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In this rich and elegantly presented interdisciplinary study, the theme is the impact of iron technology on the material and cultural life of ancient Israel. The author argues that iron itself and the processes of ironworking functioned as dominant cultural symbols, conveying meanings about significant transformations that established Israel''s social and religious identity. This wide-ranging monograph is particularly valuable for its integration of material about ironworking in traditional African societies, anthropological theories on symbolism and archaeological information on the development of iron technology in the Near East.

Daniel 2-7 are noteworthy chapters in the Bible, partly because they are in Aramaic rather than Hebrew and partly because the early Greek translation of those chapters, known to us as the Septuagint, is quite different from the Aramaic text that we have. This book highlights and analyzes the differences by exploring the effectiveness of each version as a piece of narrative. A new appreciation of the craft of the Aramaic narrative is one result. Another is an enhanced understanding of how biblical narrative handles symbolism. Through this study the reader also gains insight into differing circles of wisdom in Persian times, each giving rise to a textual tradition still accessible to us.

Into the Hands of the Living God is Lyle Eslinger''s second study of Deuteronomistic literature. This book is devoted to studies of key texts (Joshua 1-9; Judges 1-2; 1 Samuel 12; 1 Kings 8; 2 Kings 17) or concepts (the success/failure of the conquest; the exile and theodicy) in these narratives. Eslinger''s readings are unorthodox and challenging, both for readers from the communities of faith and for critical scholarship. The Deuteronomistic narratives are here shown to be far from being a vindication of the ways of God at Israel''s expense. Rather, in these narratives God, no less than Israel''s leaders, has his hands soiled in the machinations that end in Babylon. What the Deuteronomistic history offers is, rather, dispassionate analysis of the problems, some unavoidable, that predetermined the failure of the covenant relationship. The collection of carefully worked out close readings of the biblical text in this volume provides a new critical vantage point from which one can reassess conventional historical-critical readings of these colourful books.

A reader-oriented approach provides a substantially new angle of vision on Psalm 18 and Psalms study in general. Reader-based interpretation is compared to conventional methodologies by means of four separate analyses of Psalm 18: a textual study, a form-critical explication, a rhetorical study, and an experimental reader-oriented study involving the following strategies. Initially, the components of the text are considered as networks of signals for the reader. Secondly, the text''s speech acts are isolated and typified. Thirdly, the ancient and contemporary contexts for the reading of the psalm are examined. The reader-oriented study culminates in two perspectives upon Psalm 18. The psalm may be read as a ritual speech act performed by the community of ancient worshippers, or as a lyric poem that each contemporary reader experiences by identification with the speaker. The concluding chapter reviews each of the methodologies, evaluating strengths and weaknesses, as well as interrelationships among methods.

This tribute to Albert Pietersma of the University of Toronto is offered by a highly distinguished international panel of scholars, including John W. Wevers, Takamitsu Muraoka, Anneli Aejmelaeus, Emanuel Tov, Johan Lust, Robert A. Kraft, Johann Cook, Arie van der Kooij, Moises Silva and Claude E. Cox. The focus of the volume is on the Old Greek Psalter and its significance for biblical research and related disciplines, where it marks a definitive statement of research questions and issues in this increasingly important area of biblical textual studies.

Nahum Sarna''s distinctive and original scholarship has taken in a wide range of subject areas from work on Genesis and the Psalms to his Jewish Bible commentary and the English translation of the Ketuvim. At first Assistant Professor of Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in the 1950s, he was Dora Golding Professor of Bible at Brandeis University from 1965 to his retirement. This collection of 22 essays reflects Professor Sarna''s breadth of interests, with contributions from the late Gershon Cohen on the Hebrew Crusade Chronicle and the Ashkenazic tradition; Judah Goldin on Reuben; Moshe Greenberg and Jonas Greenfield on the work of the Jewish Publication Society''s Ketuvim translators; and Shemaryahu Talmon on fragments of a Psalms scroll from Masada.

