The T & T Clark Blog

Author Interview: Joseph M. Henderson on Jeremiah Under the Shadow of Duhm

Professor Joseph M. Henderson unpacks the history, research and journey that became Jeremiah Under the Shadow of Duhm, a book that examines how the work of Bernhard Duhm has dominated Jeremiah scholarship and outlines ways forward that examine Jeremiah's dramatic style and narrative progression.

How do you think your book could be described – in just one sentence?

My book is a reconsideration of the foundational assumption of modern Jeremiah scholarship: that the poetic form of individual passages from the book indicate that they are authentic: that is, derived from the prophet and thus useful as evidence for reconstructing his life or thought.

 

What drew you to researching Jeremiah?

I found the book to be a profoundly moving work of literature. I was drawn in by the tragic story of Jeremiah, who had hoped to avert the judgment of his people, becoming an agent of their destruction and the greater tragedy that Jeremiah’s story reflects: the story of Yahweh bringing destruction on his beloved people.

Author Interview: Jan Age Sigvartsen on Afterlife and Resurrection Beliefs

 

Dozent Jan Age Sigvartsen discusses his interest and research into the resurrection beliefs found in the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha.

 

How would you describe the aim of these books? 

These books provide a balanced, comprehensive overview of the resurrection passages (an anthology) in the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha, and identify 18 different distinct and complete death and afterlife beliefs.  In addition to describing and discussing them, these books graphically chart these beliefs so the reader can quickly and easily see what these beliefs contain and compare them with other beliefs. They also consider the role and to what extent the books that later became the TaNaKh played in the formation of these afterlife beliefs. In a nutshell, they endeavor to understand what happened in the period between the TaNaKh that barely mentions personal resurrection beliefs, and when resurrection became a core belief in Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity.

Editor Interview: Antonios Finitsis on Dress and Clothing in the Hebrew Bible

 

Professor Antonios Finitsis describes the group research that delved into the multivalent importance of dress and clothing in the ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible; resulting in Dress and Clothing in the Hebrew Bible: “For All Her Household Are Clothed in Crimson”, one of the latest volumes in the acclaimed series The Library of Hebrew/Old Testament Studies.

 

1. How would you describe this book in one sentence?

It is a study of the articulation of power in the Hebrew Bible via Dress and clothing.

 

2. What drew you to amassing an anthology on dress and clothing?

Two primary reasons drew me. First, even though “Dress studies” is a field of inquiry with a long history in other disciplines such as history, sociology, anthropology, and sociology, it is relatively untouched by Hebrew Bible scholars. That —in itself— was an irresistible motivator that generated a lot of excitement among members of my research group. Second, recent approaches for the interpretation of Hebrew Bible, such as queer, iconographic, disability studies etc. have questioned dominant presuppositions of deriving meaning and have shed new light on age old texts. It is precisely this revolutionary potential of Dress studies that drew me to creating this anthology.

Editor Interview - Jeremiah Cataldo on Imagined Worlds and Constructed Differences in the Hebrew Bible

Professor Jeremiah W. Cataldo discusses the necessity of focusing on the neglected areas of Biblical memory, identity and community, in the edited collection Imagined Worlds and Constructed Differences in the Hebrew Bible, one of the latest volumes in The Library of Hebrew/Old Testament Studies.

1. How would you describe this book in one sentence?

This volume analyses constructed memory and identity in the Bible through the lens of modern social-scientific method, and explores how social and political identities are imagined within collective memories and what that means for biblical interpretation.

Author Interview: The Hasmoneans and Their Neighbors: New Historical Reconstructions from the Dead Sea Scrolls and Classical Sources

For one of our recent publications, The Hasmoneans and Their Neighbors: New Historical Reconstructions from the Dead Sea Scrolls and Classical Sources, Dr. Kenneth Atkinson reveals the inspiration and research behind his latest book.

1. How would you describe your book in one sentence?

 My book offers a bold new reconstruction of the vital historical period in Palestine from 152 to 63 B.C.E., when the Hasmonean family of Jewish rulers changed the fates of their neighbors, the Roman Republic, the religion of Judaism, and created the foundation for the development of the nascent Christian faith.

2.What drew to you writing about this subject?

