Psalms, Modernity, and the Making of History

Focusing on Psalms 78, 105, 106, and 136, Walter Brueggemann considers these psalms on their own terms and then takes up two issues that move in opposite interpretive directions: the Psalms in relation to the historical writing of modernity and the P...

Ideological Conflict in Job

In this book, David Penchansky examines the inconsistencies between Job's beliefs and his actions. Adapting the theories of neo-Marxist/postmodernist literary critics Fredric Jameson and Pierre Macherey, Penchansky traces ideological and theological ...

Resconstructing the Rhetoric and Audience of 1 Thessalonians

This unique study considers the exegetical and hermeneutical possibilities of analyzing the entire letter of 1 Thessalonians as letter of consolation. Abraham Smith maintains that Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians with a full knowledge of the tradition of G...

Kinship, Conflict, and Continuity in Genesis

The family narratives in the book of Genesis are important in understanding the meaning of the book and are fundamental to the unfolding story of the birth of the Israelite nation. Devora Steinmetz sees kinship in ancient narratives as a symbolic str...

A Discourse of Power

What does it mean to imitate another person? What relationships are possible and necessary, or unthinkable, because of exhortation advising people to imitate Paul? What are the effects of giving special status to likeness? Questions such as these are...

Using a pragmatic, reader-orientated approach and informed by contemporary theory of metaphor and related topics, Katheryn Darr examines the meaning and functions of child and female imagery for sequential readers of the Isaiah scroll in its entirety...

In this book, W. Dow Edgerton reviews narratives from the Bible, the Talmud, Greek mythology, and modern fiction in order to provide a better understanding of the nature and work of interpretation. Disclosed are rich, complex, and compelling possibil...

Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible

Intertextuality (the reading of one text in terms of another) is a diverse practice. It is a central and prevalent subject in poststructuralist literary theory. Reading between Texts is the first book to address intertextuality as it relates specific...

A Case for the Literary Carnivalesque

In this original interpretation of the book of Esther, Kenneth Craig offers to interpreters a new way of reading this story. According to Craig, Esther has been undervalued and misunderstood because its true genre, the literary carnivalesque, has not...

In this book, Thomas Jemielity demonstrates the striking relationship between satire and Hebrew prophecy by reviewing the role of ridicule in both and analyzing questions of nature, structure, form, and audience. This pioneering study makes compellin...