In its examination of parenthesis in Biblical Hebrew, this book presents a linguistic description of Biblical Hebrew parenthetical units through integration of several research disciplines and scholarly approaches: linguistics, discourse studies, text linguistics, textual philology, comparative Semitics, Bible translations, and literature.

The pages of the Hebrew Bible are filled with stories - short and long, funny and sad, histories, fables, and morality tales. The ancient narrators used a variety of stylistic devices to structure, to connect, and to separate their tales - and thus to establish contexts within which meaning comes to light. What are these devices, and how do they guide our reading and our understanding of the text? Style and Structure in Biblical Hebrew Narrative explores some of the answers and shows scriptural interpretation can be a matter of style." Part one of Style and Structure in Biblical Hebrew Narrative examines a wide variety of symmetrical patterns biblical Hebrew narrative uses to organize its units and subunits, and the interpretive dynamics those patterns can imply. Part two addresses the question of boundaries between literary units. Part three examines devices that biblical Hebrew narrative uses to connect consecutive literary units and subunits. Chapters in Part One: Structures of Organization are "Reverse Symmetry," "Forward Symmetry," "Alternating Repetition," "Partial Symmetry," "Multiple Symmetry," "Asymmetry." Chapters in Part Two: Structures of Disjunction are "Narrative Components," "Repetition," and "Narrative Sequence." Chapters in Part Three: Structures of Conjunction are "Threads," "Links: Examples," "Linked Threads: Examples," "Hinges: Examples," and "Double-Duty Hinges: Examples." Jerome T. Walsh, PhD, is a professor of theology and religious studies at the University of Botswana. He is the author of 1 Kings in the Berit Olam (The Everlasting Covenant) Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry series for which he is also an associate editor. "

Sin, often defined as a violation of divine will, remains a crucial idea in contemporary moral and religious discourse. However, the apparent familiarity of the concept obscures its origins within the history of Western religious thought. Joseph Lam examines a watershed moment in the development of sin as an idea-namely, within the language and culture of ancient Israel-by examining the primary metaphors used for sin in the Hebrew Bible. Drawing from contemporary theoretical insights coming out of linguistics and philosophy of language, this book identifies four patterns of metaphor that pervade the biblical texts: sin as burden, sin as an account, sin as path or direction, and sin as stain or impurity. In exploring the permutations of these metaphors and their development within the biblical corpus, Patterns of Sin in the Hebrew Bible offers a compelling account of how a religious and theological concept emerges out of the everyday thought-world of ancient Israel, while breaking new ground in its approach to metaphor in ancient texts. Far from being a timeless, stable concept, sin becomes intelligible only when situated in the matrix of ancient Israelite culture. In other words, sin is not as simple as it might seem.

Many of the sayings in the biblical book of Proverbs are difficult to read in Hebrew, even for those who know this language well. A Proverb a Day in Biblical Hebrew is designed to help readers of all levels of Hebrew competence meditate on and understand the concise and sometimes enigmatic sayings found in the book of Proverbs. Each verse is presented on one page, which is marked with a day number (from 1 to 365) and a date (January 1 to December 31) so the book can be used as a daily reader or devotional. On each day's page, the verse for the day is divided into two halves, based on the fact that each of the proverbs in the book constitutes a poetic couplet consisting of two parts. After each poetic line, all the words it contains are laid out and glosses are provided. All verbs (including participles) are fully parsed. Finally, at the bottom of the page, an English translation of the verse from two pages earlier is provided. This allows readers who are struggling with the meaning of a given day's proverb, or those who wish to see one possible way it can be rendered, to flip the page and see a translation for it at the bottom of the next two-page spread. In this way, readers can choose to avail themselves of an "answer key" for any of the proverbs when they wish to, but they can also ignore this information (since it is located on the next two-page spread, there is no risk of accidentally seeing it while trying to puzzle through a proverb's meaning). A Proverb a Day in Biblical Hebrew helps readers who have studied Hebrew access the original text of a fascinating and well-loved portion of the Hebrew Bible. It offers readers a simultaneously academic and spiritual experience, walking them slowly and on a regular basis through difficult and enigmatic sayings that invite contemplative reading and sustained reflection.

