An innovative collection of inner-biblical, intertextual, and intercontextual dialogues Essays from a diverse group of scholars offer new approaches to biblical intertextuality that examine the relationship between the Hebrew Bible, art, literature, sociology, and postcolonialism. Eight essays in part 1 cover inner-biblical intertextuality, including studies of Genesis, Judges, and Qoheleth, among others. The eight postbiblical intertextuality essays in part 2 explore Bakhtinian and dialogical approaches, intertextuality in the Dead Sea Scrolls, canonical critisicm, reception history, and #BlackLivesMatter. These essays on various genres and portions of the Hebrew Bible showcase how, why, and what intertextuality has been and presents possible potential directions for future research and application. Features: Diverse methods and cases of intertextuality Rich examples of hermeneutical theory and interpretive applications Readings of biblical texts as mutual dialogues, among the authors, traditions, themes, contexts, and lived worlds

Intertextuality (the reading of one text in terms of another) is a diverse practice. It is a central and prevalent subject in poststructuralist literary theory. Reading between Texts is the first book to address intertextuality as it relates specifically to interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. The contributors bring together lucid theoretical discussion and sophisticated interpretations from a variety of backgrounds, offering biblical scholars and students a helpful and thorough introduction to the issues and possibilities of intertextuality. The Literary Currents in Biblical Interpretation series explores current trends within the discipline of biblical interpretation by dealing with the literary qualities of the Bible: the play of its language, the coherence of its final form, and the relationships between text and readers. Biblical interpreters are being challenged to take responsibility for the theological, social, and ethical implications of their readings. This series encourages original readings that breach the confines of traditional biblical criticism.

This collection of studies is published in honor of Professor James A. Sanders, a leading scholar in the fields of the canon of Scripture, textual criticism, and the relationship of the two Testaments. Contributors include leading scholars in these and related fields of study. The studies investigate in what ways the early sacred tradition was interpreted and how this tradition takes new shape in the Jewish and Christian communities of faith. Included are studies of Jesus' understanding of Scripture, Paul's interpretation of Scripture, and the ways in which Scripture was interpreted by the Rabbis. In many instances novel interpretations and new approaches to old problems are offered. Advanced students and veteran scholars will enjoy the many insights and provocative new ideas.

Practicing Intertextuality attempts something bold and ambitious: to map both the interactions and intertextual techniques used by New Testament authors as they engaged the Old Testament and the discourses of their fellow Jewish and Greco-Roman contemporaries. This collection of essays functions collectively as a handbook describing the relationship between ancient authors, their texts, and audience capacity to detect allusions and echoes. Aimed for biblical studies majors, graduate and seminary students, and academics, the book catalogues how New Testament authors used the very process of interacting with their Scriptures (that is, the Masoretic Text, the Septuagint, and their variants) and the texts of their immediate environment (including popular literary works, treatises, rhetorical handbooks, papyri, inscriptions, artifacts, and graffiti) for the very production of their message. Each chapter demonstrates a type of interaction (that is, doctrinal reformulations, common ancient ethical and religious usage, refutation, irenic appropriation, and competitive appropriation), describes the intertextual technique(s) employed by the ancient author, and explains how these were practiced in Jewish, Greco-Roman, or early Christian circles. Seventeen scholars, each an expert in their respective fields, have contributed studies which illuminate the biblical interpretation of the Gospels, the Pauline letters, and General Epistles through the process of intertextuality.

This volume fills an important lacuna in the study of the Hebrew Bible by providing the first comprehensive treatment of intertextuality in Job, in which essays will address intertextual resonances between Job and texts in all three divisions of the Hebrew canon, along with non-canonical texts throughout history, from the ancient Near East to modern literature. Though comprehensive, this study will not be exhaustive, but will invite further study into connections between Job and these texts, few of which have previously been explored systematically. Thus, the volume's impact will reach beyond Job to each of the 'intertexts' the articles address. As a multi-authored volume that gathers together scholars with expertise on this diverse array of texts, the range of discussion is wide. The contributors have been encouraged to pursue the intertextual approach that best suits their topic, thereby offering readers a valuable collection of intertextual case studies addressing a single text. No study quite like this has yet been published, so it will also provide a framework for future intertextual studies of other biblical texts.

