Results by title

In Jonah: Introduction and Commentary, Amy Erickson reevaluates a range of interpretations of the book of Jonah to present her own fresh literary and theological understanding of the book’s complex themes and characterizations. Drawing on Christian, Jewish, and Islamic reception history of Jonah, including the story’s representations in the arts, literature, and pop culture, Erickson presents a History of Consequences section that spans centuries and crosses borders. Erickson’s translation and interpretation pave the way for pastors and scholars to read and utilize the book of Jonah as the provocative, richly allusive, and theologically robust text that it is. Each passage includes a commentary on linguistic and thematic challenges to interpretation and translation. Erickson’s innovative reading recovers the richness of meaning that belongs to this short but noteworthy book of the Bible.

Reading Greek with Jonah gives beginners the opportunity to engage directly with a work of ancient literature in their first year of Greek. It takes as its subject and parameters the Septuagint translation of the book of Jonah, using a core vocabulary of fewer than three hundred words and introducing grammar and syntax through readings quoted or adapted from Jonah and other books of the Greek Bible. The foundational grammar of Ancient Greek is presented in traditional terms, but in an original sequence intended to minimize difficulties in learning new word forms and grammatical concepts. No prior knowledge of Greek is assumed. The principles of verb conjugation, noun declension, and tense formation are illustrated through sentences and short readings of gradually increasing complexity. Repetition of vocabulary an-Coud sentence structures throughout the lessons aids in building memory and comprehension. Once they have encountered the essential grammar and vocabulary, students can read the book of Jonah with the help of the included lexicon and notes on advanced grammatical topics. An anthology of forty passages from the Septuagint and the New Testament provides opportunities for further reading and additional context for the language and themes of Jonah. Suitable for classroom use or for independent study, Reading Greek with Jonah may serve as a standalone Greek course or as the first in a sequence, to be followed by additional grammar study or an intermediate reader in Koine, Attic, or Homeric Greek.

The Book of Jonah is a unique text in the Jewish canon. Among the shortest books in the Bible, it is also one of the most mysterious and morally ambiguous. Who is this prophet running from God, hiding at the bottom of the ocean? Why does he struggle with God's mission to save and forgive Israel's enemies? In this volume, Rabbi Dr. Yanklowitz shows that the Book of Jonah delivers a message of human responsibility in a shared world. Illuminating such contemporary ethical issues as animal welfare, incarceration, climate change, weapons of mass destruction, and Jewish-Muslim relations, this social justice commentary urges us to join in repairing a broken world--a call that we, unlike Jonah, must hasten to answer.