Changing Perspectives 1: Studies in the History, Literature and Religion of Biblical Israel

by Van Seters,John

• ISBN13: 9781845539016
• ISBN10: 184553901X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-08-19
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This volume contains a collection of articles written over a 40 year period, from 1964 onwards. They are revisionist in character and address major issues in the understanding of Israelite and Judean history, the literary-critical analysis of the Pentateuch and historical books, and the nature of biblical religion. The historical studies were among the first to raise serious questions with the prevailing understanding of the patriarchal age, the accounts of the exodus from Egypt and the conquest of Canaan, and the temple of Solomon. The literary studies of the Pentateuch challenged both the classical Documentary Hypothesis, especially the early dating of J, and the more recent modifications that support the notion of an extensive Deuteronomistic redaction of the Pentateuch. Articles on biblical historiography focus on a late dating of the Court History of David, the nature of the Deuteronomistic history, and the role of creative imitation in the composition of biblical narrative. The final section on Israelite religion and culture views biblical notions about patriarchal religion, myths of human origin, and the legendary origins of Passover, within a broad comparative context. These articles have had a significant impact in the field of biblical studies.

Author Biography

John Van Seters is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. During his 23-year teaching career at UNC he was the James A. Gray Professor of Biblical Literature. Among his various honours and awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship, an NEH fellowship an ACLS fellowship, and research fellowships at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and National Research Fund of South Africa. Among his many publications are Abraham in History and Tradition (1975); In Search of History (1983) for which he won the James H. Breasted Prize and the American Academy of Religion book award; and The Biblical Saga of King David (2009).

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Historical Critical Studies
A Date for the ôAdmonitionsö in the Second Intermediate Period	p. 17
The Problem of Childlessness in Near Eastern Law and the Patriarchs of Israel	p. 31
Jacob's Marriages and Ancient Near East Customs: A Reexamination	p. 39
The Terms ôAmoriteö and ôHittiteö in the Old Testament	p. 55
Joshua's Campaign of Canaan and Near Eastern Historiography	p. 73
Solomon's Temple: Fact and Ideology in Biblical and Near Eastern Historiography	p. 85
The Chronicler's Account of Solomon's Temple-Building: A Continuity Theme	p. 99
The Geography of the Exodus	p. 115
Literary Critical Studies
The Pentateuch
Confessional Reformulation in the Exilic Period	p. 137
Recent Studies on the Pentateuch: A Crisis in Method	p. 149
The So-called Deuteronomistic Redaction of the Pentateuch	p. 171
The Deuteronomistic Redaction of the Pentateuch: The Case against It	p. 189
The Conquest of Sihon's Kingdom: A Literary Examination	p. 209
Once Again: The Conquest of Sihon's Kingdom	p. 227
The Theology of the Yahwist: A Preliminary Sketch	p. 231
In the Babylonian Exile with J: Between Judgment in Ezekiel and Salvation in Second Isaiah	p. 241
Divine Encounter at Bethel (Gen 28:10-22) in Recent Literary-Critical Study of Genesis	p. 259
The Historical Books
Problems in the Literary Analysis of the Court History of David	p. 271
Love and Death in the Court History of David	p. 279
The Deuteronomistic History: Can It Avoid Death by Redaction?	p. 287
On Reading the Story of the Man of God from Judah in 1 Kings 13	p. 297
Creative Imitation in the Hebrew Bible	p. 307
Comparative Studies in Religion and Culture
The Religion of the Patriarchs in Genesis	p. 323
The Primeval Histories of Greece and Israel Compared	p. 335
The Creation of Man and the Creation of the King	p. 359
Myth and History and the Problem of Origins	p. 369
Tradition and History: History as National Tradition	p. 385
From Child Sacrifice to Pascal Lamb: A Remarkable Transformation in Israelite Religion	p. 399
Index of Biblical References	p. 409
Index of Authors	p. 421
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.