Among the most important sources for understanding the cultures and systems of thought of ancient Mesopotamia is a large body of magical and medical texts written in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages. An especially significant branch of this literature centers upon witchcraft. Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals and incantations attribute ill-health and misfortune to the magic machinations of witches and prescribe ceremonies, devices, and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. The Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals aims to present a reconstruction of this body of texts; it provides critical editions of the relevant rituals and prescriptions based on the study of the cuneiform tablets and fragments recovered from the libraries of ancient Mesopotamia.
Among the most important sources for understanding the cultures and systems of thought of ancient Mesopotamia is a large body of magical and medical texts written in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages. An especially significant branch of this literature centres upon witchcraft. Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals and incantations attribute ill-health and misfortune to the magic machinations of witches and prescribe ceremonies, devices, and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. The Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals aims to present a reconstruction of this body of texts; it provides critical editions of the relevant rituals and prescriptions based on the study of the cuneiform tablets and fragments recovered from the libraries of ancient Mesopotamia. "Now that we have the second volume, we the more admire the thoughtful organisation of the entire project, the strict methods followed, and the insightful observations and decisions made." - Martin Stol, in: Bibliotheca Orientalis LXXIV n° 3-4 (mei-augustus 2017)
Among the most important sources for understanding the cultures and systems of thought of ancient Mesopotamia is a large body of magical and medical texts written in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages. An especially significant branch of this literature centres upon witchcraft. Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals and incantations attribute ill-health and misfortune to the magic machinations of witches and prescribe ceremonies, devices, and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. The Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals aims to present a reconstruction of this body of texts; it provides critical editions of the relevant rituals and prescriptions based on the study of the cuneiform tablets and fragments recovered from the libraries of ancient Mesopotamia. "Now that we have the second volume, we the more admire the thoughtful organisation of the entire project, the strict methods followed, and the insightful observations and decisions made." - Martin Stol, in: Bibliotheca Orientalis LXXIV n° 3-4 (mei-augustus 2017)
All the evidence for daily, sabbath, and festival prayers in the Qumran scrolls is analysed in detail, document by document. On the basis of formal features and social-liturgical setting, these prayers are compared with each other to uncover divergent prayer traditions. Comparative material beyond the scrolls is used to reassess their place in the development of Jewish prayer. Evidence for prayers of different origin found at Qumran is important for reconsidering the nature of the scrolls, the community(s) which used them, and the history of Jewish liturgy. For several texts significant new reconstructions are offered.
The books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah address problems in and around ancient Judah in ways that are as incisive and critical as they are optimistic and constructive. Daniel C. Timmer's The Theology of the Books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah situates these books in their social and political contexts, examining the unique theology of each as it engages thorny problems in Judah and beyond. In dialogue with recent scholarship, this study focuses on these books' analysis and evaluation of the world as it is, focusing on both human beings and their actions, and God's commitment to purify, restore, and perfect the world. Timmer also surveys these books' later theological use and cultural reception. His study brings their theology into dialogue with concerns as varied as ecology, nationalism, and widespread injustice. It highlights the enduring significance of divine justice and grace for solid hope and effective service in our world.
The reception of Paul in the first century is a highly debated issue. Daniel Marguerat defends the position of a threefold reception of Paul in parallel ways: documentary, biographical and doctoral. Marguerat advocates that the value of the phenomena of reception be appreciated, in particular the figure of Paul in Acts. It should not systematically be compared to the apostle's writings, even though this image evolves from a Lukan reinterpretation. The essays concern the literary and theological construction of the book of Acts, focusing on the figure of Paul: his rapport with the Torah, the Socratic model, the Lukan character construction, the resurrection as central theme in Acts, the significance of meals. They also treat themes of Pauline theology: Paul the mystic, the justification by faith, imitating Paul as father and mother of the community, and the woman's veil in Corinth.
