Ezekiel, Law, and Judahite Identity

Ezekiel, Law, and Judahite Identity
Author: Joel B. Kemp
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2020-08-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3161565797

La 4e de couverture indique : "In this study, Joel B. Kemp reveals that by focusing on legal imagery and juridical diction in Ezekiel 1-33, additional clarity for the meaning, function, and internal logic of several passages emerges. He also shows that the authors of Ezekiel use legal elements to describe Judahite identity post-Babylonian conquest"

The Oxford Handbook of Ezekiel

The Oxford Handbook of Ezekiel
Author: Corrine Carvalho
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 616
Release: 2023-09-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0190634537

The current state of scholarship on the book of Ezekiel, one of the three Major Prophets, is robust. Ezekiel, unlike most pre-exilic prophetic collections, contains overt clues that its primary circulation was as a literary text and not a collection of oral speeches. The author was highly educated, the theology of the book is "dim," and its view of humanity is overwhelmingly negative. In The Oxford Handbook of Ezekiel, editor Corrine Carvalho brings together scholars from a diverse range of interpretive perspectives to explore one of the Bible's most debated books. Consisting of twenty-seven essays, the Handbook provides introductions to the major trends in the scholarship of Ezekiel, covering its history, current state, and emerging directions. After an introductory overview of these trends, each essay discusses an important element in the scholarly engagement with the book. Several essays discuss the history of the text (its historical context, redactional layers, text criticism, and use of other Israelite and near eastern traditions). Others focus on key themes in the book (such as temple, priesthood, law, and politics), while still others look at the book's reception history and contextual interpretations (including art, Christian use, gender approaches, postcolonial approaches, and trauma theory). Taken together, these essays demonstrate the vibrancy of Ezekiel research in the twenty-first century.

Review of Biblical Literature, 2022

Review of Biblical Literature, 2022
Author: Alicia J. Batton
Publisher: SBL Press
Total Pages: 565
Release: 2024-01-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1628374586

The annual Review of Biblical Literature presents a selection of reviews of the most recent books in biblical studies and related fields, including topical monographs, multi-author volumes, reference works, commentaries, and dictionaries. RBL reviews German, French, Italian, and English books and offers reviews in those languages.

The Gospel of Matthew, vol. 1

The Gospel of Matthew, vol. 1
Author: Walter T. Wilson
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 513
Release: 2022-11-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1467464279

What was the original purpose of the Gospel of Matthew? For whom was it written? In this magisterial two-volume commentary, Walter Wilson interprets Matthew as a catechetical work that expresses the ideological and institutional concerns of a faction of disaffected Jewish followers of Jesus in the late first century CE. Wilson’s compelling thesis frames Matthew’s Gospel as not only a continuation of the biblical story but also as a didactic narrative intended to shape the commitments and identity of a particular group that saw itself as a beleaguered, dissident minority. Thus, the text clarifies Jesus’s essential Jewish character as the “Son of David” while also portraying him in opposition to prominent religious leaders of his day—most notably the Pharisees—and open to cordial association with non-Jews. Through meticulous engagement with the Greek text of the Gospel, as well as relevant primary sources and secondary literature, Wilson offers a wealth of insight into the first book of the New Testament. After an introduction exploring the background of the text, its genre and literary features, and its theological orientation, Wilson explicates each passage of the Gospel with thorough commentary on the intended message to first-century readers about topics like morality, liturgy, mission, group discipline, and eschatology. Scholars, students, pastors, and all readers interested in what makes the Gospel of Matthew distinctive among the Synoptics will appreciate and benefit from Wilson’s deep contextualization of the text, informed by his years of studying the New Testament and Christian origins.

The Gospel of Matthew, vol. 2

The Gospel of Matthew, vol. 2
Author: Walter T. Wilson
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 488
Release: 2022-11-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1467464287

What was the original purpose of the Gospel of Matthew? For whom was it written? In this magisterial two-volume commentary, Walter Wilson interprets Matthew as a catechetical work that expresses the ideological and institutional concerns of a faction of disaffected Jewish followers of Jesus in the late first century CE. Wilson’s compelling thesis frames Matthew’s Gospel as not only a continuation of the biblical story but also as a didactic narrative intended to shape the commitments and identity of a particular group that saw itself as a beleaguered, dissident minority. Thus, the text clarifies Jesus’s essential Jewish character as the “Son of David” while also portraying him in opposition to prominent religious leaders of his day—most notably the Pharisees—and open to cordial association with non-Jews. Through meticulous engagement with the Greek text of the Gospel, as well as relevant primary sources and secondary literature, Wilson offers a wealth of insight into the first book of the New Testament. After an introduction exploring the background of the text, its genre and literary features, and its theological orientation, Wilson explicates each passage of the Gospel with thorough commentary on the intended message to first-century readers about topics like morality, liturgy, mission, group discipline, and eschatology. Scholars, students, pastors, and all readers interested in what makes the Gospel of Matthew distinctive among the Synoptics will appreciate and benefit from Wilson’s deep contextualization of the text, informed by his years of studying the New Testament and Christian origins.

