The Pentateuch

John Muddiman, John Barton

Oxford University Press, 2010-06-18 - 230 pages

The Oxford Bible Commentary is a Bible study and reference work for 21st century students and readers that can be read with any modern translation of the Bible. It offers verse-by-verse explanation of every book of the Bible by the world's leading biblical scholars. From its inception, OBC has been designed as a completely non-denominational commentary, carefully written and edited to provide the best scholarship in a readable style for readers from all different faith backgrounds. It uses the traditional historical-critical method to search for the original meaning of the texts, but also brings in new perspectives and insights - literary, sociological, and cultural - to bring out the expanding meanings of these ancient writings and stimulate new discussion and further enquiry.
Newly issued in a series of part volumes, the OBC is now available in an affordable and portable format for the study of specific sections of the Bible. The Pentateuch, or Torah ('the law'), comprises the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, Genesis to Deuteronomy. The Commentaries are preceeded by introductions to the Old Testament and to the Pentateuch as a whole.

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Deuteronomy

Patrick D. Miller

Westminster John Knox Press, 1990 - 253 pages

In this theological exposition of Deuteronomy, Patrick Miller is sensitive to the character of the book as a part of scripture that self-consciously addresses different generations. He discusses the nature and character of the law as revealed in Deuteronomy, as well as the nature of the moral life under God. The treatment of Deuteronomy in the New Testament, and customary introductory issues such as authorship and date, are dealt with in terms of their significance for interpreting and understanding Deuteronomy's character and intention. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching is a distinctive resource for those who interpret the Bible in the church. Planned and written specifically for teaching and preaching needs, this critically acclaimed biblical commentary is a major contribution to scholarship and ministry.

 

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Genesis

Walter Brueggemann

Westminster John Knox Press, 1982 - 384 pages

In his clear and readable style Walter Brueggemann presents Genesis as a single book set within the context of the whole of biblical revelation. He sees his task as bringing the text close to the faith and ministry of the church. He interprets Genesis as a proclamation of God's decisive dealing with creation rather than as history of myth. Brueggemann's impressive perspective illuminates the study of the first book of the Bible.
Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching is a distinctive resource for those who interpret the Bible in the church. Planned and written specifically for teaching and preaching needs, this critically acclaimed biblical commentary is a major contribution to scholarship and ministry.

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God at War: Power in the Exodus Tradition

Thomas B. Dozeman

Oxford University Press, 1996-09-05 - 222 pages

The destruction of the Egyptian army in the Book of Exodus is the primary story of salvation for Israel; God is the chief combatant in this story. "Yahweh is a warrior!" So goes the victory hymn in Exodus 15:3 after the annihilation of the enemy by Yahweh, marking the importance held by this show of divine power. This unleashing of divine power and its militaristic imagery has long caught the attention of scholars as starkly nationalistic.

Thomas B. Dozeman furthers this study by addressing the theological problem of divine power in the Exodus story and, by extension, the Judeo-Christian attempt to deify nationalism by calling its wars holy. He interprets Exodus as liturgy, the Day of Yahweh, celebrating God's defeat of Pharaoh and the ultimate ascendancy of Israelite authority. This liturgy, though, did not remain static, but changed as the national experience of exile changed the practice of Israelite worship. An isolated event evolved into an extended account of salvation history, in which the life of faith becomes a wilderness march to the promised land. Dozeman traces how revisionary embellishments in the plot structure and characters of the Exodus story reflected the new understanding of divine power. By combining literary and historical interpretation this study offers the first serious inquiry into the idea of divine power, and makes a major contribution to resurgent research on the Pentateuch as a whole. No scholar concerned with biblical historiography and its justification of holy wars can afford to ignore this book.

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Persia and Torah: The Theory of Imperial Authorization of the Pentateuch

 

James Washington Watts

Society of Biblical Literature, 2001 - 228 pages

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The Problem of the Process of Transmission in the Pentateuch

 

Rolf Rendtorff

Continuum International Publishing Group, 1990 - 214 pages

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The Moses Tradition

 

George W. Coats

Continuum International Publishing Group, 1993 - 203 pages

These essays from the doyen of Moses studies focus on issues primarily in Pentatuchal/Hexateuchal research. The volume, containing several papers previously unpublished, forms a companion volume to Coats's 'Moses: Heroic Man, Man of God'. Together the two volumes comprise the whole of Coats's unique and wide-ranging investigations of the figure of Moses.

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The Problem of the Process of Transmission in the Pentateuch

 

Rolf Rendtorff

Continuum International Publishing Group, 1990 - 214 pages

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Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus: Hellenistic histories and the date of the Pentateuch

 

Russell E. Gmirkin

Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006 - 332 pages

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.

