The Biblical World is a comprehensive guide to the contents, historical settings, and social context of the Bible. This new edition is updated with several new chapters as well as a new section on biblical interpretation.
Contributions from leading scholars in the field present wide-ranging views not just of biblical materials and their literary and linguistic context, but also of the social institutions, history and archaeology, and religious concepts. New chapters cover topics such as the priesthood and festivals, creation and covenant, ethics, and family life, while a new section on biblical interpretation discusses Jewish and Christian bible translation and key thematic emphases, and modern reader-response and cultural approaches.
This revised edition of The Biblical World offers an up-to-date and thorough survey of the Bible and its world, and will continue to be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament and their history and interpretation, as well as anyone working on the societies, religions, and political and cultural institutions that created and influenced these texts.
Introduction
Katharine J. Dell
Part I: The Bible
1: The Old Testament/Hebrew Bible
Eryl W. Davies
2: The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha
Adele Reinhartz
3: The Dead Sea Scrolls
George J. Brooke
4: The New Testament
Mary Marshall
5: Early Christian Apocrypha
Andrew Gregory
Part II: The canon
6: Law
Sandra Jacobs
7: Historiography
Anselm C. Hagedorn
8: Prophecy
Janet E. Tollington
9: Wisdom
Katharine J. Dell
10: Apocalypticism
Christopher Rowland
11: The Jewish and Hellenistic novel
Laurence M. Wills
12: The Gospels and Acts
Kylie Crabbe
13: Letters in the new Testament and in the Greco-Roman world
Harry Gamble and Matthew V. Novenson
Part III: Documents
14: Cuneiform myths and epics in the Ancient Near East
Frances Reynolds
15: The Hebrew and Aramaic languages
John Huebnergard and Jo Ann Hackett
16: The Greek language
Courtney J. P. Friesen
17: Text and versions: the Old Testament
Marieke Dhont
18: Text and versions: the New Testament
David C. Parker
19: Hebrew inscriptions
Graham Davies
20: The Cairo Genizah
Benjamin Outhwaite
21: Greek and Roman inscriptions: Jewish inscriptions
James K. Aitken
22: Christian inscriptions in a (post-)biblical world
Joseph Verheyden
Part IV: History
23: Biblical archaeology
Felicity J. Cobbing
24: Palestine during the Bronze Age
Robert S. Homsher and Melissa S. Cradic
25: Palestine during the Iron Age
James E. Harding
26: Israel’s ancestors: the patriarchs and matriarchs
J. Cheryl Exum
27: Israel at the time of the united monarchy: David and Solomon
Benjamin J. M. Johnson
28: Exile, migration, and diaspora after the fall of Jerusalem in the sixth century BCE
Jill Middlemas
29: Israel under Persia and Greece
Lester Grabbe
30: Judaea under Roman rule: 63 BCE–135 CE
Sarah Pearce
31: Israel’s neighbours
Jonathan Stökl
Part V: Institutions
32: Religion in Israel: pre-exile and in exile
C. A. Strine
33: Warfare
Thomas M. Bolin
34: Priesthood and festivals
Deborah Rooke
35: The Arts: representational (architecture, artefacts), performative (music, drama), literary (poetry, psalmody)
Susan Gillingham
36: Family and everyday life
Arthur J. Keefer
37: Judaism at the turn of the era
Lutz Doering
38: The first churches: social life
Justin J. Meggitt
39: The first churches: religious practices
Justin J. Meggitt
40: Creation and covenant
Philip Johnston
41: Salvation in Jewish thought
Norman Solomon
42: Salvation in Christian thought
Paul Foster
43: Ethics
C. L. Crouch and Tarah L. Van der Wiele
44: New Testament christology: interpretations of the identity and role of Jesus
Catrin H. Williams
45: Interpretations of the identity and role of Paul
David G. Horrell
46: Death and afterlife
John J. Collins
47: Purity and sacrifice
Nathan MacDonald
Part VI: Biblical interpretation past and present
48: Jewish Bible translations
Isaac Kalimi
49: Jewish Biblical interpretation
Alison Salvesen
50: Christian Bible translation
Peter J. Williams
51: Early Christian biblical interpretation
Mark Edwards
52: Modern biblical interpretation
William R. Telford
53: Reader-response criticism and recent readers
Brittany N. Melton and Heath A. Thomas
54: The Bible in contemporary culture and society
Hugh Pyper
Biography
Katharine J. Dell is Reader in Old Testament Literature and Theology at the Faculty of Divinity in the University of Cambridge, UK, and Fellow of St Catharine's College. She has written extensively on the Wisdom literature of the Old Testament including The Book of Proverbs in Social and Theological Context (2008), Interpreting Ecclesiastes: Readers Old and New (2013), and The Solomonic Corpus of 'Wisdom' and its Influence (2020); and has also written introductory textbooks including, Who Needs the Old Testament?: Its Enduring Appeal and Why the New Atheists Don't Get It (2017).
"Every essay is authoritative, well conceived, and up-to-date... advanced students and scholars can confidently consult this insightful resource. Recommended" - CHOICE
