The Balaam Text from Deir ʻAlla Re-evaluated

The Balaam Text from Deir ʻAlla Re-evaluated
Author: Jacob Hoftijzer
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 340
Release: 1991-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9789004093171

The book concerns the inscription written on wall plaster discovered in 1967 at Deir cAlla in the Jordan Valley, and published in 1976. Using new data and the discussions about the text available to date, it deals with six different aspects of study of the text, namely the archaeological context, the palaeography, the general interpretation as well as the interpretation of several separate passages, the language used, and its relation to Old Testament studies.

The Balaam Text from Deir 'Alla Re-Evaluated

The Balaam Text from Deir 'Alla Re-Evaluated
Author: Hoftijzer
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 334
Release: 1991
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004666354

The book concerns the inscription written on wall plaster discovered in 1967 at Deir cAlla in the Jordan Valley, and published in 1976. Using new data and the discussions about the text available to date, it deals with six different aspects of study of the text, namely the archaeological context, the palaeography, the general interpretation as well as the interpretation of several separate passages, the language used, and its relation to Old Testament studies.

Ancient Israelite and Early Jewish Literature

Ancient Israelite and Early Jewish Literature
Author: Vriezen
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 776
Release: 2005-09-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9047404203

Ancient Israelite and Early Jewish Literature offers more than simply an introduction to the Hebrew Bible. Increased interest in Early Judaism as successor to the religion of Ancient Israel and background to the New Testament demands an introduction that guides the reader through the maze of Jewish literature dating from the Hellenistic and Early Roman periods in addition to the Hebrew Bible.

Zechariah and His Visions

Zechariah and His Visions
Author: Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2015-02-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567658546

Did Zechariah really see visions? This question cannot be definitely answered, so the idea must remain a hypothesis. Here, Tiemeyer shows that this hypothesis is nonetheless reasonable and instrumental in shedding light on matters in Zechariah's vision report that are otherwise unclear. Tracking through each verse of the text, the key exegetical problems are covered, including the topics of the distinction between visions and dreams, dream classification, conflicting sources of evidence for dream experiences, and rhetorical imagery as opposed to dream experience. Further attention is focused on the transmission of the divine message to Zechariah, with the key question raised of whether a visual or oral impression is described. Tiemeyer's study further demonstrates that Zech 1-6 depicts a three-tier reality. This description seeks to convey the seer's visionary experience to his readers. In a trance state, Zechariah communicates with the Interpreting Angel, while also receiving glimpses of a deeper reality known as the 'visionary world.'

Writings from Ancient Israel

Writings from Ancient Israel
Author: K. A. D. Smelik
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Total Pages: 208
Release: 1991-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780664253080

"On the walls of buildings . . . on leather and papyrus, Israelites living under the monarchy (1000-587 B.C.E.) penned or scratched texts ranging from food and crop inventories . . . to memorials. . . . Smelik . . . (has compiled these) remnants of early writing . . . in light of their historical, social, and biblical contexts".--Douglas A. Knight, Vanderbilt University.

'The Spirit of the Lord Came Upon Me'

'The Spirit of the Lord Came Upon Me'
Author: Lester L. Grabbe
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 441
Release: 2024-01-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567710718

Lester Grabbe here distills his wide body of work on the subject of prophecy. The volume considers prophecy in different cultural contexts across ancient Israel and surrounding areas. Beginning with a consideration of prophecy in the Hebrew Bible, Grabbe then looks at it as phenomenon in the ancient near east, including Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Levant. From this background in the immediate context of ancient Israel, Grabbe then widens the cultural lens to consider prophecy in more global environments, including Africa and the Americas, and recent examples of pseudo-biblical prophets such as Joseph Smith. In the final part of the book Grabbe then analyses these different prophetic types and forms, looking at the continuing traditions of prophecy alongside their ancient roots.

YHWH is King

YHWH is King
Author: Shawn W. Flynn
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2013-11-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004263047

Amidst various methodologies for the comparative study of the Hebrew Bible, at times the opportunity arises to improve on a method recently introduced into the field. In YHWH is King, Flynn uses the anthropological method of cultural translation to study diachronic change in YHWH’s kingship. Here, such change is compared to a similar Babylonian development to Marduk’s kingship. Based on that comparison and informed by cultural translation, Flynn discovers that Judahite scribes suppressed the earlier YHWH warrior king and promoted a creator/universal king in order to combat the increasing threat of Neo-Assyrian imperialism. Flynn thus opens the possibility, that Judahite scribes engaged in a cultural translation of Marduk to YHWH, in order to respond to the mounting Neo-Assyrian presence.

Child Sacrifice in Ancient Israel

Child Sacrifice in Ancient Israel
Author: Heath D. Dewrell
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2017-05-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1646022017

Among the many religious acts condemned in the Hebrew Bible, child sacrifice stands out as particularly horrifying. The idea that any group of people would willingly sacrifice their own children to their god(s) is so contrary to modern moral sensibilities that it is difficult to imagine that such a practice could have ever existed. Nonetheless, the existence of biblical condemnation of these rites attests to the fact that some ancient Israelites in fact did sacrifice their children. Indeed, a close reading of the evidence—biblical, archaeological, epigraphic, etc.—indicates that there are at least three different types of Israelite child sacrifice, each with its own history, purpose, and function. In addition to examining the historical reality of Israelite child sacrifice, Dewrell’s study also explores the biblical rhetoric condemning the practice. While nearly every tradition preserved in the Hebrew Bible rejects child sacrifice as abominable to Yahweh, the rhetorical strategies employed by the biblical writers vary to a surprising degree. Thus, even in arguing against the practice of child sacrifice, the biblical writers themselves often disagreed concerning why Yahweh condemned the rites and why they came to exist in the first place.

Old Testament Pseudepigrapha

Old Testament Pseudepigrapha
Author: Richard Bauckham
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 848
Release: 2013-11-18
Genre: Bibles
ISBN: 080282739X

This collection presents the sacred legends and spiritual reflections of numerous works that were lost, neglected, or suppressed for many centuries.

Life on the Watershed

Life on the Watershed
Author: Eva Kaptijn
Publisher: Sidestone Press
Total Pages: 476
Release: 2009
Genre: Agriculture, Ancient
ISBN: 9088900299

The scarcity of water is a major problem in many parts of the Near East today and has been so in the past. To survive in such a region people should be able to structurally attain more water than rainfall alone can supply. The archaeology of this area should not only identify when people inhabited such a region and what the character of this habitation was, but also how people were able to survive in such a region and why they chose to live there in the first place. In this book these questions have been studied for the Zerqa Triangle; a region in the middle Jordan Valley around Tell Deir 'Alla (Jordan). By means of a detailed pedestrian archaeological survey the intensity of habitation of the region from the Neolithic to early modern periods is investigated. Efforts have been undertaken to reconstruct the agricultural practices in the various periods and simultaneously the means by which the different communities were able to practice agriculture; in other words, how did they irrigate the land? By focussing on the different social responses of communities, conclusions have been drawn on how and why people managed to create a living in this arid, but potentially very fertile region. This book not only contributes to the ongoing discussion of the archaeology of marginal areas, but also provides a huge amount of new data on the archaeology of the Jordan Valley, both in the form of newly discovered settlement sites from several different periods as well as remains from several more inconspicuous types of human activity present in the countryside.