Description: ""We offer this collection as a token of our affection and admiration of our friend and colleague James Weldon Thompson. . . . His studies of the letter to the Hebrews and of Paul in their intellectual contexts (especially Middle Platonism) have contributed significantly to the ongoing quest for placing the New Testament in its socio-intellectual setting. Although his publications in this area date back more than thirty years, his best work is occurring now, and we may anticipate path-breaking contributions ahead. His more recent work on preaching and pastoral care in Paul both...

The present volume seeks to identify the underlying code of meanings about the Israelite king operating in various ways in texts and other artifacts surviving from the culture. The focus is upon the (living) body of the king, its anatomical characteristics, its constitution through ritual, and the conventions concerning its proper self-display by the king. This study combines careful linguistic and historical-critical analysis of the texts considered (both biblical and ancient Near Eastern, the latter used comparatively where appropriate) with a critical use of contemporary approaches to the...

This book rethinks the problem of Israelite kingship by examining how the male royal body and its self-presentation figured in the governance of the dual monarchies of Israel and Judah. As such, this is a reopening of old questions and an opening to new ones.

Description: The study of the eighth-century prophets has experienced major changes over the past five decades. In these articles, published during a time when traditional methods of reading these texts gave way to new interests and approaches, John Willis addresses some of the major challenges facing interpreters of the prophetic works as coherent books. The careful attention to detail in the biblical texts themselves and in the history of scholarship shown in these essays offers a helpful model for scholars seeking to understand the ancient texts and appropriate them for new conditions.

Ancient Israel's Scriptures have exerted worldwide influence for more than two millennia. They explore human experience, including the human longing for the divine, through the powerful media of story, ritual, wisdom, and prophecy. This book retraces the Bible's exploration and shows how not only its conclusions but the steps taken to reach them still matter.