In this guest-edited issue of Biblical Reception, edited by Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, contributors examine the reception of the bible in art. Most of the contributions focus on biblical women, or on encounters with women in the bible. The volume is roughly chronological in structure, beginning with two pieces on Eve, one of which compares representations of Eve with those of the Virgin Mary, the other which considers how Eve is presented in Islamic texts and images. Following a contribution on Esther and Sarah the volume moves on to consider New Testament texts, with notable focus on women at the peripheries of society (the woman with the hemorrhage in Mark's gospel and the woman of Samaria). Attention is also paid to representations of Mary Magdalene and of Judith and Salome. The volume concludes with a piece on apocalyptic imagery and the woman clothed with the sun of Revelation 12. Featuring over 50 high quality color images, this volume provides scholarship of the highest level on biblical art.

In recent decades, reception history has become an increasingly important and controversial topic of discussion in biblical studies. Rather than attempting to recover the original meaning of biblical texts, reception history focuses on exploring the history of interpretation. In doing so it locates the dominant historical-critical scholarly paradigm within the history of interpretation, rather than over and above it. At the same time, the breadth of material and hermeneutical issues that reception history engages with questions any narrow understanding of the history of the Bible and its effects on faith communities. The challenge that reception history faces is to explore tradition without either reducing its meaning to what faith communities think is important, or merely offering anthologies of interesting historical interpretations. This major new handbook addresses these matters by presenting reception history as an enterprise (not a method) that questions and understands tradition afresh. The Oxford Handbook of the Reception History of the Bible consciously allows for the interplay of the traditional and the new through a two-part structure. Part I comprises a set of essays surveying the outline, form, and content of twelve key biblical books that have been influential in the history of interpretation. Part II offers a series of in-depth case studies of the interpretation of particular key biblical passages or books with due regard for the specificity of their social, cultural or aesthetic context. These case studies span two millennia of interpretation by readers with widely differing perspectives. Some are at the level of a group response (from Gnostic readings of Genesis, to Post-Holocaust Jewish interpretations of Job); others examine individual approaches to texts (such as Augustine and Pelagius on Romans, or Gandhi on the Sermon on the Mount). Several chapters examine historical moments, such as the 1860 debate over Genesis and evolution, while others look to wider themes such as non-violence or millenarianism. Further chapters study in detail the works of popular figures who have used the Bible to provide inspiration for their creativity, from Dante and Handel, to Bob Dylan and Dan Brown.

The volume is a Festschrift offered to Charles Kannengiesser on the occasion of his 80th birthday and honours him for his numerous scholarly accomplishments. Its twenty-five contributions discuss some of the major issues pertaining to the reception and interpretation of the Bible in late antique Christianity and Judaism. They focus on the ways in which communities and individuals understood the Bible and interpreted its traditions to address their historical, social, and theological requirements. Since the Bible was by far the most important book during these centuries, a discussion of its influence in such contexts will illuminate significant aspects of the formation of western civilisation.

This first volume of a two-volume Handbook treats a challenging, largely neglected subject at the crossroads of several academic fields: biblical studies, reception history of the Bible, and folklore studies or folkloristics. The Handbook examines the reception of the Bible in verbal folklores of different cultures around the globe. This first volume, complete with a general Introduction, focuses on biblically-derived characters, tales, motifs, and other elements in Jewish (Mizrahi, Sephardi, Ashkenazi), Romance (French, Romanian), German, Nordic/Scandinavian, British, Irish, Slavic (East, West, South), and Islamic folkloric traditions. The volume contributes to the understanding of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, the New Testament, and various pseudepigraphic and apocryphal scriptures, and to their interpretation and elaboration by folk commentators of different faiths. The book also illuminates the development, artistry, and “migration” of folktales; opens new areas for investigation in the reception history of the Bible; and offers insights into the popular dimensions of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities around the globe, especially regarding how the holy scriptures have informed those communities’ popular imaginations.

Biblische Frauen spielen eine bedeutende Rolle in verschiedenen Genres patristischen Schrifttums und in rabbinischen Texten: Etwa als Vorbilder für Frauen, manchmal auch für Männer, als Repräsentantinnen bestimmter Tugenden oder Laster, als Autoritäten in Streitfragen, als Ausgangspunkt für bestimmte Praktiken. Die Bilder, die die (fast immer männlichen) Autoren von den biblischen Frauen zeichnen, spiegeln stets den zeitgenössischen sozialen, kulturellen und religiösen Kontext wider, besonders im Hinblick auf weit verbreitete antike Vorstellungen über Frauen und über das Verhältnis der Geschlechter zueinander. Der Sammelband fragt nach der Präsenz und Sichtbarkeit bzw. Hörbarkeit und nach dem Bild biblischer Frauen in den spätantiken Texten. Er enthält Beiträge zu Rahab, zur ägyptischen Frau des Salomo, zur Geliebten des Hoheliedes, zu Judit, den vier Töchtern des Philippus und den Myrophoren der Evangelien, die Salben zu Jesu Grab bringen, und untersucht die Rezeption dieser biblischen Frauen in verschiedenen patristischen und rabbinischen Texten.

