In der Reihe Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) erscheinen Arbeiten zu samtlichen Gebieten der alttestamentlichen Wissenschaft. Im Zentrum steht die Hebraische Bibel, ihr Vor- und Nachleben im antiken Judentum sowie ihre vielfache Verzweigung in die benachbarten Kulturen der altorientalischen und hellenistisch-romischen Welt.

This monograph presents a fresh and detailed treatment of the problems posed by the Nehemiah-Memoir. Starting from the pre-critical interpretations of Ezra-Neh, the study demonstrates that the use of the first-person does not suffice as a criterion for distinguishing between the verba Neemiae and the additions of later authors. The earliest edition of the Memoir isconfined to a building report, which was expanded as early generations of readers developed the implications of Nehemiah's accomplishments for the consolidation and centralization of Judah. The expansions occasioned in...

The hermeneutics employed in this work is partly referred to as hindsight hermeneutics, and upholds the resonance and dissonance between the Epilogue of the Book of Job and the preceding sections. Within the Theophany-epilogue continuum, rebuke and approval, retribution and its suspension, divine transcendence and accessibility are all held together. The dramatically discordant traditions in the preceding section are not interpreted as competing alternatives but as complementary possibilities for understanding the nature of the divine-human relationship and responding to the threat and...

Doubts about the contribution of cult-prophetic speech to psalmody remain in debate. Psalms containing first-person divine speech exhibit numerous features and suggest life settings that conform to actual prophetic speech. Alternative explanations lack comparable examples external to psalms. On the other hand, Assyrian cultic prophecies parallel the characteristics of prophetic speech found in psalms. The Assyrian sources support possible composition and performance scenarios that overcome objections raised against the compatibility of genuine prophecy with psalmody. A model of cultic...

Die Arbeit von Agyptologen, Altorientalisten und Bibelexegeten richtet sich auf Texte, die ubersetzt, kommentiert und als Quellen verwendet werden. Textproduktion und Textrezeption in diesen eng verflochtenen Kulturen scheinen mit entsprechenden Mustern unserer Welt kaum vergleichbar. Der vorliegende Band ist aus einer Tagung zu jenen Differenzen und Gemeinsamkeiten hervorgegangen und widmet sich der Frage, wodurch in den genannten Kulturen ein sprachlicher "Text" konstituiert wird. Er versammelt Beitrage zur Rekonstruktion kulturspezifischer Textbegriffe aus der Perspektive der...

The change in the "type of religion" in ancient Israel from the time of Exile to the post-exilic period, which was paralleled by and connected with the creation of a canon, has been the subject of various research studies in religious history. It is the purpose of the present volume of collected papers to examine whether and how the categories of "Primary and secondary religion" developed by T. Sundermeier and J. Assmann can be used to describe this change. The volume combines contributions from various disciplines (Theology/Old Testament Studies, Egyptology, Ancient Oriental Studies,...

The volume presents a collection of international papers on the literary genesis of the deuteronomistic history and on "Deuteronomism" in the books from Genesis to Kings. They discuss the essence of Old Testament historiography together with the overall historical editorial and compositional relationship between "Pentateuch," "Hexateuch" and "Early Prophets."

After Jerusalem, Bethel is the most frequently cited sanctuary in the Hebrew Bible. The book offers a detailed analysis of Bethel and its sanctuary from archaeological and biblical evidence. It reconstructs the history of Bethel and by analysing the presence of pro- and anti-Bethel propaganda, it argues that the latter, with its own pro-Jerusalem/Judah bias, has resulted in an unfair denigration of Bethel as an idolatrous place of worship. The study suggests that Bethel was a legitimate Yahwistic shrine and continued to be so even after the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel to the...

Als Texte, die den Tag JHWHs zum Thema haben, werden Am 5,18-20; Zef 1,2-18; Obd; Joel 2,1-11; 4,1-17; Sach 14; Mal 3,13-21.22-24 im Kontext ihrer jeweiligen Schriften interpretiert, nach Beziehungen zu redaktionellen Vorstufen des Zwolfprophetenbuchs befragt und in ihrem Zusammenhang untereinander sowohl auf diachroner als auch auf synchroner Ebene untersucht. Die Ergebnisse der Arbeit leisten einen Beitrag zur aktuellen Debatte um Entstehung und Einheit des Zwolfprophetenbuchs und zur Geschichte der JHWH-Tags-Vorstellung.