Paul and the Gentile Problem provides a new explanation for the apostle Paul's statements about the Jewish law in his letters to the Romans and Galatians. Paul's arguments against circumcision and the law in Romans 2 and his reading of Genesis 15-21 in Galatians 4:21-31 belong within a stream of Jewish thinking which rejected the possibility that gentiles could undergo circumcision and adopt the Jewish law, thereby becoming Jews. Paul opposes this solution to the gentile problem because he thinks it misunderstands how essentially hopeless the gentile situation remains outside of Christ. The second part of the book moves from Paul's arguments against a gospel that requires gentiles to undergo circumcision and adoption of the Jewish law to his own positive account, based on his reading of the Abraham Narrative, of the way in which Israel's God relates to gentiles. Having received the Spirit (pneuma) of Christ, gentiles are incorporated into Christ, who is the singular seed of Abraham, and, therefore, become materially related to Abraham. But this solution raises a question: Why is it so important for Paul that gentiles become seed of Abraham? The argument of this book is that Paul believes that God had made certain promises to Abraham that only those who are his seed could enjoy and that these promises can be summarized as being empowered to live a moral life, inheriting the cosmos, and having the hope of an indestructible life.

This volume contains the five papers read at a Symposium held in Leiden on 10 December 1991, on the occasion of the centenary of Abraham Kuenen's death, together with four other articles. The introductory article gives a short biography of Kuenen, one article deals with his method, two concern his approach to the religion of ancient Israel, and the other six discuss the reception of his work on the Pentateuch and later developments in various countries. Together these articles highlight the significance of this great Old Testament scholar, and at the same time identify issues which continue to confront Old Testament research. Though the wide variety of new approaches to the Old Testament has contributed greatly to our understanding of it, it is clear that historical research has not been rendered obsolete or superfluous by it.

Series: Pericope, 3 Along with other contrbutions this volume brings together the papers read during the Second Pericope Meeting at the Rome, 2001 SBL conference. The Pericope series aims at making available the data on unit delimitation found in the ancient manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, the Peshitta and the Vulgate to Bible translators and exegetes and to evaluate these data for the benefit of biblical interpretation. It will contribute significantly to our understanding of the meaning of Scripture as it was written and understood in Antiquity. Contents M.C.A. Korpel, J.M. Oesch - Preface B. Becking - Petuhah and Setumah in Jeremiah 30-31 J. Cook - Unit Delimitation in the Book of Proverbs: In the Light of the Septuagint of Proverbs W.M. de Bruin - Interpreting Delimiters: The Complexity of Text Delimitation J.C. de Moor - The Structure of Micah 2:1-13: The Contribution of the Ancient Witnesses Th. Janz - A System of Unit Division from Byzantine Manuscripts of Ezra-Nehemiah K.D. Jenner, W.Th. van Peursen - Unit Delimitation and the Text of Ben Sira J.W. Olley - Paragraphing in the Greek Text of Ezekiel in P967: With Particular Reference to the Cologne Portion P. Sanders - The Colometric Layout of Psalms 1 to 14 in the Aleppo Codex J.C. de Moor - Workshop on Unit Delimitation: Micah 4:14-5:8

This volume is designed as a resource for using rhetorical criticism as a methodology for interpreting the Bible. Rhetorical criticism is treated in the broader context of the growing interest in the study of the literary character of the Bible. The volume is divided into two parts to accommodate both the Old and New Testaments. Each part begins with a discussion of the history and methodology of rhetorical criticism pertinent to that Testament. Here special emphasis is given to the current state and trends of the discipline and its impact on biblical interpretation. These discussions are followed by extensive bibliographies categorized to facilitate working with the published research on specific biblical texts, books, or categories of books.

The Peshitta is probably the earliest translation of the whole Old Testament into a Semitic idiom. It displays an impressive balance between fidelity to the structure and sense of the Hebrew original and sensitivity to the preferences of the receptor language. This book considers ten key topics in Syriac syntax and exhaustively considers their patterns as they occur in the Peshitta of 1 Kings. Old rules of grammar are refined, new rules formulated, and wider issues of translation method considered. This study is relevant to Syriac specialists, textual critics and biblical scholars alike. It argues that many features in the Peshitta that have previously been attributed to a translator's whim, or to a Vorlage varying from the Masoretic Text, are in fact determined by factors internal to Syriac.

