Scriptural Exegesis gathers voices from an international community of scholars to consider the many facets of the history of biblical interpretation and to question how exegesis shapes spiritual and cultural creativity. Divided into four broadly chronological sections that chart a variety of approaches from ancient to modern times, the essays examine texts and problems rooted in the ancient world yet still of concern today. Nineteen chapters incorporate the expertise of contributors from a diverse range of disciplines, including ancient religion, philosophy, mysticism, and folklore. Each...

In A Vocabulary of Desire, Laura Lieber offers a nuanced, multifaceted and highly original study of how the Song of Songs was understood and deployed by Jewish liturgical poets in Late Antiquity (ca. 4th-7th centuries CE). Through her examination of poems which embellish and even rewrite the Song of Songs, Lieber brings the creative spirit-liturgical, intellectual, and exegetical-of these poems vividly to the fore. All who are interested in the early interpretation of the Song of Songs, the ancient synagogue, early Jewish and Christian hymnography, and Judaism in Late Antiquity will...