Studies In The Text Of The Old Testament

Studies in the Text of the Old Testament offers to the English-speaking world the combined introductions to the first three volumes of Dominique Barthélemy’s Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament. CTAT was the culmination of the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, launched by the United Bible Societies in 1969 and carried out by an international team of Old Testament textual critics under the leadership of Eugene Nida. As Emanuel Tov has stated, these introductions form “an almost complete introduction” to the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible. They hold an important place in Old Testament textual criticism and can stand alone, apart from the detailed discussions of the textual problems found in the volumes. Part one surveys the history of OT textual criticism “from its origins to J. D. Michaelis” and presents the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project and its goals. Part two describes in detail the background of the modern versions that the HOTTP took into account in its work. Part three, the most extensive section, discusses the textual witnesses—the different forms of the Hebrew text and the contribution of the ancient versions. As his concluding program for a critical edition makes clear, the groundbreaking work of Barthélemy and the HOTTP served as the basis for the new Biblia Hebraica Quinta, which began publication in 2004. UBS undertook the HOTTP to offer Bible translators help in applying the results of textual criticism to their work, but there is no doubt that many others will benefit from this work, as well as the other volumes in the series “Textual Criticism and the Translator.”

Well-respected Old Testament professor Victor Matthews identifies eight landmark stories that shaped Israel's identity.

A substantial revision to a classroom favorite Explore the literature, history, and social context of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible and their relevance for making sense of this ancient collection. This significant revision of a classroom standard pays particular attention to the original Mediterranean context--how it differs from modern Western culture--and its importance for interpretation. The significance of critical scholarly methods as well as the value of archaeology are likewise explored. Designed with the realities of the classroom in mind, it includes helpful illustrations, insets, and maps; study questions; a glossary; and indexes of subjects, personal and place names, and Scripture citations.

Leading scholars provide an overview of current issues in Old Testament studies.

This updated edition of a classroom standard provides an accessible introduction to the literature, history, and social context of the Old Testament.

The Hebrew Bible represents no mere collection of books but a stunning array of literary genres. To fully illuminate the history and culture of the Old Testament, it is necessary to compare these ancient writings to similar texts written concurrently by Israel's neighbors. Beginning with an overview of the important literary archives of the ancient Near East, Sparks provides exhaustive references to the ancient literary counterparts to the Hebrew Bible's major genres. Surveying the ancient writings found throughout Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and Palestine, Sparks provides a brief summary of each text discussed, translating brief portions and linking them to literarily similar biblical passages. Exploring over thirty genres--wisdom, hymns, love poetry, rituals, prophecy, apocalyptic, novella, epic legend, myth, genealogy, history, law, treaty, epigraphic materials, and others--it offers an exemplary guide to the fertile literary environment from which the canonical writings sprung. Rich with bibliographic material, this invaluable catalog enables the reader to locate not only the published texts in their original ancient languages but to find suitable English translations and commentary bearing on these ancient texts. A number of helpful indexes round out this outstanding resource. Providing students with a thorough introduction to the literature of the ancient Near East--and time-pressed scholars with an admirably up-to-date research tool--it will become a syllabus standard for a myriad of courses.

This collection of previously unpublished essays by outstanding international scholars in honour of Robert P. Gordon, Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge University, covers a wide range of topics, from accuracy, anachronism, and incongruity in the books of Samuel, through the theology of Psalms, ancient Near eastern historiography, and the ideology of the Septuagint, to philology and grammar in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Targum, Josephus, and medieval sources. It should interest readers concerned with inner-biblical exegesis and the Hebrew Bible in relation to its parallels, translations, and versions, as well as with big questions about the classification of the Bible and its antecedents as books, the social context of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Christian attitudes towards ‘original Hebrew'.

A collection of essays in honour of Prof. Michael Holmes. The volume is arranged in two parts focusing on textual criticism and the Apostolic Fathers respectively.