The articles discuss various aspects of Jewish identity in the Greco-Roman period. Was there a common ‘Jewish’ identity, and how could it be defined? How could different groups develop and maintain their identity within the challenge of Hellenistic and early Roman culture? What about the images of ‘others’? How could some of those ‘others’ adopt a Jewish lifestyle or identity, whereas others, abandoned their inherited identity? Among the questions discussed are the translation of Ioudaios, Jewish and universal identity in Philo, the status of women and their conversion to Judaism, the participation of non-Jews in the temple cult, the practice of Emperor worship in Judaea, and the image of Egypt and the Nile as ‘others’ in Philo. Two articles enter the debate whether Jewish identity had an ongoing influence within early Christianity, in Paul and in the rules known as the Apostolic Decree.
In this 2006 text, Daniel M. Gurtner examines the meaning of the rending of the veil at the death of Jesus in Matthew 27:51a by considering the functions of the veil in the Old Testament and its symbolism in Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism. Gurtner incorporates these elements into a compositional exegesis of the rending text in Matthew. He concludes that the rending of the veil is an apocalyptic assertion like the opening of heaven revealing, in part, end-time images drawn from Ezekiel 37. Moreover, when the veil is torn Matthew depicts the cessation of its function, articulating the atoning role of Christ's death which gives access to God not simply in the sense of entering the Holy of Holies (as in Hebrews), but in trademark Matthean Emmanuel Christology: 'God with us'. This underscores the significance of Jesus' atoning death in the first gospel.
Daniel W. McManigal provides a fresh analysis of the meaning of the baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire, and John's baptism as a prophetic sign-act. Expanding upon the sources, grammar and meaning of the Logion, analysing Old Testament and Second Temple texts, and discussing the prevalent theme of judgment in baptism, McManigal offers the first extended treatment of the baptism in the Holy Spirit in Matthew's gospel. As a backdrop for the prevalence of judgment in baptism, McManigal locates Matthew's eschatological judgment within the broader Old Testament and apocalyptic literature of the Second Temple, drawing upon texts such as Isaiah 11 and the Isaiah Targum, Malachi 3, Daniel 7, 1 Enoch and 4 Ezra. This volume's analysis aids deeper understanding of how the themes of the Old Testament are woven throughout Matthew's narrative, capitalizing on John's role as the last of the prophets sent to Israel; McManigal focuses in particular on Matthew's foretelling the coming of the Messiah, and his call for repentance in order to prepare people for the arrival of the kingdom of God. Drawing out the unique Matthean meaning of the baptism of the “coming one,” McManigal's study offers readers a new insight into the nature of repenting and prophetic baptism, whether through water, fire or Spirit.
The recent large-scale watershed projects in northern Syria, where the ancient city of Emar was located, have brought this area to light, thanks to salvage operation excavations before the area was submerged. Excavations at Meskeneh-Qadimeh on the great bend of the Euphrates River revealed this large town, which had been built in the late 14th century and then destroyed violently at the beginning of the 12th, at the end of the Bronze Age. In the town of Emar, ritual tablets were discovered in a temple that are demonstrated to have been recorded by the supervisor of the local cult, who was called the "diviner." This religious leader also operated a significant writing center, which focused on both administering local ritual and fostering competence in Mesopotamian lore. An archaic local calendar can be distinguished from other calendars in use at Emar, both foreign and local. A second, overlapping calendar emanated from the palace and represented a rising political force in some tension with rooted local institutions. The archaic local calendar can be partially reconstructed from one ritual text that outlines the rites performed during a period of six months. The main public rite of Emar's religious calendar was the zukru festival. This event was celebrated in a simplified annual ritual and in a more elaborate version of the ritual for seven days during every seventh year, probably serving as a pledge of loyalty to the chief god, Dagan. The Emar ritual calendar was native, in spite of various levels of outside influence, and thus offers important evidence for ancient Syrian culture. These texts are thus important for ancient Near Eastern cultic and ritual studies. Fleming's comprehensive study lays the basic groundwork for all future study of the ritual and makes a major contribution to the study of ancient Syria.
