The Pentateuch

The Pentateuch
Author: John Van Seters
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2004-08-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780567080882

This overview of the Pentateuch reviews the various historical-critical attempts to read it that arise from notions about the social evolution of Israel's religion and culture. Is the Pentateuch an accumulation of folk traditions, a work of ancient historiography, a document legitimizing religious reform? The present book, in dialogue with competing views, advocates a compositional model that recognizes the social and historical diversity of the literary strata. It argues that a proto-Pentateuchal author created a comprehensive history from Genesis to Numbers that was written as a prologue to the Deuteronomistic History (Deuteronomy to 2 Kings) in the exilic period and later expanded by a Priestly writer to make it the foundational document of the Jerusalem temple community.

Traditions of the Bible

Traditions of the Bible
Author: James L. KUGEL
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 1078
Release: 2009-06-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0674039769

From the creation and the tree of knowledge through the Exodus from Egypt and the journey to the promised land; James Kugel shows us how the earliest interpreters of the scriptures radically transformed the Bible.

Exploring the Composition of the Pentateuch

Exploring the Composition of the Pentateuch
Author: L. S. Baker Jr.
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2020-12-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1646020685

For many years, the historical-critical quest for a reconstruction of the origin(s) and development of the Pentateuch or Hexateuch has been dominated by the documentary hypothesis, the heuristic power of which has produced a consensus so strong that an interpreter who did not operate within its framework was hardly regarded as a scholar. However, the relentless march of research on this topic has continued to yield new and refined analyses, data, methodological tools, and criticism. In this spirit, the contributions to this volume investigate new ideas about the composition of the Pentateuch arising from careful analysis of the biblical text against its ancient Near Eastern background. Covering a wide spectrum of topics and diverging perspectives, the chapters in this book are grouped into two parts. The first is primarily concerned with the history of scholarship and alternative approaches to the development of the Pentateuch. The second focuses on the exegesis of particular texts relevant to the composition of the Torah. The aim of the project is to foster investigation and collegial dialogue in a spirit of humility and frankness, without imposing uniformity. In addition to the editors, the contributors include Tiago Arrais, Richard E. Averbeck, John S. Bergsma, Joshua A. Berman, Daniel I. Block, Richard Davidson, Roy E. Gane, Duane A. Garrett, Richard S. Hess, Benjamin Kilchör, Michael LeFebvre, Jiří Moskala, and Christian Vogel.

The Vitality of Old Testament Traditions

The Vitality of Old Testament Traditions
Author: Hans Walter Wolff
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Total Pages: 188
Release: 1982-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780804201124

"The Vitality of Old Testament Traditions" offers the best current handling of Pentateuchal traditions as they operated in the past and as they help the church now. Wolff sees Israel's faith tradition as a continuous kerygmatic response to a variety of cultural challenges. Brueggemann introduces this dynamic view of tradition. Both authors approach the Pentateuch as a treasury of new expressions of faith resulting from conflicts between traditional formulas and changing social conditions. Today's church can remain spiritually alive only if its traditions continue to be as resilient as they were in the Old Testament community. Wolff and Brueggemann affirm that modern crises of faith should be met with fresh articulations in the manner of ancient Israel-- innovative and pertinent if they are strengthened by the relevance of the past.

Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus

Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus
Author: Russell Gmirkin
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2006-05-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567025926

Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus argues that the Pentateuch was written in 273-272 BCE under the patronage of Ptolemy II Philadelphus by the Septuagint scholars drawing on Hellenistic historical sources from the Great Library of Alexandria. >

Moses in Biblical and Extra-Biblical Traditions (Beihefte Zur Zeitschrift Für Die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft)

Moses in Biblical and Extra-Biblical Traditions (Beihefte Zur Zeitschrift Für Die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft)
Author: Axel Graupner
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2007
Genre: Bibles
ISBN: 9783110194609

The papers in this volume revolve around the history of the influence exerted by the person of Moses and the traditions associated with him. They deal not only with the function of the figure of Moses in the Pentateuch, the salvation in the Red Sea and the final day of Moses' life, but also with the way Moses was received in the Deuteronomic history, the Psalms, the Book of Jeremiah, the Septuagint, in Qumran, early Jewish extra-biblical literature, the New Testament and the Early Church.

A History of the Bible

A History of the Bible
Author: John Barton
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 642
Release: 2020-08-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0143111205

A literary history of our most influential book of all time, by an Oxford scholar and Anglican priest In our culture, the Bible is monolithic: It is a collection of books that has been unchanged and unchallenged since the earliest days of the Christian church. The idea of the Bible as "Holy Scripture," a non-negotiable authority straight from God, has prevailed in Western society for some time. And while it provides a firm foundation for centuries of Christian teaching, it denies the depth, variety, and richness of this fascinating text. In A History of the Bible, John Barton argues that the Bible is not a prescription to a complete, fixed religious system, but rather a product of a long and intriguing process, which has inspired Judaism and Christianity, but still does not describe the whole of either religion. Barton shows how the Bible is indeed an important source of religious insight for Jews and Christians alike, yet argues that it must be read in its historical context--from its beginnings in myth and folklore to its many interpretations throughout the centuries. It is a book full of narratives, laws, proverbs, prophecies, poems, and letters, each with their own character and origin stories. Barton explains how and by whom these disparate pieces were written, how they were canonized (and which ones weren't), and how they were assembled, disseminated, and interpreted around the world--and, importantly, to what effect. Ultimately, A History of the Bible argues that a thorough understanding of the history and context of its writing encourages religious communities to move away from the Bible's literal wording--which is impossible to determine--and focus instead on the broader meanings of scripture.