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The Book of Leviticus: Composition and Reception

Rolf Rendtorff, Robert A. Kugler, Sarah Smith Bartel

BRILL, 2003 - 475 pages

This volume examines the formation, final form, themes, and interpretation of the Book of Leviticus. Contributors include well-known experts on Leviticus: Baruch Levine, Jacob Milgrom, Graeme Auld, Andreas Ruwe, and James Watts address Leviticus in its compositional and literary context; Alfred Marx, Mary Douglas, Walter Houston, and Adrian Schenker treat issues of cult and sacrifice; and Rene Peter-Contesse, Lester Grabbe, and Calum Carmichael discuss Leviticus on the priesthood. A groundbreaking section on Leviticus in translation and interpretation includes essays by Sarianna Metso and Eugene Ulrich, Martin McNamara, David Lane, Peter Flint, Robert Kugler, Bruce Chilton, Hannah Harrington, Gerhard Bodendorfer, Linda Schearing, and Judith Romney Wegner. These essays will serve students of Leviticus well for long time to come.

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The Making of the Pentateuch: A Methodological Study

Roger Norman Whybray

Continuum International Publishing Group, 1987 - 263 pages

'Whybray's recent book is a masterful review of all the options set out by critical scholarship since Wellhausen, i.e., over the last century. It is an exhaustive and up to date treatment, concise and highly readable.' E. Dyck, Crux 'Sensitive to standards of ancient historiography and parallels from the Greek sphere, Whybray proposes that the Pentateuch is the work of an ancient historian, possibly designed as a supplement or prologue to the deuteronomistic history. The analysis of the work of others and of the state of ÝCHECK REVIEW! ̈ extremely valuable; the final suggestion makes it all the more engaging. Essential for all concerned with fundamentals of critical biblical studies.'

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From Noah to Israel: Realization of the Primaeval Blessing After the Flood

Carol M. Kaminski

Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004 - 157 pages

The primaeval blessing, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, ' first announced to humankind in Genesis 1.28 is renewed to Noah and his sons after the flood in Genesis 9.1. There is widespread scholarly consensus that the ensuing dispersion in Genesis 10.1-32 and 11.1-9 is the means by which the creation blessing is fulfilled. Kaminski argues that the primeval blessing is not fulfilled in the Table of Nations and that Yahweh's scattering Noah's descendants in the Babel story does not contribute positively to the creation theme. Rather, the creation blessing is being taken up in the primary line of Shem (Genesis 11.10-26), which leads directly to Abraham. She further suggests that divine grace is not absent after the Babel judgment, as is commonly assumed, but is at work in the Shemite genealogy.She argues that the primeval blessing, which is unfulfilled in the primaeval history, is taken up by Abraham and his descendants by means of a divine promise. While the blessing is in the process of being realised in the patriarchal narratives, it is not fulfilled. The multiplication theme is resumed, however, in Exodus 1.7, which describes Israel's proliferation in Egypt. This is the first indication that the creation blessing is fulfilled. Realisation of the primaeval blessing progresses after the flood, therefore, from Noah to Israel. Yet God's blessing on Israel is not for their sake alone - it is the means through which the divine intention for creation will be restored to the world .JSOTS 413

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The Pentateuch

 

John Muddiman, John Barton

Oxford University Press, 2010-06-18 - 230 pages

The Oxford Bible Commentary is a Bible study and reference work for 21st century students and readers that can be read with any modern translation of the Bible. It offers verse-by-verse explanation of every book of the Bible by the world's leading biblical scholars. From its inception, OBC has been designed as a completely non-denominational commentary, carefully written and edited to provide the best scholarship in a readable style for readers from all different faith backgrounds. It uses the traditional historical-critical method to search for the original meaning of the texts, but also brings in new perspectives and insights - literary, sociological, and cultural - to bring out the expanding meanings of these ancient writings and stimulate new discussion and further enquiry.
Newly issued in a series of part volumes, the OBC is now available in an affordable and portable format for the study of specific sections of the Bible. The Pentateuch, or Torah ('the law'), comprises the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, Genesis to Deuteronomy. The Commentaries are preceeded by introductions to the Old Testament and to the Pentateuch as a whole.

 

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The Creation of Heaven and Earth: Re-interpretation of Genesis I in the Context of Judaism, Ancient Philosophy, Christianity, and Modern Physics

Geurt Hendrik van Kooten

Brill, 2005 - 284 pages

This volume discusses the narrative of the creation of heaven, earth and light in the first chapter of Genesis and focuses extensively on its later interpretations in different cultural and religious contexts. After an introductory paper on the text of Genesis itself, the authors deal with receptions of this theme in the Prophet Jeremiah, Early Judaism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. They comment on creation accounts in the Ancient Near East, Ancient Greece and ancient philosophy, reconstructing the earliest known receptions of Genesis 1 in ancient philosophers like Numenius and Galen. They trace its influence in the Johannine, Petrine and Pauline traditions of Early Christianity, and follow it right through the Middle Ages up till the present-day discussion of design in Nature.

