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This book indicates that physical disfigurement functioned in biblical law to verify legal property acquisition. This is primarily substantiated in the accounts of prescriptive disfigurements: namely circumcision and the piercing of a slave's ear, both of which were required only when a son, or slave, was acquired permanently.

What is the 'way of the LORD' in the book of "Isaiah"? Many scholars have adopted Walter Zimmerli's proposal that the 'way' in "Second Isaiah" is a literal and physical highway extending from Babylon to Jerusalem. This book defines each mention of the 'way' in "Isaiah", and provides an interpretation of this theme's theological significance.

Using social psychology categories of ethnicity and group-identity, Exclusive Inclusivity explores these internal polemics through the phenomenon of exclusivity, its characteristics and traits.

Ancestor veneration plays important- and hitherto overlooked- socio-religious and ideological roles in various and competing territorial claims as presented in the Hebrew Bible.

Investigates the composition history of the "Amos-text" by drawing on the influential works of Hans W Wolff and J Jeremias. This redaction-critical study interprets the reasons for judgment in "Amos" 2.6-16 in the literary context of each of the redactional compositions which, it is argued, underlie the "Amos-text".

This volume discusses the mixed marriage controversy in Ezra9 and 10 that arises out of identity formation process utilizing VictorTurner's Social Drama model

Exalted for centuries as a hero and author of the Bible, Moses is inseparable from biblical tradition itself. Moses is also an inherently ambiguous figure and a perennial focus of controversy, from ancient disputes of priestly rivalry to modern issues of class, gender and race.

Examines the book of "Chronicles" using the methodology of utopian literary theory. This book argues that utopianism is an underlying ideological matrix that contributes to the coherence of the book of "Chronicles" as a whole.

By examining explicit biblical references to Cush and Cushites, a nation and people most modern scholars would deem racially "black," this book explores the manner by which the authors of the Hebrew Bible represented the Cushite, and determines whether differences in human phenotypes facilitated legitimating ideologies that justified subjugation.

Traditional interpretations in both Judaism and Christianity argue that the "Akedah" presents not only an ethical question but also an ethical reply. This book shows how the narrative's version did not contain the angelic figure and also re-examines various religious interpretations of the text.

A comprehensive examination of the links between wisdom literature and prophecy. The book is divided into four sections. The first addresses methodological concerns such as identifying "wisdom," identifying potential sociological spheres for wisdom and prophecy in the ancient Near East, and recognizing potential textual relationships. The second examines the role of wisdom in the prophetic corpus more broadly in a book-by-book analysis of biblical texts, first examining the role of wisdom in the prophetic corpus of the Hebrew Bible. The third section looks at elements of prophecy within the traditional wisdom books such as Job, Proverbs and Qoheleth. Finally, the book continues the conversation by providing two concluding chapters that evaluate, critique, engage, and raise new questions that Hebrew Bible scholars will need to wrestle with as the search for the relationship between wisdom and prophecy moves forward.

This book examines many of the laws in the Torah governing sexual relations and the often implicit motivations underlying them. It also considers texts beyond the laws in which legal traditions and ideas concerning sexual behavior intersect and provide insight into ancient Israel's social norms. The book includes extended treatments on the nature and function of marriage and divorce in ancient Israel, the variation in sexual rules due to status and gender, the prohibition on male-with-male sex, and the different types of sexualities that may have existed in ancient Israel.The essays draw on a variety of methodologies and approaches, including narrative criticism, philological analysis, literary theory, feminist and gender theory, anthropological models, and comparative analysis. They cover content ranging from the narratives in Genesis, to the laws of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, to later re-interpretations of pentateuchal laws in Jeremiah and texts from the Second Temple period. Overall, the book presents a combination of theoretical discussion and close textual analysis to shed new light on the connections between law and sexuality within the Torah and beyond.

This volume on intercultural biblical interpretation includes essays by feminist scholars from Botswana, Germany, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, and the United States. Reading from a rich variety of socio-cultural locations, contributors present their hermeneutical frameworks for interpretation of Hebrew Bible texts, each framework grounded in the writer''s journey of professional or social formation and serving as a prism or optic for feminist critical analysis. The volume hosts a lively conversation about the nature and significance of biblical interpretation in a global context, focusing on issues at the nexus of operations of power, textual ambiguity, and intersectionality. Engaged here are notions of biblical authority and postures of dissent; women''s agency, discernment, rivalry, and alliance in ancient and contemporary contexts; ideological constructions of sexuality and power; interpretations related to indigeneity, racial identity, interethnic intimacy, and violence in colonial contexts; theologies of the feminine divine and feminist understandings of the sacred; convictions about interdependence and conditions of flourishing for all beings in creation; and ethics of resistance positioned over against dehumanization in political, theological, and hermeneutical praxes. Through their textual and contextual engagements, contributors articulate a broad spectrum of feminist insights into the possibilities for emancipatory visions of community.

Built upon the flourishing study of costume, this book analyses sartorial evidence provided both by texts of the ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible. The essays within lend clarity to the link between material and ideological, examining the tradition of dress, the different types of literature that reference the tradition of garments, and the people for whom such literature was written. The contributors explore sources that illuminate the social, psychological, aesthetic, ideological and symbolic meanings of clothing. The topics covered range from the relationship between clothing, kingship and power, to the symbolic significance of the high priestly regalia and the concept of garments as deception and defiance, while also considering the tendency to omit or ignore descriptions of YHWH's clothing. Following a historical sequence, the essays cross-reference with each other to create a milestone in biblical sartorial study.