Old Testament prophecy and wisdom are two of the main themes with which Norman Whybray, formerly of the University of Hull, has concerned himself in his highly productive and innovative scholarly career. In honour of his seventieth birthday,a distinguished international group of scholars have expressed their personal and professional admiration for him with essays that Are particularly rich And significant. The roll-call of contributors reads: Brenner, Brueggemann, Cazelles, Clements, Clines, Coggins, Crenshaw, Eaton, Gelston, Gordon, Goulder, Grabbe, Jeppersen, Knibb, Mayes, Mettinger, Soggin and Williamson.

Narrative, rhetorical, ideological and sociological methods reveal an intricately related set of meanings in 2 Kings 11-12.

Drawing on ancient rhetorical principles, this work brings a novel approach to the exploration of the literary dynamics of the books of Chronicles. Contrary to those who have viewed the Chronicler as ploddy and dull, Duke maintains that the Chronicler understood the historiographical demands of his day. Utilizing traditions, genealogical material, speeches of authoritative characters and paradigmatic portrayal of events and characters, and moving from a cautious inductive presentation of his thesis to a more propositional form of argumentation, the Chronicler retold the story of Israel with skill and artistry.

The introduction, translation and commentary on the Temple Scroll by Johann Maier has been thoroughly revised and updated by the author for its English edition, taking account of improvements in readings, and, among other recent secondary literature, the English translation of Yadin''s edition, to which cross-references are given. Students of Second Temple Judaism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls in particular, will at last have a convenient English edition of this most important document from Qumran.

This work is a cross-disciplinary study of Israel''s first ''capital city'' from topographical, archaeological, historical, and literary perspectives. Challenging William F. Albright''s claim that the ancient city is to be identified with Tell el-Ful, the book develops the case for a location instead at modern Jeba, 9 km north-east of Jerusalem, a site-change that bears important consequences for several scholarly theories relating to Gibeah. Among these are the inquest into the historicity and literary composition of the story of the ''Outrage of Gibeah'' (Judg. 19-21) and the origins and nature of Saul''s kingship (1 Sam. 9-15). Both of these texts are treated thoroughly as preparation for a concluding investigation into the meaning of the prophet Hosea''s references to Israel''s sins ''in the days of Gibeah''.

A rich collection of essays by twenty-eight of Professor G W Anderson''s students, colleagues and successors in Edinburgh, and associates at home and abroad in the worl of Hebrew and Biblical Studies presented in the year of his 80th birthday

The author analyses the various conversations that occur between the characters in the Jonah narrative and the ''conversation'' that occurs between the text and its readers. The study opens with an introduction to the field of conversation analysis, with a focus on one feature of conversation analysis-that a fundamental structure in the organization of language is adjacency pairs (for example, question/answer and invitation/refusal). Person notes how complex the adjacency pairs in the Jonah narrative are, and shows how they contribute to the narrative elements of plot, characterization, atmosphere and tone. He then refines reader-response theory (especially that of Wolfgang Iser) and provides a reader-response commentary on the book. The study ends with an analysis of the history of the interpretation of the book of Jonah, demonstrating how the structures of adjacency pairs in the narrative have been successfully and unsuccessfully interpreted.

This synthetic study has two primary tasks. The first is to elucidate the structure of the book of Zechariah. But in order to do this, a satisfactory method of analysis must be found. Thus the author begins by drawing up suitable literary criteria that will help to frame a reliable way of proceeding. The method is then tested on the book of Zechariah, and the results are compared with those of other biblical scholarship. Although this is a study in ''rhetorical criticism'', it approaches the text from the standpoint of the authors'' and redactors'' intentions. The result is a convincing and wide-ranging analysis of the various and complex structural patterns of Zechariah.

