Contents Acknowledgements Abbreviations Foreword by Samuel Greengus 1. Introduction 2. Cuneiform Law 3. Cuneiform Prologues and Epilogues to Legal Collections 4. The Problem of Prologue and Epilogue to the Book of the Covenant and Leading Features of Biblical Law 5. Annotations to the Laws of the Book of the Covenant 6. Summary Appendix I. Verse Arrangement of the Laws of the Book of the Covenant Appendix II. Cuneiform and Biblical Legal Formulations Bibliography Index of Sources

As one of the most prominent themes in Scripture, the covenant is crucial to all Christian theological systems, from dispensationalism to covenant theology to theonomy to liberation theology. One would think that by now all controversies have been exhausted, but an issue of this magnitude can never finally be laid to rest. Because disagreements persist, there is room for yet another attempt to study the covenant and improve our understanding of it. This book proposes that the path toward an evangelical consensus is not to be found in building another modified systematic theology, but in a biblical theology approach. Grounded in this approach, John Walton's perspective is that while the covenant is characteristically redemptive, formulated along the lines of ancient treaties, and ultimately soteric, it is essentially revelatory. This view in turn has implications regarding the continuity or discontinuity of the covenant phases, the conditionality of the covenant, and our understanding of the people of God. And this ultimately affects the way the Old Testament is preached and taught. Walton's thesis is an important contribution to the discussion of the covenant and the attempts to find common ground among evangelicals of diverse theological traditions.

Informed, accessible textbook on law collections in the Pentateuch In this book William Morrow surveys four major law collections in Exodus-Deuteronomy and shows how they each enabled the people of Israel to create and sustain a community of faith. Treating biblical law as dynamic systems of thought facilitating ancient Israel's efforts at self-definition, Morrow describes four different social contexts that gave rise to biblical law: (1) Israel at the holy mountain (the Ten Commandments); (2) Israel in the village assembly (Exodus 20:22-23:19); (3) Israel in the courts of the Lord (priestly and holiness rules in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers); and (4) Israel in the city (Deuteronomy). Including forthright discussion of such controversial subjects as slavery, revenge, gender inequality, religious intolerance, and contradictions between bodies of biblical law, Morrow's study will help students and other serious readers make sense out of texts in the Pentateuch that are often seen as obscure.

In this introduction to the first five books of the Old Testament, Victor Hamilton moves chapter by chapter--rather than verse by verse--through the Pentateuch, examining the content, structure, and theology. Each chapter deals with a major thematic unit of the Pentateuch, and Hamilton provides useful commentary on overarching themes and connections between Old Testament texts. This second edition has been substantially revised and updated. The first edition sold over sixty thousand copies.

This work proposes a reconstruction of the thought world underlying the Holiness Code (Leviticus 17-26). It focuses on the notions of people and land, which are central to the way the law is presented in this corpus. Important themes treated include the sons of Israel, the resident alien, the call to holiness, the camp in the desert and the land as the property of the Lord. The conceptual universe of the Holiness Code is entirely dominated by the notion of the presence of the Lord in his sanctuary, in the midst of his people. It is this presence which requires the Israelites to observe holiness and confers upon the land its particular status. The priestly conception of the relationship between God, people and land finds interesting parallels in the ideology of holy places evidenced in writings from the Ancient Near East.

As one of the most significant figures in ancient Israel, the priest had numerous responsibilities, the most important of which was the exposition of the Mosaic Tôrâ. The ministry of Ezekiel, a prophetic priest, offers a glimpse of how one priest carried out his duties as a custodian of Tôrâ. Ezekiel the Priest provides the possibility of a deeper understanding of the pastoral ministry of priests as teachers of God's word during Old Testament times through the example of one ancient Israelite priest.

Focused Biblical Scholarship to Teach the Text Effectively The Teach the Text Commentary Series utilizes the best of biblical scholarship to provide the information a pastor needs to communicate the text effectively. The carefully selected preaching units and focused commentary allow pastors to quickly grasp the big idea and key themes of each passage of Scripture. Each unit of the commentary includes the big idea and key themes of the passage and sections dedicated to understanding, teaching, and illustrating the text. The newest release in this innovative commentary series is T. Desmond Alexander's treatment of Exodus.

Critics outside the church often accuse the Old Testament God of genocide, racism, ethnic cleansing, and violence. But a rising tide of critics within the church claim that Moses and other "primitive," violence-prone prophets were mistaken about God's commands and character. Both sets of critics dismiss this allegedly harsh, flawed, "textual" Old Testament God in favor of the kind, compassionate, "actual" God revealed by Jesus. Are they right to do so? Following his popular book Is God a Moral Monster?, noted apologist Paul Copan confronts false, imbalanced teaching that is confusing and misleading many Christians. Copan takes on some of the most difficult Old Testament challenges and places them in their larger historical and theological contexts. He explores the kindness, patience, and compassion of God in the Old Testament and shows how Jesus in the New Testament reveals not only divine kindness but also divine severity. The book includes a detailed Scripture index of difficult and controversial passages and is helpful for anyone interested in understanding the flaws in these emerging claims that are creating a destructive gap between the Testaments.

"This book is for students, scholars, and general readers who are interested in the legal texts and ideas of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). The book explains the nature and history of biblical law, the legal significance of its rules, and its influence on early Judaism and Christianity"--

Louis Jacobs has made a formidable contribution to Jewish scholarship over the last 40 years. In addition he has inspired a generation of students of Judaica as well as members of his own congregation at the New London Synagogue. The contributors to this volume in his honour include a wide range of distinguished scholars. Beginning with Jacob Neusner's essay on the transformation of the Dual Torah in the first four centuries CE, the volume ranges over a variety of topics in the field of Bible, Talmud, history and theology, mirroring the wide range of Louis Jacobs' own interests. In addition, a full bibliography of Louis Jacobs' publications is included.