Biblical Studies

Traditionally associated with John the apostle (the Gospel of John, the three Letters of John and the Revelation of John) make up a major portion of the Christian New Testament and have had an immense influence both on Christianity and on Western culture. Yet the consensus of scholarship has long held that one member of this Johannine corpus, the Gospel of John, endured a long struggle before it was deemed acceptable to the mainstream of orthodox Christianity. This consensus maintains that the Fourth Gospel was accepted first and most enthusiastically by gnostic and other heterodox groups while suffering disregard or opposition by the orthodox until about the 180s, when Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, ‘rescued’ it by showing how it could be used against the heretics. This study chronicles the rise of this ‘orthodox Johannophobia paradigm’ (OJP) in scholarship, then mounts a thorough investigation of the primary sources to ascertain its viability. The examination of all second-century sources, both orthodox and heterodox, both literary and material, places every aspect of this paradigm in jeopardy. The extent of John’s early use has been routinely underestimated, and its reception among the gnostic schools largely (and surprisingly) misunderstood. Considering the Fourth Gospel in the second-century context also forces us not only to view it alongside other Gospel literature, but also alongside other writings with which it was widely associated, namely, the Johannine Epistles and Apocalypse. The book concludes with a summary and reflections on the implications for our understanding of Johannine origins and history.

This book brings together sixteen originally independent articles dealing with various aspects of 1 Corinthians and published between 1976 and 1993. As the series develops there are more frequent cross‐references. The first deals with the issue of co‐authorship, and the last with the question of interpolations in 1 Cor. The rest focus on the most difficult and disputed texts in 1 Corinthians, namely, 1 Cor 5: 3–5 (incest in the name of Christ); 6: 12–20 (Corinthian slogans about the body); 7: 10–11 (divorce and remarriage); 7: 14 (holiness); 8: 6 (baptismal acclamation); 8: 8 (Corinthian slogan regarding food); chs. 8–10 (food offered to idols); 11: 2–16 (3 articles; blurring of the distinction between the sexes in worship); 11: 17–34 (2 articles; house‐churches and the eucharist); 15: 3–7 (creed); 15: 29 (baptism for the dead). Each original article took contemporary scholarship into full account. A ‘Postscript’ appended to each one brings the discussion up to the present by documenting the ensuing debate about the proposed hypotheses.

The author of this book has lived in Jerusalem for forty-eight years, during which time he has taught graduate students its history and archaeology, and also compiled a bestselling archaeological guidebook for visitors. This volume provides an initial survey of the history, archaeology, and theology of Jerusalem, but the twelve articles that make up the body of the book deal with problems that the author feels have not been given a satisfactory solution. Thus, the book discusses the precise location of a number of important buildings, i.e., the Temple, the Antonia, and the Capitol, and also treat of events in the life of Jesus that are located in Jerusalem; his dispute with the money-changers in the Temple, his agony in the garden of Gethsemane, his route from Pilate to Golgotha. The previously unpublished chapters dealing with the Christian Quarter are perhaps the most original. They describe the creation of the Christian Quarter in 1063 and define its limits relative to the present Old City. Its two most important buildings, the Holy Sepulchre and the great Hospital of the Knights of St John, are treated in great detail. The concluding chapter is a classified bibliography of sources for the study of Jerusalem.

This book brings together twelve originally independent articles dealing with various aspects of 2 Corinthians which were published between 1985 and 1993. The articles deal with (a) co‐authorship in 2 Cor; (b) the connection between 2 Cor 2:13 and 14; (c) the problems envisaged by 2 Cor 3:1‐6; (d) a comparison between the ‘new covenant’ in Paul and in the Dead Sea Scrolls; (e) the effort to drive a wedge between the resident pneumatikoi and the intruding Judaizers in 2 Cor 2:14‐4:6; (f) what ‘resurrection’ in 2 Cor 4:13‐14 means; (g) 2 Cor 5:6b as a Corinthian slogan; (h) how 2 Cor 6:14‐7:1 fits into its context; (i) the parallels to Philo in 2 Cor 6:14‐7:1; (j) a synthetic presentation of the problems created by the pneumatikoi in 1‐2 Cor; (k) the identification of 2 Cor 10‐13 as ‘the sorrowful/severe letter’ (2 Cor 2:4); (l) what Paul means when he uses ‘Jesus’ unqualified.

King Josiah of Judah (ruled 640–609 b.c.e.) is a figure of extraordinary importance for the history of ancient Israel and Judah. According to the biblical narrative, a Torah scroll was discovered during the renovation of the Jerusalem Temple in the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign. This scroll, commonly identified as a form of Deuteronomy, became the basis of an ambitious program of religious reform and national restoration in which Josiah closed down all pagan worship sites throughout the land of Israel, centralized worship at the Jerusalem Temple, and attempted to reunite Israel and Judah as an independent monarchy under the rule of the royal house of David. The narratives concerning Josiah's reign have proved to be pivotal in discussion among biblical scholars, insofar as they have provided the basis for the reconstruction of the history of Israelite/Judean religion and the compositional history of much of the Hebrew Bible. This study reexamines the relevant biblical literature and the archeology evidence concerning the reign of King Josiah of Judah and its impact on ancient Judean thought. It argues that early forms of the book of Deuteronomy, the so‐called Deuteronomistic History (Joshua; Judges; 1–2 Samuel; and 1–2 Kings), and much of the prophetic literature (Isaiah; Hosea; Amos; Micah; Jeremiah; Zephaniah; Nahum; cf. Habakkuk) were written or edited to support King Josiah's reform and to present him as the righteous Davidic monarch, who would realize the divine promise of security for the land and people of Israel. Following the tragic death of Josiah at the hands of the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho at Megiddo in 609 b.c.e., Josiah's program of religious reform and national restoration came to an end as Judah was subjugated first to Egypt and then to Babylon prior to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 587 b.c.e. The image of Josiah as a righteous Davidic monarch and his program nevertheless continued to influence Israelite/Judean expectations of restoration in the aftermath of the Babylonian exile.

