The Neo-Babylonian Empire and Babylon in the Latter Prophets

The Neo-Babylonian Empire and Babylon in the Latter Prophets PDF Author: David Stephen Vanderhooft
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004369236
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
This present study seeks to clarify the character and functions of the Neo-Babylonian empire in its relationship to subjugated populations, and in particular to the population of Judah.

The Neo-Babylonian Empire and Babylon in the Latter Prophets

The Neo-Babylonian Empire and Babylon in the Latter Prophets PDF Author: David Stephen Vanderhooft
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004369236
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
This present study seeks to clarify the character and functions of the Neo-Babylonian empire in its relationship to subjugated populations, and in particular to the population of Judah.

The Sword and the Stylus

The Sword and the Stylus PDF Author: Leo G. Perdue
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802862454
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 513

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Book Description
The all-too-frequent disregard of historical and social contexts by many wisdom scholars often leads to the distortion of this literature and transforms its teachings into abstract ideas lacking any incarnation in the social and historical world of human living. Leo Perdue here argues from a sociohistorical approach that the proper understanding of ancient wisdom literature requires one to move out of the realm of philosophical idealism into the flesh and blood of human history. Arguing that wisdom was international in practice and outlook, Perdue traces the interaction between both ruling and subject nations and their sages who produced their respective cultures and their foundational worldviews. While not always easy to reconstruct, he acknowledges, the historical and social settings of texts provide necessary contexts for interpretation and engagement by later readers and hearers. Wisdom texts did not transcend their life settings to espouse values regardless of time and circumstance. Rather, they are located in a variety of historical events in an evolving nation, reflecting a vast array of different and changing moral systems, epistemologies, and religious understandings.

Judeans in Babylonia

Judeans in Babylonia PDF Author: Tero Alstola
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004365427
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
In Judeans in Babylonia, Tero Alstola presents a comprehensive investigation of deportees in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. By using cuneiform documents as his sources, he offers the first book-length social historical study of the Babylonian Exile, commonly regarded as a pivotal period in the development of Judaism. The results are considered in the light of the wider Babylonian society and contrasted against a comparison group of Neirabian deportees. Studying texts from the cities and countryside and tracking developments over time, Alstola shows that there was notable diversity in the Judeans’ socio-economic status and integration into Babylonian society.

Spirit and Reason

Spirit and Reason PDF Author: Dale Launderville
Publisher: Baylor University Press
ISBN: 1602580057
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
Ezekiel's symbolic thinking is an integrative rationality in which reason is regarded as operating within the heart through the empowerment and guidance of the Spirit.

The Oxford Handbook of Ezekiel

The Oxford Handbook of Ezekiel PDF Author: Corrine Carvalho
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190634510
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 561

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Book Description
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.

Desiring Divinity

Desiring Divinity PDF Author: M. David Litwa
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190467169
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Perhaps no declaration incites more outrage than a human's claim to be God. Those who make this claim in ancient Jewish and Christian mythology are typically either demonized or deified. Yet the line separating demonization from deification is dangerously thin, and drawn by the unsteady hand of human values. Desiring Divinity tells the stories of six self-deifiers in their historical, social, and ideological contexts.

The Biblical World

The Biblical World PDF Author: Katharine J. Dell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317392558
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1099

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Book Description
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.

From Babylon to Eternity

From Babylon to Eternity PDF Author: Bob Becking
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134903863
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description
First Published in 2014. Generally, readers have a negative idea of the Exile. Psalm 137 has fuelled the idea that this was a time of sorrow and despair. This image of the Exile influenced, for instance, Luther’s ideas on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church. The four essays in this volume deconstruct and reconstruct this image. Bob Becking tries to recreate a history of the Exile. On the basis of the available evidence, this could be no more than a fragmented history, nevertheless showing that the fate of the exiles was not as bad as often supposed. Anne-Mareike Wetter reveals that the biblical image of exile is multi-faceted. She shows how a tradition of a people tied to their God-given land was challenged by the reality of foreign occupation. And how that people eventually succeeded in translating this experience, appropriating it through a transformation into a counter-tradition that enabled them to cope with the new situation, without breaking entirely with their cultural and religious heritage. Jewish ideas on exile are discussed by Wilfred van de Poll. He concentrates on the use of the concept of galut, which refers to the paradigmatic and identity-shaping function of the dispersion of the people of Israel and showed that the Exile in Jewish thinking had become a permanent reality up until the present day. From the perspective of intertextual reading, Alex Cannegieter discusses four texts of varying ages and background – Augustine, Petrarch, Luther, and a Dutch sermon held after the end of the Second World War. She explores the ways authors chose biblical texts to appropriate them a new context, thereby changing the meaning of the new, as well as the source texts.