Drawing on the work of leading figures in biblical, religious, historical, and cultural studies in Ireland and beyond, this volume explores the reception of the Bible in Ireland, focusing on the social and cultural dimensions of such use of the Bible. This includes the transmission of the Bible, the Bible and identity formation, engagement beyond Ireland, and cultural and artistic appropriation of the Bible. The chapters collected here are particularly useful and insightful for those researching the use and reception of the Bible, as well as those with broader interests in social and cultural dimensions of Irish history and Irish studies. The chapters challenge the perception in the minds of many that the Bible is a static book with a fixed place in the world that can be relegated to ecclesial contexts and perhaps academic study. Rather, as this book shows, the role of the Bible in the world is much more complex. Nowhere is this clearer than in Ireland, with its rich and complex religious, cultural, and social history. This volume examines these very issues, highlighting the varied ways in which the Bible has impacted Irish life and society, as well as the ways in which the cultural specificity of Ireland has impacted the use and development of the Bible both in Ireland and further afield.

The central theme of the book is the relationship between a hero or cultural icon and the cultures in which he or she is venerated. On one hand, a hero cannot remain a static character if he or she is to appeal to diverse and dynamic communities. On the other hand, a traditional icon should retain some basic features in order to remain recognizable. Joshua son of Nun is an iconic figure of Israelite cultural memory described at length in the Hebrew Bible and venerated in numerous religious traditions. This book uses Joshua as a test case. It tackles reception and redaction history, focusing on the use and development of Joshua’s character and the deployment of his various images in the narratives and texts of several religious traditions. I look for continuities and discontinuities between traditions, as well as cross-pollination and polemic. The first two chapters look at Joshua’s portrayal in biblical literature, using both synchronic (literary analysis) as well as diachronic (Überlieferungsgeschichte and redaction/source criticism) methodologies. The other four chapters focus on the reception history of Joshua in Second Temple and Hellenistic Jewish literature, in the medieval (Arabic) Samaritan Book of Joshua, in the New Testament and Church Fathers, and in Rabbinic literature.

In this volume, Karol Piotr Kulpa offers a coherent analysis of the reception of 2 Thess. 2:3-12 by Tyconius in his Liber Regularum and his reconstructed Expositio Apocalypseos . The author proposes and applies his own method for a reception history composed of historical, literary, and theological levels, which is constructive as well as analytical. In this way he writes a history of reception that not only finds its anchor in the past, but also builds bridges to theological questions of the present. In particular, the author identifies that motifs of homo peccati , mysterium facinoris , and discessio drawn from 2 Thess. 2:3 and 2:7 become Tyconius' "world-constructing verses" in his understanding of Scripture, and of the bipartition in the church's reality, in human nature, and in eschatological temporality. As a result, he offers a refreshingly 'ecumenical' reading of Tyconius, refusing to reduce his significance to that of a 'heretical voice' but re-envisaging him as a potentially authoritative theologian and exegete.

The study of the reciprocal relationship between the Bible and popular culture has blossomed in the past few decades, and the time seems ripe for a broadly-conceived work that assesses the current state of the field, offers examples of work in that field, and suggests future directions for further study. This Handbook includes a wide range of topics organized under several broad themes, including biblical characters (such as Adam, Eve, David and Jesus) and themes (like Creation, Hell, and Apocalyptic) in popular culture; the Bible in popular cultural genres (for example, film, comics, and Jazz); and "lived" examples (such as museums and theme parks). The Handbook concludes with a section taking stock of methodologies and the impact of the field on teaching and publishing. The Oxford Handbook of the Bible and American Popular Culture represents a major contribution to the field by some of its leading practitioners, and will be a key resource for the future development of the study of both the Bible and its role in American popular culture.

Art as Biblical Commentary is not just about biblical art but, more importantly, about biblical exegesis and the contributions visual criticism as an exegetical tool can make to biblical exegesis and commentary. Using a range of texts and numerous images, J. Cheryl Exum asks what works of art can teach us about the biblical text. 'Visual criticism' is her term for an approach that addresses this question by focusing on the narrativity of images-reading them as if, like texts, they have a story to tell-and asking what light an image's 'story' can shed on the biblical narrator's story. In Part I, Exum elaborates on her approach and offers a personal testimony to the value of visual criticism. Part 2 examines in detail the story of Hagar in Genesis 16 and 21. Part 3 contains chapters on erotic looking and voyeuristic gazing in the stories of Bathsheba, Susanna, Joseph and Potiphar's wife and the Song of Songs; on the distribution of renown among Jael, Deborah and Barak; on the Bible's notorious women, Eve and Delilah; and on the sacrificed female body in the stories of the Levite's wife (Judges 19) and Mary the mother of Jesus.