This lively commentary encompasses four major books focusing on women in the Hebrew Bible and Apocrypha. Each section in the volume addresses the biblical text in detail, and draws connections from the world of ancient audiences to that of present-day readers. Wolfe's research is motivated by the usual inquiries of biblical scholarship, as well as the questions raised by the many church Bible study groups she has taught. Clergy and laity, students and scholars will benefit from these contemporarily relevant reflections on Ruth, Esther, Song of Songs and Judith. Ruth: The foreign widow who sneaks onto the nighttime threshing floor to find survival for herself and her devastated mother-in-law. Esther: The Jewish orphan-turned-queen who turns Persian banqueting on its head in an effort to defend her people. Song of Songs: The proud and alluring lover who claims her sexuality as her own and joyfully shares it with her beloved. Judith: The pious and beautiful widow who lets the enemy commander's appetite become his downfall in order to save her besieged city. This volume is an opportunity to engage these women's suspense-filled stories, which have sustained faith communities since ancient times.

This lively commentary encompasses four major books focusing on women in the Hebrew Bible and Apocrypha. Each section in the volume addresses the biblical text in detail, and draws connections from the world of ancient audiences to that of present-day readers. Wolfe's research is motivated by the usual inquiries of biblical scholarship, as well as the questions raised by the many church Bible study groups she has taught. Clergy and laity, students and scholars will benefit from these contemporarily relevant reflections on Ruth, Esther, Song of Songs and Judith. Ruth: The foreign widow who sneaks onto the nighttime threshing floor to find survival for herself and her devastated mother-in-law. Esther: The Jewish orphan-turned-queen who turns Persian banqueting on its head in an effort to defend her people. Song of Songs: The proud and alluring lover who claims her sexuality as her own and joyfully shares it with her beloved. Judith: The pious and beautiful widow who lets the enemy commander's appetite become his downfall in order to save her besieged city. This volume is an opportunity to engage these women's suspense-filled stories, which have sustained faith communities since ancient times. ________ Lisa Wolfe is also the author of a DVD Bible study series "Uppity Women of the Bible" (Living the Questions, 2010), which is a companion to this book.To purchase a copy of the DVD series, please visit the following link at Living the Questions: http://www.livingthequestions.com/xcart/home.php?cat=461

The five Old Testament books dealt with in this volume of the Commentary occupied a special place in Hebrew tradition as selected readings for major festivals and were accordingly brought together in Hebrew manuscripts to form a group of five scrolls. The books of The Five Scrolls vary greatly; debate about their holiness and authority is recorded from the second century AD onwards, and they pose many problems of interpretation today.

The Old Testament is no ordinary text; it is a revelation of God’s will, character, purpose, and plan, inspired by the Spirit of God. That same Spirit continues to work within God’s people today as they read the Bible, even when the meaning is difficult to discern. In The Law, the Prophets, and the Writings, eighteen evangelical scholars analyze the Old Testament through a historical, literary, and theological hermeneutic, providing new insights into the meaning of the Scriptures. This festschrift in honor of Duane A. Garrett seeks to help Christians faithfully read and understand the Old Testament Scriptures.

The book of Ruth is probably best known as a romantic love story that, through the expression of loving devotion, overcomes tragedy and ends with the founding of the most famous family in all of biblical Israel. But the book wasn't always this way. In fact, it wasn't a book at all but rather a story told with a very different purpose in mind. Before Ruth, there was the Story of Naomi, a subversive story designed to challenge a male-dominated status quo. Through comedy, sarcastic irony, and unparalleled rhetorical skill the Naomi storyteller holds up for inspection social gender roles and the power of sexuality in a manner that resonates yet today. The Story of Naomi--The Book of Ruth goes behind the literary rendition of the story and recaptures the original oral tale, with script and performance directions that brings to life the humor, tragedy, and transparent honesty shared between the Naomi storyteller and her audience.

Respectful of traditional biblical scholarship, this collection of essays aims to move beyond it. It brings together two communities that have read their Bibles in isolation from one another, in ignorance of the richness of the other's traditions.

Notions of women as found in the Bible have had an incalculable impact on western cultures, influencing perspectives on marriage, kinship, legal practice, political status, and general attitudes. Women and Exilic Identity in the Hebrew Bible is drawn from three separate strands to address and analyse this phenomenon. The first examines how women were conceptualized and represented during the exilic period. The second focuses on methodological possibilities and drawbacks connected to investigating women and exile. The third reviews current prominent literature on the topic, with responses from authors. With chapters from a range of contributors, topics move from an analysis of Ruth as a woman returning to her homeland, and issues concerning the foreign presence who brings foreign family members into the midst of a community, and how this is dealt with, through the intermarriage crisis portrayed in Ezra 9-10, to an analysis of Judean constructions of gender in the exilic and early post-exilic periods. The contributions show an exciting range of the best scholarship on women and foreign identities, with important consequences for how the foreign/known is perceived, and what that has meant for women through the centuries.