The foundation for all scholarly study in biblical law is the shared assumption that the Covenant Code, as contained in Exodus 20:23–23:33, is the oldest code of laws in the Hebrew Bible and that all other laws are later revisions of that code. This book strikes at that foundation by arguing that those laws in the Covenant Code that are similar to Deuteronomy and the Holiness Code are in fact later than both of these, dependent upon them as sources, and therefore do not constitute the oldest code and cannot be taken as the foundation of Hebrew law. The first chapter reviews the history of research on the Covenant Code that led to the conviction that it was the oldest code and why that view is called into question. In successive chapters, Van Seters defends his radical hypothesis with a systematic comparison of the Covenant Code with the other legal codes and the broader ethical traditions of the Hebrew Bible. The book first examines the legal framework of the Covenant Code, its opening laws and closing epilogue, and the code's place within the narrative of the Sinai pericope. The author next considers the corpus of the code's civil laws in comparison with both the Babylonian law codes and the parallel laws in the other biblical codes. Finally, the laws consisting mostly of humanitarian demands, general religious obligations, and the regulations for Sabbath and festivals are those containing the most parallels with the other biblical codes. From this detailed comparison of laws, Van Seters concludes that the Covenant Code must be placed in the time of the Jews’ Babylonian exile as a code for the diaspora with minimal cultic requirements, strong humanitarian concerns that include social contact with non‐Jews, and laws for a semiautonomous community within the larger imperial rule. The Covenant Code was never an independent legal corpus but was an integral part of the literary work known as the Yahwist. The effect of this reading is to challenge not only the traditional dating of law codes in the Hebrew Bible but also the conventional understanding of the history of ancient Israel.

This is a study of Leviticus from an anthropological perspective, which presents the biblical work as a literary masterpiece. Seen from this perspective Leviticus has a literary structure that plots it into three parts corresponding to the three parts of the desert tabernacle, which in turn correspond to the parts of Mount Sinai. This completely new reading transforms the interpretation of the purity laws. The pig and other forbidden animals are not abhorrent; they command the same respect that is due to all God’s creatures. Boldly challenging several traditions of Bible criticism, Mary Douglas claims that Leviticus is not the narrow doctrine of a crabbed professional priesthood, but a powerful theological statement about a religion that emphasizes God’s justice and compassion.

This book is about the representation of Moses and the Exodus narrative in three North American texts: Moses in Red by Lincoln Steffens; Moses, Man of the Mountain (1926), by Zora Neale Hurston (1939), and Cecil B. DeMille's film, The Ten Commandments (1956). It does not seek to judge the merits of these works, but rather to ask why and how they recast the biblical narrative as they did, and how their images of Moses were received. The study holds in tension the roles of producers and consumers, valuing both as interpreters and creators of the Moses story.

Drawing on insights from cultural studies the books and the film are located in the “religious” contexts of their day (e.g., in relation to changing attitudes to biblical interpretation and authority, and to popular movements within American religion) and in broader political frameworks (e.g., in relation to conflicts like the Cold War, or vis‐a‐vis ethnic or gender issues). In examining Steffens's, Hurston's and DeMille's Moses images, this book lays bare the dynamics involved in the afterlife of a figure who remains central to the identity of American civilization. It also argues that the scope of biblical studies should develop to embrace more fully, the critical study of popular culture and the ways in which “ordinary people” think about the Bible.

In this book, the author takes a journey through both biblical and contemporary cultures, contemplating the commonality and diversity of rape survivors' experiences across space and time. In particular, the book evaluates the insidious and pervasive influences of the cultural myths and misperceptions surrounding sexual violence, which have long served to deny rape survivors a voice with which to relate their narrative of suffering. The author examines whether such ‘rape myths’ are likewise given voice within the biblical text of Genesis 34, where we encounter Dinah, a voiceless literary victim of sexual violence. When these myths do appear to be represented within the narrative, consideration is then given to the ways in which they may have shaped Dinah's literary experience of sexual violation and furthermore, contributed to her narrative silence. Appealing to the witness of contemporary rape survivors whose own testimonies of their experiences have been affected by such rape myths, the author then attempts to grant Dinah a literary voice with which to share her story. This book therefore attempts to provide a deeper insight into Dinah's literary silence within the narrative, in order that contemporary readers can better comprehend its significance and complexity and grant to it a rich and new meaning.