{"title":"True and False Worship in the Prophecy of Zephaniah","authors":"Gregory Goswell","doi":"10.1177/03090892211061171","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03090892211061171","url":null,"abstract":"In the prophecy of Zephaniah, the fate of Judah and that of foreign nations in the purposes of God are intertwined, both in regard to judgement and salvation. Judah needs to learn from God’s dealings with the nations. God’s verdict and judgement on the nations (1.14–18; 2.4–15) are lessons for sinful Jerusalem, which is under the same threat (2.1–3; 3.1–8). Likewise, but more positively, and this is the focus of the present article, cultic unfaithfulness in contemporary Judah (1.4–6) is set in contrast to the prospect of future cultic devotion to Yhwh by the nations of the world (2.11b; 3.9–10). The prediction of God’s favourable dealings with the nations of the world is a salutary lesson to the Judahites and should motivate them to reform the cult and faithfully serve Yhwh.","PeriodicalId":51830,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Old Testament","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140075900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Masoretic Text of Haggai 2.7b in light of verbal valency patterns","authors":"Stephen J. Smith","doi":"10.1177/03090892231201680","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03090892231201680","url":null,"abstract":"This article looks to verbal valency analysis to help clarify the meaning of the difficult clause ובאו חמדת כל הגוים in Hag. 2.7b, and so the verse as a whole. Attention to the verb’s valency patterns (i.e., בוא [ qal]) presents a fresh interpretive option that is both contextually fitting and (unlike previous proposals) linguistically robust. These patterns suggest that the cryptic phrase כל חמדת הגוים is not the subject (so most) but a descriptor for the Jerusalem temple naming the locative goal of the clause’s motion verb. This analysis identifies כל הגוים of the previous clause as the subject, yielding the following rendering of the verse: ‘And I (Yahweh) will shake all the nations so that they will come to “the desire of all the nations” (i.e., the temple), in order that I may fill this house with glory, declares the Lord of Hosts’.","PeriodicalId":51830,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Old Testament","volume":"74 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140046234","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Moral and ethical values in structural patterns of coercive acts in Hebrew Bible narrative","authors":"Diane M. Sharon","doi":"10.1177/03090892231193457","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03090892231193457","url":null,"abstract":"There are many biblical episodes in which people are compelled by an explicit or implicit threat of force, which is one definition of coercion, yet the issue of coercion has not yet been systematically explored for Hebrew Bible narrative. Examining the phenomenon of coercion across biblical narrative, this study asks how coercion is viewed and valued in the Hebrew Bible, what determines whether coercion is punished or rewarded, and what the theological significance is of this judgment.","PeriodicalId":51830,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Old Testament","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140056978","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Narratological implications of the differences between the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint: 1 Samuel 10.5 and 13.1–4 as a case study","authors":"Davide D’Amico","doi":"10.1177/03090892231201677","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03090892231201677","url":null,"abstract":"This article illustrates the importance of considering the narratological implications of textual variations in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. While these differences have traditionally concerned textual critics, this study argues for their importance in the field of narrative analysis as well. Using the divergent readings in 1 Samuel 10.5 and 1 Sam. 13.1–4 as a case study, the article analyzes the potential meaning and implications of these textual variants by showing how the different readings can offer new perspectives and uncharted avenues of interpretation, expanding our understanding of the Greek text as a distinct literary work. By bridging textual criticism and narrative analysis, this article aims to contribute to a deeper appreciation of the narratological dimensions inherent in the Septuagint and highlight its significance in the broader field of biblical narratology.","PeriodicalId":51830,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Old Testament","volume":"106 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140056860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stillness and salvation: Reading Psalm 46 in its context","authors":"Matthew A. O’Kelly","doi":"10.1177/03090892231210889","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03090892231210889","url":null,"abstract":"A society is significantly shaped by the myths it perpetuates. These myths serve as lenses for how its people see and make sense of the world around them. Myths, particularly origin myths like Enuma Elish, offer a perspective on the world that legitimates the way a society structures itself and responds to crisis, as opposing forces threaten to undermine its conception of order. This essay proposes to read Psalm 46 against the backdrop of Israel’s own origin myths which undergird and shape their own conceptions of order and in Psalm 46 are called to mind to bolster hope in the midst of crisis. This is argued on the basis of numerous literary parallels with the so-called ‘Song of the Sea’ in Exodus and the creation accounts in Genesis. In addition, parallels with First Isaiah suggest the likelihood of Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem as the crisis to which the psalmist responds.","PeriodicalId":51830,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Old Testament","volume":"42 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140033237","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Justice for whom? A dynamic interpretation of Isaiah 51.1–8","authors":"Yisca Zimran","doi":"10.1177/03090892231210886","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03090892231210886","url":null,"abstract":"This