This volume offers an appreciation of the value of intertextuality—from Greek, Roman, Jewish, and biblical traditions—as related to the post-apostolic level of Christian development within the second century. Not least of these foundational pillars is the certain impact of the Second Sophistic movement during this period with its insipient influence on much of early Christian theology’s formation. The variety of these strands of inspiration created a tapestry of many diverse elements that came to shape the second-century Christian situation. Here one sees biblical texts at work, Jewish and Greek foundations at play, and interaction among patristic authors as they seek to reconcile their competing perspectives on what it meant to be “Christian” within the contemporary context.

This work critically engages the hermeneutical methods used to analyse the New Testament writings, so that the lenses through which studies of the texts have been traditionally viewed can be revised. Jeremy Hultin contributes an article on the rhetorical use of the chosen citations by Jewish rabbis in their commentary on scripture, while Mark Gignilliat writes on the potential implications for viewing Old Testament Scripture in the manner of the early Church exegetes and theologians. With these two contributions providing a frame for the other chapters, the essays explore a range of topics including the significance of the number 42 in Matthew; the study of Wisdom in Matthew, the extent to which the four gospels are underlined by Hebrew material, if any; the use of Hebrew material in shaping New Testament writings; and the uses of Scripture in the letters of Paul and the letters to the Hebrews. Read separately, these articles provide fascinating insights and revisions to established ideas on intertextuality between the Old/Hebrew Bible and the New Testament writings. Taken together, the collection presents a solid argument for the fundamental revision of our current hermeneutical practice in Biblical Studies.

Even before the biblical canon became fixed, writers have revisited and reworked its stories. The author of Joshua takes the haphazard settlement of Israel recorded in the Book of Judges and retells it as an orderly military conquest. The writer of Chronicles expurgates the David cycle in Samuel I and II, offering an upright and virtuous king devoid of baser instincts. This literary phenomenon is not contained to inner-biblical exegesis. Once the telling becomes known, the retellings begin: through the New Testament, rabbinic midrash, medieval mystery plays, medieval and Renaissance poetry, nineteenth century novels, and contemporary literature, writers of the Western world have continued to occupy themselves with the biblical canon. However, there exists no adequate vocabulary-academic or popular, religious or secular, literary or theological-to describe the recurring appearances of canonical figures and motifs in later literature. Literary critics, bible scholars and book reviewers alike seek recourse in words like adaptation, allusion, echo, imitation and influence to describe what the author, for lack of better terms, has come to call retellings or recastings. Although none of these designations rings false, none approaches precision. They do not tell us what the author of a novel or poem has done with a biblical figure, do not signal how this newly recast figure is different from other recastings of it, and do not offer any indication of why these transformations have occurred. Sustaining Fictions sets out to redress this problem, considering the viability of the vocabularies of literary, midrashic, and translation theory for speaking about retelling.

Informed by the understanding that all texts are intertexts, this work develops and employs a method that utilizes the concept of intertextuality for the purpose of exploring the history of interpretation of a biblical text. With Day One, Genesis 1.1–5, as the primary text, the intertextuality of this biblical text is investigated in its Hebrew (Masoretic Text) and Greek (Septuagint) contexts. The study then broadens to take up the intertextuality of Day One in other Hebrew and Greek texts up to c. 200 CE, moving from Hebrew texts such as Ben Sira and the Dead Sea Scrolls to Greek texts such as Josephus, Philo, the New Testament, and early Christian texts. What emerges from this is a new glimpse of the intertextuality of Day One that provides insight into the complexity of the intertextuality of a biblical text and the role that language plays in intertextuality and interpretation. In addition to the methodological insights that this approach provides to the history of interpretation, the study also sheds light on textual and theological questions that relate to Day One, including the genesis of creatio ex nihilo.

Scheetz undertakes to make the concepts of intertextuality and canon criticism more comprehensible in the field of biblical studies. This volume is a combination of, on one hand, an observation of intertextuality, canon criticism, inner-biblical exegesis, intratextuality and kanonische intertextuelle Lekture and, on the other hand, an inductive study of the Masoretic Text of Daniel, of its connections with other texts of the Hebrew Bible, and of clear passages in the Greek text of the New Testament. Scheetz uses the Masoretic Text of Daniels as an appropriate testing ground through the medium of its multilingual character, its diverging placement in various biblical canons, and its concrete citations in some texts of the New Testament. Theend result of this study is a theory of canonical intertextuality unique in its definition in relation to the theories investigated, as well as in its application to an entire biblical book and to other texts in the Old and New Testaments.