Bücher der Reihe Studies in Biblical Literature

The key to a balanced and accurate understanding of the book of Ecclesiastes lies in the inter-dependent relationships between the prominent motifs within the book. An Analysis of the Inter-Dependency of the Prominent Motifs Within the Book of Qohelet explores this dynamic.

Ezekiel has often been called ¿the prophet of the spirit¿ because of his surpassing use of the word ¿¿¿, ¿spirit¿. The main argument of this book is that Ezekiel¿s ¿spirit¿ motif conveys a polysemous symbolism which, nonetheless, accentuates an overarching leitmotiv. Ezekiel¿s ¿spirit¿ symbolism signifies a paradigm shift in ancient Israelite visualization of divine presence in Israel: from visible phenomena and experiences, mediated through rituals at cultic shrines in Israel, to an omnipresence that is not necessarily mediated through cultus. Moreover, author Samuel W. Muindi posits that the African Pentecostal ¿en-spirited¿ worldview is an apt hermeneutical lens for understanding Ezekielian ¿spirit¿ symbolism. The experiences of the Ezekielian exilic community prefigure dynamic equivalents in African communities. As such, Ezekielian ¿spirit¿ symbolism critically informs the African Pentecostal ¿en-spirited¿ worldview while the latter illumines Ezekielian ¿spirit¿ symbolism.This book is aimed at students of Biblical theology and others who wish to enrich their understanding of hermeneutics as well as Biblical pneumatology as an ¿en-spirited¿ worldview.

How do philosophical theories influence the reading of the Bible? How did the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance alter the views of God, miracles, prophecy, creation, and evil? This book explores these questions in detail through the work of Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508), a great Jewish statesman, philosopher, and biblical interpreter who embodied the fundamental paradigm shift from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. This book also serves as an invaluable reference guide to such medieval Jewish philosophers as Saadia, Maimonides, and Gersonides, as well as some of their Muslim counterparts such as Averroes, Avicenna, and al-Ghazali, in most of the fundamental issues of philosophy and biblical interpretation.

Modern Christian theology has been problematic with schism between Bible and theology, and between biblical studies and systematic theology. This title analyzes Brevard Springs Childs' concept of theological exegesis in biblical canons. He demonstrates forcefully the inadequacies of the historical-critical method in practicing biblical theology.

The Apostle Paul sought to exert his influence and authority over the congregations he founded long after they had been established. Such ongoing oversight by Christianity¿s prototypical «evangelist» has not been adequately understood. In a brief 1987 article, W. Paul Bowers challenged John Knox¿s assertion that Paul¿s «pastoral and administrative work irked him and that he wanted to be free of it». This book confirms and significantly develops Bowers¿s little-known thesis, examining a wide range of passages in the apostle¿s undisputed letters and highlighting crucial implications of Paul¿s broadly conceived vocation for understanding his mission and moral reflection.

This book is an analysis of inner-biblical exegesis which ordinarily involves examination of the intertextual relationship between two texts within the biblical corpus. The direction of dependence between texts of this kind is not as important in the present study as the direction in which these texts were meant to be read by those who gave them their final shape.

Peace and Peacemaking in Paul and the Greco-Roman World compares the Apostle Paul's understanding of peace with various conceptions of peace in the Greco-Roman thought world of the first century. The author seeks to clarify how the Greeks defined peace and then to show how their conception of war and peace established the ethos that ultimately defined them as a people.

Liberation from Empire investigates the phenomenon of demonic possession and exorcism in the Gospel of Mark. The Marcan narrator writes from an anti-imperialistic point of view with allusions to, yet never directly addressing, the Roman Empire.

Axis of Glory

In fact, the Gospel of Matthew was the most Jewish of the Synoptic Gospels, and Matthew's paradigm was the needed transition for understanding the role of the new community post-70 AD. This book examines how Matthew used Jewish concepts as paradigmatic utterances for the Matthean community.

Contends the New Testament quotations from the Twelve presuppose knowledge of the larger whole and cannot be understood correctly apart from awareness of the compositional strategy of the Twelve.

A Biblical Theology of Gerassapience

A Psycho-Spiritual View on the Message of Jesus in the Gospels

From John of Apamea to Mark's Gospel: Two Dialogues with Thomasios: A Hermeneutical Reading of Horao, Blepo, and Theoreo combines two theological fields of investigation. The first is related to the Patristic theology of Eastern Syrian Christianity and the second resides in the field of Biblical theology.

This book takes a narrative-critical approach to the meaning and function of debate in the Gospel of Mary.

This landmark study of the literary relationship between the gospel of John and the synoptic gospels presents compelling evidence for the existence of a written pre-canonical Alpha gospel that contained almost all of the main episodes in the adult life of Jesus and which became the written source for the core biography of Jesus in all four gospels.

Ancient Near Eastern Literature and the Hebrew Scriptures About the Fatherhood of God discusses some of the main «father-god» concepts of the people of the Ancient Near East, then examines the eighteen occurrences of God¿s fatherhood specifically mentioned in Hebrew Scripture. From these sources, the book develops a theology of God¿s fatherhood that honors both ancient and modern scrutiny. Although many studies have explored the subject of the fatherhood of God ¿ mostly from the perspective of nonbiblical disciplines, and through the lens of Greco-Roman mythology ¿ this book takes into account the wealth of material from the ancient Near East, the birthplace of the Hebrew Scriptures.

This book breaks fresh ground in the interpretation of the Apocalypse with an interdisciplinary methodology called aural-performance criticism that assesses how the first-century audience would have heard the Apocalypse.

The (Im)Polite Jesus is an informed, focused, deep and creative analysis of the topic of (im)politeness applied to Jesus in Matthew's Gospel with in-depth conclusions and analysis about the Matthean Jesus' (im)politeness.

In this book, Hye Kyung Park examines the functions and roles of the women who appear in the Elijah and Elisha narratives. This book elaborates upon the critical meaning of women's voices through a close interpretation of the roles and functions attributed to women in 1 Kings 17:8-24; 2 Kings 4:8-37, 5, and 8:1-6.

This book investigates the Matthean use of bread and the breaking of bread in light of cognitive conceptual metaphor, which are not only intertwined within Matthew's narrative plots but also function to represent Matthew's communal identity and ideological vision.

Canaan to Corinth