Yahwism after the Exile

Yahwism after the Exile PDF Author: Alberts
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004493441
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
STAR - Studies in Theology and Religion, 5 Papers Read at the First Meeting of the European Association for Biblical Studies, Utrecht, 6-9 August 2000 The Persian era in Ancient Israel’s history is an intriguing period. The time span between Cyrus the Great and Alexander the Great was a theatre of shifts and changes. These changes are observable in daily life, in the organisation of society as well as in various religious phenomena. The essays in this volume originate from a seminar about developments and movements in the religion of Israel after the Exile, which was part of the first meeting of the European Association for Biblical Studies (Utrecht, 2000). The essays deal with questions like: How did religion help inhabitants of Yehud to cope with the new reality? How did this new reality influence the (re)formulation of Yahwism? What was the character of the existing Yahwism that was reformulated? Rainer Albertz (PhD Heidelberg, 1972; Habilitation Heidelberg, 1977) is ordinary Professor of Old Testament Studies at the University of Münster (Westfalen, Germany). His most recent book is: Die Exilszeit 6. Jahrhundert v. Chr. (Biblische Enzyklopädie 7), Stuttgart 2001. Bob Becking (PhD Utrecht, 1985) is ordinary Professor of Old Testament studies at Utrecht University. He was co-editor of the Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, Leiden 1995; 21998. From the contents Rainer Albertz & Bob Becking, Problems and Possibilities: Perspectives on Postexilic Yahwism Rainer Albertz, The Thwarted Restoration Bob Becking, Law as Expression of Religion (Ezra 7-10) Ehud Ben Zvi, What is New in Yehud? Some Considerations Mark J. Boda, Zechariah: Master Mason or Penitential Prophet? Meindert Dijkstra, The Law of Moses: the Memory of Mosaic Religion in and after the Exile William Johnstone, The Revision of Festivals in Exodus 1-24 in the Persian Period and the Preservation of Jewish Identity in the Diaspora Antje Labahn, Antitheocratic Tendencies in Chronicles Herbert Niehr, The Changed Status of the Dead in Yehud Thomas Pola, Form and Meaning in Zechariah 3 Wolter Rose, Messianic Expectations in the Early Postexilic Period Rüdiger Schmitt, Gab es einen Bildersturm nach dem Exil? - Einige Bemerkungen zur Verwendung von Terrakottafigurinen im nachexilischen Israel Zipora Talshir, Synchronic Approaches with Diachronic Consequences in the Study of Parallel Redactions: First Esdras and 2 Chr 35-36; Ezra 1-10; Neh 8 David S. Vanderhooft, New Evidence Pertaining to the Transition from Neo-Babylonian to Achaemenid Administration in Palestine

The Priest and the Great King

The Priest and the Great King PDF Author: Lisbeth Fried
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 1575065509
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
Lisbeth S. Fried’s insightful study investigates the impact of Achaemenid rule on the political power of local priesthoods during the 6th–4th centuries B.C.E. Scholars typically assume that, as long as tribute was sent to Susa, the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, subject peoples remained autonomous. Fried’s work challenges this assumption. She examines the inscriptions, coins, temple archives, and literary texts from Babylon, Egypt, Asia Minor, and Judah and concludes that there was no local autonomy. The only people with power in the Empire were Persians and their appointees. This was true for Judah as well. The High Priest had no real power; there was no theocracy. The wars that periodically engulfed the Levant in the fourth century temporarily pulled the ruling governors and satraps away from Judah, and during these times, the Judean priesthood may have capitalized on the brief absence of Persian officials to mint coins, but they achieved their longed-for independence only much later, under the Maccabees. Liz added this explanatory note in an e-mail to the Biblical Studies e-mail list on December 2, 2005: “There’s a confusion in reader’s minds about my methodology, which I’d like to set straight if I may. “The book is a rewrite of my dissertation. My dissertation was entitled The Rise to Power of the Judean Priesthood: The Impact of the Achaemenid Empire. I assumed at the outset that because the Achaemenid Empire was non-directive, and cared only that tribute would be sent regularly, the priesthood was able to fill the resulting power vacuum and achieve secular power. My goal was to chronicle the process. In addition I thought to look at Eisenstadt’s model which predicted the opposite result—that local elites, like priests, could not rise to power in an imperial system. Since there was no real data from Judah, I looked at temple-palace relations in Babylon, Egypt, and Asia Minor as well as Judah. “It was only during my research that I came to the conclusion that local priesthoods did not achieve secular power anywhere in the Achaemenid Empire and certainly not in Judah. In fact their power diminished during those 200 years. I also concluded, not that Eisenstadt was correct, but only that my data were insufficient to reject his model. However, my data were sufficient to reject the model of an Achaemenid Empire that was non-directive as well as the model of Persian authorization of local norms (Frei and Koch).”