Biblical Text And Exegetical Culture

In this wide-ranging collection, Michael Fishbane investigates the complex and diverse relationships between the 'biblical text' and 'exegetical culture.' The author demonstrates the multiple literary dimensions and interpretative strategies that came to form the Hebrew Bible in the context of the ancient Near East, the Dead Sea Scrolls in the context of an emergent biblical-Jewish culture, and the classical rabbinic Midrash in the context of an emergent rabbinic civilization in late antiquity. Within each study, and in the collection as a whole, the author shows a broad range of creative methods, always with a scholarly concern to illuminate the religious ideas of Scripture as it was perceived through diverse hermeneutical lenses and exegetical methodologies. The studies range from the purely literary to the highly analytic, from myth to law, and from studies of symbols to the study of exegetical methods.

In March 1992, a very unusual gathering of biblical scholars from around the world took place on the campus of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Under the auspices of the 'Casassa Conference' (named for Fr Charles Casassa SJ), these scholars came together to discuss papers and interact with each other on the issue of culture and biblical interpretation. Coining the term 'Cultural Exegesis', these scholars and students debated whether the cultural backgrounds and experiences of the readers of the Bible can not only influence conclusions about contemporary theological issues, but even influence the methods and results of historical and literary critical methodologies.

This book challenges standard accounts of early Christian exegesis of the Bible. Professor Young sets the interpretation of the Bible in the context of the Graeco-Roman world - the dissemination of books and learning, the way texts were received and read, the function of literature in shaping not only a culture but a moral universe. For the earliest Christians, the adoption of the Jewish scriptures constituted a supersessionary claim in relation to Hellenism as well as Judaism. Yet the debt owed to the practice of exegesis in the grammatical and rhetorical schools is of overriding significance. Methods were philological and deductive, and the usual analysis according to 'literal', 'typological' and 'allegorical' is inadequate to describe questions of reference and issues of religious language. The biblical texts shaped a 'totalizing discourse' which by the fifth century was giving identity, morality and meaning to a new Christian culture.

Biblical interpretation is not simply study of the Bible's meaning. This volume focuses on signal moments in the histories of scriptural interpretation of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam from the ancient period to the early modern, and shows how deeply intertwined these religions have always been.

Scriptural Exegesis gathers an international community of scholars to consider the history of biblical interpretation and to question how exegesis shapes spiritual and cultural creativity in the light of Michael Fishbane's groundbreaking work. Eighteen chapters chart approaches to scriptural texts from ancient to modern times.

Engage the delightful and inspiring, sometimes rough and rocky road to inclusive and transformative Bible reading This book offers the results of research within a new area of discipline—empirical hermeneutics in intercultural perspective. The book includes interpretations from the homeless in Amsterdam, to Indonesia, from African Xhosa readers to Norway, to Madagascar, American youths, Germany, Czech Republic, Colombia, and Haitian refugees in the Dominican Republic. Features: Interpretations from ordinary readers in more than twenty-five countries Background introduction with history of the text Discussion of intertextual connections with Greco-Roman authors

This resource enables biblical studies instructors to facilitate engaging classroom experiences by drawing on the arts and popular culture. It offers brief overviews of hundreds of easily accessible examples of art, film, literature, music, and other media and outlines strategies for incorporating them effectively and concisely in the classroom. Although designed primarily for college and seminary courses on the Bible, the ideas can easily be adapted for classes such as “Theology and Literature” or “Religion and Art” as well as for nonacademic settings. This compilation is an invaluable resource for anyone who teaches the Bible.

This collection of essays from ethnically diverse scholars explores the meaning of non-Western interpretations.