Wisdom As A Hermeneutical Construct

The series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) covers all areas of research into the Old Testament, focusing on the Hebrew Bible, its early and later forms in Ancient Judaism, as well as its branching into many neighboring cultures of the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world.

This landmark volume covers the main aspects of modern Psalms study from the formation of individual Psalms down into the first centuries of the Common Era: the formation of the Psalter, individual Psalms and smaller collections, social setting, literary context, textual history, nachleben, and theology.

This is the first detailed study that critically compares and contrasts the wisdom sentences of the Book of Proverbs with classical and post-classical Arabic proverbs; reference is also made to current Arabic proverbs.The wisdom tradition of Solomon is examined and is compared to that of the Arab sage Luqm'n. The book deals with three main themes that are of special significance both in the Book of Proverbs and in Arabic proverbial works: royalty, speech and silence, wealth and poverty.The book concludes with a study of some form-critical and traditio-historical aspects of the treated proverbs.Hundreds of classical Arabic proverbs and wisdom sayings of Prophet Muh ammad appear for the first time in English.

By interpreting the theme of election in the book of Sirach, this monograph offers an alternative to the dualistic interpretation of Ben Sira and suggests a reading of this pivotal figure that accounts both for his particularism and his universalism.

This revised and expanded English edition of Bernd U. Schipper’s 2012 Hermeneutik der Tora incorporates the results of his continued research and writings on Proverbs. For nearly a century, many biblical scholars have argued that the main theological traditions, such as the divine law, God’s torah, do not appear in the book of Proverbs. In this volume, however, Schipper demonstrates that Proverbs interacts in a sophisticated way with the concept of the torah. A detailed analysis of Proverbs 2 and other passages from the first part of the book of Proverbs shows that Proverbs engages in a postexilic discourse around “wisdom and torah” concerning the abilities of humans to fulfill the will of YHWH exemplified in the divine torah.

The volume publishes papers read at the ninth International Conference on the Deuterocanonical Books, Budapest, 2012. The title of the conference and the issuing volume covers an, on the one hand, extremely important and, on the other hand, regrettably neglected aspect particularly of the ancient Jewish and Christian traditions. Traditional manifestations of both Judaism and Christianity are predominantly masculine theological constructions. Despite their harsh masculine orientation, however, neither Judaism nor Christianity lacks elaboration on the female principle. When an ancient author chooses female imagery in order to make his message more emphatic, the female body as such forms an integral part of their metaphors. The contributions in this volume explore this phenomenon within the literature of early Judaism, and within its broad environments.

In Divine Marriage from Eden to the End of Days, Andre Villeneuve explores the mystery of God's love in the Bible and ancient Jewish tradition. Scripture portrays the covenant between God and his people as a divine-human marriage spanning through all of human history. For the ancient Jewish interpreters, God married humanity at the dawn of creation in the Garden of Eden; but the union was broken by human sin. The Lord restored the relationship when he betrothed Israel at Mount Sinai; yet the covenant was wounded again with the transgression of the golden calf. The nuptial bond was healed anew, commemorated, and reenacted through liturgical worship in Israel's tabernacle and temple. This worship in God's "nuptial chamber," in turn, anticipated the ultimate fulfillment of the divine-human marriage in the messianic age at the end of history. The first part of the book explores the marriage through Israel's biblical history in light of ancient Jewish exegesis. The second part unveils the marriage in the ancient interpretation of the Song of Songs and in wisdom literature. The third part reveals how the same symbolism is taken up in the New Testament and applied to the marriage between Christ and the Church.

This is a formidable collection of previously published essays by this distinguished Old Testament scholar. Three significant areas of biblical studies have been a focus of the author's attention throughout his career: the Bible in its ancient Near Eastern world, the Psalms, and Old Testament theology. In Part I, epigraphic discoveries are examined for the light they shed on biblical texts. In Part II, special attention is given to the theological significance of reading the Psalms as a collection. In Part III, a wide range of theological issues-creation, covenant, prayer, cosmology, canon, and especially the nature and character of God-are taken up in various essays that suggest how biblical theology can contribute to the larger theological enterprise.