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This study focuses on Sennacherib's invasion of Judah in 701 BCE as an important case study on methodology in the history of Israel. The contributors to this volume examine the problem from a variety of points of view, with vigorous discussion about the correct way to evaluate the biblical text.

Edgar W. Conrad focuses on the prophetic books as composite collections and shows that: Prophets are characters in the text, depicted as figures of the past whose words are significant for a later time. Reading and writing play a central role in the depiction of prophets.

This study focuses on a reading of Proverbs 1-9 as satire via semiotics, which empowers a heightened, poetic sensitivity to multivalent textual signs. These include allusion to two points of critique against Solomon: (1) his political policy of socio-economic injustice and (2) his numerous sexual (in)discretions.

Takes a fresh look at "Nahum". This title explores further the presence of the feminine in the book of "Nahum", the extent to which it is present in the text, how the structure of the text makes the feminine both present and absent, and the possible reasons why this is so.

As recent scholarship dates Hebrew Bible materials later and later, the Deuteronomistic History has grown in importance. Viewed as the original, earliest document of the Hebrew Scriptures, it is credited with influencing (formally or informally) almost every level of the Hebrew Bible''s composition. The 13 essays in this book include articles by N. Lohfink, A.G. Auld, J. Blenkinsopp, R.J. Coggins, J. Crenshaw, J. Van Seters and R.R. Wilson, as well as outstanding articles by newer scholars in the field. All address the question of whether or not the claims made by the pervasive pan-deuteronomism movement sweeping the discipline can, in fact, be verified.

This text aims to illustrate that reading is a subjective process resulting in multivalent interpretations. Three representative biblical texts are chosen: from the Law (Genesis 2-3), the Writings (Isaiah 23) and the Prophets (Amos 5), and each is analysed by its historical and literary contents.

While most treatments of biblical metaphor examine individual metaphors in isolation, Sarah J. Dille presents a model for interpretation based on their interaction with one another.

This collection of essays written by biblical scholars from around the world attempts to probe the relationship between the Bible and the world. It reflects modern social, political and hermeneutical issues, including liberation concerns. These themes echo John Rogerson''s commitment to relate his research and the Bible to contemporary issues - a commitment visible both in his publications and in his religious and political activities. This book is an expression of appreciation of John Rogerson by former and current colleagues, former students, and other biblical scholars.

This major work examines the subject of Temple and Worship in biblical Israel, ranging from their ancient Near Eastern and archaeological background, through the Old Testament and Late Second Temple Judaism, and up to the New Testament. It is the product of an international team of twenty-three noted scholars.Special attention is paid to such subjects as the ideology of temples and the evidence for high places in Israel and the Canaanite world; the architecture and symbolism of Solomon's Temple; the attitude of various parts of the Old Testament to the Temple and cult, including that of several prophets; the light shed on Temple worship by the Psalms; the role and fate of the Ark of the Covenant; and the Day of Atonement. It also examines attitudes to the Temple in the Septuagint, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, first-century Judaism, and the New Testament. This important work is the product of an impressive array of twenty-three noted scholars. The contributors include John Barton, H.G.M. Williamson, John Day, Susan Gillingham, John Jarick, C.T.R. Hayward, Michael Knibb, George Brooke, Martin Goodman, Christopher Rowland and Larry Kreitzer.

Translated by J. Edward Crowley. This radical reconstruction of the origins of Judaism starts by observing that Josephus''s sources on the early history of Israel do not agree with the Bible and that the oldest rabbinic traditions show no sign of a biblical foundation. Another interesting question is raised by the Samaritan claim, at the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, that they had only recently received the Sabbath from the Jews. From such details, Nodet creates a comprehensive line of argument that reveals two major sources of Judaism, as symbolized in the subtitle of his work: Joshua was the one who established locally in writing a statute and a law at the Shechem assembly, while the Mishnah was the ultimate metamorphosis of traditions brought from Babylon and combined with Judaean influences.

The papers here deal with the history, chronology, geography, archaeology and epigraphy of ancient Israel and its setting in the Levant, and range from broad methodological discussions of historiography to focused analyses of individual texts or historical issues.

This collection of essays focuses on the book of Job, exploring the complex interplay of methodology and hermeneutics. There are two major parts: approaches that are primarily historical, recovering what the text "meant"; and those that are contextual, taking seriously the context of reading.

This study examines the significance of implied law in the Abraham narrative. It analyzes legal and juridical terminology in the text and provides a close reading of legal referents found in Genesis 18.16-20.18.

Assesses the multivocal quality of 2 Samuel 14 as a result of the many historical and social processes that formed the Hebrew Bible as a whole.

This two-part commentary argues that Chronicles, placed as it is among the ''historical books'' in the traditional Old Testament of the Christian church, is much misunderstood. Restored to its proper position as the final book in the canon as arranged in the order of the Hebrew Bible, it is rather to be understood as a work of theology essentially directed towards the future. The Chronicler begins his work with the problem facing the whole human race in Adam-the forfeiture of the ideal of perfect oneness with God''s purpose. He explores the possibility of the restoration of that ideal through Israel''s place at the centre of the world of the nations. This portrayal reaches its climax in an idealized presentation of the reign of Solomon, in which all the rulers of the earth, including most famously the Queen of Sheba, bring their tribute in acknowledgment of Israel''s status (Volume 1). As subsequent history only too clearly shows, however, the Chronicler argues (Volume 2), that Israel itself, through unfaithfulness to Torah, has forfeited its right to possession of its land and is cast adrift among these same nations of the world. But the Chronicler''s message is one of hope. By a radical transformation of the chronology of Israel''s past into theological terms, the generation whom the Chronicler addresses becomes the fiftieth since Adam. It is the generation to whom the jubilee of return to the land through a perfectly enabled obedience to Torah, and thus the restoration of the primal ideal of the human race, is announced.