An artisan of the highest order, Ramses has kept him in the palace even when all other Israelites have been banned. Bezalel blames El Shaddai for isolating him from his people.When Moses and Aaron appear one summer, and El Shaddai shakes Egypt to its core, Bezalel must reexamine his anger. Over the course of the next year, Bezalel’s life becomes intertwined with those of an Egyptian child-slave, the captain of the guard, and especially a beautiful young concubine.When spring arrives, all of them escape with the young nation of Israel. But that’s only the beginning...

    They were the men who came to your father in his hour of need. They were the men who fought with him. They were men, and that is the highest that can be written of them..."Before he came to David at the caves of Adullam, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was a mercenary in Egypt. In the exotic kingdom of the Nile, where Pharaoh is the reflection of the sun and moon, Benaiah will be tested. Peril and heartache are all around him, and to make things worse, he does not yet know the "covering."A companion piece to the Lion of War series about the wars of King David, "Benaiah" is the first short story in The Hall of the Mighty Men. Narrated by Jehoshaphat, the historian of King Solomon, this collection of origin tales expands the Lion of War literary universe, and contains epic battles and feats of bravery unable to be included in the novels and upcoming movies. Thrilling and passionate, The Hall of the Mighty Men is another chapter in the epic Lion of War series that fans will enjoy for years to come.

    The disciplines of biblical and systematic theology join forces to investigate anew the biblical covenants and the implications of such a study for conclusions in systematic theology.By incorporating the latest available research from the ancient Near East and examining implications of their work for Christology, ecclesiology, eschatology, and hermeneutics--Biblical scholar Peter Gentry and systematic theologian Stephen Wellum present a thoughtful and viable alternative to both covenant theology and dispensationalism.

    Many of these images cannot be found in any other Temple book.24-inch-long fold-out poster of the Temple Mount over 2000 years by National Geographic.Six time lines with more than 100 events from the time of King David to modern day.Comparison of Three Full-Color Books on the TempleRose Guide to the Temple = Rose GuideSplendor of the Temple = SplendorPictorial Guide to the Temple = Pictorial1. Rose Guide to the Temple has more pages and has 3 clear plastic overlays so you can see inside the Temple.Rose Guide has 140 pages + 3 clear plastic overlays; Splendor has 96 pages; Pictorial has 322. Rose Guide has more images than the other two.Rose Guide has 156; Splendor has 75; Pictorial has 403. Rose Guide to the Temple has 100 key keys events and people.Splendor has 20 events; Pictorial has no time line4. Rose Guide has cross section diagrams of the First Temple, Second Temple, and Dome of the Rock. The others do not have all three.5. Rose Guide has a full description of the First Temple. Rose Guide has 30 pages; Splendor has 1 page; Pictorial has 3 pages.6. Rose Guide has a diagram of the interior of the First Temple (Solomon s Temple). The others do not.7. All three books have excellent descriptions of the Second Temple (Herod s Temple at the time of Jesus). Rose Guide has 40 pages + a clear plastic overlay; Splendor has 79 pages; Pictorial has 16 pages.8. Rose Guide to the Temple has a diagram of the inside of the Second Temple. The others do not.9. Rose Guide has 20 pages on the history of the Temple Mount from AD 70 to modern day. Splendor does not include this. Pictorial has 4 pages.10. Rose Guide has two 24-inch Posters: Herod s Temple Messiah in the Temple and National Geographic s Jerusalem s Holy Ground 11. Rose Guide has a diagram of the High Priest s garments with explanations. The other two do not.12. All three books contain information about Jesus in the Temple, the biblical feasts, and the sacrifices.Show More

    David and Solomon, Isaiah and Nehemiah, Peter and Paul...all the biblical authors wrote to people whose mind-sets were very different from readers’ today. Add to that the immensity of the Bible story...no wonder the Scriptures can be difficult to understand!Bible scholar Douglas Jacoby has taught Bible survey courses for more than 25 years, bridging the gulf between the biblical world and the twenty-first century. He uses clear, easy-to-understand language to explain the big picture of the Bible and show how the pieces fit together. Among the many compelling issues covered, readers will discover...the basic chronological outline of the Biblethe most important themes of the Old and New Testamentshow the Bible relates to a twenty-first-century worldviewPerfect for personal or group use, this survey removes many of the barriers that keep people from understanding and enjoying the Bible.

    A true compendium of recent scholarship, the volume includes 115 articles covering all aspects of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the twelve "minor prophets" and Daniel. Each book's historical, cultural, religious and literary background is thoroughly covered, alongside articles on interpretation history and critical method. Pastors, scholars and students will find this a deep resource for their Old Testament studies.

