The Israelite prophets as historical persons, as literary characters and as anonymous artists. Whereas modern methods of literary analysis have brought the artistic qualities of the books of the Prophets increasingly into focus during the past century, various modes of deconstruction have made the historical prophets themselves an ever more elusive phenomenon. Passages in the Old Testament describing their work and experiences are not read as biography anymore, but as literary fiction intended to picture the prophets as heroes of faith. The real ‘prophets’ were the anonymous artists who were responsible for the final editing of the legacy of the historical prophets and who often used the authority of their predecessors to promulgate their own theological views. This volume brings together studies about this theme by members of the British and Dutch societies for Old Testament study. Attempts to recover some of the biographical data and authentic experiences of the prophets alternate with penetrating analyses of the theological depth and stylistic virtuosity of the prophetic books.The volume will be particularly useful to all those interested in the interpretation of the prophetic books of the Old Testament.

An incisive biography of the guiding intellectual presence - and chief internal critic - of Zionism, during the movement's formative years between the 1880s and the 1920s. Ahad Ha'am ('One of the People') was the pen name of Asher Ginzberg (1856-1927), a Russian Jew whose life intersected nearly every important trend and current in contemporary Jewry. His influence extended to figures as varied as the scholar of mysticism Gershom Scholem, the Hebrew poet Hayyim Nahman Bialik, and the historian Simon Dubnow. Theodor Herzl may have been the political leader of the Zionist movement, but Ahad Ha'am exerted a rare, perhaps unequalled, authority within Jewish culture through his writings. Ahad Ha'am was a Hebrew essayist of extraordinary knowledge and skill, a public intellectual who spoke with refreshing (and also, according to many, exasperating) candour on every controversial issue of the day. He was the first Zionist to call attention to the issue of Palestinian Arabs. He was a critic of the use of aggression as a tool in advancing Jewish nationalism and a foe of clericalism in Jewish public life. His analysis of the prehistory of Israeli political culture was incisive and prescient. Steven J. Zipperstein offers all those interested in contemporary Jewry, in Zionism, and in the ambiguities of modern nationalism a wide-ranging, perceptive reassessment of Ahad Ha'am's life against the back-drop of his contentious political world. This influential figure comes to life in a penetrating and engaging examination of his relations with his father, with Herzl, and with his devotees and opponents alike. Zipperstein explores the tensions of a man continually torn between sublimation and self-revelation, between detachment and deep commitment to his people, between irony and lyricism, between the inspiration of his study and the excitement of the streets. As a Zionist intellectual, Ahad Ha'am rejected both xenophobia and assimilation, seeking for the Jews a usable past and a plausible future.

This dissertation presents the basic philosophical concepts of speech act theory in order to accurately implement them alongside other interpretive tools.

What if the way the book of Esther has been taught to us in church and retold to us in films, cartoons, and romance novels has missed the original point of the story? Far from being models of piety and devotion, Esther and Mordecai seem indifferent to the faith of their ancestors. How then did this story become part of the Bible and gain the broad acceptance that it has? If the church should not neglect the story, how should it be read? Esther and Her Elusive God calls Christians to avoid the common attempts to make Esther more palatable and theological, and to reclaim this secular story as Scripture. Readers will be encouraged to see in Esther a profound message of God's grace and faithfulness to his wayward people.

What meanings can be ascribed to the existence of God? This question has been investigated by prominent thinkers throughout the ages, and led several of them to suggest arguments for proving this existence and explaining its meaning. The first part of this book reviews some of these proofs and their criticism. Following this discussion, it suggests a new meaning and characterization of God as a connector between different types of entities. This idea sheds new light on several interesting problems, including the emergence of plurality in reality from the unity of God. The second section deals with God and the human mind, and focuses mainly on the mind-body bifurcation problem, the problem of free will, and the existence of consciousness and soul. The third part discusses several problems associated with God and the world. Special emphasis is laid here upon God and the laws of nature, the creation of the universe, and the impact of modern Physics on the belief in God’s existence.

In the book of Amos the language about land is used extensively, including terms and ideas such as Zion, YHWH’s bringing of Israel into the land, references to various sanctuaries and places, harvest and famine, the relationship between the northern kingdom and Judah, and references to the land of other nations. However this subject of the land has never been studied as a theological topic in its own right, but only as part of other themes. This work follows a synchronic reading of Amos and employing textual, literary and historical criticism the author carries out a careful theological analysis of the land. Although the findings are set in the context of the entire book of Amos, the study focuses on chapters 7-9 to explore the topic with closer detail.

Prophecy in the Ancient Near East is the first book-length study that compares all evidence of ancient Near Eastern prophecy, focusing on the Mari texts. It re-evaluates recent scholarship and concludes that prophecy was a widespread phenomenon integrated into divination in general.