Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon were all thought by the early church fathers to have derived from the hand of Solomon. To their minds the finest wisdom about the deeper issues of life was to be found in these books. This ACCS volume offers a rich trove of wisdom on Wisdom literature for the enrichment of the church today.

"John Phillips writes with enthusiasm and clarity, . . . cutting through the confusion and heretical dangers associated with Bible interpretation." —Moodymagazine

Reprint of the original, first published in 1876.

Learning the meaning and significance of biblical images will revolutionize your grasp of the Bible as a whole. Scripture is packed with symbolic imagery and metaphors: looms, donkeys, water cisterns, grapes, sackcloth—all carry symbolic or emotional weight that sharpens the broader picture of the passage. The biblical authors used their reality to enhance the impact of their message on the audience around them, and the language they used is rich with meaning. The words might be familiar today, but the cultural connotations of things like manna, millstones, or myrrh might be missed by contemporary Christians and might cause us to lose the fullest significance of the Bible passage. The Zondervan Dictionary of Biblical Imagery surveys the use and connotations of familiar images in the Bible to illustrate the intricate and subtle ways they're put to work in the text. The types of entries include: Cultural artifacts from the biblical world (such as arrow or sandal) Components of natural history (such as fox or fig tree) Named places (such as Mount Sinai or Nazareth) Components of Israel's physical geography (such as mountain or wilderness) Each entry describes an image's characteristics, appearance, intended use, and cultural connotations, as well as the rhetorical impact of its use in the Bible. As you read, you'll begin to understand things like why Jesus called for us to become the salt of the earth, why dew was a controversial topic in Bible times, and why a roof might be mentioned to draw attention to a violation of expected norms. With accessible, well-illustrated entries and numerous black & white visuals, The Zondervan Dictionary of Biblical Imagery is an inspiring portal into the biblical world for any student of the Bible.

For too long, critical biblical studies have applied modern textual assumptions to ancient oral cultures. Exegeting Orality challenges many of these modern approaches, distilling decades of studies in oral traditions to redirect pastors and scholars toward a more accurate narrative of biblical origins, identity, and meaning. Many works in the area of orality, textuality, performance criticism, and media studies focus on critical issues. Exegeting Orality guides pastors and scholars through a brief introduction to these fields, emphasizing biblical inspiration, interpretation, and proclamation. This work honors the rich oral traditional foundations of the inspired canon, urging a transformative shift in how we interpret the Bible. The stories we believe define us. The Bible is not just a text to be studied but a record of voices from the past who performed our definitive stories. The Bible is a tradition to be reproclaimed and reenacted in the community of faith. Let us not recast these ancient voices into modern epistemological molds without letting them speak from within their own cultural realities. Their voices still call out to us through the abiding Holy Spirit who connects us all to the story of Jesus. May we live out that ancient story today together.

Scholarly discussions of biblical interpretation often ignore the fact that language and literature form an integral part of a people's culture, that interpretation therefore implies the total cultural system of the relevant literature, and that biblical interpretation consequently implies inter-cultural communication. This book explores the theoretical and practical implications of this observation from a cultural anthropological perspective, looks at recent anthropological studies of ancient Israelite society, supplies practical examples of a cultural interpretation of ancient Hebrew narratives, and discusses the impact of the notions 'cultural relativity' and 'inter-cultural communication' for biblical interpretation.