Religion

For the past two decades, the nature of ancient Israel’s origins has been debated heatedly. Much of this debate has concentrated on part of the book of Exodus and the book of Joshua. Little attention, however, has been given to the wilderness tradition, for example, the episodes set in Sinai (Exodus 16 through Numbers 20). The current study investigates the importance of the wilderness tradition to ancient Israel’s religious and social formation. The location of Mt. Sinai, Israel’s law or covenant, and the possible Egyptian origins of Israel’s desert sanctuary, the tabernacle, are explored in the light of Egyptian archaeological materials. The book further argues that the Torah’s narratives preserve accurate memories of the wilderness period as evidenced by the accuracy of geographical place names in Egypt and Sinai, and by the use of many personal names and technical terms that are of Egyptian etymology. These factors lend credibility to the authenticity sojourn in Egypt and the exodus traditions, rather than viewing them as purely ideological or literary fictions dating to 1,000 years after the events.

The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) accept slavery, and Deuteronomy 22 requires a single female who has been raped to marry her rapist. Biblical laws, including these two examples, continue to influence Christian (especially Protestant) attitudes toward women, homosexuals, the poor, as well as those who are from different faiths or racial/ethnic origins. This book argues that such ancient laws and the corresponding contemporary attitudes ignore the harm caused to such groups and fail to consider that these groups may have different, yet valid, perspectives on the meaning of these texts. Specifically, this book argues that the Christian tradition has become inseparable from a privileged male perspective not reflecting the full range of persons found in its faith communities. Furthermore, it is this male norm that has historically established the accepted singular and determinative meaning of any given biblical text. Contemporary controversies about biblical interpretation, then, result from those other groups acknowledging that their realities differ from the putative norm and offering their own interpretations of problematic biblical texts. The book finds that inclusive biblical interpretation and its consideration of these normally excluded perspectives are consistent with the Christian tradition. This work advances support for inclusive interpretation from the Bible (both Old and New Testaments)—from the Protestant tradition itself, based on the writings of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Wesley—and from parallels with the interpretation and amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

An English translation of the oldest and most important early Christian non‐canonical writings. It is based on the earlier collection edited in 1924 by Montague Rhodes James. The book is divided into the conventional categories of gospels, acts, epistles, and revelatory texts. A long subsection deals with stories of Jesus’ infancy and childhood. Another section deals with fragmentary gospel texts on papyrus. The bulk of the book is given over to second‐century legends of individual apostles. Another section covers apocryphal acpocalypses. An appendix gives a selection of stories about the Virgin Mary's assumption and dormition. Each translated text is prefaced with an introduction and select bibliography. Full indexes of citations and themes are provided.

The relationship between the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Thomas has become a hotly debated issue, with several scholars arguing that John and Thomas are gospels in conflict. The first part of this book argues that the two gospels were written about the same time, but without knowledge of each other. Their authors drew upon similar Jewish and early Christian traditions independently from each other. The second part is devoted to the enigmatic ‘disciple Jesus loved’ in the Gospel of John, arguing that this disciple was created not only to authenticate this gospel, but also to replace the brothers of Jesus. Hence, this figure was developed in the context of a conflict, but that conflict was not related to Thomasine Christianity but to Jewish Christianity.

This volume seeks to show how Jews, Catholics, and Protestants can and do read the Hebrew Bible/Tanakh/Old Testament simultaneously from a critical and religious perspective. It points out the similarities and differences in how biblical texts are read, interpreted, and applied in each tradition. In particular, it explores how biblical criticism, especially the historical-critical method, can provide a sound basis for a religious reading. While the authors were trained academically in biblical criticism and teach it in their classes, they continue to read the Bible as a meaningful religious document central to their lives. The heart of the book is three essays on reading the Bible critically and religiously from a Jewish (Brettler), Catholic (Harrington), and Protestant (Enns) perspective; each author also offers a response to each of his colleague’s essays. Also included are an introduction to the history of biblical interpretation, a brief conclusion, and a glossary of technical terms.

This book investigates the meaning of happiness in light of biblical scholarship and developments in the study of happiness, especially via positive psychology. Nine chapters that focus on the Bible (five on the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, four on the New Testament) are accompanied by three that evaluate the theme and the biblical chapters via the disciplines of systematic theology, practical theology, and counselling psychology. An introduction frames the project in terms of the meaning (often vaguely or ill-defined) of happiness, and a conclusion offers a first attempt at writing a biblical theology of happiness.

Modern critical study of the Bible in the West has made a deep impact on the fabric of Christian belief. This book explains what interpretation is and what special issues arise in biblical interpretation. It analyses the development of literary and historical criticism and more recent social-scientific and literary approaches, by focusing on the key figures from Reimarus to Gerd Theissen, and exposes the underlying theological issues. There emerges a pattern in the relationship between religious interests in these texts and the rational methods used to interpret them, providing guidance for a theologically sensitive use of the Bible today. An annotated index provides detailed information on some 250 biblical scholars and other interpreters.

This book offers an analysis of the ritual dimensions of biblical mourning rites. It also seeks to illuminate mourning's social dimensions through engagement with anthropological discussion of mourning, from Hertz and van Gennep to contemporaries such as Metcalf and Huntington and Bloch and Parry. The book identifies four types of biblical mourning, and argues that mourning the dead is paradigmatic. It investigates why mourning can occur among petitioners in a sanctuary setting even given mourning's death associations; why certain texts proscribe some mourning rites (laceration and shaving) but not others; and why the mixing of the rites of mourning and rejoicing, normally incompatible, occurs in the same ritual in several biblical texts.

This book aims to retrieve, study, and reconstruct the phenomenon of monotheistic myth over the course of two millennia, from its first literary articulations in the Hebrew Bible to mythmaking in classic rabbinic Midrash and the medieval Kabbalistic book of Zohar. Several paradigmatic configurations are isolated and used to explore the characters and construction of monotheistic myth sources, and patterns of thermatic continuity and transformation. This strategy will allow a synchronic analysis of central tropics in each separate period and facilitate their diachronic correlation and comparison with various corpora. The book is divided into three parts. Part I deals with biblical myths. Part II focuses on Rabbinic myth and mythmaking. Part III explores Jewish Myth and Mythmaking in the Middle Ages.