Explore the role supplementation played in the development of the Hebrew Bible
This new volume includes ten original essays that demonstrate clearly how common, varied, and significant the phenomenon ...of supplementation in the Hebrew Bible is. Contributors examine instances of supplementation ranging from minor additions to aid pronunciation, to fill in abbreviations, or to clarify ambiguous syntax to far more elaborate changes, such as interpolations within a work of prose, in a prophetic text, or in a legal text. Scholars also examine supplementation by the addition of an introduction, a conclusion, or an introductory and concluding framework to a particular lyrical, legal, prophetic, or narrative text.
Features:
A contribution to the further development of a panbiblical compositional perspectiveExamples from Psalms, the pentateuchal narratives, the Deuteronomistic History, the Latter Prophets, and legal texts
Abstract
Isaiah 40-55 is often understood as a work bearing witness clearly and unambiguously to a "novel," "consistent" and "extreme" monotheism, the monotheistic biblical work par excellence. Yet ...the author of this article challenges such claims in light of texts such as Isa 40:1-8 and 40:25-26, which recognize the existence of the heavenly host and the volition (40:25-26) or agency (40:1-8) of its members, and in view of Isa 51:9-11, which alludes clearly to the mythic conflict between Yhwh and the sea dragon as a reality. A statement such as "besides me there is no god" (45:5) must, therefore, be interpreted in light of these texts, which are all too frequently ignored by those who speak of Second Isaiah's "radical" monotheism. "Besides me there is no god" is more likely a claim about Yhwh's incomparability and unique power and agency than about his sole existence. If there is anything radical and unprecedented about Isaiah 40-55, it is the poet's rhetoric, which seems to suggest a new meaning and more restricted use for the word "god" (אלהים).Though the host remain a heavenly reality for Second Isaiah, serving Yhwh as they have always done, they are no longer called gods.
According to 37:12-14, Yhwh will open the tombs of the exiles, raise them up from their tombs, and reanimate them; the figure seems to assume the physical reconstitution of individuals before their ...reanimation, as in the larger pericope's first section (37:7-8)- though this is not stated directly, nor is any mention made of the state of the remains in the tombs (bones? corpses?).
Good and evil, clean and unclean, rich and poor, self and other. The nature and function of such binary oppositions have long intrigued scholars in such fields as philosophy, linguistics, classics, ...and anthropology. From the opening chapters of Genesis, in which God separates day from night, and Adam and Eve partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, dyadic pairs proliferate throughout the Hebrew Bible. In this groundbreaking work melding critical exegesis and contemporary theory, Saul M. Olyan considers the prevalence of polarities in biblical discourse and expounds their significance for the social and religious institutions of ancient Israel. Extant biblical narrative and legal texts reveal a set of socially constructed and culturally privileged binary oppositions, Olyan argues, which instigate and perpetuate hierarchical social relations in ritual settings such as the sanctuary.
Focusing on four binary pairs--holy/common, Israelite/alien, clean/unclean, and whole/blemished--Olyan shows how these privileged oppositions were used to restrict access to cultic spaces, such as the temple or the Passover table. These ritual sites, therefore, became the primary contexts for creating and recreating unequal social relations. Olyan also uncovers a pattern of challenge to the established hierarchies by nonprivileged groups. Converging with contemporary issues of power, marginalization, and privileging, Olyan's painstaking yet lucid study abounds with implications for anthropology, classics, critical theory, and feminist studies.
In Biblical Hebrew and in middle and late dialects of Aramaic, the verb 'to be able' has the root y-k-l. That root ought to derive from an earlier Semitic root with initial *w or *y, i.e., *w-k-l or ...*y-k-l, but such a root is not attested elsewhere in Semitic with that meaning. Elsewhere in West Semitic, the most common root for 'to be able' is k-h-l. Given the facts (a) that Hebrew and Aramaic y-k-l is without clear cognates elsewhere in Semitic, (b) that the root k-h-l is well attested in West Semitic, and (c) that the roots share two consonants, we propose that the Hebrew and Aramaic forms of y-k-l also derive ultimately from k-h-l, specifically, that they reflect the ancient yaqt preterite of k-h-l. (Author abstract)
The derivation of the Hebrew noun mērēaʿ (‘friend’, ‘companion’) has been much debated, with no consensus yet evident among scholars. Far from being a difficult or inexplicable form as many assume, ...mērēaʿ appears to be a masculine singular Hiphil participle of an otherwise unattested or rarely attested geminate root r ʿ ʿ meaning ‘to associate with’ or the like (cf. mēsēb from sbb). The meaning of mērēaʿ can be explained if we assume the form is an ‘inwardly transitive’ or ‘internal’ Hiphil (‘one causing himself to be associated’, ‘one who affiliates’, ‘friend’).
Abstract
What we know about the roles of women in Israelite family religion is a topic in need of reassessment. In this article, the author evaluates a number of common claims which have been made ...about family religion and gender. These include the idea that goddess worship was especially important to women; that Judean pillar figurines were used primarily or exclusively by women in their ritual activities; that the religious practices of ancient Israelite women overlapped little with those of men; and that birth-related ritual contexts were a special preserve of women.
