83 articles in this issue
David E. S. Stein
This article investigates one of the most frequent nouns in the Hebrew Bible, ??? (’îš). Using paradigmatic (comparative) and syntagmatic (contextual) linguistic analysis, it finds that ??? is a term that intrinsically conveys relationship. That is, ??? s... see more
Raz Kletter
The ‘Friends of Antiquities” were members of a unique body of volunteers, which was active in Israel for forty years, since its creation in 1948. They were nominated by the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums (IDAM), serving as its “eyes and ears... see more
John A. Cook
The application of linguistics to Biblical Hebrew grammar, particularly its verbal system, has continued in recent decades, while at the same time there has been an marked increase in the number of elementary Hebrew grammars. Sadly, few of these grammars ... see more
Yael Shemesh
In this essay I approach the story of Elisha and the miraculous jar of oil (2 Kgs 4:1-7) through a close reading and attention to its literary genre – hagiography. The widow’s attitude toward Elisha, the miracle that Elisha performs for her, the contrast ... see more
The present article seeks to define the literary genre of the Elisha cycle of stories. Various possibilities raised in current research are examined and rejected. They are not polemic stories directed against Baal Worship, narratives designed to glorify t... see more
Aron Pinker
Minor and reasonable emendations produce the following reading: “and also I saw wicked frequenting graves, and necromancer, and place of a holy. And they were forgotten in the city in which they did so (correctly?). This too is absurd.” T... see more
Ronald Hendel, Saul M. Olyan
An introduction to the following five articles that engage Douglas’s studies of the Hebrew Bible from a variety of perspectives and on a variety of topics.
Ronald Hendel
Mary Douglas’s scholarship has been described as “a classic expression of British anthropological modernism.” In this essay I explore the significance of her work within the larger intellectual horizons of modernism and within the Durkheimian tradition in... see more
Alfred Marx
The present paper addresses the question of the surprising presence in Leviticus 19 of two sacrificial regulations among mainly moral commandments. It attempts to show that far from being out of place these laws sum up the ethic imposed on Israelites in t... see more
Saul M. Olyan
The strengths and weaknesses of Mary Douglas’s holiness/wholeness paradigm, in which she links the idea of holiness directly to physical wholeness, are critically assessed in this article. Several examples of fruitful elaboration of the paradigm by biblic... see more
Rüdiger Schmitt
The article deals with some of the theses advanced in Mary Douglas’s later works (In the Wilderness, Leviticus as Literature, and Jacob’s Tears), and in particular with her claim that magic and divination were outlawed in the priestly conceptions of the r... see more
David P. Wright
This article argues that any action performed by an individual or group can only be properly understood in the context of the larger range of similar activity performed by the individual or group. It builds on Mary Douglas's syntagmatic structural analysi... see more
Silvio Sergio Scatolini Apóstolo
This contribution highlights some of the dimensions of the biblical book called "Ezekiel." Its point of departure is that biblical books are “books” in a special way, not only because they ask their readers to approach them as means of God's revelations, ... see more
Herb Basser
Rashi seems to have combined two understandings of masoret (Ezek. 20:37): “restraining fetter (moser)” and “divine promises God had handed down (masar).” “Fetter” looks backwards in the verse to God's yoke of obligations and forwards in the verse to... see more
Thomas Römer
This article deals with how, in texts inside and outside the Torah, Moses became a figure of identification for the different Jewish Diasporas during the Persian Period The following themes are investigated: 1. The Shared Figure of Moses and the Pen... see more
Jonathan Jacobs
This article approaches the characterization of the heroine in Esther 2:1-20 from three perspectives: her status prior to her meeting with the king; her status after meeting with the king; and a literary analogy between her and Ahasuerus.
Moshe Kline
Leviticus 19 was constructed as a true table consisting of two columns and five rows. The columns are inverted parallels; one is ordered from positive to negative and the other from negative to positive. The rows are ordered according to the degree of God... see more
Michael Avioz
This essay reconsiders Louis Feldman's assertion that Josephus characterized Saul as a king who administered justice. This assertion is examined against the narratives in 1 Samuel 14 and 22. My conclusion is that Josephus did not praise Saul for being a j... see more
Elie Assis
This article explores the Temple ideology that characterizes the book of Haggai and its innovative features. It explains Haggai's new approach in terms of the particular situation of the period, including its geo-political circumstances and its implicatio... see more
F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp
A close reading of Psalm 133, with special attention paid both to the words out of which the poem is literally made and to what happens in between and beyond those words, as well as what emerges because of them.
Nadav Na'aman
This article discusses the identity of the recently excavated stronghold of Khirbet Qeiyafa, a tenth century BCE site located near the Valley of Elah, in the area where the story of the battle between David and Goliath takes place. There is also the story... see more
Yosef Garfinkel, Saar Ganor
Khirbet Qeiyafa is a 2.3 hectare fortified early 10th century BCE site, located in the Judean Shephelah, atop a hill that bordered the Elah Valley from the north. This is a key strategic location in the biblical kingdom of Judah, on the main road from Phi... see more
Andrew E. Steinmann
Building on Bill’s Arnold’s thesis that the presence of Aramaic in Ezra presents a shift in perspective to an external point of view, Joshua Berman has theorized that Ezra 4:8—6:18 presents a narrator who is speaking from a gentile point of view as oppose... see more
The article discusses the location of the city of Shaaraim mentioned in Josh 15:36 and 1 Sam 17:52. It first argues that its proposed identification with Khirbet Qeiyafa, north of the Elah Valley is mistaken. Then it argues that Shaaraim is located on the... see more
Ian Young
The most widely held scholarly view argues that Early Biblical Hebrew (EBH) developed into Late Biblical Hebrew (LBH) during the sixth-fifth centuries BCE. It is claimed that on this basis scholars are able to date the composition of biblical books by ana... see more
Gary Martin
Robert D. Holmstedt
Joseph Azize
Brian P. Irwin
Charles Halton
Steve A. Wiggins
Barbara Green
T. M. Lemos
Bernard F. Batto
D. Nathan Phinney
Ken Ristau
David A. Bosworth
Keith Bodner
Alan Lenzi
Irene Nowell
Phillip J. Long
Kenneth Atkinson
Dan Clanton
Ellen White
Garrett Galvin
Jeremiah Cataldo
David Bergen
Bernon P. Lee
William Gilders
Richard Benton
Michael Duggan
Joyce Rilett Wood
Mark W. Hamilton
Michael Allen Daise
Shawn W. Flynn
Gunnar Lehmann
Amanda W. Benckhuysen
Carolyn J. Sharp
Mark S. Smith
Dianne Bergant
Alex Jassen
Carl S. Ehrlich
John Kaltner
Wesley Hu
Bob Becking
Yehoshua Gitay
William Irwin
Bruce Power
Todd Hibbard
Briana Lee
Judith H. Newman
Colette Sirat
Marvin A. Sweeney
John Van Seters
Steven L. McKenzie
Andrea K. Di Giovanni
Jean Duhaime
Bethel Seminary
Matthias Hopf
Philippe Guillaume