This collection of essays in honour of Professor Robert Davidson celebrates a number of notable achievements of this outstanding Scottish churchman and scholar. It is published for the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday, but it also marks his retirement from full-time university teaching and nods in the direction of his having been the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (1990-91). The guiding principle governing this collection of essays is the notion of the Bible as the generator of other texts and cultural productions. The contributors are drawn from Davidson''s wide range of colleagues and former students and focus on many different aspects of this generative force within the Bible itself and in materials related to it. Contributors include A.G. Auld, J.M.G. Barclay, E. Best, J.C.L. Gibson, W. Johnstone, H.A. McKay, J.K. Riches, and the editor, among others.

At the Images of Empire colloquium held in Sheffield in 1990, an international team of scholars met to explore some of the conflicting images generated by the Roman Empire. The articles reflect interests as diverse as those of the scholars themselves: Roman history and archaeology, Jewish Studies, Dead Sea Scrolls, New Testament and Patristics are all represented. All are focused on a single theme, the importance of which is increasingly recognized, not only for the historian, but for everyone interested in the political complexities of our post-imperial world.

The myths of Genesis are the foundation for hundreds of texts written at later diachronically distinct and datable periods. Seven texts-Genesis itself, Genesis Rabbah, Pirke deRabbi Eliezer and mediaeval compilations-are examined here, with five interrelated questions in focus: Can structuralist theory be applied usefully to societies conscious of history and change? What is the relationship between continuity and trasformation as a mythological tradition develops diachronically? What role does diachronic development within a myth play in relation to its underlying structure? What is the synchronic structure of Israelite (or rather, biblical) myth? Are there identifiable patterns of transformation and continuity between biblical myth and the three diachronically distinct levels of rabbinic myth?

This is a volume of tributes and essays in memory of G

During the last decade or so there has been a renewed interest in the study of cult and priesthood. The various individuals who have contributed essays to this volume are of both junior and senior rank and from both Christian and Jewish backgrounds. Certain essays represent the fruitful interchange that is now developing among historians of religion, anthropologists and biblical scholars. Others focus on parallels between aspects of Israelite religion and their counterparts in Canaanite and early Greek contexts. There are also contributions on the literary shape of the priestly law-code.

Louis Jacobs has made a formidable contribution to Jewish scholarship over the last 40 years. In addition he has inspired a generation of students of Judaica as well as members of his own congregation at the New London Synagogue. The contributors to this volume in his honour include a wide range of distinguished scholars. Beginning with Jacob Neusner''s essay on the transformation of the Dual Torah in the first four centuries CE, the volume ranges over a variety of topics in the field of Bible, Talmud, history and theology, mirroring the wide range of Louis Jacobs'' own interests. In addition, a full bibliography of Louis Jacobs'' publications is included.

This book, an anthology of previously published writing about Michal together with some new and original essays, is something of an experiment. Its purpose is to provide reders with raw materials for developing their own reading of the Michal story. It does not offer a unified portrait of this biblical character, but rather invites readers to form their own assessment interactively with these readings of the Michal story. At the same time, this book presents some systematic guidance for coping with these divergent interpretations of the complex and tantalizing figure of Michal.

A Biblical Itinerary is dedicated to George Coats, former Professor of Old Testament at Lexington Theological Seminary, Kentucky and author of Rebellion in the Wilderness, From Canaan to Egypt, and Moses: Heroic Man, Man of God, and other books. The essays collected here, reflecting many of George Coats''s interests, include ''Structure and Meaning in the Sinai-Horeb Narrative'' (Joseph Blenkinsopp), ''Biblical and Early Islamic Moses'' (Malcolm Clark), ''What Does the Bible Say? A Question of Text and Canon'' (David Gunn), ''On the Task of Old Testament Theology'' (Rolf Knierim); ''Scripture and the Formation of Christian Identity'' (Roy Melugin); ''Some Reflections on the Canonical Moses: Moses and Abraham'' (Rolf Rendtorff), and other papers by Trent Butler, Eugene Carpenter, James Crenshaw, John Roffey, Lawson Stone, Gene Tucker and John Van Seters.