The Sabbath, Aaron to Zohar

The Sabbath, Aaron to Zohar
Author: Norman McClelland
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2021-10-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1977246087

This book not only argues for the sanctity of the seventh-day Sabbath. It is this author’s view that Christians have ample justification for observing Sunday as a holy day, but not to claim that it has the same blessed and made holy power to it that the seventh-day Sabbath has. Moreover, it is here pointed out that even the Quran, if read carefully, can support the seventh-day Sabbath.

The Biblical World

The Biblical World
Author: Katharine J. Dell
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 1098
Release: 2021-07-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317392558

The Biblical World is a comprehensive guide to the contents, historical settings, and social context of the Bible. This new edition is updated with several new chapters as well as a new section on biblical interpretation. Contributions from leading scholars in the field present wide-ranging views not just of biblical materials and their literary and linguistic context, but also of the social institutions, history and archaeology, and religious concepts. New chapters cover topics such as the priesthood and festivals, creation and covenant, ethics, and family life, while a new section on biblical interpretation discusses Jewish and Christian bible translation and key thematic emphases, and modern reader-response and cultural approaches. This revised edition of The Biblical World offers an up-to-date and thorough survey of the Bible and its world, and will continue to be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament and their history and interpretation, as well as anyone working on the societies, religions, and political and cultural institutions that created and influenced these texts.

Jerusalem as Contested Space in Ezekiel

Jerusalem as Contested Space in Ezekiel
Author: Natalie Mylonas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2023-05-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567706435

Natalie Mylonas uses Ezekiel 16 as a case study in order to reveal the critical relationship between space, emotion, and identity politics in the Hebrew Bible. Drawing on interdisciplinary research that emphasises how space and emotions are inextricably linked in human experience, Mylonas explores the portrayal of Yhwh's wife, Jerusalem, in Ezekiel 16 as a personified city who feels emotion. She foregrounds purity and gender issues, as well as debates on emotions in the Hebrew Bible, emphasising that spatiality is a key component of how these issues are conceptualised in ancient Israel. This book argues that the power struggle between Jerusalem and Yhwh in Ezekiel 16 is a struggle over the contested space of Jerusalem's body and the city space. Jerusalem's emotions are in a dynamic relationship with the spaces in the text – they are signified by these spaces, shift as the constitution of the spaces shifts, and are shaped by Jerusalem's use of space. Her desire, pride, and shamelessness are communicated spatially through her use of city space, while her representation as disgusting is underscored by her “uncontrollable” female body. Mylonas concludes by showing how Ezekiel's vision of the new Jerusalem in Ezekiel 40-48 re-establishes sacred space through the erasure of the feminine city metaphor coupled with strict boundary policing, which is a far cry from the assault on Jerusalem's boundaries described in Ezekiel 16.

The Levites and the Boundaries of Israelite Identity

The Levites and the Boundaries of Israelite Identity
Author: Mark Leuchter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2017-06-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0190665114

At a glance, the Hebrew Bible presents the Levites as a group of ritual assistants and subordinates in Israel's cult. A closer look, however, reveals a far more complicated history behind the emergence of this group in Ancient Israel. A careful reconsideration of the sources provides new insights into the origins of the Levites, their social function and location, and the development of traditions that grew around them. The social location and self-perception of the Levites evolved alongside the network of clans and tribes that grew into a monarchic society, and alongside the struggle to define religious and social identity in the face of foreign cultures. This book proposes new ways to see not only how these changes affected Levite self-perception but also the manner in which this perception affected larger trends as Israelite religion evolved into nascent Judaism. By consulting the textual record, archaeological evidence, the study of cultural memory and social-scientific models, Mark Leuchter demonstrates that the Levites emerge as boundary markers and boundary makers in the definition of what it meant to be part of "Israel."

Ezekiel

Ezekiel
Author: Bruce Vawter
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 236
Release: 1991-04-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1467419281

The prophet Ezekiel speaks passionately of God's fidelity even in the face of his people's infidelity, defending the destruction of Jerusalem as God's judgment while promising a new experience of the divine presence that will bring with it "a new heart" for God's people. Bruce Vawter and Leslie J. Hoppe illuminate the profound theological themes of Ezekiel, making him accessible to people today by stressing his proclamations of judgment and salvation as vital words for the people of God in every age.