The twenty articles collected in this volume cover a wide range of subjects concerned with the Old Testament: religion (the divine name Shaddai; dominant religious ideas between 1500 and 600 B.C.; exclusiveness; the kingship of God), The Pentateuch (Genesis xviiii-xix; Og's iron bed; laws in Deuteronomy and Middle Assyrian laws; the Pentateuch, The Deuteronomist and Spinoza), the historical books, history and archaeology (Ugarit and Israelite origins; Arameans; the system of the twelve tribes of Israel; the text of the historical books; 1 Kings xiii; places for women in Israelite cities), the prophetical books (Amos and Hosea; Isaiah), The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha (Women in Ecclesiasticus and Judith; the origin of evil in apocalyptic and the Dead Sea Scrolls), and literary conventions (the explicit and the implicit; proleptic summaries). The articles (in English, French or German) were written by scholars with varying religious backgrounds from various countries, and were originally read at a Congress in Paris of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament in 1992.

This volume publishes the papers given by invitation at the fifteenth Congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament, which was held at Cambridge in July 1995, under the Presidency of J.A. Emerton. The articles cover a wide range of subjects relevant to the study of the Old Testament, and reflect the ongoing debate on a variety of themes among the world's leading contemporary Old Testament scholars.

This Congress Volume comprises not only the main lectures of the XVIth I.O.S.O.T. Congress, held in Oslo 1998, but also the interventions at the two panels on "Intertextuality and the Pluralism of Methods" and on "The Hebrew Bible and History." Both the main lectures and the panelists' interventions focus on current methodological problems and study central questions in the present study of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in its environment.

This Congress Volume comprises not only the main lectures of the XVIth I.O.S.O.T. Congress, held in Oslo 1998, but also the interventions at the two panels on "Intertextuality and the Pluralism of Methods" and on "The Hebrew Bible and History". Both the main lectures and the panelists' interventions focus on current methodological problems and study central questions in the present study of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in its environment.

This volume publishes the papers given by invitation at the 17th Congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament, which was held in Basel from 5-10 August 2001. It presents a state of the art of the current exegesis of the Hebrew Bible, taking into account the latest research in general linguistics and semitic philology, as well as textual criticism (Massora Magna, Septuagint, Qumran manuscripts), ethno-sociology and archaeology. Feminist biblical studies are duly represented as well as the last research on literary criticism on the Pentateuch, especially in its relation to other ancient Near Eastern texts (Neo-assyrian and Aramaic inscriptions). Finally, two contributions throw light on the problem of religious interpretation of the Bible (Resurrection of the Dead and Biblical Theology).

For almost two centuries biblical scholars have operated in the shadow of de Wette's judgement that the books of Chronicles are derived from and (hence?) historically inferior to the books of Samuel - Kings. Without disputing de Wette's historical feel for the unreliability of the Chronicler, Graeme Auld suggests a fresh model for understanding the interrelationships of these two accounts of the Bible's kings: each had supplemented, quite independently of the other, a common inherited text that had told the story of Judah's kings from David to the fall of Jerusalem. He reconstructs and explains this shared source. This fresh study shows that the author of Samuel-Kings was no less partisan than the Chronicler when retelling older traditions of Israel and Judah. Sometimes the two books diverge considerably, as over King Hezekiah. At other times the differences are slighter, yet quite as telling: after forty shared verses of petition in Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the Jerusalem Temple, the version in Kings ends by appealing to the Exodus and mentioning Moses by name; but Chronicles, as often more traditionally, names David and quotes a Psalm.

In this study, Jürg Hutzli analyses all Priestly texts in Genesis-Exodus. He evaluates crucial questions concerning P, namely inner stratification, literary profile, historical setting, and relationship to the non-P "environment" separately for each Priestly unit or section. An important result of the author's study is the conclusion that the Priestly texts form a stratum that is more composite and less homogeneous than previously thought. Single units like Gen. 1, the Priestly flood story, and the Priestly Abraham narrative have their own distinct theologies that do not fit that of the comprehensive Priestly composition in every respect. Furthermore, as recent studies point out, the literary profile of P is not the same in every section (either a source or a redaction). The author evaluates these observations diachronically for an inner differentiation of the Priestly strand.

This volume brings together essays written over two decades by a leading authority in the field. The collection includes 2 recent essays that are published here for the first time. The articles cover major aspects of the discussion of Jewish apocalypticism, in relation to the Hebrew bible, the New Testament and the Hellenistic-Roman world. Distinctive strengths of the volume include clusters of essays on the Sibylline oracles and on the relationship between apocalypticism and wisdom. A section of the book is devoted to studies on Daniel. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.

The Book of Judith has aroused a great deal of scholarly interest in the last few decades.This volume, the first full length commentary on Judith to appear in over 25 years, includes a new translation and a detailed verse-by-verse commentary, which touches upon philological, literary, and historical questions. The extensive introduction discusses the work's date and historical background, and looks closely at the controversial question of the book's original language. Biblical influences on the book's setting, characters, plot, and language are investigated, and the heroine, Judith is viewed against the background of biblical women (and men). The influence of classical Greek writers such as Herodotus and Ctesias on the work is noted, as are the interesting differences between the Septuagint and Vulgate versions of Judith.

The Hebrew Bible portrays King Manasseh and child sacrifice as the most reprehensible person and the most objectionable practice within the story of 'Israel'. This monograph suggests that historically, neither were as deviant as the Hebrew Bible appears to insist. Through careful historical reconstruction, it is argued that Manasseh was one of Judah's most successful monarchs, and child sacrifice played a central role in ancient Judahite religious practice. The biblical writers, motivated by ideological concerns, have thus deliberately distorted the truth about Manasseh and child sacrifice.