This provocative book combines literary and historical methods to examine the phenomenon of the ''forsaken firstborn'' in Genesis. The dignity of the firstborn sons of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph-Ishmael, Esau, Reuben and Manasseh-is disregarded in the narrative and the rights inherent in their status are taken from them and conferred on a younger brother. One might easily compare this with the motif in many folktales of the youngest son outdoing his elder brothers in cleverness and skill. But unlike the folklore motif, in the book of Genesis the younger brother''s success is not due to any courageous deed or heroic feat on his own part. Instead the displacement of the elder by the younger is usually the result of somebody else''s initiative and achievement.

Noegel here examines instances of Janus parallelism in the Hebrew Bible with particular attention to the book of Job, and with excursuses on the device in other ancient Near Esatern literatures. The author finds the punning device integral to the book of Job, serving a referential function. Within the context of dialogue and debate, the polysemous statements resemble a poetry contest among the participants (Job, his friends, and Elihu). The book also treats the relationship between wordplay and wisdom literature; polysemy as preserved in the Greek, Aramaic, Latin, and Syriac translations; and the impact of Janus parallelism on textual criticism and the unity of the book of Job.

Three major essays by Baruch Halpern, Brian Peckham and Paul E. Dion deal with traumatic changes in Israelite culture, in particular the transition from the traditional culture of Israel in Iron Age IIA (tenth-ninth centuries) to a new, more widely literate culture in the eighth-seventh centuries BCE. These essays throw into relief changes in legal, political and religious culture in Judah in the last 150 years of its independence. Their combined implications for the origins of Western law and civilization, and for the models from which Reformation and Enlightenment political theory were drawn, are substantial.

This book contains the F.D. Maurice lectures for 1992 and six Gifford lectures of 1994. The Maurice lectures present the first account of Maurice as an Old Testament interpreter. The lectures on Smith concentrate upon his theological interests as an interpreter of the Bible, as well as the first account based on unpublished material of Smith''s activity as a preacher. There is also a close investigation of Smith''s links with Germany, and the influence upon him of Richard Rothe is investigated in some detail for the first time. One of the aims of the book is to show how, in their different ways, Maurice and Smith tried to relate the Old Testament to the two different periods of Victorian Britain in which they lived. The book also is intended as a further contribution to our knowledge of the history of biblical criticism in Britain.

2 Samuel 7 has always been a focal point in discussion about the Davidic covenant and its relationship to the exodus (or Sinai) covenant. This new rhetorical study of the speeches of Yahweh and David in 2 Samuel 7 examines the dynamics of the conversation between the two characters, a conversation essentially about houses and obligation. The reading proposes that talk of a Davidic dynasty is a diversionary strategy that Yahweh uses to deflect David''s interest from a temple building project. It also suggests that the manner in which Yahweh presents the offer of dynasty conceals an empty offer behind the facade of a grandiose and unending lineage. The history of religions problem of a Davidic versus sinaitic covenant may be resolved by attending less to the facade and more to the undertones of Yahweh''s offer.

Insights gained from the study of metaphorical language in other fields, particularly New Testament parable research, are here applied to the tree metaphors in Isaiah 1-39. The focus of investigation is the content of the metaphors , the intentions underlying their use, and the consequences of that use. The author suggests that (1) the informative function of the tree metaphors is to provide theological interpretations of the political situation; (2) the performative function of the metaphors is to engage the audience in such a way that they adopt the metaphors'' interpretation of reality as their own; (3) the use of metaphorical language encourages continual reinterpretation of the original proclamation. The tree in the Garden, the felling of trees, new growth of felled trees and the forest fire, are among the images Isaiah uses to make his political statements. He shows himself to be an extremely competent rhetorician in using these images to instil an active response in his audience. The modes in which the metaphors can be reinterpreted and reapplied in new contexts are perceived as significant not only for the composition of Isaiah, but for that of subsequent religious literature.