Rhetorical Interaction in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10 is a formal analysis of Paul's rhetorical interaction with the Corinthians over the issues of participation in the cultic meal (1 Cor. 10:1-22) and the eating of idol food (1 Cor. 8:1-13, 10:23-11:1). The thesis is that Paul's theology and rhetoric are predicated on knowledge and love. Major portions of the book employ rhetorical, sociological, archaeological, and historical-critical approaches to examine the triangular interaction between Paul, the Corinthians, and the biblical texts, paying particular attention to the complex...

The Canonical Approach makes a detailed assessment of Brevard Childs' 'canonical approach' to biblical interpretation. A careful analysis of Childs' work identifies a number of historical, hermeneutical, and theological issues that are central both to Childs' programme and to the wider methodological debate. These include the adequacy of the historical-critical tools, their relationship to the more recent, 'synchronic' approaches, the role of the interpreter's own presuppositions, the viability of working from a specific faith-commitment, and ways in which the ancient texts can 'speak'...

In a fascinating expose of the sub-text of the Bible, this book shows that covert polemics is a significant feature of biblical writing on various contentious issues, such as cultic locations (Beth El, Jerusalem), leadership (the houses of Saul and David), community boundaries (the Samaritans) and other problems of legitimation.

This groundbreaking book, which builds on the author's earlier work in On Gendering Texts, studies how, by what means and to what extent human love, desire and sex, and possibly even 'sexuality', are gendered in the Hebrew Bible. Following a classification and gendering of the linguistic and semantic data, the investigation looks into the construction of male and female bodies in language and ideologies; the praxis and ideology of sex, procreation and contraception; deviation from socio-sexual boundaries (e.g. incest, rape, adultery, homosexuality, prostitution); eroticism and...

Establishment Violence in Philo and Luke deals with nonconformity to the Jewish Torah and violent counter reactions as discussed in the works of Philo of Alexandria and narrated in the Lukan Acts of the Apostles. The author works with several social science models in vogue in recent research, but especially applies a model of establishment violence (or vigilantism) as worked out by H.J. Rosenbaum and P.C. Sederberg (1976). The study contains five chapters, focusing on three often neglected texts from Philo, and the texts of the Lukan Acts concerning Stephen and Paul in Jerusalem.

The articles in this volume have been written in memory of the feminist biblical scholar, Fokkelien van Dijk-Hemmes, who died at the early age of 50. The authors endeavour to continue and advance the dialogue with her by evaluating and interacting with her scholarly legacy. Their concern is with various aspects of her work on the Hebrew Bible, and they respond in particular to the feminist hermeneutics she developed for reading biblical texts.
Several articles test her method in application to specific prophetic texts. Other contributions focus on aspects of the role of women in the cults...

Zephaniah's Oracles against the Nations deals with exegetical methods as well as their application to the text. The first part of the book examines the Hebrew text from the viewpoint of synchrony, employing insights from modern linguistic and literary theory. Such important concepts as text-grammar, textual hierarchy, communicational and actantial analysis on the one hand, and prosodic hierarchy and Hebrew versification on the other, emerge from this discussion. The second part of the book discusses diachronical matters such as the redactional process, its theological and pastoral...

Since 1986 feminist theologians in Germany have been engaged in public discussion of anti-Judaism. The feminist approach to the Bible is right at the centre of this discussion. The analysis of "anti-Jewish" tendencies in both Testaments is notoriously difficult. In the case of texts which are particularly uncomfortable for women, it is even more difficult to make progress. Thirteen leading feminist Christian exegetes writing in German take up various themes for discussion (law, violence, impurity etc.), define the problem of anti-Judaism particular to each of these themes, situate it in the...

This study locates pre-gospel orality and gospel literacy within Greco-Roman rhetorical norms for education and performance. Heavy use of a few basic rhetorical conventions marks the gospel tradition as a marginal yet rhetorically competent attempt to create a Christian public.
The book identifies gnomic sayings as the thickest available sample of gospel rhetorics, an alternative to samples based on chreia and parable. Gnome-use is central throughout ancient rhetorical theory and practice. Gnome is therefore an especially good focus for comparative study, particularly of characterisation...

This book questions the lives of Jesus that say he did not think of himself as Messiah. It argues that Jews held that the Messiah would at first come to suffer and even to die. The Messiah could not say who he was; he would act as Messiah, waiting for God the Father to announce him king. The sayings of Jesus claiming or hinting that he was the Messiah are inauthentic in those respects, yet Jesus knew he was the Messiah. He knew he could be wrong, being fully human and fully divine, so he could be tempted. He died willingly for the sins of the world. He and other Jews believed in the Trinity.