How Old is the Hebrew Bible? A Response to Konrad Schmid

2021 ◽  
Vol 133 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-370
Author(s):  
Ronald Hendel
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Relevant Evidence ◽  
Linguistic History ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
History Of ◽  
Integration Of Methods

Abstract The methodological issues about how to integrate the linguistic history of Hebrew into our inquiries into the literary history of the Bible are complicated and controverted. In this contribution to the discussion, I attempt to clarify areas of agreement and disagreement, provide an example (Genesis 1–11) where some of the issues of integration of methods can be tested, and consider the relevant evidence for the emulation of classical Hebrew.

The Moral Amnesia of Modernity: The Scholarship of Ernest Fortin

1998 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-354
Author(s):  
Glenn Tinder
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Good Sense ◽  
Great Pleasure ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
History Of

Walking in Ernest Fortin's scholarly universe is a great pleasure. One breathes an atmosphere of serenity, good sense, and profound erudition. Fortin is at once highly serious yet often amusing; he is both learned and unpretentious; he is frequently skeptical but never unpleasant or destructive. The traveler in his universe encounters not only a great number of interesting discussions but also particularly brilliant pieces, such as “The Bible Made Me Do It: Christianity, Science, and the Environment,” where the author fully exposes the absurdity of the claim that Genesis 1, in which God grants humanity dominion over the rest of creation, bears responsibility for the damage done in recent times to the physical environment. In bringing together the essays and reviews that make up these volumes, Brian Benestad has performed an important service not only for the community of Christian scholars and thinkers but for all who are interested in the history of philosophy and political theory.

Flora and Fauna of the Hebrew Bible

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mari Joerstad
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Natural World ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Normative Dimension ◽  
Noah's Ark

The flora and fauna of the Hebrew Bible has long fascinated scholars and lay readers alike. From illustrated volumes aimed at children, to the detailed tables and charts of archaeozoology and archaeobotany, the plants and animals of the Bible fascinate because of their many ties to daily life. What did people in ancient Israel eat? How did they garden? What wildflowers and trees grew around their homes? Which animals did they encounter in the desert? Animals and plants also feature centrally in some of the most memorable stories of the Bible: Noah’s ark, Balaam’s ass, Isaiah’s vineyard, Jonah in the belly of the fish, the Song’s lush gardens, God’s menagerie in Job—the list goes on. Because flora and fauna touch on topics historical, archaeological, literary, and symbolic, the study of the Bible’s flora and fauna is by necessity many-pronged. It requires multiple methodologies, as well as attention to a host of topics, including but not limited to law and purity regulations, agriculture and husbandry, metaphor theory, fables and parables, history of domestication, and so on. The recent growth in interest in ecological readings of the Bible has added a new, normative dimension to the study of flora and fauna in the Bible. While many early (and contemporary) studies focus on identification and classification of mentioned species in the Bible, ecological readings instead look at the quality of relationships between humans and their plants and animals, God’s relationship to non-human creatures, as well as relationships among non-human creatures. Scholars in the ecological vein often attempt either to derive ecological guidelines for present-day practice from the text or to critique the text’s lack of attention to responsible human conduct toward the natural world.

Genesis 1-11 in the Qatsi Film Trilogy

2020 ◽  
pp. 291-308
Author(s):  
Gregory Allen Robbins
Keyword(s):  
Film Studies ◽  
Audience Reception ◽  
Third Wave ◽  
Cultural Interpretation ◽  
Tower Of Babel ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Narratives ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
History Of ◽  
Original Story

This chapter explores the ways cinema appropriates biblical motifs and transforms them, and how those motifs might be received and experienced by viewers. Insofar as it engages more fully film criticism and theory and inquires about audience reception, it reflects the so-called third wave of religion and film studies. While films have taken their inspiration from biblical narratives and characters since the medium’s invention, this contribution, following Adele Reinhartz’s lead, directs our attention to films whose biblical elements may be apparent only to those familiar with the Bible and its cultural interpretation. It focuses on Godfrey Reggio’s critically acclaimed Qatsi trilogy (Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, and Naqoyqatsi), which represent cinematic transformations of the primeval history of Genesis 1–11. The ordering of the Cosmos, God’s declaration of its goodness, the command to the first humans to conquer and hold sway over it, human disobedience, the devolution of the created order into increasing violence, and the transgression of boundaries, including the building of the tower of Babel, are all echoed in these films. The films are transformations in the sense that they do not merely allude to the Genesis story or touch upon it in passing; they stay with the passages to which they allude, drawing out the implications of the text, wrestling with interpretive possibilities, offering visual metamorphoses that tantalize the modern imagination. While the character of the original story remains recognizably familiar, the cinematic vesture provides for dazzling transfigurations.

