VETUS TESTAMENTUMPub Date : 2023-03-27DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10128
Jim W. Adams
{"title":"A (Somewhat) New Way to See and Understand the Diverse and Strategic Use of the Interrogatives in Isa 40:12–31","authors":"Jim W. Adams","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10128","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10128","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Interpreters predominantly identify the interrogatives in Isa 40:12–31 as Rhetorical Questions (RQs) along with a single Genuine Question. However, upon closer examination the prophet also employs another type of interrogative that operates similarly to RQs, namely Conducive Questions. The prophet creatively and strategically arranges the interrogatives into a parallel pattern. Specifically, the prophet forms two parallel interrogative sequences with each placed in two respective parallel literary sequences (vv. 12–20; 21–26) that together constitute the first section of vv. 12–31. A second literary unit (vv. 27–31) begins with a Genuine Question immediately followed by a final pair of interrogatives. The prophet utilizes the Conducive and Rhetorical Questions to intentionally lead the addressee to verbally confirm, mentally assent to, and, in certain instances, confess with the inferred answers. The prophet’s purpose with these interrogatives aims at synchronizing the theological worldviews of both communicative participants.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75186886","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
VETUS TESTAMENTUMPub Date : 2023-03-27DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10129
Hermann-Josef Stipp
{"title":"Nochmals zur Frühdatierung von Ri 19*","authors":"Hermann-Josef Stipp","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10129","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10129","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The essay substantiates an older thesis, according to which the so-called narrative of the outrage in Gibeah (Judg 19*) was written in circles around David as a propagandistic pamphlet, with the intention to win over the northern tribes to Jerusalem’s claim to power and to rally them against a competing claim from Benjamin. To this end, the study expands the list of observations that indicate that Judg 19* originated as an independent text, discusses questions of text-internal values of Judg 19–21, lays out further implications of the proposed dating, and critically examines recent studies on this complex.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73511289","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
VETUS TESTAMENTUMPub Date : 2023-03-27DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10130
J. Goldingay
{"title":"Ezekiel 10:2—Sprinkle Not Scatter","authors":"J. Goldingay","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10130","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10130","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This short note argues that the phrase וּזְרֹק עַל־הָעִיר in Ezek 10:2 denotes “sprinkle [fire] over the city” as an act of purification rather than “scatter [fire] over the city” as an act of judgment.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87222749","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
VETUS TESTAMENTUMPub Date : 2023-03-27DOI: 10.1163/15685330-00001156
Yitzhak Berger
{"title":"On the Restoration of Job: Poetics and Meaning in Job 42","authors":"Yitzhak Berger","doi":"10.1163/15685330-00001156","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-00001156","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The epilogue of Job, for no immediately obvious reason, links the restoration of Job’s wealth to his prayer on behalf of his friends. In doing so, it deploys a formulation that features redundancy and multiple philological irregularities. These compositional choices serve several objectives. Particularly on the assumption that Job, in his final speech, maintains an abidingly defiant posture toward God, his prayer constitutes a prerequisite for his restoration. Indeed, in subtle ways, the text emphasizes the prayer’s pivotal role. The text’s odd formulation, for its part, generates inner-biblical parallels that contribute to meaning. One parallel invokes a wider correlation to the Joseph story, implying that Job, in contrast to the victimized Joseph, must extend forbearance to his offenders before regaining wealth and stature. Another parallel helps intimate that Job recovered from his malady, a development that the text, because of an understandable concern, does not wish to state explicitly.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75108211","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
VETUS TESTAMENTUMPub Date : 2023-01-19DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10114
Gregory Goswell
{"title":"The Puzzling Portrait of Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles 32:24–31","authors":"Gregory Goswell","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10114","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10114","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract 2 Chronicles 32:24–31 provides an early reading of Isa 38–39, but the brevity of the account in Chronicles makes its interpretation challenging. There is an additional motif of pride that is not easy to interpret (32:25–26). In this article I suggest that it might have been added by the Chronicler because he had noticed the admission of fault by the sick king in the psalm in Isa 38. Building on the portrait of Hezekiah found in Isa 38, the Chronicler depicts Hezekiah acknowledging that he was not worthy of the benefit received and humbling himself. Hezekiah models for the reader the Chronistic ethic of repentance. When Hezekiah is tested by God (32:31), the statement that “God left him to himself” reflects the Chronicler’s interpretation of what is found in Isa 39, where the king responded as best he could to the arrival of Babylonian envoys without the benefit of prophetic guidance. The glowing depiction of Hezekiah’s achievements in the surrounding verses implies that the Chronicler believed that Hezekiah passed this test.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135392959","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
VETUS TESTAMENTUMPub Date : 2023-01-19DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10126
Christoffer Theis
{"title":"A Further Note on the Alleged Egyptian Etymology of Sabaoth","authors":"Christoffer Theis","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10126","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10126","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This note provides further arguments against a proposed Egyptian etymology of the divine name or title צְבָאוֹת ( ṣᵉbāʾōt ), as initially proposed by Manfred Görg, and expands a recent article by Giuseppina Lenzo and Christophe Nihan.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135392958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
VETUS TESTAMENTUMPub Date : 2023-01-19DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10124
Raanan Eichler
{"title":"China Is in the Bible","authors":"Raanan Eichler","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10124","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10124","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Isaiah 49:12 mentions “the land of Sinim .” Gesenius and most nineteenth-century scholars identified this place with China, but virtually all scholars today identify it instead with Aswan (Syene) in southern Egypt. It is argued here, based on the literary context, the wording “the land of [plural gentilic],” and the phonetics of Sinim , that the term means China.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135392960","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
VETUS TESTAMENTUMPub Date : 2022-11-17DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10119
Itzhak Amar
{"title":"Levites, Priests, and Temple: Was the Chronicler Influenced by Ezekiel 40–48?","authors":"Itzhak Amar","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10119","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10119","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article examines whether Chronicles was influenced by Ezek 40–48—i.e., whether the book contains material not found in P or developed therefrom. To this end, it investigates the basis on which the Chronicler distinguishes priests from Levites, identifies those he deems responsible for guarding the Temple, elucidates his view of the Temple’s sanctity, and discusses whether he draws on one or several sources.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83577379","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
VETUS TESTAMENTUMPub Date : 2022-11-17DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10122
P. van der Lugt
{"title":"The Beatitude אַשְׁרֵי and the Confession of Sins in Psalms 32–41","authors":"P. van der Lugt","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10122","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10122","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Different from the general opinion that Pss 25–34 and 35–41 represent individual cycles of poems, this article argues that the concluding cycle of Book I of the Psalter starts with Ps 32. The cycle Pss 32–41 is determined by the beatitude אַשְׁרֵי, which opens Pss 32 and 41. The cycle as a whole consists of eleven poems and represents a poetic tryptich: with its 42 poetic lines the alphabetic acrostic Ps 37 takes a central position and is framed by panels of five poems on both sides.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90311059","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}