew J. Albanese explores the translation techniques behind the Greek version of Isaiah 13:1–14:23, offering fresh insights into how the translator rendered the Hebrew text. Through a detailed analysis of style, structure, and linguistic choices, this book reveals how the translator’s decisions were deeply rooted in the Hebrew text, shedding new light on the artistry of biblical interpretation and translation in ancient Judaism. The work also examines how certain divergences and shifts in Hebrew-to-Greek clause structure, semantics, and lexical misunderstanding influenced the formation of Greek Isaiah. The work advances Greek Isaiah research by highlighting the translator’s awareness and appropriation of features from larger thematic and structural portions of Hebrew Isaiah 13:1–14:23.
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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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    cover of Two Shipwrecked Gospels: The Logoi of Jesus and Papias's Exposition of Logia about the Lord

    Two Shipwrecked Gospels

    The Logoi of Jesus and Papias's Exposition of Logia about the Lord

    Dennis R. MacDonald

    SBL Press, 2012

    With characteristic boldness and careful reassessment of the evidence, MacDonald offers an alternative reconstruction of Q and an alternative solution to the Synoptic Problem: the Q+/Papias Hypothesis. To do so, he reconstructs and interprets two lost books about Jesus: the earliest Gospel, which was used as a source by the authors of Mark, Matthew, and Luke; and the earliest commentary on the Gospels, by Papias of Hierapolis, who apparently knew Mark, Matthew, and the lost Gospel, which he considered to be an alternative Greek translation of a Semitic Matthew. MacDonald also explores how these two texts, well known into the fourth century, shipwrecked with the canonization of the New Testament and the embarrassment at outmoded eschatologies in both the lost Gospel and Papias’s Exposition.
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