Paradise Or Eat Your Face

Rapid and knowledge-based agricultural origins and plant domestication in the Neolithic Near East gave rise to Western civilizations.

A charge to people who believe that you must believe in a young earth to be a Christian.

For the first time, Jack Levison offers the English-speaking world a comprehensive commentary on the Greek Life of Adam and Eve, an epic of pain, death, and hope. An exhaustive introduction clarifies issues of literary character, manuscripts and versions, and provenance; the commentary itself provides rich discussions of the Greek text, illuminated by Jewish scripture and ancient Greek and Hebrew literature. Fresh translation and bibliography.

Bede and the Cosmos examines Bede’s cosmology—his understanding of the universe and its laws. It explores his ideas regarding both the structure and mechanics of the created world and the relationship of that world to its Creator. Beginning with On the Nature of Things and moving on to survey his writings in other genres, it demonstrates the key role that natural philosophy played in shaping Bede’s worldview, and explores the ramifications that this had on his cultural, theological and historical thought. From questions about angelic bodies and the destruction of the world at judgement day, to subtle arguments about free will and the meaning of history, Bede’s fascinating and unique engagement with the natural world is explored in this comprehensive study.

From acclaimed author Alan Cheuse comes a trio of provocative novellas. In the title piece, Paradise, or, Eat Your Face, we meet travel writer Susan Wheelis and follow her exotic journey to Bali, and into her own frustrated soul. Care centers on Rafe Santera, a recent stroke victim who was once a vibrant, intellectual romantic. Attended by one of his many female admirers, we find ourselves in the midst of an unusual and politically incorrect love story. Cheuse takes us into Santera's erotic past, set against the daily struggles of a harrowing decline. The third novella, When The Stars Threw Down Their Spears and Watered Heaven with Their Tears, follows author Paul Brunce as he grapples with art, life, and family. Publisher's Weekly has praised Cheuse's "impressive command of many voices" and, in this collection, he is once again in top form and in possession of a powerful range of literary gifts.

Bernhard Lang, known for his contributions over several decades to biblical anthropology, offers in this volume a selection of essays on the life and literature of the ancient Hebrews. The subjects range from the Hebrew God, the world-view of the Bible, and the formation of the scriptural canon, to peasant poverty, women's work, the good life, and prophetic street theatre. The stories of Joseph, Samson, and the expulsion from Paradise are analysed, and in a departure from the Old Testament, the priestly origins of the Eucharist are considered. Insight into the Hebrew mentality is facilitated by the arrangement of the essays, reflecting the three strata of the ancient society: the peasants, with their common concerns of fertility and happiness; warriors, their martial pursuits, and the divine Lord of War; and the wise - prophets, priests, and sages.

This book studies Romanos' lively and dramatic hymns, highlighting especially the relationship between theological themes and performative rhetoric.

This is a prose English and very literal translation of the first five books of the Old Testament (The Torah). Aramaic was the language of Jesus and of 1st century Israel. The Peshitta Bible is the world's first entire Christian Bible. The Peshitta Old Testament is itself a translation of the Hebrew Bible completed in the 1st century AD, according to the available evidence. No Peshitta scholar places the Peshitta OT later than the 2nd century AD. As such, it gives an early look at the state of the Hebrew Bible at that time, since Aramaic and Hebrew are sister Semitic languages and about as close to each other as any two languages can be, sharing the same alphabet, writing, grammar, much vocabulary and even similar pronunciation of many words. Some of the original Old Testament is Aramaic, such as Daniel chapters 2 through 7 inclusive, and Ezra 4 through much of 7. It even appears in a verse of Genesis 31 and one verse in Jeremiah 10:11. 228 pages, hardback.