The volume comprises ten studies on Lukan theology relating especially with the theme of salvation, but also with christology and kingdom of God in Luke-Acts, as well as with the author of the two-volume work of Luke: - Luke the Jew? Current Trajectories of Scholarship - Jesus Christ, Salvation and Kingdom of God: For a Discussion on the Thematic Unity of Luke-Acts - Our Father Abraham and the Universal Promise of Salvation in the Lukan Writings - The Lukan Story of Salvation as an Insight: Re-reading Isaiah in Luke-Acts - The Law and the Kingdom of God in the Soteriology of St Luke - Faith and Works in Luke: The Case of Circumcision - ‘And the Lord turned’: A Lukan Feature in the Itinerant Behaviour of Jesus - The Practice of Prayer by Jesus in the Lukan Teachings - The Finger of God (Luke 11:20) in Modern and Patristic Exegesis - The Plan of God and the Announcement of the Kingdom in the Light of Acts 28:17-31
In Gelübde im antiken Judentum und frühesten Christentum Daniel Schumann examines discourses on ancient Jewish vows such as the dedicatory, the Nazirite, and the prohibitive vow as they are recorded in Jewish literature from the Second Temple period and from early Christian sources. In Gelübde im antiken Judentum und frühesten Christentum untersucht Daniel Schumann Diskurse zu Formen des antik-jüdischen Gelübdewesens, wie sie uns in jüdischer Literatur aus der Zeit des Zweiten Tempels und aus frühchristlichen Quellen überliefert sind.
The Apostle Paul's negative statements about the law have deafened the ears of many to the grace that Moses proclaims in Deuteronomy. Most Christians have a dim view of this book, which they consider to be primarily a book of laws. However, when we read or hear it read orally without prejudice, we discover that rather than casting Moses as a legislator, he appears as Israel's first pastor, whose congregation has gathered before him to hear him preach his final sermons. Accordingly, Deuteronomy represents prophetic preaching at its finest, as Moses seeks to inspire the people of God to a life of faith and godliness in response to God's repeated demonstrations of grace. Deuteronomy is a dead book for many, because we have not recognized this gospel; we have heard only law. The essays in this collection arise from a larger project driven by a passion to recover for Christians the life-giving message of the Hebrew Scriptures in general, and to open their ears to God's amazing grace in Deuteronomy in particular. The wide-ranging "meditations" in this volume do not all focus equally on the topic of God's grace, but this theme undergirds them all.
The Dragon in the West is the first book to offer an in-depth examination of the history of the image and idea of the dragon. A creature popular in contemporary fiction and cinema, Ogden reveals how the dragon was known to the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, and came down to us through early Christianity, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse legends.
Israel: Ancient Kingdom or Late Invention? is a collection of essays responding to the radical claims that Israel and its history actually began following the Babylonian exile, and that the history of Israel we read about in the Bible is a fictionalized account. Contributors are leading Bible and archaeology scholars who bring extra-biblical evidence to bear for the historicity of the Old Testament and provide case studies of new work being done in the field of archaeology and Old Testament studies.
A new translation and commentary on I Maccabees that offers a fresh interpretation of the author’s values and purpose First Maccabees, composed in the second century BCE, chronicles four decades of clashes between Hellenistic Syria and Judea, from Antiochus Epiphanes’s ascent to the throne in 175 BCE to the Hasmoneans’ establishment of an independent Judean state, ruled by Simon and his sons. In this volume, Daniel R. Schwartz provides a new translation of the Greek text and analyzes its historical significance. In dialogue with contemporary scholarship, the introduction surveys the work’s themes, sources, and transmission, while the commentary addresses textual details and issues of historical reconstruction, often devoting special attention to the lost Hebrew original and its associations. Schwartz demonstrates that 1 Maccabees, despite its Hebraic biblical style and its survival within the Christian canon, deviates from biblical and Judaic works by marginalizing God, evincing scorn for martyrs, and ascribing to human power and valor crucial historical roles. This all fits its mandate: justification of the Hasmonean dynasty, especially the Simonides.
Based on contrasting characterization and narrative logic between the central Huwawa episode and the remaining material for the earliest Akkadian Gilgamesh, this book challenges the accepted notion that the famous epic was composed without recourse to a previous Akkadian narrative.