I discovered the remarkable story of the family of Jewish rulers known as the Hasmoneans (a.k.a. Maccabees) when I first read the writings of the Jewish-Roman historian Josephus (37 B.C.E.-ca. 98 C.E.). His accounts of how the Hasmoneans forged an independent state, maintained power, fought numerous enemies, and lost their independence to the Romans, is a gripping narrative with many Shakespearian qualities. Josephus’s chronicle of King Judah Aristobulus is perhaps the best example. It is reminiscent of Macbeth with its tales of matricide, sibling strife, and madness. Although Josephus’s descriptions of him and his ruthless brother, Alexander Jannaeus, make compelling reading, I was astonished at his sections about Queen Shelamzion Alexandra. The only legitimate female ruler in Jewish history and the sole woman named in the Dead Sea Scrolls, she emerged during a time of chaos to preserve her family’s kingdom and change her religion. Her reign is one of history’s most fascinating and least known stories. After reading Josephus’s books, I became so interested in the Hasmonean family that I decided someday to document their history in an academic publication accessible to scholars in a variety of disciplines, students, and interested laypersons. It ended up being a much greater project than I had anticipated.

My previous book, The History of the Hasmonean State: Josephus and Beyond (T and T Clark Jewish and Christian Texts in Contexts and Related Studies, 23 [London: Bloomsbury T and T Clark, 2016]), used all extant data to reconstruct the history of the Hasmonean State as documented in Josephus’s works. This was the only book I had planned to publish about the Hasmoneans. However, while writing it, I discovered a vast quantity of unused literary, archaeological, and numismatic sources that document relations between the Hasmoneans and their neighbors, as well as how the family affected the Dead Sea Scrolls community. I also found that these ancient manuscripts discovered along the Dead Sea help us to understand Greek and Latin classical writings about this period. These works, moreover, contain a wealth of untapped resources for reconstructing previously unknown events in Hasmonean history. The Hasmoneans and their Neighbors uses this evidence to reveal how the Hasmonean family changed the fates of their neighbors, the Roman Republic, the religion of Judaism, and created the foundation for the development of the nascent Christian faith. I am confident readers will find it a fascinating book.

3. How long have you been researching it? How did you come to study it?

This book has a rather long history that precedes my academic career. I first encountered the Hasmoneans during the Cold War when I spent four years as a soldier in the U.S. Army (1983-1987). Assigned to the former West Berlin, I transported classified documents through the Berlin Wall across the former East Germany and the Iron Curtain. Because of my military status, I was able to cross through Check Point Charlie—the border between East and West Berlin and the infamous “Berlin Wall”—to see the great historical and archaeological museums in the former Communist sector. I was particularly fascinated with the biblical artifacts there, which led me to visit many of the countries where archaeologists found them. My experiences in the army, coupled with my independent study and travels, stimulated my desire to pursue a career in academia specializing in the period of the Hasmonean state. Before I began my academic training, I wanted to see more in my quest to learn about the Hasmoneans and the ancient world first-hand.

After my military discharge (honorable I am happy to say!), I spent nearly three years traveling full-time to historical and archaeological sites in several Middle Eastern and European countries. Equipped only with a backpack, I retraced portions of Jesus’ travels, Paul’s journeys, Xenophon’s march of the ten thousand, Lucullus’ Armenian campaign, and Crusader routes—a good portion of them by foot! My journeys shaped nearly every chapter of The Hasmoneans and Their Neighbors, especially my reconstructions of historical events based on my visits to numerous archaeological sites. This is perhaps most evident in chapter three, where I use my trip to the ancient kingdom of Commagene and neighboring regions to uncover new information about a possible Hasmonean campaign there. Upon my return home and throughout my graduate school education, I continued my studies of the Hasmoneans. Readers will find much new information throughout The Hasmoneans and Their Neighbors that my varied life experiences allowed me to uncover. Like my previous book, it contains many original historical reconstructions not available anywhere else.

