How the Bible Became a Book

How the Bible Became a Book PDF Author: William M. Schniedewind
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521829461
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
For the past two hundred years biblical scholars have increasingly assumed that the Hebrew Bible was largely written and edited in the Persian and Hellenistic periods. As a result, the written Bible has dwelled in an historical vacuum. Recent archaeological evidence and insights from linguistic anthropology, however, point to the earlier era of the late-Iron Age as the formative period for the writing of biblical literature. How the Bible Became a Book combines these recent archaeological discoveries in the Middle East with insights culled from the history of writing to address how the Bible first came to be written down and then became sacred Scripture. This book provides rich insight into why these texts came to have authority as Scripture and explores why Ancient Israel, an oral culture, began to write literature, challenging the assertion that widespread literacy first arose in Greece during the fifth century BCE.

How the Bible Became a Book

How the Bible Became a Book PDF Author: William M. Schniedewind
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521829461
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 275

Get Book Here

Book Description
For the past two hundred years biblical scholars have increasingly assumed that the Hebrew Bible was largely written and edited in the Persian and Hellenistic periods. As a result, the written Bible has dwelled in an historical vacuum. Recent archaeological evidence and insights from linguistic anthropology, however, point to the earlier era of the late-Iron Age as the formative period for the writing of biblical literature. How the Bible Became a Book combines these recent archaeological discoveries in the Middle East with insights culled from the history of writing to address how the Bible first came to be written down and then became sacred Scripture. This book provides rich insight into why these texts came to have authority as Scripture and explores why Ancient Israel, an oral culture, began to write literature, challenging the assertion that widespread literacy first arose in Greece during the fifth century BCE.

Israel and Its Bible

Israel and Its Bible PDF Author: Ira Sharkansky
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100052504X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
First Published in 1996. Much of the Bible is written with far greater beauty than is found in modern social science. Yet its use of metaphor, allegory, poetry, allusion, and hyperbole as well as its vast breadth in historical period and existential concerns render it difficult to define its meanings in ancient contexts or its messages for the present. This study is the author’s intention to portray politically relevant episodes and themes of the Hebrew Bible that appear to shed light on the continued vitality of Judaism and the character of modern Israel.

A Biblical History of Israel

A Biblical History of Israel PDF Author: Iain William Provan
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 9780664220907
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
In this much-anticipated textbook, three respected biblical scholars have written a history of ancient Israel that takes the biblical text seriously as an historical document. While also considering nonbiblical sources and being attentive to what disciplines like archaeology, anthropology, and sociology suggest about the past, the authors do so within the context and paradigm of the Old Testament canon, which is held as the primary document for reconstructing Israel's history. In Part One, the authors set the volume in context and review past and current scholarly debate about learning Israel's history, negating arguments against using the Bible as the central source. In Part Two, they seek to retell the history itself with an eye to all the factors explored in Part One.

The Bible Unearthed

The Bible Unearthed PDF Author: Israel Finkelstein
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743223381
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
In this groundbreaking work that sets apart fact and legend, authors Finkelstein and Silberman use significant archeological discoveries to provide historical information about biblical Israel and its neighbors. In this iconoclastic and provocative work, leading scholars Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman draw on recent archaeological research to present a dramatically revised portrait of ancient Israel and its neighbors. They argue that crucial evidence (or a telling lack of evidence) at digs in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon suggests that many of the most famous stories in the Bible—the wanderings of the patriarchs, the Exodus from Egypt, Joshua’s conquest of Canaan, and David and Solomon’s vast empire—reflect the world of the later authors rather than actual historical facts. Challenging the fundamentalist readings of the scriptures and marshaling the latest archaeological evidence to support its new vision of ancient Israel, The Bible Unearthed offers a fascinating and controversial perspective on when and why the Bible was written and why it possesses such great spiritual and emotional power today.