article offers an analysis of Isaiah 51.1–3, 4–6, 7–8. These units contain multiple similarities that emphasize the fundamental tension between the units, primarily regarding the nature of divine tidings and the identity of their beneficiaries. The first part of the article demonstrates the unique content and design of each unit through a literary analysis; however, since the reading process constantly reveals new content, the underlying tension is further intensified in the second part of the article, which leads to the conclusion that the units are deliberately ambiguous and multivalent. The multifaceted content facilitates an understanding of the units, and Deutero-Isaiah as a whole. The article demonstrates that the dynamic literary-rhetorical design and its interpretive consequences reflect: the existence of various groups (which serve as the ‘rhetorical situation’ of these units), the prospective connections between these groups, and their potential for social, geographical, and ethnic mobility.","PeriodicalId":51830,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Old Testament","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140033801","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Of monsters and men: Reading Daniel with the Liber de Morte (Metz Epitome)","authors":"Paul A. Porter, Christopher A. Porter","doi":"10.1177/03090892231210892","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03090892231210892","url":null,"abstract":"Daniel sees Antiochus IV Epiphanes as a latter-day Alexander. When interpreting Antiochus’s death, the author draws on a Ptolemaic court tale of an animal prodigy that foreshadowed Alexander’s own demise ( Liber de Morte Testamentumque Alexandri Magni). Extensive and specific commonalities between Daniel and Liber de Morte suggest that MT Daniel, no less than the OG version, originated in Egypt. Intended readers are the maśkîlîm who fled there during and after the Antiochene crisis. While the visions interpret the death of Antiochus, the tales speak to the maśkîlîm’s hopes for a new life under Ptolemy VI. This paper advances scholarship by proposing that inspiration for Daniel’s Babylonian court setting, and for its apocalyptic imagery, came to our author courtesy of the Ptolemies, a Greek dynasty who used a birth anomaly tale set in Babylon to drive their political agenda in Egypt.","PeriodicalId":51830,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Old Testament","volume":"48 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139949462","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial fatigue and the relationship between 2 Kings 18–20 and Isaiah 36–39","authors":"Eric J. Brewer","doi":"10.1177/03090892231185163","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03090892231185163","url":null,"abstract":"The near verbatim agreement between Isaiah 36–39 and 2 Kings 18–20 has long invited speculation about the relationship between these passages. Most scholars theorize Isaian dependence on Kings or mutual dependence on a third source, but a minority has argued for Isaian priority. In connection with the similar problem of the relationships among the Synoptic Gospels of the New Testament, recognition of a phenomenon known as editorial fatigue has helped to clarify which Gospels serve as sources for the others. By identifying several instances of editorial fatigue in Isaiah 36–39, this article provides strong evidence against Isaian priority and for the dependence of Isaiah 36–39 on a version of 2 Kings 18–20.","PeriodicalId":51830,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Old Testament","volume":"3 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138585014","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Does the Hebrew Bible construct a social trauma? Three case studies","authors":"Xi Li","doi":"10.1177/03090892231185168","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03090892231185168","url":null,"abstract":"With the rise of a trend to reread biblical texts through the lens of trauma, some scholars have begun to apply Jeffrey Alexander’s definition of social trauma to reading biblical texts in the Hebrew Bible, such as Jeremiah and Lamentations. This reading assumes that the Hebrew Bible constructs a social trauma to shape ancient Israelites’ national identity. However, this article points out that Alexander’s theory does not fit well with the narratives of the Hebrew Bible. The main argument consists of three case studies concerning the book of Jeremiah, Lamentations, and communal psalms of lament; the author argues that none of these writings answers the four questions crucial for the construction of a socially mediated trauma in Alexander’s theory.","PeriodicalId":51830,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Old Testament","volume":"35 42","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138601321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cumulative Part-Whole Relations as a Verbal and Visual Rhetorical Strategy: Song of Songs 7 and Composite Beings of the Southern Levant","authors":"Yeseul Kim","doi":"10.1177/03090892231172532","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03090892231172532","url":null,"abstract":"In biblical studies, a growing interest in metaphors as the conceptual key to the ancient mind has arisen. However, in contrast with the popularity of metaphor, other tropes have received little attention. This article sheds light on another rhetorical feature: ‘cumulative part-whole relations,’ which construct a new whole by compounding disparate body parts, a textual and visual strategy deliberately used to cross boundaries of individual parts, to integrate the parts into a larger whole, and to demonstrate superiority and supernatural powers. Through examining visual and textual examples from the ancient Near East, including Song 7.1–6 and the composite creatures ( Mischwesen) from the Levant, this article reveals that the rhetorical mechanism of the cumulation of part-whole relations follows the logic that the whole is more than the sum of its parts, while that whole remains a single one no matter how many parts are compounded.","PeriodicalId":51830,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Old Testament","volume":"67 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138606678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}