4. What does your book focus on that hasn’t been explored elsewhere?

The Hasmoneans and Their Neighbors shows that Jewish sectarianism and messianism played greater roles in the Hasmonean state than indicated in the writings of Josephus. It also proposes that we cannot understand the history and theological beliefs of Jews during the period of the Hasmonean state without a close investigation of the histories of the Egyptian Ptolemaic and the Syrian Seleucid Empires, as well as the Roman Republic. By bringing together evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls and classical sources, I offer a new reconstruction of this vital historical period when the Hasmoneans not only shaped Middle Eastern history, but transformed the classical world as well. The Hasmoneans and Their Neighbors also contains many new reconstructions of classical history, including the most detailed examination of Pompey the Great’s assassination in light of Jewish sources. This section on his death reveals new information that explains the discrepancies in the classical accounts of this pivotal event that shaped Middle Eastern and Roman history, and which ended the Roman Republic. The Hasmoneans and Their Neighbors is a truly exciting story that will interest scholars from many fields, as well as anyone interested in learning about one of history’s most amazing, influential, and dysfunctional families.

 

Author Interview - Adam D. Hensley on 'Covenant Relationships and the Editing of the Hebrew Psalter'

In anticipation of the publication of Covenant Relationships and the Editing of the Hebrew Psalter, one of the latest volumes in the long running and cutting-edge Library of Hebrew and Old Testament Studies series, Dr. Adam D. Hensley delves deeper into the origins and research of his book.

1. How would you describe your book in one sentence?

A direct and methodical investigation of editorial perspective in the Psalter regarding the relationship between the Davidic and premonarchic covenants.

2. What drew to you writing about this subject?

Having expressed some interest in studying OT postexilic literature, one of my graduate school professors suggested I might look into the growing field of Psalter studies. While scholarly opinion varied—and still varies—on the extent to which the Psalter constitutes a “book” with a single “narrative,” it nonetheless seemed clear to me that the Psalter was new and relatively unexplored territory for examining the theology and hopes of the postexilic period.

I was especially intrigued by what the Psalter’s arrangement might reveal on the question of messianic expectation and covenant theology. Did postexilic editors see the covenants as theological alternatives or characterized by an essential unity and continuity? Was the substance of their hopes limited to the temple theocracy they already knew, or was a future king central to those hopes and to the renewal of the covenant? Was the Davidic covenant really seen as “failed” as Gerald H. Wilson contended? Did they really “democratize” the Davidic covenant by construing God’s promises to the house of David in terms of the people directly without any meaningful role for human kingship in their realization? Or did they view covenant history culminating in restored kingship after all, through which God’s covenant people might be renewed and God’s covenant promises fulfilled? To be sure, there were no shortage of opinions about such questions in the literature, but also no direct investigations of “covenant relationships” with a methodology up to the task.

3. How long have you been researching it? How did you come to study it?

Early in 2010 I picked up a book titled The Editing of the Hebrew Psalter, by Gerald H. Wilson. I was amazed by Wilson’s many observations in the Psalter and parallels with ancient anthologies. But I noticed that, like many studies that have followed it, Wilson’s approach presupposed answers to questions that it failed to address directly. One of those questions was especially foundational: how those who compiled the Psalter perceived covenant history, especially how they understood the Davidic covenant in relation to the premonarchic covenants.

4. What does your book focus on that hasn’t been explored elsewhere?

My book offers a fresh re-evaluation of editorial evidence in the Psalter, and in the process sheds light on some puzzling features of the Psalter. For example, it offers a new accounting of how editors understood 72:20 (“The prayers of David son of Jesse are ended”) in view of subsequent Davidic psalms. What’s more, the main thesis explored in the book offers a new perspective on why Asaph Ps 50 is separated from the main Asaph group (73–83).

By offering a thorough survey of the Psalter’s references and allusions to “covenant” that spans four chapters, it also presents a fuller picture of the covenant profile of the Psalter than previously accessible. This survey work goes beyond the term berit to include intertextual allusions to major entailments of the biblical covenants while taking account of editorial considerations.

Building on the work of Jamie A. Grant and others who have demonstrated the Psalter’s idealized depiction of kingship (cf. Deut 17:14–20), my book examines other aspects of the Psalter’s editorial perspective on kingship that have been overlooked or under-appreciated. For example, it explores David as an intercessor between YHWH and people/nations and thereby central to covenant renewal. It also examines a proposed typological relationship between Moses and David in the Psalms: David as a “New Moses” who leads the world in a “new song” of thanksgiving for YHWH’s new, exodus-like redemption of his people. In the process the book offers fresh insights on the structural and theological profiles of Books II–V.

