Analyzes sixty-three subjects from the Bible from a cross-cultural perspective.

In this new edition of a successful book (over 120,000 copies sold), now updated throughout, a leading expert on the social world of the Bible offers students a reliable guide to the manners and customs of the ancient world. From what people wore, ate, and built to how they exercised justice, mourned, and viewed family and legal customs, this illustrated introduction helps readers gain valuable cultural background on the biblical world. The attractive, full-color, user-friendly design will appeal to students, while numerous pedagogical features--including fifty photos, sidebars, callouts, maps, charts, a glossary of key terms, chapter outlines, and discussion questions--increase classroom utility. Previously published as Manners and Customs in the Bible.

The task of interpreting the Bible — which was written by and to people living in very different cultural contexts from contemporary Western society — can seem monumental. The opposite is also true: people can easily forget that studying the Bible is a type of cross-cultural encounter, instead reading their own cultural assumptions into biblical texts. In A Cultural Handbook to the Bible John Pilch bridges this cultural divide by translating important social concepts and applying them to biblical texts. In short, accessible chapters Pilch discusses sixty-three topics related to the cosmos, the earth, persons, family, language, human consciousness, God and the spirit world, and entertainment. Pilch's fresh interpretations of the Bible challenge traditional views and explore topics often overlooked in commentaries. Each chapter concludes with a list of useful references from cultural anthropology or biblical studies, making this book an excellent resource for students of the Bible.

Values are culturally specific. This handbook explains select biblical social values in their Mediterranean cultural contexts. Some examples of values are altruism, freedom, family-centeredness, obedience, parenting, and power. Though the English words for the values described here would be familiar to readers (e.g., altruism) the meanings of such words differ between cultures. In the Mediterranean world, for instance, altruism is a duty incumbent upon anyone who has surplus. It is interpersonal and group specific. In the West, especially in the United States, altruism is impersonal and universally oriented generosity that operates in a highly organized context. This handbook not only presents the Mediterranean meanings of these value words but also contrasts those meanings with Western ones.

The centrality and importance of the intersection of Christianity and culture when it comes to English-speaking countries and particularly American culture, history, and politics is beyond doubt. The Routledge Handbook of Christianity and Culture is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems, and debates in this exciting subject. Comprising over 35 chapters by a team of international contributors, the handbook is divided into five parts: • Practicing Christianity • Christianity and the Word • Social and Political Aspects of Christianity and Culture • Christianity and Culture in a Global Context • Christianity and the Arts Within these parts, central issues, debates, and problems are examined including liturgy, material Christianity, education, missions, religion and science, hermeneutics, Bible translations, Christian wars, human rights, law, social action, the secular, ecumenicalism, inter-religious relations, visual arts, literature, music, theatre, and film. The Routledge Handbook of Christianity and Culture is essential reading for students and researchers of religious studies and Christian studies. The handbook will also be very useful for those in related fields, such as cultural studies, area studies, visual studies, literature, and material religion.

Often, readers and commentators read the Proverbs as “timeless” observations and recommendations regarding human nature, valid for all cultures and places. This blunts their cultural relevance, argues John J. Pilch. For example, proverbs regarding the “good wife” and the “quarrelsome wife” take on different meaning in a context where a married couple were rarely in close daily contact, and the predominantly masculine language used in the Proverbs points to the different cultural spheres of men and women and the different child-rearing practices employed with boys and girls. Similar in approach and format to the Social-Science Commentary on the New Testament volumes that he authored with Richard L. Rohrbaugh and Bruce J. Malina, this volume explores and describes the cultural matrix of the Mediterranean world from which the Proverbs come and of which they are descriptive. The biblical text is paired with commentary addressing those proverbs and proverb collections with particular bearing on patterns of social roles and expectations. A list of social-science “scenarios” provides ready reference to particular aspects of the large cultural area of the ancient Mediterranean region and North Africa.

In today's reading culture, it is easy to forget that we receive God's message far differently from how the original hearers would have heard it. D. Brent Sandy explores how oral communication shaped biblical writers and ancient hearers, and provides constructive ways for modern readers to be better hearers and performers of Scripture.