In Search of "Ancient Israel"

In Search of Author: Philip R. Davies
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0567449181
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
The appearance in 1992 of 'In Search of Ancient Israel' generated a still raging controversy about the historical reality of what biblical scholars call 'Ancient Israel'. But its argument not only takes in the problematic relationship between Iron Age Palestinian archaeology and the biblical 'Israel' but also outlines the processes that created the literature of the Hebrew bible-the ideological matrix, the scribal milieu, and the cultural adoption of a national literary archive as religious scripture as part of the process of creating 'Judaisms'. While challenging the whole spectrum of scholarly consensus about the origins of 'Israel' and its scriptures, it is written more in the style of a textbook for students than a monograph for scholars because, its author believes, it offers an agenda for the next generation of biblical scholars. 'In this reader-friendly polemic, Davies brilliantly addresses an essential issue and at numerous points represents a vanguard in biblical studies' (Robert B. Coote, Interpretation). 'A rich mine of provocative quotations, will provoke considerable opposition and debate, and deserves to be read and reflected on by all biblical scholars' (Keith Whitelam, SOTS Book List).

Historical and Biblical Israel

Historical and Biblical Israel PDF Author: Reinhard Gregor Kratz
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198728778
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
At the center of this book lies a fundamental yet unanswered question: under which historical and sociological conditions and in what manner the Hebrew Bible became an authoritative tradition, that is, holy scripture and the canon of Judaism as well as Christianity. Reinhard G. Kratz answers this very question by distinguishing between historical and biblical Israel. This foundational and, for the arrangement of the book, crucial distinction affirms that the Israel of biblical tradition, i.e. the sacred history (historia sacra) of the Hebrew Bible, cannot simply be equated with the history of Israel and Judah. Thus, Kratz provides a synthesis of both the Israelite and Judahite history and the genesis and development of biblical tradition in two separate chapters, though each area depends directly and inevitably upon the other. These two distinct perspectives on Israel are then confronted and correlated in a third chapter, which constitutes an area intimately connected with the former but generally overlooked apart from specialized inquiries: those places and "archives" that either yielded Jewish documents and manuscripts (Elephantine, Al-Yahudu, Qumran) or are associated conspicuously with the tradition of the Hebrew Bible (Mount Gerizim, Jerusalem, Alexandria). Here, the various epigraphic and literary evidence for the history of Israel and Judah comes to the fore. Such evidence sometimes represents Israel's history; at other times it reflects its traditions; at still others it reflects both simultaneously. The different sources point to different types of Judean or Jewish identity in Persian and Hellenistic times.

The “God of Israel” in History and Tradition

The “God of Israel” in History and Tradition PDF Author: Michael J. Stahl
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004447725
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 498

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Book Description
In The “God of Israel” in History and Tradition, Michael Stahl examines the historical and ideological significances of the formulaic title “god of Israel” (’elohe yisra’el) in the Hebrew Bible using critical theory on social power and identity.

The Lives of Ordinary People in Ancient Israel

The Lives of Ordinary People in Ancient Israel PDF Author: William G. Dever
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802867014
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 447

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Book Description
"In this book William Dever addresses the question that must guide every good historian of ancient Israel: What was life really like in those days? Writing as an expert archaeologist who is also a secular humanist, Dever relies on archaeological data, over and above the Hebrew Bible, for primary source material. He focuses on the lives of ordinary people in the eighth century B.C.E. - not kings, priests, or prophets - people who left behind rich troves of archaeological information but who are practically invisible in "typical" histories of ancient Israel."--Résumé de l'éditeur.

The Joshua Generation

The Joshua Generation PDF Author: Rachel Havrelock
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691235627
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
"The Joshua Generation examines the book of Joshua's many lives, from its relationship to ancient political forms to the present Israeli Occupation. Its scope encompasses the nationalist celebrations and the stringent critiques of the biblical volume along with their impacts on political discourse and lived space"--

The Land of Israel in Bible, History, and Theology

The Land of Israel in Bible, History, and Theology PDF Author: J.T.A.G.M. van Ruiten
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047428609
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 492

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Book Description
This book deals with many aspects of the land of Israel. In the first part, the emphasis is on descriptions of the land in Joshua and other books of the Hebrew anf Greek Bible. In the second part, the focus shifts to the land in history and theology: reception-history of biblical texts dealing with the land, archaeology of Palestine, and theological-hermeneutical implications of taking the land traditions of the Bible seriously. The result is a rich collection of articles on one of the main themes of the Old Testament; a theme that has a fascinating, although not always unproblematic reception history.