The present volume was compiled as a respectful tribute to A.S. van der Woude and presented to him on the occasion of his 65th birthday, which coincided with his retirement as professor of Old Testament and Intertestamental Studies at the University of Groningen, a chair he held for more than thirty years. The title of this "Festschrift," "The Scriptures and the Scrolls," reflects the two fields of study to which he has devoted his scholarly life, not only by doing research himself, but also by stimulating many of his colleagues to collaborate in publications initiated by him. The contributions, a melange of studies covering the wide range of Van der Woude's interests, have been arranged according to the order: Hebrew Bible (following the sequence of the books), Apocrypha, Dead Sea Scrolls, and Rabbinic Tradition. From the Contents: E. Tov, '4QLevd (4Q26)' C.J. Labuschagne, ''You Shall not Boil a Kid in its Mother's Milk'. A New Proposal for the Origin of the Prohibition.' J.A. Emerton, 'The Translation of Isaiah 5,1.' J.T.A.G.M. van Ruiten, 'The Intertextual Relationship between Isa 11, 6-9 and Isa 65, 25.' W.A.M. Beuken, 'Isa 29, 15-24: Perversion Reverted.' W. McKane, 'Jeremiah 30, 1-3, Especially 'Israel.'' R.P. Carroll, 'Night without Vision. Micah and the Prophets.' C. van Leeuwen, 'The 'Northern One' in the Composition of Joel, 2, 19-27.' G. Wallis, A Note on Ps 45, 7a?.' M.J. Mulder, 'Does Canticles 6, 12 Make Sense?' B. Otzen, 'Michael and Gabriel. Angelological Problems in the Book of Daniel.' J.P.M. van der Ploeg, 'Some Remarks on a Newly Found Syriac Text of the Book of Judith.' A. Hilhorst, 'The Speech on Truth in 1 Esdras 4, 34-41.' P.R. Davies, 'Redaction and Sectarianismin the Qumran Scrolls.' M.A. Knibb, 'A Note on 4Q372 and 4Q390.' F. Garcia Martinez, 'The Last Surviving Columns of 11QNJ.' G. Stemberger, 'The Maccabees in Rabbinic Tradition.' J. Neusner, 'How the Bavli Shaped Rabbinic Discourse: The Case of Sifra.' J.W. Rogerson, 'Writing the History of Israel in the 17th and 18th Centuries.' F. Garcia Martinez, 'Bibliography of A.S. van der Woude.'

An expert in biblical interpretation explores "interpretive virtue" and examines five ways the Old Testament seeks to shape its readers.

The contributions to this volume reflect upon changing paradigms within biblical scholarship, and in how biblical scholarship is taught. Taken together, they offer a multifaceted and informative indication of how open-mindedness in one's approach can yield fascinating results across the study of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. The range in topic of the contributions is exemplified in the difference between the first chapter, which works from the personal anecdote of the changing opinion of its author to make a wider point about models for Pentateuchal formation, and the third chapter, which comments on the current state of the study of ancient Israel in universities today. Other contributions include; an essay on the subject of space as a social construct in Isaiah 24-27; civil courage and whether the Bible allows room for protest; the question of monotheism in Persian Judah; the historical Ezra, and the telling of the story of Joseph (Genesis 50: 15-21) in children's Bibles in the Netherlands. The contributors include Hugh Williamson, Ehud Ben Zvi, Rainer Albertz, Karel von der Toorn, and Christoph Uehlinger.

The field of biblical studies has championed the historical-critical method as the only way to guarantee objective interpretation. But in recent decades, women, people of color, scholars from the Two-Thirds World, and members of the the LGBTQIA+ community have pursued hermeneutical approaches that provide interpretations useful for marginalized communities who see the Bible as a resource in their struggles against oppression. Such liberative strategies remain at the margins of the field. The Liberation of Method argues that this marginality must end, and that liberative methods should become the central methods of biblical studies. The first part of the book draws upon the hermeneutics of philosophical pragmatism to argue that, because readers are responsible for the interpretation, there is no necessary connection between the meanings they produce and the ones ancient authors may have intended. As a result, the historical-critical method, which prioritizes the study of the ancient contexts of biblical writings, becomes an optional rather than a necessary aspect of interpretation. The second part of The Liberation of Method argues that if we truly hope to create an ethical academic field, more privileged scholars and students must see their minoritized colleagues as the leaders in the field, as models of the ethical liberative standards of interpretation.