Showing posts with label Biblical Studies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Biblical Studies. Show all posts
Tuesday, 10 April 2012
Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash
Hermann Leberecht Strack, Günter Stemberger
Fortress Press, 1991 - 472 pages
Gunter
Stemberger's revision of H. L. Strack's classic introduction to
rabbinic literature, which appeared in its first English edition in
1991, was widely acclaimed. Gunter Stemberger and Markus Bockmuehl have
now produced this updated edition, which is a significant revision
(completed in 1996) of the 1991 volume. Following Strack's original
outline, Stemberger discusses first the historical framework, the basic
principles of rabbinic literature and hermeneutics and the most
important Rabbis. The main part of the book is devoted to the Talmudic
and Midrashic literature in the light of contemporary rabbinic research.
The appendix includes a new section on electronic resources for the
study of the Talmud and Midrash. The result is a comprehensive work of
reference that no student of rabbinics can afford to be without.
The Apostolic Tradition: A Commentary
Paul F. Bradshaw, Maxwell E. Johnson, L. Edward Phillips, Harold W. Attridge
Fortress Press, 2002 - 249 pages
"The
anonymous early church order that became known as the Apostolic
Tradition and conventionally attributed to Hippolytus of Rome has
generated enormous scholarly discussion since its discovery in the
nineteenth century. Surprisingly, however, there has never before been a
comprehensive commentary on it such as there is for other patristic
works. We have here attempted to remedy this defect, and at the same
time we have offered the first full synoptic presentation in English of
the various witnesses to its text. We have also taken the opportunity to
develop our argument that it is neither the work of Hippolytus nor of
any other individual. Instead, we believe that it is a composite
document made up of a number of layers and strands of diverse provenance
and compiled over a period of time, and therefore not representing the
practice of any one Christian community."? from the Preface This
Hermeneia volume provides an important contribution to New Testament
research as well as the study of the patristic era.Leadership Succession in the World of the Pauline Circle
Perry Leon Stepp
Sheffield Phoenix Press Limited, 2006-06-30 - 227 pages
Since
New Testament times, the discussion of leadership succession in the
church has always been polemical. But what the New Testament, especially
in the Pastoral Epistles, means in speaking of succession deserves a
more sober investigation in the light of the literary tradition about
succession in the ancient Mediterranean world. How is succession
actually depicted in Graeco-Roman texts and in Jewish and early
Christian texts of that world? This book undertakes, for the first time,
a thoroughgoing analysis of the evidence, deftly laying out the data
from a wide range of Greek and Roman writers. The question then becomes
how the early readers of the New Testament, conditioned by prior
knowledge of such epistolary and other literary conventions, would have
interpreted Paul's relationship with his delegates like Timothy and
Titus, and how they would have conceived the ministry portrayed in the
Pastorals as passing from a leader to a successor. Stepp's study has
important implications both for our understanding of the ancient
Mediterranean world and for our conceptions of ordination and ministry
in the New Testament.To the Hebrews
George Wesley Buchanan
Doubleday, 1972 - 271 pages
The
New Testament letter to the Hebrews carried much-needed encouragement
and advice for Jewish converts to Christianity in the late first
century. Composed in an exquisite style, Hebrews urged new Christians to
hold fast to their new faith lest they lose their opportunity to
witness the long-awaited fulfillment of God's covenant with Israel. The
sage and persuasive Christian writer draws analogies between the heroes
and drama of Jewish sacred Scriptures and first-century Christian
experience. With the rich heritage of Jewish Christians in mind, he
implores his readers not to lose faith during trials and tribulations.
The unswerving faith of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, and the prophets
serves as an example for them not to forsake God's covenant and incur
God's judgment. He praises Jesus as the ultimate, once-and-for-all
sacrifice for the sins of the world, the means of a renewed relationship
with God.
Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature
Annette Yoshiko Reed
Cambridge University Press, 2005-11-28 - 318 pages
This
book considers the early history of Jewish-Christian relations
focussing on traditions about the fallen angels. In the Book of the
Watchers, an Enochic apocalypse from the third century BCE, the 'sons of
God' of Gen 6:1-4 are accused of corrupting humankind through their
teachings of metalworking, cosmetology, magic, and divination. By
tracing the transformations of this motif in Second Temple, Rabbinic,
and early medieval Judaism and early, late antique, and Byzantine
Christianity, this book sheds light on the history of interpretation of
Genesis, the changing status of Enochic literature, and the place of
parabiblical texts and traditions in the interchange between Jews and
Christians in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. In the process,
it explores issues such as the role of text-selection in the delineation
of community boundaries and the development of early Jewish and
Christian ideas about the origins of evil on the earth.Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments: Theological Reflection on the Christian Bible
Brevard S. Childs
Fortress Press, 2011-04-01 - 774 pages
This
monumental work is the first comprehensive biblical theology to appear
in many years and is the culmination of Brevard Child's lifelong
commitment to constructing a biblical theology that surmounts objections
to the discipline raised over the past generation.Childs rejects any
approaches that overstress either the continuity or discontinuity
between the Old and New Testaments. He refuses to follow the common
pattern in Christian thought of identifying biblical theology with the
New Testament's interest in the Old. Rather, Childs maps out an approach
that reflects on the whole Christian Bible with its two very different
voices, each of which retains continuing integrity and is heard on its
own terms.