We are very grateful to Adam D. Hensley for taking part in this interview!

Covenant Relationships and the Editing of the Hebrew Psalter is available for pre-order now, and is due for release on 17th May 2018.

T&T Cornerstone: Ancient Israel by Niels Peter Lemche

 

When Ancient Israel was first published, Lemche presented a new model of how we should understand Israelite society, its history and its religion. Lemche argues first that 'Israel' was the result of a social development among the Canaanite population of Palestine in the second half of the second millennium BCE. Lemche's radical reassessment of Israelite history is based on the conviction that the Old Testament contains hardly any historical sources older than the seventh century BCE. The early history of Israel must therefore be reconstructed from archaeological results and non-biblical evidence, not from the Old Testament. In this new Cornerstones edition Lemche provides an extensive new introduction and bibliography, considering how the field has developed since the work first appeared.

 

Reviews:

“When it first appeared, Lemche's Ancient Israel was the first of a new generation of Iron age histories, with its insistence on a sociological rather than theological approach, its rejection of the 'rationalistic biblical paraphrases', (as Lemche felicitously termed what had gone before). If some features of this new approach were already being anticipated, Lemche provided the first synthesis, laying the foundation for the current agenda. In this new edition, some of his own modifications and developments of that agenda are also reviewed. It remains an excellent foundation for historical research into the Hebrew Bible.” –  Philip Davies, University of Sheffield, UK

“When it was first published, this best-selling introductory textbook on the history of ancient Israel stood at the cusp of the departure from a history based on a rational paraphrase of the Bible and the construction of the critical, archaeologically based history of Palestine which is dominant today. Rooted in a social science-based perspective of Palestine's ancient past, Lemche based himself in the rapidly changing perspectives of Israel and Judah's histories of the decade preceding his textbook and set a firm foundation for the critical histories of the present.” –  Thomas L. Thompson, Professor emeritus, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

T&T Cornerstone: Fragmented Women by J. Cheryl Exum

It would be an understatement to say how thrilled we are to have Cheryl Exum's 'Fragmented Women' in our Cornerstones series. It is written with a true deftness of touch and the new preface that Exum has added to the volume continues in that vein and introduces the book to new readers by highlighting exactly the subtleties required in reading biblical texts.

Here are some reviews of the book:

“Cheryl Exum is remarkable for the subtlety of her interpretations. A fine literary sensibility combines with psychoanalytic finesse and an intense feminist commitment. She is very good at playing biblical characters off against each other: Bathsheba and the Levite's concubine, Jephthah's daughter and Michal. She is concerned with the androcentric agenda of the narrators, and how it may be subverted both by the text and the resistant reader. Does the depiction of rape repeat the crime or question it? For Exum, it does both; the male reader is both complicit and absolved. These brilliant, interconnected readings are as timely now as when they were first published.” –  Francis Landy, University of Alberta, Canada

“This book is a model of mature, balanced, well considered feminist criticism of the Hebrew Bible. Exum deliberately steps out of both the ideology of the text and the confines of religious exegesis, reading the biblical text as a cultural artifact, with the tools of cultural as well as traditional bible criticism. She analyses afresh fragments of biblical stories about women that are embedded in stories about men. In so doing, she affords her readers new insights and angles for understanding the texts and their influence. And by bringing the stories together, Exum manages to defragment the women, at least a little. And this is no mean achievement.” –  Athalya Brenner-Idan, Professor emerita, Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands

“Cheryl Exum is remarkable for the subtlety of her interpretations. A fine literary sensibility combines with psychoanalytic finesse and an intense feminist commitment. She is very good at playing biblical characters off against each other: Bathsheba and the Levite's concubine, Jephthah's daughter and Michal. She is concerned with the androcentric agenda of the narrators, and how it may be subverted both by the text and the resistant reader. Does the depiction of rape repeat the crime or question it? For Exum, it does both; the male reader is both complicit and absolved. These brilliant, interconnected readings are as timely now as when they were first published.” –  Francis Landy, University of Alberta, Canada