Judah ben Joseph Moscato (c.1533–1590) was one of the most distinguished rabbis, authors, and preachers of the Italian-Jewish Renaissance. The book Sefer Nefuṣot Yehudah belongs to the very centre of his important homiletic and philosophical oeuvre. Composed in Mantua and published in Venice in 1589, the collection of 52 sermons addresses the subject of the Jewish festivals, focussing on philosophy, mysticism, sciences and rites. This and subsequent volumes will provide a critical edition of the original Hebrew text, accompanied by an English translation.

In this book, Jennifer Ring offers a wholly new interpretation of Hannah Arendt's work, from Eichmann in Jerusalem, with its bitter reception by the Jewish community, to The Life of the Mind. Departing from previous scholarship, Ring applies the perspectives of gender and ethnicity to investigate the extent to which Arendt's identity as a Jewish woman influenced both her thought and its reception. Ring's analysis of Zionist and assimilationist responses to century-old antisemitic sexual stereotypes leads her to argue that Arendt's criticism of European Jewish leadership during the Holocaust was bound to be explosive. New York and Israeli Jews shared a rare moment of unity in their condemnation of Arendt, charging that she had betrayed the Jewish community—the kind of charge, Ring contends, often leveled against women who dare to speak out publicly against prominent men in their own cultural or racial groups. The book moves from a feminist analysis of the Eichmann controversy to a discussion of Jewish themes in the structure and content of Arendt's major theoretical works. Ring makes a powerful contribution to an understanding of Arendt, and of multiculturalism, demonstrating that Arendt's most sustained philosophical work was influenced as much by her Jewish heritage as by her German education.

This book presents forty-two reflections on biblical names for God in an abecedarian (A through Z) format. The names, terms by which God is known, are not biblically exhaustive. These entries present spiritual reflections, grounded in Scripture, with Psalm responses, questions for meditation and/or journaling, and prayers designed to nourish spirituality at any time. Beginning with Abba, Alpha, and Ancient One, individual entries continue through the alphabet to Yahweh and Zion. By reflecting on forty-two biblical names for God, the reader comes to know better the Holy One, and, in so doing, is transformed.

Because there is no single word that translates the Hebrew word hesed and the Greek word eleos, multiple words are used in English biblical translations. Mercy is the most frequently used word in English, but forgiveness, generosity, pity, and others are also used. Using 106 biblical texts gathered from the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), the Old Testament Apocrypha, and the Christian Bible (New Testament), a representative sample of the various ways hesed and eleos are translated is presented in this book. Each entry consists of a short title, a few verses of Scripture, a reflection, a psalm response, a meditation/journal question, and a concluding prayer. The purpose of the book is to assist the reader’s development of spirituality, a deeper knowledge of divine mercy, meditation on how he or she has experienced it, and a closer relationship with God.

In History, Archaeology and the Bible Forty Years after "Historicity", Hjelm and Thompson argue that a ‘crisis’ broke in the 1970s, when several new studies of biblical history and archaeology were published, questioning the historical-critical method of biblical scholarship. The crisis formed the discourse of the Copenhagen school’s challenge of standing positions, which—together with new achievements in archaeological research—demand that the regional history of ancient Israel, Judaea and Palestine be reconsidered in all its detail. This volume examines the major changes that have taken place within the field of Old Testament studies since the ground breaking works of Thomas Thompson and John van Seters in 1974 and 1975 (both republished in 2014). The book is divided in three sections: changing perspectives in biblical studies, history and cult, and ideology and history, presenting new articles from some of the field’s best scholars with comprehensive discussion of historical, archaeological, anthropological, cultural and literary approaches to the Hebrew Bible and Palestine’s history. The essays question: "How does biblical history relate to the archaeological history of Israel and Palestine?" and "Can we view the history of the region independently of a biblical perspective?" by looking at the problem from alternative angles and questioning long-held interpretations. Unafraid to break new ground, History, Archaeology and the Bible Forty Years after "Historicity" is a vital resource to students in the field of Biblical and East Mediterranean Studies, and anyone with an interest in the archaeology, history and religious development in Palestine and the ancient Near East.