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The Theme of the Pentateuch

 

David J. A. Clines

Continuum International Publishing Group, 1997-03-01 - 176 pages

This popular textbook regards the Pentateuch as a literary whole, with a single theme that binds it together. The overarching theme is the partial fulfilment of the promises to the patriarchs. Though the method of the book is holistic, the origin and growth of the theme is also explored using the methods of traditional source analysis. An important chapter explores the theological function of the Pentateuch both in the community for which the Pentateuch was first composed and in our own time. For this second, enlarged edition, the author has written an Epilogue reassessing the theme of the Pentateuch from a more current postmodern perspective.

 

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The World of Genesis: Persons, Places, Perspectives

Philip R. Davies

Continuum International Publishing Group, 1998 - 179 pages

Although it opens with an argument that the earth, and not humanity, is the real subject of Genesis 1-11, this collection of essays focuses first on female personalities in Genesis (Eve, Hagar, Rebeccah, Tamar and the four tribal matriarchs), then on male characters (Abraham, Ishmael, Pharaoh). The treatment ranges from historical-critical analysis, through discourse analysis and narrative, ideological and psychological analyses, to postmodern autobiographical exegesis. Among the many delights of this selection are the mingling of traditional and contemporary perspectives, especially the interplay of gender at the level of the biblical text and of the modern author-and perhaps also of the modern reader of this fascinating assortment of studies on tales of human ancestry.

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Genesis 12-50

Mark Sheridan, Thomas C. Oden

InterVarsity Press, 2002 - 392 pages

Genesis 12--50 recounts the history of the patriarchs--Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. From their mentors Paul, Peter, Stephen and the author of the letter to the Hebrews, the early fathers learned to draw out the spritual significance of the patriarchal narrative for Christian believers. The Alexandrian school especially followed Paul's allegorical use of the story of Sarah and Hagar as they interpreted the Gensis accounts. The Antiochene school eschewed allegorical interpretation but still set about to find moral lessons in the ancient narrative. For all of them the events pointed toward the promises of the age to come, the new age revealed in the resurrection of Jesus.Among the principal Greek-speaking commentators included within this volume, readers will find Origen, Didymus the Blind, John Chrysostom and Cyril of Alexandria. Among the Latin-speaking interpreters they will find Ambrose of Milan, Augusstine of Hippo, Caesarius of Arles and Bede the Venerable. Ephrem the Syrian is the most commonly cited Syriac-speaking interpreter, while the fifth-centuryCatena on Genesisprovides access to such fathers as Eusebius of Caesarea, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, Didymus of Alexandria, Epiphanius of Salamis, Irenaeus of Lyons, Eusebius of Emesa, Severian of Gabala and Theodore of Mopsuestia among others.Varied in texture and nuance, the interpreters cited provide a wealth of ancient wisdom, some appearing here in English translation for the first time, to stimulate the mind and nourish the soul of the church today.

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Genesis

Robert Alter

W.W. Norton, 1997 - 324 pages

Genesis begins with the making of heaven and earth and all life, and ends with the image of a mummy--Joseph's--in a coffin. In between come many of the primal stories in Western culture: Adam and Eve's expulsion from the garden of Eden, Cain's murder of Abel, Noah and the Flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham's binding of Isaac, the covenant of God and Abraham, Isaac's blessing of Jacob in place of Esau, the saga of Joseph and his brothers.

In Robert Alter's brilliant translation, these stories cohere in a powerful narrative of the tortuous relations between fathers and sons, husbands and wives, eldest and younger brothers, God and his chosen people, the people of Israel and their neighbors. Alter's translation honors the meanings and literary strategies of the ancient Hebrew and conveys them in fluent English prose. It recovers a Genesis with the continuity of theme and motif of a wholly conceived and fully realized book. His insightful, fully informed commentary illuminates the book in all its dimensions.

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Ritual and Rhetoric in Leviticus: From Sacrifice to Scripture

James Washington Watts

Cambridge University Press, 2007-07-02 - Religion - 257 pages

Ritual and Rhetoric in Leviticus uses rhetorical analysis to expose the motives behind the writing of the central book of the Torah/Pentateuch and its persuasive function in ancient Judaism. The answer to the question, 'who was trying to persuade whom of what by writing these texts?' proves to be quite consistent throughout Leviticus 1-16: Aaronide high priests and their supporters used this book to legitimize their monopoly over the ritual offerings of Jews and Samaritans. With this priestly rhetoric at its center, the Torah supported the rise to power of two priestly dynasties in Second Temple Judaism. Their ascendancy in turn elevated the prestige and rhetorical power to the book, making it the first real scripture in Near Eastern and Western religious traditions. Rhetorical analysis of Leviticus therefore has implications not only for the form and contents of that book, but also for understanding the later history of the rhetoric of priesthood, of sacrifice, and especially of scripture

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Genesis 1-11: A Handbook on the Hebrew Text

Barry L. Bandstra

Baylor University Press, 2008 - Foreign Language Study - 629 pages

This second volume in the Baylor Handbook on the Hebrew Bible series provides expert, comprehensive guidance in answering significant questions about the Hebrew text. While reflecting the latest advances in scholarship on Hebrew grammar and linguistics, the work utilizes a style that is lucid enough to serve as a useful text for teaching and self-study.

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