Over 15 years in the making, an unprecedented one-volume reference work. Many of today's students and teachers of literature, lacking a familiarity with the Bible, are largely ignorant of how Biblical tradition has influenced and infused English literature through the centuries. An invaluable research tool. Contains nearly 800 encyclopedic articles written by a distinguished international roster of 190 contributors. Three detailed annotated bibliographies. Cross-references throughout.

The volume is a commentary on 1 Enoch chapters 91-108 that begins with the Ethiopic text tradition but also takes the Greek and Aramaic (Dead Sea Scrolls) evidence into account. This section of 1 Enoch, which contains material from at least five different documents composed some time during the 2nd century BCE, provides a window into the early stages of the reception of the earliest Enoch tradition, as it was being negotiated in relation to elitist religious opponents, on the one hand, and in relation to other Jewish traditions that were flourishing at the time. The commentary, at the beginning of which there is an extensive introduction, is structured in the following way: there is a translation for each unit of text (including the Greek and Aramaic where it exists, with the Greek and Ethiopic translations presented synoptically), followed by detailed textual notes that justify the translation and provide information on a full range of variations among the manuscripts. This, in turn, is followed by a General Comment on the unit of text; after this there are detailed notes on each subdivision of the text which attempt to situate the content within the stream of biblical interpretation and developing Jewish traditions of the Second Temple period. The five documents in 1 Enoch 91-108 are dealt with in the following order: (1) Apocalypse of Weeks (93:1-10; 91:11-17); (2) Admonition (91:1-10, 18-19); (3) Epistle of Enoch (92:1-5; 93:11-105:2; (4) Birth of Noah (106-107); and (5) the Eschatological Appendix (108).

Goy: Israel's Others and the Birth of the Gentile traces the development of the term and category of the goy from the Bible to rabbinic literature. Adi Ophir and Ishay Rosen-Zvi show that the category of the goy was born much later than scholars assume; in fact not before the first century CE. They explain that the abstract concept of the gentile first appeared in Paul's Letters. However, it was only in rabbinic literature that this category became the center of a stable and long standing structure that involved God, the Halakha, history, and salvation. The authors narrate this development through chronological analyses of the various biblical and post biblical texts (including the Dead Sea scrolls, the New Testament and early patristics, the Mishnah, and rabbinic Midrash) and synchronic analyses of several discursive structures. Looking at some of the goy's instantiations in contemporary Jewish culture in Israel and the United States, the study concludes with an examination of the extraordinary resilience of the Jew/goy division and asks how would Judaism look like without the gentile as its binary contrast.

In Reading and Re-reading Scripture at Qumran, Moshe J. Bernstein gathers more than three decades of his work on diverse aspects of biblical interpretation in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The essays range from broad surveys of the genres of biblical interpretation in these texts to more narrowly focused studies and close readings of specific documents. Volume I focuses on the book of Genesis, with a substantial portion being dedicated to studies of the Genesis Apocryphon and Commentary on Genesis A. Volume II contains several historical and programmatic essays, with specific studies focusing on legal material in the DSS and the pesharim. Under the former rubric, the documents known as 4QReworked Pentateuch, 4QOrdinancesa, 4QMMT, and the Temple Scroll are discussed.

David Creech explores at length the Apocryphon of John's ambivalent treatment of the Jewish and Christian scriptures. Although Moses is explicitly corrected at five points in the text, Genesis' account of creation is nonetheless the basis for the Apocryphon's cosmogony and anthropogony. Its uneven treatment of the biblical text is the result of a dispute between the authors of the Apocryphon and other early Catholics. At the earliest stage of the text the Christians who wrote and read the Apocryphon worshiped alongside other early catholic Christians without any sense of contradiction or inconsistency. The key shift in the Apocryphon occurred after Irenaeus of Lyons' assault on "Knowledge Falsely So-Called." In response to his concerted effort to bring the church under the authority of early catholic bishops, the framers inserted corrections to Moses. The corrections are primarily rhetorical and used to refute early catholic identity markers.

This package contains all four books of An Introduction to the Old Testament set: An Introduction to the Old Testament Historical Books, An Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books, An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophetic Books,and An Introduction to the Old Testament Pentateuch. In An Introduction to the Old Testament Historical Books, incredible events, amazing love stories, larger-than-life personalities and deep theological implications and themes are just part of the treasure that awaits readers. These books tell the story of the nation of Israel and the God who loves her, punishes her, and always brings this recalcitrant people back to Himself. In An Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books, C. Hassell Bullock, a noted Old Testament scholar, delves deep into the hearts of the five poetic books, offering readers helpful details such as hermeneutical considerations for each book, theological content and themes, detailed analysis of each book, and cultural perspectives. In An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophetic Books, C. Hassell Bullock presents a clear picture of some of history's most profound spokesmen--the Old Testament prophets--and the God who shaped them. Our generational distance from the age of the prophets might seem to be a measureless chasm. Yet we dare not make the mistake of assuming that passing years have rendered irrelevant not only the Old Testament prophets, but also the God who comprehends, spans, and transcends all time. In An Introduction to the Old Testament Pentateuch, Old Testament expert Herbert Wolf provides layreaders and scholars alike with a strong undergirding of understanding and knowledge in this introduction that reveals both the seriousness and excitement of the Pentateuch.

By borrowing from a wide range of disciplines such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, psychiatry, and the humanities, this book gives a more "human," personal voice to the many experiences of aging. The result is a new sort of social science research, one which often reads more like literature than social science. Indeed, the author uses a wide variety of techniques borrowed from the humanities, from hermeneutics to oral histories, in addition to the more traditional social science methods.

This study addresses the chief critical issues in the interpretation of 3 Baruch -- including text, genre, setting, function, literary integrity, and original authorship -- and offers a reading of the document as both a Jewish and a Christian text.