This book examines the way in which the story of the flood in Genesis 6-9 presents the ethical question of the value of human life. The sources J and P are examined to see how their combination in the canonical text enhances interpretation. Several themes of the story are studied including the causes of the flood, the righteousness of Noah, God's repentance, creation and uncreation, the covenant and the image of God. The work concludes by arguing that the value of human life is found in man's relation to God (Gen. 9:6).

This monograph deals with an important but unexplored document of Hellenistic Judaism. The question of "Hellenistic influence" is addressed on the basis of an analysis of a representative number of chapters of Septuagint Proverbs (1, 2, 6, 8, 9, 24, 29, 30 and 31). Scholars have argued that this book was influenced extensively by Greek philosophy. The author follows a contextual cultural method. The Greek text is analysed on four levels: the semantic, syntactical, stylistic (which represents the translation technique of the translator), and finally the "theological" level. This study represents the first exhaustive analysis of the theme. The conclusion is that the impact of Stoicism on this Greek version has been overestimated in the past. Novel views are also formulated concerning the role of the law in LXX Proverbs, its historical setting and its text-critical value.

This volume of thirty articles covering a wide range of subjects related to Old Testament study is written by colleagues, friends and students of A. Graeme Auld to honour the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday.

This volume contains thirty-eight studies devoted to the Septuagint written by an internationally recognised expert on that version and its relation the Hebrew Bible. The author's experience on these topics is based on more that three decades of work within the Hebrew University Bible Project, the Computer Assisted Tools for Septuagint Studies project, and annual courses on the Septuagint given at the Hebrew University. These studies, originally published between 1971 and 1997, deal with the following subjects: general topics, lexicography, translation technique and exegesis, the Septuagint and textual and literary criticism of the Hebrew Bible, and the revisions of the Septuagint. All the studies included in this monograph have been revised, expanded, or shortened, in some cases considerably, and they integrate studies which appeared subsequent to the original monographs.

This monograph deals with the problem of the text-historical relation between two versions of the Solomon Narrative: the Hebrew version preserved in the Masoretic Text of the book of Kings and the Greek version handed down in the Septuaginta of 3 Regum. Over the years, text critics have taken divergent approaches to this complex issue. This study reviews and evaluates their arguments. It does so on the basis of an independent analysis of the main differences between the two versions. The contents of this book are relevant for everyone interested in the composition and textual history of the book of Kings.

The marzēaḥ existed for 3000 years in the Semitic world, but is only mentioned in the First Testament at Amos 6:7 and Jer 16:5. Other prophetic texts have been proposed as allusions that do not use the term, but without using any consistent criteria. This study analyzes those allusions in light of the extra-biblical references. The extra-biblical marzēaḥ references indicate three consistent features: upper-class drinking within a religious context. These elements provide the minimum criteria for evaluating possible allusions in the books of Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Ezekiel, plus the direct references at Amos 6:7 and Jeremiah 16:5. Combining all known references with the biblical allusions provides a single point of reference for future work on the marzēaḥ. This volume will be of special value to those interested in ancient Semitic religion.

The observation of the Jubilee Year 2000 by many Christian groups worldwide generated renewed interest in the theological, historical, and socio-economic aspects of the biblical jubilee. This book begins with an analysis of the historical origins of the jubilee institution in ancient Israel, and then traces the reinterpretation of the jubilee and the text of Leviticus 25 through the Old Testament, the Second Temple literature, and the Qumran documents. It demonstrates that, with the passage of time, the socio-economic implementation of the jubilee is increasingly de-emphasized in favor of an eschatological interpretation, in which the jubilee itself functions as a type of the final age, and cycles of jubilee years are employed to calculate when this age will arrive.

This study seeks to argue that Job 28 is an integral part of the book as it stands, and that it is Job's speech. Job 28 serves a special rhetorical function within the book, and more specifically within chapters 22-31. This work provides a significant interpretative key to Job 28 within the most perplexing section of the book (Job 22-31). Job 28 is in contradictory juxtaposition with other sayings of Job. However, this study argues that such contradictory juxtaposition is a feature of Job's speeches in chapters 22-31, and is part of the author's strategy to make a rhetorical impact upon the audience.

In this book the author attempts to unravel the original narratives which underlie the biblical Book of Esther. She reconstructs the contents of three non-Jewish narratives: A wedding story, in which the foreign beauty (Esther) takes the place of the disobedient queen, and two court narratives, telling the story of the rivalry between two courtiers at the Persian court. In exilic and postexilic times these basic narratives were merged into one topical and literarily well developed narrative, which expressed the problems connected with Jewish life in the diaspora. The author shows that this text has been redactionally revised once more, in an attempt to adjust Palestinian Judaism to the Jewish communities that flourished in the diaspora. This redaction bears the hallmarks of Judaism’s clash with Hellenised political forces; Purim emerges as a succesful defense.