Bücher veröffentlicht von Sheffield Phoenix Press

In this book the authors develop an intriguing theory about theCanaanite origin of the biblical traditions concerning the originof the cosmos and the creation of humankind. Adam, Eve, andthe Devil tells a new story about human beginnings and at thesame time proposes a fresh start for biblical research into primordialtraditions.A number of clay tablets from Ugarit, dating from the late thirteenthcentury BCE, throw new light, Korpel and de Moor argue,on the background of the first chapters of Genesis and the mythof Adam. In these tablets, El, the creator deity, and his wifeAsherah lived in a vineyard or garden on the slopes of Mt Ararat,known in the Bible as the mountain where Noah's ark cameto rest. The first sinner was not a human being, but an evil godcalled Horon who wanted to depose El. Horon was throwndown from the mountain of the gods, and in revenge he transformedthe Tree of Life in the garden into a Tree of Death andenveloped the whole world in a poisonous fog. Adam was sentdown to restore life on earth, but failed because Horon in theform of a huge serpent bit him. As a result Adam and his wifelost their immortality.This myth found its way into the Bible, the Apocrypha and thePseudepigraphical literature, though it was often transformed ortreated critically. Adam, Eve, and the Devil traces the reception ofthe myth in its many forms, and also presents the oldest picturesof Adam and Eve ever identified (one of them on the frontcover of the book).

This Guide to Biblical Chronology aims to explain why different chronological proposals exist for the reigns of kings of Israel and Judah and how the conflicting chronological data preserved in the Books of Kings have come into being. The first step is to reconstruct older chronological data so that synchronisms are in harmony with each other. Only then can the chronological data be related to extrabiblical documents; such a comparison reveals a good degree of correspondence. This means that the chronological records of the kings of Judah and Israel during the period between 930 and 586 BCE must have based on reliable annalistic records from royal archives. After the destruction of Samaria, synchronic chronological presentations of the history of Judah and Israel were composed and the Deuteronomistic editors used them. They drew their own conclusions from the source material and created a chronology of their own, which sometimes led to the contradictions we can detect in the present form of the Hebrew Bible. Another important result is that the 480-year period mentioned in 1 Kings 6 and the 300-year period in Judges 11 are also based on the pre-Deuteronomistic chronological tradition even though they are not based on archival material and are therefore unreliable figures.The Guide to Biblical Chronology also deals with postbiblical Jewish chronology, showing that there were in existence two different and competing chronological systems. One was based on Daniel 9.24-27 and followed by Josephus, and the other was first advanced by Demetrius the Chronographer in the late third century BCE and was then followed in the Damascus Document from Qumran and in Second Baruch.

This is the tenth volume of the hard-copy edition of a journal that has been published online (www.jgrchj.net) since 2000. Volume 1 was for 2000, Volume 2 was for 2001-2005, Volume 3 was for 2006, Volume 4 was for 2007, Volume 5 was for 2008, Volume 6 was for 2009, Volume 7 was for 2010, Volume 8 was for 2011-2012, Volume 9 was for 2013 and Volume 10 is for 2014. As they appear, the hard-copy editions will replace the online materials. The scope of JGRChJ is the texts, language and cultures of the Greco-Roman world of early Christianity and Judaism. The papers published in JGRChJ are designed to pay special attention to the ''larger picture'' of politics, culture, religion and language, engaging as well with modern theoretical approaches.