An upper-level introduction to the Old Testament that offers students a thorough understanding of three key issues: historical background, literary analysis, and theological message. This second edition of An Introduction to the Old Testament integrates recent developments in Old Testament scholarship. It has many distinctive features that set it apart from other introductions to the Old Testament: It's committed to a theologically evangelical perspective. Emphasizes "special introduction"—the study of individual books. Interacts in an irenic spirit with the historical-critical method. Features points of research history and representative scholars rather than an exhaustive treatment of past scholarship. Deals with the meaning of each book, not in isolation but in a canonical context. Probes the meaning of each book in the setting of its culture. Including callouts, charts, and graphs, An Introduction to the Old Testament is written with an eye to understanding the nature of Old Testament historiography. Perfect for seminary students, professors, and Bible teachers and ministry leaders, as well as anyone looking for an in-depth and balanced approach to Old Testament study.

Festschrift in honor of Arie de Kuiper, a Dutch theologian in Indonesia.

This book offers two things in particular: first, these are papers that have been commented on and re-worked in the context of a set of lively sessions from (International) SBL conferences from 2012 to 2014 (Amsterdam, St. Andrews, Vienna). Second, they offer an insight into the origins of the discipline as one which became conscious of itself in the early modern era and the turn to history and the analysis of texts, to offer something exegetical and synthetic. The fresh wind that the enterprise received in the latter part of the twentieth century is the focus of the second part of the volume, which describes the recent activity up to the present "state of the question." The third part takes a step further to anticipate the way forward for the discipline in an era where "canon"--but also "Scripture" and "theology"--seem to be alien terms, and where other ideologies are advanced in the name of neutrality. Biblical Theology will aim to be true to the evidence of the text: it will not always see clearly, but it will rely on the best of biblical criticism and theological discernment to help it. That is the spirit with which this present volume is imbued.

A journey in Christian theology through biblical, historical, and thematic perspectives, with special attention to the context of today's world.

In this, the first overview of biblical theology in nearly thirty years, James K. Mead addresses the core issues of biblical theology essential to both Old Testament and New Testament study. Can we draw theological principles from Scripture? What methods will give useful results for theological exploration of biblical texts? Aptly synthesizing classic and recent scholarship while asserting his own theological findings, Mead provides an excellent overview of the history of biblical theology and a thorough examination of its basic issues, methods, and themes.

Dr. Jeon's Biblical Theology is a timely must-read for church leaders, seminarians, pastors, and missionaries in the Global Mission Field. It examines God's redemptive history in creation, fall, redemption, and consummation as revealed in the Old and New Testaments. Dr. Jeon delves into the grand redemptive drama, progressively demonstrated through the divine covenants, as well as the manifestation of the eschatological Kingdom of God. This book provides not only a proper redemptive historical vision of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation but also key ideas for the formation of a solid biblical worldview. Dr. Jeon demonstrates the intersection and union between biblical and systematic theology while exploring redemptive history. Dr. Jeon also emphasizes that we currently live in the eschatological age, inaugurated after Jesus Christ's death and resurrection as the Mediator of the New Covenant. This inaugurated eschatological Kingdom of God will be consummated after the Second Coming of Jesus. Meanwhile, the present age is occurring during the last days, in which we live in the era of Global Missions by God's grace. The community of the New Covenant church should humbly respond by participating in evangelism and missions, demonstrating to the world that God's final judgment is coming.

Ancient cultures, such as that of the Hebrews, commonly associated wisdom with advanced years. In A Biblical Theology of Gerassapience the author investigates the validity of this correlation through an eclectic approach - including linguistic semantic, tradition-historical, and socio-anthropological methods - to pertinent biblical and extra-biblical texts. There are significant variations in the estimation of gerassapience (or «old-age wisdom») in each period of ancient Israel's life - that is, in pre-monarchical, monarchical, and post-monarchical Israel. Throughout this study, appropriate cross-cultural parallels are drawn from the cultures of ancient Israel's neighbors and of modern societies, such as the West African Yoruba tribe. The overall results are bi-dimensional. On the one hand, there are semantic elements of gerassapience, such as the elusiveness of «wisdom» and the mild fluidity of «old age». Both terms have strong contextual affinity with minimal exceptions. Thus, the attribution of wisdom to old age is evident but not absolute in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). On the other hand, gerassapience is depicted as primarily didactic, through direct and indirect instructions and counsels of the elderly, fostering the saging fear-of-Yahweh legacies. On the whole, socio-anthropocentric tendencies of gerassapience (that is, of making old age a repertoire of wisdom) are checked by theological warrants of theosapience (Yahwistic wisdom). Therefore, in the Hebrew Bible, the fear of Yahweh is also the beginning of growing old and wise.

Paul R. House provides a comprehensive theology of the Old Testament, carefully exploring each Old Testament book, thematically summarizing its content, and showing its theological significance within the whole of the Old Testament canon. Student friendly and useful to a wide audience, this impressive work has proved a profitable read for many.

Provides a detailed exegetically based study of Biblical theology, showing the canonical basis for later historical, systematic, and dogmatic theologies.

Reading Heikki Räisänen’s hermeneutics in context, Timo Eskola explores the development of Western New Testament interpretation. Reclaiming a Wredean approach to the Scriptures, Räisänen focuses on tradition and interpretation. He builds on Weberian sociology, adopted through Peter Berger’s theories, and substitutes sacralized culturalism for biblical theology. After examining fourteenth century Quran-criticism and its impact on Reimarus, Eskola discusses the genesis of the revised history-of-religion theory that Räisänen developed when investigating the Quran’s relationship to the Bible. Sociology then becomes a link between standard historicism and poststructuralism as Räisänen reinterprets Berger’s sociology of knowledge. Räisänen’s sacralized culturalism finally becomes the theory from which his magnum opus The Rise of Christian Beliefs has been written.