First Glance
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In what hallowed ancient book does a femme fatale invoke God’s name to aid her in using her beauty to save her people? If you answered Esther, you would be wrong; God is never mentioned by name in the Book of Esther. It was the devout widow Judith who shed her sackcloth and interrupted her fasting to beguile—and then behead—an Assyrian general! But oddly enough the overtly religious Book of Judith never made it into the Jewish or Protestant canon, while “non-religious” Esther became sacred scripture for Jews and Christians alike. In “Judith—The Case of the Pious Killer” p. 26, Carey Moore explores possible reasons for Judith’s rejection, revealing the book’s semisatirical opening, its many ironies and its outright errors of chronology and geography.
Amanda Rupert Strong Professor of religion at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Moore is the author of the highly praised Anchor Bible volumes of Judith and Esther. Also a popular contributor to BR and to our sister publication, Biblical Archaeology Review, Moore wrote “Eight Questions Most Frequently Asked About the Book of Esther,” the cover story for the Spring 1987 BR, and “You Too Can Read Hieroglyphics,” BAR 11:04.
Although they might not meet modern standards of historical scholarship, the Gospels are a form of biography, according to David E. Aune’s “The Gospels—Biography or Theology?” This conclusion may seem obvious to many people, but it dramatically reverses the tide of thought that has dominated biblical scholarship for nearly a century. Aune reviews the reasons for the traditional scholarly view that the Gospels are theological rather than biographical, and then shows how new understandings of the literary environment of the New Testament have undermined that view. He finds that the Gospels are actually a type of Greco-Roman biography in their overall form, though they incorporate elements of Jewish tradition, while expressing the Christian message.
For more than twenty years a professor of religious studies at Saint Xavier College in Chicago, Aune has also taught at several seminaries and divinity schools. In addition, two sponsored lecture trips took him to universities in Scotland and Scandinavia in 1983. Aune has over a hundred published, works to his credit, including—as author, editor or translator—seven books. His recent book, The New Testament in Its Literary Environment (Westminster, 1987), was reviewed in Bible Books, BR 05:06. Aune is currently working on a book tentatively titled Greco-Roman Culture and the New Testament for the Anchor Bible Reference library.
Many Christians have little regard for the Old Testament. This may be because they have difficulty seeing the relevance of the Old Testament to their religious beliefs. In “The Old Testament Among Christian Theologians,” Hemchand Gossai surveys the history of Christian theologians’ views toward the Old Testament, views that have at times fueled anti-Semitic prejudices. He contends that the Old Testament is not only necessary for interpretation of the New Testament, but that it can sometimes serve to enhance the New Testament.
Gossai received his Ph.D. in 1986 from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and he was ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America in 1987. He now serves as pastor of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. As an adjunct instructor, Gossai teaches Old Testament at St. Paul Seminary, in St. Paul, Minnesota. His Amos and Hosea will soon be published by Augsburg Publishing House in Minneapolis.
Why does Isaiah 57:3–13 excoriate three seemingly disparate activities—ritual sex (taking place underneath trees, no less!), child sacrifice and the cult of the dead—in a single powerful poem? Surprisingly, all three were linked at one time in the practices of some ancient Israelites, as Susan Ackerman demonstrates in “Sacred Sex, Sacrifice and Death.” Her examination draws on several Semitic languages to explicate heretofore obscure passages and helps us better understand the prophet’s blistering scorn.
Ackerman is assistant professor of Near Eastern and Judaic studies at the University of Arizona and serves on the steering committee of the Canaanite and Israelite Religion section of the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical literature. She received her doctorate from Harvard University in 1987. While 003there, she contributed several entries to the sourcebook for “The Cultural Legacy of the Ancient Near East,” an undergraduate survey course. Her first book, Under Every Green Tree: Popular Religion in Sixth-Century Judah, is due to be published this spring by Scholars Press.
If the difference between an uncial and a minuscule escapes you, or if you can’t tell your papyri from your palimpsests, this issue’s Glossary is definitely for you. Darrell Hannah provides a guided tour through the world of “New Testament Manuscripts: Uncials, Minuscules, Palimpsests and All That Stuff.” In the process, he indicates which ancient manuscripts provide important evidence of the original text of the New Testament.
Hannah has a Masters of Divinity from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in Louisville, Kentucky, and is pursuing a Masters of Theology in New Testament textual criticism at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. He proves that you don’t have to be a world-famous scholar to contribute to BR (though we wouldn’t hold that against You). Hannah’s article grew out of an unsolicited proposal for a Glossary entry. Perhaps other readers, well-established in the field of biblical studies or not, will take heart from his example and submit an opening paragraph and a précis on other terms in biblical scholarship.
One biblical scholar earlier this century remarked that the only problem with the standard view of post-Exilic Judaism was the real history of post-Exilic Judaism. Joseph Blenkinsopp, in this month’s My View column, “An Agenda for the 21st Century,” quotes that rueful comment and applies the same sentiment to the Old Testament theologies of the 19th century, theologies rife with preconceived notions and even out-and-out anti-Semitism. Only recently, Blenkinsopp writes, have scholars made significant progress in understanding the post-Exilic period, his own area of expertise. But many more questions remain to be raised (he raises a few of the more salient ones), questions that will be at the forefront of scholarship in the years ahead.
Blenkinsopp is John A. O’Brien Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Notre Dame. His books include A History of Prophecy in Israel from the Settlement to the Hellenistic Period (Westminster Press, 1984), Wisdom and Law in the Old Testament (Oxford Univ. Press, 1983) and Prophecy and Canon (Univ. of Notre Dame press, 1977). The latter received the National Religious Book Award.
Is it or isn’t it “completely revised,” asks everyone about the new edition of The Nag Hammadi Library in English. Former translation team member James Brashler examines the question in the Bible Books section.
In what hallowed ancient book does a femme fatale invoke God’s name to aid her in using her beauty to save her people? If you answered Esther, you would be wrong; God is never mentioned by name in the Book of Esther. It was the devout widow Judith who shed her sackcloth and interrupted her fasting to beguile—and then behead—an Assyrian general! But oddly enough the overtly religious Book of Judith never made it into the Jewish or Protestant canon, while “non-religious” Esther became sacred scripture for Jews and Christians alike. In “Judith—The Case of the Pious Killer” p. […]
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