Kategoria BISAC: Religion >> Biblical Studies - History & Culture

Who are the ancient role models for the sacred relationship
between Jews and non-Jews today?

Now more than ever, gentiles are an integral part of the Jewish community. But they are not new to the Jewish story. In fact, righteous gentiles go back to Abraham. The story of the Jewish people can't be told without them.

Noted author and educator Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin provides an informative and inspiring look at the sympathetic non-Israelite characters of the Hebrew Bible and the redemptive relationships they had with the Jewish people. Relying on biblical and...

The Bible played a crucial role in shaping Anglo-Saxon national and cultural identity. However, access to Biblical texts was necessarily limited to very few individuals in Medieval England. In this book, Samantha Zacher explores how the very earliest English Biblical poetry creatively adapted, commented on and spread Biblical narratives and traditions to the wider population. Systematically surveying the manuscripts of surviving poems, the book shows how these vernacular poets commemorated the Hebrews as God's 'chosen people' and claimed the inheritance of that status for Anglo-Saxon...

The Pentateuch (or the Torah) consists of the first five books of the Bible and is a foundational scripture for millions of people, both Jews and Christians. In this book Paula Gooder and Brad Anderson provide a clear and accessible introduction for those beginning Bible study. Key themes such as creation and the flood, exodus and liberation, as well as covenant and law are presented and analyzed. These themes are explored in their ancient context and from the standpoint of contemporary concerns such as liberation theology, gender issues and ecology.

For this new edition introductory...

How can a loving God send people to hell? Isn't it arrogant to believe Jesus is the only way to God? What is up with holy war in the Old Testament?

Many of us fear God has some skeletons in the closet. Hell, judgment, and holy war are hot topics for the Christian faith that have a way of igniting fierce debate far and wide. These hard questions leave many wondering whether God is really good and can truly be trusted.

The Skeletons in God's Closet confronts our popular caricatures of these difficult topics with the beauty and power of the real thing....

More than 80 years after its initial publication, Halley's Bible Handbook remains a bestseller in its various editions, with millions of copies sold worldwide. This world-renowned Bible handbook has been consistently updated and revised to accurately provide even greater clarity, insight, and usefulness.

Halley's Bible Handbook makes the Bible's wisdom and message accessible to people from all walks of life. Whether they've read the Bible many times or never before, readers will find insights that give them a firm grasp of God's Word and an appreciation for the...

Originally published by Yale University Press, "Abraham in History and Tradition" evaluates previous scholarly insight on the early patriarchal period while challenging many dominant views in Biblical Studies and providing criticism on tradition history and documentary hypothesis. Upon its initial publication in 1975, this landmark work provided fresh insight in the fields of Near Eastern Studies and Biblical Archaeology. Well-researched and cogent, Van Seters' groundbreaking analysis remains relevant and continues to inspire new research in the present.

John Van Seters is Professor...

Mark Twain enthusiasts will welcome this study of the great writer's attitude toward the Bible -- and of the influence of Holy Writ upon both the man and the artist. While the theological beliefs of Twain have been well documented, Mr. Ensor's study is the first to consider only his familiarity with the Bible and the extensive use of it in his writings.

The Bible elicited by turns pious, skeptical, comical, and even hostile reactions in Twain, but he could not ignore it. Mr. Ensor examines manifestations of these conflicting impulses from the early newspaper articles to the...

Job is perhaps the most difficult to understand of all books in the Bible. While a cursory reading of the text seems to relay a simple story of a righteous man whose love for God was tested through life's most difficult of challenges and rewarded for his faith through those trials, a closer reading of Job presents something far more complex and challenging. The majority of the text is a work of poetry that authors and artists through the centuries have recognized as being one of--if not the--greatest poem of the ancient world.

In Re-reading Job: Understanding the Ancient World's...