scholarly journals Arka Przymierza w Kronice, to jest historyi świata Marcina Bielskiego

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-85
Author(s):  
Dorota Kozaryn
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

This article discusses the ways in which the biblical Ark of the Covenant is presented in Marcin Bielski’s Kronika, to jest historyja świata (Chronicle, that is the history of the world). The analyses point to Bielski’s use of a loanword in the form of arka or archa, the word’s translations into skrzynia (chest), and a sequence of both these terms. Bielski’s ignoring of the biblical translations of this term is also emphasised by his choice of determiners for the Ark. A search for the sources that Bielski drew from for the names he used for the Ark of the Covenant in the Vulgate, P. Comestor’s Historia scholastica, the Hebrew Bible, and the known medieval and 16th-century translations of the Bible, allows for concluding that the author felt free and unrestricted in his choices and followed guidelines known to him alone.

Hebrew names and name authority in library catalogs

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Daniel Stuhlman ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
European Society ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Library Research ◽  
Family Names ◽  
History Of ◽  
Many Sources ◽  
Latin Letter ◽  
Library Catalogs

Because of the differences in alphabets, entering Hebrew names and words in English works has always been a challenge. The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) is the source for many names both in American, Jewish and European society. This work examines given names, starting with theophoric names in the Bible, then continues with other names from the Bible and contemporary sources. The list of theophoric names is comprehensive. The other names are chosen from library catalogs and the personal records of the author. Hebrew names present challenges because of the variety of pronunciations. The same name is transliterated differently for a writer in Yiddish and Hebrew, but Yiddish names are not covered in this document. Family names are included only as they relate to the study of given names. One chapter deals with why Jacob and Joseph start with "J." Transliteration tables from many sources are included for comparison purposes. Because parents may give any name they desire, there can be no absolute rules for using Hebrew names in English (or Latin character) library catalogs. When the cataloger can not find the Latin letter version of a name that the author prefers, the cataloger uses the rules for systematic Romanization. Through the use of rules and the understanding of the history of orthography, a library research can find the materials needed.

The Enduring Value of the Old Testament—An Interesting Quest

2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-42
Author(s):  
Ronald Clements
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Social ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Major Turning Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Origin ◽  
Academic Interests

AbstractThe period when the Society for Old Testament Study held its first meeting in 1917 marked a major turning point for the study of the Hebrew Bible. This rested on two factors: first, the preceding half-century had witnessed the slow, and often painful, acceptance in Christian and Jewish circles of a modern 'critical' explanation of the historical origin of its writings. Secondly, the context in which serious study of this literature was undertaken had increasingly moved out from a religious forum into that of a wider secular field of cultural and academic interests. The new methodology aimed to show that the Bible presented a worldview agreeable to modern scientific knowledge. In this setting, older, well-worn hermeneutical strategies were abandoned and replaced with new ones consonant with this aim. Prominent among these was a claim to present a historically verifiable demonstration that the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament possessed an enduring value based on its presentation of ideas of social justice, religious monotheism and universal morality. The claims to this uniqueness, however, rapidly lost credibility when fuller knowledge of the social world of antiquity became better known through archaeological and anthropological research. Such claims could be shown to depend largely on the Bible's own polemic. Nevertheless the idea of enduring value bears welcome comparison with comparable concerns to define what entitles any literary work to be regarded as a classic, and to deserve universal approval. Useful criteria can be set out but fail to command any wholly definitive acceptance. Rather, the best that can be achieved is to note those features and qualities which give to certain writings an intrinsic power to generate a continuity of interest and appeal. The history of the interpretation of the Old Testament shows that it performs well in such a context.

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