A Biblical Theology of Exile
Daniel L. Smith-Christopher
Fortress Press, 2002 - 209 pages
The Christian church continues to seek ethical and spiritual models from
the period of Israel's monarchy and has avoided the gravity of the
Babylonian exile. Against this tradition, the author argues that the
period of focus for the canonical construction of biblical thought is
precisely the exile. Here the voices of dissent arose and articulated
words of truth in the context of failed power.
The Early Enoch Literature
Gabriele Boccaccini, John Joseph Collins
BRILL, 2007 - 367 pages
In
recent years there has been a lively debate about the early Enoch
literature and its place in Judaism. This volume is intended to
represent that debate, by juxtaposing pairs of articles on several key
issues: the textual evidence, the relationship to the Torah, the
calendar, the relation to wisdom, the relation to the temple, the
sociological setting and the relation to the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is not
the intention of the editors to impose a consensus, but rather to
stimulate discussion by bringing together divergent viewpoints. The book
should be a useful textbook not only on the Enoch literature and
apocalypticism, but more generally on Second Temple Judaism.
Beyond the Essene Hypothesis: The Parting of the Ways Between Qumran and Enochic Judaism
Gabriele Boccaccini
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1998 - 230 pages
Respected
scholar Gabriele Boccaccini here offers readers a new and challenging
view of the ideology of the Qumran sect, the community closely related
with the Dead Sea Scrolls. Boccaccini moves beyond the Essene hypothesis
and posits a unique relationship between what he terms "Enochic
Judaism" and the group traditionally known as the Essenes. Building his
case on what the ancient records tell us about the Essenes and on a
systematic analysis of the documents found at Qumran, Boccaccini argues
that the literature betrays the core of an ancient and distinct variety
of Second Temple Judaism. Tracing the development of this tradition,
Boccaccini shows that the Essene community at Qumran was really the
offspring of the Enochic party, which in turn contributed to the birth
of parties led by John the Baptist and Jesus. Convincingly argued, this
work will surely spark fresh debate in the discussion on the Qumran
community and their famous writings.
Elusions of Control: Biblical Law on the Words of Women
Jione Havea
BRILL, 2003 - 223 pages
From Numbers 30, where women's vows are regulated, to various narratives where women's words are monitored, this circumreading exposes the ways in which words elude control and control eludes words within the world of the text and in the very act of reading itself and demonstrates an alternative "transtextual" way to read biblical law.
Get it
The Pauline Epistles
John Muddiman, John Barton
Oxford University Press, 2010-04-22 - 292 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 commentaries to the Pauline Epistles. Includes a general
introduction to using the Commentary, in addition to an introduction to
study of the New Testament, and to the Pauline Corpus in particular.Isaiah 40-55: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary
Joseph Blenkinsopp
Doubleday, 2002 - 411 pages
Scholars have traditionally isolated three distinct sections of what is known as the Book of Isaiah, and in Isaiah 40—55,
distinguished biblical scholar Joseph Blenkinsopp provides a new
translation and critical commentary on the section usually referred to
as Second or Deutero Isaiah. The second volume in a three-volume
commentary, it easily maintains the high standards of academic
excellence established by Isaiah 1—39.Second
Isaiah was written in the sixth century b.c.e., in the years just before
the fall of the mighty Babylonian Empire, by an anonymous prophet whom
history has erroneously identified with the real Isaiah (born ca. 765
b.c.e.). Scholars know Second Isaiah was written by someone other than
Isaiah because the contexts of these prophecies are so very different.
When Second Isaiah was written, the prophet believed that Israel’s time
of suffering was drawing to a close. There was, he insisted, a new age
upon them, a time of hope, peace, and renewed national prosperity. The
main thrust of the prophet’s argument was intended to rally the spirits
of a people devastated by war and conquest. One of the most famous
examples of this optimistic tone is the well-known and beloved Song of
the Suffering Servant, which is found in Chapters 52—53, and about which
Blenkinsopp has some challenging new ideas. The final chapters
of Second Isaiah, however, are in an entirely different key as it
becomes clear that the new world the prophet foresaw earlier was not
going to come to pass. This despair finds its most poignant expression
in the final section of the Book of Isaiah, which Blenkinsopp will
address in his forthcoming third volume.
Among the Gentiles: Greco-Roman Religion and Christianity
Luke Timothy Johnson
Yale University Press, 2009-11-10 - 461 pages
In
undertaking this fresh inquiry into early Christianity and Greco-Roman
paganism, Luke Timothy Johnson begins with a broad definition of
religion as a way of life organized around convictions and experiences
concerning ultimate power. In the tradition of William James’s Variety of Religious Experience,
he identifies four distinct ways of being religious: religion as
participation in benefits, as moral transformation, as transcending the
world, and as stabilizing the world. Using these criteria as the basis
for his exploration of Christianity and paganism, Johnson finds multiple
points of similarity in religious sensibility. Christianity’s failure to adequately come to grips with its first pagan neighbors, Johnson asserts, inhibits any effort to engage positively with adherents of various world religions. This thoughtful and passionate study should help break down the walls between Christianity and other religious traditions.
Get it
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)