The Meaning of the Bible

by Knight, Douglas A.; Levine, Amy-Jill

• ISBN13: 9780062067739
• ISBN10: 0062067737
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-08-21
• Publisher: Harperone

Summary

What the Bible Really Says About Politics, Sex, Creation, Suffering, and More

Author Biography

Douglas A. Knight is Druoilla Moore Buffington Professor of Hebrew Bible and professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University. Knight is the author of Law, Power, and Justice in Ancient Israel and Rediscovering the Traditions of Israel. Amy-Jill Levine is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University and affiliate faculty at the Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations in Cambridge, UK. Levine is the author of The Misunderstood Jew and served as co-editor of The Jewish Annotated New Testament.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations	p. xi
Introduction	p. xiii
The History of Ancient Israel	p. 3
Reconstructing History	p. 5
Historical Synopsis	p. 7
The Ancestors	p. 10
The Exodus	p. 13
Settlement of the Land	p. 17
The Founding of the Monarchy	p. 22
From the Divided Kingdom to the Fall of Jerusalem	p. 25
Exile and Return	p. 32
The Persian and Hellenistic Periods	p. 34
The Historical Time Frame	p. 40
The Literary Heritage of Ancient Israel	p. 43
Tanakh or Old Testament or Hebrew Bible?	p. 45
Every Translator, a Traitor	p. 48
Literary Conventions	p. 53
Characterization	p. 58
Different Stories, Different Authors	p. 64
Canonization	p. 73
Land and Settlement	p. 75
Israel's Environs	p. 77
Topography	p. 81
Climate and Water Resources	p. 91
Settlement of the Land	p. 94
A Land of Milk and Honey	p. 96
Law and Justice	p. 101
The Written and the Unwritten	p. 104
Ancient Southwest Asia	p. 108
Rhetorical Forms	p. 111
Administering Justice	p. 115
The Divine	p. 133
Four Stumbling Blocks to Talking About the Biblical God	p. 135
The Names of God	p. 139
Religious Competition and Co-optation	p. 147
The Divine Feminine	p. 150
Father God, Children of God, Angels	p. 152
Polytheism, Henotheism, and Monotheism	p. 157
Seeing the Portraits Again	p. 159
The Cultus	p. 165
The "Domestic Cult"	p. 166
Tabernacles and Temples	p. 169
Priests	p. 176
Purity	p. 181
Dietary Concerns	p. 186
Sacrifice	p. 188
Child Sacrifice	p. 191
Chaos and Creation	p. 195
Creation Today	p. 195
Cosmic Architecture	p. 198
Hands-on Artisanship	p. 207
Disorder and Estrangement	p. 213
From Cain and Abel to Noah and Babel	p. 216
Other Biblical Creations	p. 224
Continuation and Completion	p. 231
Abrahams Search for a Home	p. 232
From Slavery to Liberation	p. 239
New Exodus: From Prophecy to Apocalyptic	p. 249
Self and Other	p. 261
Hebrews	p. 262
Circumcision	p. 264
Endogamy	p. 269
The Tribes of Israel	p. 280
The Samaritans	p. 282
Judeans and Jews	p. 284
From Affiliation to Conversion	p. 285
Resident Aliens and Foreigners	p. 288
Chosen People	p. 292
Sexuality	p. 293
Revisiting Eden	p. 296
Sexual Seduction, Response, and Potency	p. 304
Legislating Sexuality	p. 306
Marriage, Divorce, and Adultery	p. 314
Abortion	p. 320
Sexual Abuse	p. 322
Innuendo	p. 323
Politics and the Economy	p. 329
The Nation-State	p. 330
The Cities	p. 340
The Empire and the Colony	p. 343
The Household	p. 345
The Clan	p. 350
The Tribe	p. 334
Diaspora	p. 361
Initial Scattering and Return	p. 361
The Ten Lost Tribes	p. 365
The Babylonian Diaspora	p. 367
Postexilic Diaspora Communities	p. 375
Esther	p. 376
Daniel	p. 383
Tobit	p. 389
Critique and Reform	p. 395
Historians as Critics	p. 396
Moses, Flawed but Unassailable	p. 398
As His Father David Did	p. 403
Prophets as Critics	p. 415
Politics	p. 419
Economy	p. 421
Religion	p. 423
Wisdom and Theodicy	p. 427
Who Is Wise?	p. 428
Sages and Their Literature	p. 431
Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon	p. 434
Woman Wisdom	p. 436
Job and Theodicy	p. 439
Qohelet (Ecclesiastes) and Realism	p. 452
Conclusion	p. 457
Acknowledgments	p. 459
Bibliography	p. 461
Index	p. 465
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