“This book is a model of mature, balanced, well considered feminist criticism of the Hebrew Bible. Exum deliberately steps out of both the ideology of the text and the confines of religious exegesis, reading the biblical text as a cultural artifact, with the tools of cultural as well as traditional bible criticism. She analyses afresh fragments of biblical stories about women that are embedded in stories about men. In so doing, she affords her readers new insights and angles for understanding the texts and their influence. And by bringing the stories together, Exum manages to defragment the women, at least a little. And this is no mean achievement.” –  Athalya Brenner-Idan, Professor emerita, Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands

- See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/fragmented-women-9780567662958/#sthash.qGPIxxc4.dpuf

T&T Cornerstone: Pentateuch: A Social Science Commentary by John Van Seters

"Everyone reads Van Seters on Pentateuch...everyone reads Van Seters on J" is a phrase that is actually quite often heard. And we've just made the task easier for everyone.

In this magisterial overview of the Pentateuch John Van Seters reviews the various historical-critical attempts to read it that arise from notions about the social evolution of Israel's religion and culture. For the new Cornerstones edition Van Seters has extensively revised several sections of the text, updating and integrating new bibliographical items, and refining the text where necessary. A reflective preface summarizes these changes and developments for the reader's convenience.

‘John Van Seters has been at the forefront of Pentateuchal studies since the 1970s. Indeed, he is largely responsible for the direction taken by this subdiscipline in the last quarter century before the turn of the millennium, when this book was first published. This new edition reaffirms Van Seters classic positions and responds to developments in Pentateuchal studies over the last fifteen years. It is a most welcome contribution to the continuing debate over this challenging section of the bible from one of the field’s long-term leaders.’ – Steve McKenzie, Rhodes College, USA

T&T Cornerstone: The Israelite Woman by SBL President, Athalya Brenner-Idan

The first of our Cornerstones that we are profiling is by none other than current SBL president Athalya Brenner-Idan.

In the first edition of The Israelite Woman Athalya Brenner-Idan provided the first book-length treatment by a feminist biblical scholar of the female characters in the Hebrew Bible. Now, thirty years later, Brenner provides a fresh take on this ground-breaking work, considering how scholarly observation of female biblical characters has changed and how it has not. Brenner-Idan also provides a new and highly personal introduction to the book, which details, perhaps surprisingly to present readers, what was at stake for female biblical scholars looking to engage honestly in the academic debate at the time in which the book was first written. This will make difficult reading for some, particularly those whose own views have not changed. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-israelite-woman-9780567657732/#sthash.sPkkDHFZ.dpuf

In the first edition of The Israelite Woman Athalya Brenner-Idan provided the first book-length treatment by a feminist biblical scholar of the female characters in the Hebrew Bible. Now, thirty years later, Brenner provides a fresh take on this ground-breaking work, considering how scholarly observation of female biblical characters has changed and how it has not. Brenner-Idan also provides a new and highly personal introduction to the book, which details, perhaps surprisingly to present readers, what was at stake for female biblical scholars looking to engage honestly in the academic debate at the time in which the book was first written. This will make difficult reading for some, particularly those whose own views have not changed.

“A wonderful book - concise, thoughtful, and as much an introduction to the Hebrew Bible as a whole as a reflection of the place of women within it. Athalya is very attentive to detail, and comprehensive - she provides a rich spectrum of the social roles of women, and a survey of literary schemata concerning women e.g. as temptresses, or as mothers of heroes. The book concludes with a brilliantly insightful consideration of the pros and cons of the story of the Garden of Eden, and woman's place in it. As Athalya writes in her final reflection, she intended in writing the book to fill in the gaps in Israelite history and the study of women in its literature. It succeeds beautifully.” –  Francis Landy, University of Alberta, Canada

 

In the first edition of The Israelite Woman Athalya Brenner-Idan provided the first book-length treatment by a feminist biblical scholar of the female characters in the Hebrew Bible. Now, thirty years later, Brenner provides a fresh take on this ground-breaking work, considering how scholarly observation of female biblical characters has changed and how it has not. Brenner-Idan also provides a new and highly personal introduction to the book, which details, perhaps surprisingly to present readers, what was at stake for female biblical scholars looking to engage honestly in the academic debate at the time in which the book was first written. This will make difficult reading for some, particularly those whose own views have not changed. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-israelite-woman-9780567657732/#sthash.sPkkDHFZ.dpuf