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

To understand Jesus' life and ministry, we need to understand the history and culture of his world. Marty, author of the popular The Whole Bible Story, provides readers with a thoroughly readable, easy-to-understand history of Israel leading up to the time of Christ. Each chapter ties closely to the events of the New Testament as Marty carefully answers such questions as

-Who were the Pharisees and why was Jesus upset with them?
-Why didn't anyone like the Samaritans?
-When and...

In Holy Misogyny, bible scholar April DeConick wants real answers to the questions that are rarely whispered from the pulpits of the contemporary Christian churches. Why is God male? Why are women associated with sin? Why can't women be priests? Drawing on her extensive knowledge of the early Christian literature, she seeks to understand the conflicts over sex and gender in the early church--what they were and what was at stake. She explains how these ancient conflicts have shaped contemporary Christianity and its promotion of male exclusivity and superiority in terms of God, church...

This volume brings together experts in the study of ancient prayers and divination methods to analyse the variety of means by which human beings sought to communicate with their gods and by which the gods were seen to communicate with their worshippers. In a departure from previous scholarship, the volume brings together the study of prophecy, as an intuitive form of divination, with the study of technical methods of communication and other forms of institutionalised communication such as prayer. Such a format allows divine-human communication to be studied in both directions...

This study is an examination of the principal ancient translations of Gen. 4.1-16 in the Hebrew Bible. The goal is to understand the translation techniques adopted by the translators, to what extent external influences may have affected their work, and how each version communicates its message through its literary form. In addition to the versional renderings of the Hebrew text, this inquiry also takes into account various ancient Jewish and Christian interpretations of the Cain narrative. The primary focus of the work is on the diverse exegetical tendencies of Hebrew Bible translation in...

The Characterization of the Assyrians in Isaiah is a literary analysis of every text in Isaiah in which the Assyrians explicitly or implicitly feature. In addition, a few texts regarded by dominant voices in scholarship as referring to the Assyrians are discussed. The general approach of this work is to assume a literary synchronic reading in order to appreciate the narrative artistry and meaning conveyed by the final form of the text and to establish a standard from which diachronic inquiry may proceed. Each chapter is a study in its own right, usually concentrating on a passage or...

This volume sheds light on how particular constructions of the 'Other'contributed to an ongoing process of defining what 'Israel' or an 'Israelite'was or was supposed to be in literature taken to be authoritative in the latePersian and Early Hellenistic periods. It asks, who is an insider and who anoutsider? Are boundaries permeable? Are there different ideas expressed withinindividual books? What about constructions of the (partial) 'Other' frominside, e.g., women, people whose body did not fit social constructions ofnormalness? It includes chapters dealing with theoretical issues and...

The New Testament writings allow only limited access to the interpretative traditions that lie beneath the claim that Jesus' resurrection took place according to Scripture.

This book investigates the underlying principles of scriptural arguments in relation to Jesus' resurrection and the unstated interpretative moves that govern the selection and combination of texts relating to it.

Novakovic's working hypothesis is that the Davidic tradition supplied the primary scriptural categories for the claim that Jesus was raised from the dead according to Scripture. This tradition was...

Kenneth Atkinson tells the exciting story of the nine decades of the Hasmonean rule of Judea (152 - 63 BCE) by going beyond the accounts of the Hasmoneans in Josephus in order to bring together new evidence to reconstruct how the Hasmonean family transformed their kingdom into a state that lasted until the arrival of the Romans.

Atkinson reconstructs the relationships between the Hasmonean state and the rulers of the Seleucid and the Ptolemaic Empires, the Itureans, the Nabateans, the Parthians, the Armenians, the Cappadocians, and the Roman Republic. He draws on a variety of...

Discover the world's all-time bestseller in an entirely new light

Ninety percent of Americans own a copy of the Bible, and while it's the most widely read book, it's also the least understood. Regardless of your religion, understanding the Bible brings much of Western art, literature, and...