The 'Dictionary of Paul and his letters' is a one-of-a-kind reference work. Following the format of its highly successful companion volume, the 'Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels', this Dictionary is designed to bring students, teachers, ministers and laypeople abreast of the established conclusions and significant recent developments in Pauline scholarship. No other single reference work presents as much information focused exclusively on Pauline theology, literature, background and scholarship. In a field that recently has undergone significant shifts in perspective, the 'Dictionary of Paul and His Letters' offers a summa of Paul and Pauline studies. In-depth articles focus on individual theological themes (such as law, resurrection and Son of God), broad theological topics (such as Christology, eschatology and the death of Christ), methods of interpretation (such as rhetorical criticism and social-scientific approaches), background topics (such as apocalypticism, Hellenism and Qumran) and various other subjects specifically related to the scholarly study of Pauline theology and literature (such as early catholicism, the centre of Paul's theology, and Paul and his interpreters since F. C. Baur). Separate articles are also devoted to each of the Pauline letters, to hermeneutics and to preaching Paul today. The 'Dictionary of Paul and His Letters' takes its place alongside the 'Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels' in presenting the fruit of evangelical New Testament scholarship at the end of the twentieth century - committed to the authority of Scripture, utilising the best of critical methods, and maintaining dialogue with contemporary scholarship and challenges facing the church.
Vatican II's 1965 Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei verbum) is the most complete and authoritative statement on biblical interpretation ever issued by the Catholic Church, allowing Catholics to pursue biblical study in its fullness. Drawing on his fifty-year association with New Testament Abstracts, Harrington seeks to explain to a general audience the most important developments in the academic study of the New Testament since Dei verbum. He focuses on six major topics: the complexity involved in interpreting the New Testament, the impact of the Dead Sea scrolls, Jesus as the prophet of God's kingdom, the Evangelists as authors, new perspectives on Paul and Judaism, and the early church in the Roman empire. Book jacket.
This book by C. Marvin Pate, J. Scott Duvall, J. Daniel Hays, E. Randolph Richards, W. Dennis Tucker Jr. and Preben Vang explores the unitive theme of the story of Israel from Genesis to Revelation--offering both close-up examinations of key texts and panoramic shots of the biblical terrain to unfold an intriguing and compelling perspective on biblical theology.
Biochemical kinetics refers to the rate at which a reaction takes place. Kinetic mechanisms have played a major role in defining the metabolic pathways, the mechanistic action of enzymes, and even the processing of genetic material. The Handbook of Biochemical Kinetics provides the "underlying scaffolding" of logic for kinetic approaches to distinguish rival models or mechanisms. The handbook also comments on techniques and their likely limitations and pitfalls, as well as derivations of fundamental rate equations that characterize biochemical processes. Key Features* Over 750 pages devoted to theory and techniques for studying enzymic and metabolic processes* Over 1,500 definitions of kinetic and mechanistic terminology, with key references* Practical advice on experimental design of kinetic experiments* Extended step-by-step methods for deriving rate equations* Over 1,000 enzymes, complete with EC numbers, reactions catalyzed, and references to reviews and/or assay methods* Over 5,000 selected references to kinetic methods appearing in the Methods in Enzymology series* 72-page Wordfinder that allows the reader to search by keywords* Summaries of mechanistic studies on key enzymes and protein systems* Over 250 diagrams, figures, tables, and structures
From Marilyn to Mussolini, people captivate people. A&E's Biography, best-selling autobiographies, and biographical novels testify to the popularity of the genre. But where does one begin? Collected here are descriptions and evaluations of over 10,000 biographical works, including books of fact and fiction, biographies for young readers, and documentaries and movies, all based on the lives of over 500 historical figures from scientists and writers, to political and military leaders, to artists and musicians. Each entry includes a brief profile, autobiographical and primary sources, and recommended works. Short reviews describe the pertinent biographical works and offer insight into the qualities and special features of each title, helping readers to find the best biographical material available on hundreds of fascinating individuals.
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