    Yet God turned the situation around as pagan sailors encountered the living God who made the land and sea and the entire population of a city realised that although they deserved to be wiped off the face of the earth, there was a God of compassion and mercy who forgave them.God's mercy is greater than our failures and through adverse circumstances and pain, a character of Christ-like compassion is chiseled out.

    Professor Christine Hayes guides her readers through the complexities of this polyphonous literature that has served as a foundational pillar of Western civilization, underscoring the variety and even disparities among the voices that speak in the biblical texts. Biblical authors wrote in many contexts and responded to a sweeping range of crises and questions concerning issues that were political, economic, historical, cultural, philosophical, religious, and moral. In probing chapters devoted to each of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, Hayes reconstructs the meanings and messages of each book and encourages a deeper appreciation of the historical and cultural settings of ancient biblical literature.

    The evidence is consistent over more than a millennium: there had been a female deity in Israel, the Mother figure in the Royal cult, who had been abandoned about 600BCE. She was almost written out of the Hebrew text, almost excluded from the canon.This first of two volumes traces the history of the Lady in the Temple, and looks forward to the second volume in which Barker will show how the Lady of the Temple is reclaimed in the advent of Christianity, and becomes the Lady in the Church. The result is breathtaking, and like all Barker's work, is impossible to put down.

    Bible-reading is more of an art than a science. The Bible is a story, not a lexicon of systematic theological definitions. With this in mind, The Through New Eyes Bible Commentary Series builds on the foundational Biblical-theology work of James B. Jordan and other like-minded scholars in bringing you a set of commentaries that will help you read, teach and preach through the Bible while picking up on the rich symphonic themes and the literary symbolism of the Scriptures. Because they are written for thoughtful Christians without being overly academic, these commentaries will serve as valuable resources for family worship, Sunday school or Bible studies.

    It discusses not only unique features of the stories themselves but also such issues as the violent nature of Judges, how women are portrayed in it, and how it relates to the Christian gospel of the New Testament.Webb concentrates throughout on what the biblical text itself throws into prominence, giving space to background issues only when they cast significant light on the foreground. For those who want more, the footnotes and bibliography provide helpful guidance. The end result is a welcome resource for interpreting one of the most challenging books in the Old Testament.

    To this end he analyses the Pauline data that details the relation between the risen Lord and Christians. With reference to contemporary debates regarding Jewish monotheism, he argues that the Pauline Christ-relation corresponds - as a pattern - solely to language concerning YHWHs relation to Israel in Second Temple Judaism. This is the case, Tilling maintains, even in texts such as Sirach 44-50, the "Life of Adam and Eve" and the Similitudes of Enoch. In dialogue both with concerns that one cannot properly speak of a Pauline Christology, and recent studies in Pauls epistemology, Chris Tilling presents Pauls Christology as fully divine, but in a particular way: the Christ-relation is Pauls divine-Christology expressed as relationship. In light of this, he not only reengages arguments deployed by those disputing a Pauline divine-Christology, but also draws additional conclusions relating to the interface between biblical and systematic theological concerns.

    

    It tells of Israel's formative historical event, the exodus, as well as the making of the covenant at Sinai. It includes the first code of the Law in the Decalogue and Book of the Covenant. It details Israel's besetting sin in the idolatry of the golden calf episode, but it also describes Moses' intercession and the great revelation of God's mercy. In its display of the 'Tent of Meeting', it presents the theology of the priesthood, the sacrifices, and the central sanctuary. This book explores all of these objects and events with a view toward their significance both for the meaning of the Old Testament and for the message of the Christian Church.

    

    It is more akin tospiritual direction guidance than to what we generally think of as religious education.Revised and updated, The Complete Guide to Godly Play, Volume 2 offers newconcepts, new terminology, new illustrations, and a new structure that stem from morethan 10 years of using Godly Play with children across the world. 30 to 40 percent ofthe text is new or revised, including a new lesson, revised Introduction, and a new fullAppendix.

    Using the most up-to-date biblical scholarship, Greidanus addresses foundational issues such as the date of composition, the author(s) and original audience of the book, its overall message and goal, and various ways of preaching Christ from Daniel. Throughout his book Greidanus puts front and center God's sovereignty, providence, and coming kingdom. Each chapter contains building blocks for constructing expository sermons and lessons, including useful information on the context, themes, and goals of each literary unit links between Daniel and the New Testament how to formulate the sermon theme and goal contemporary application and much more!

    Your life is full of them, and how you respond can have lifelong impact. The decision process can be as intense as a crucible—a vessel in a refining fire, a place where precious substances are tested, purified, and strengthened. That’s a picture of the process God uses in our lives. When the heat is on, what decisions will we make? What kind of character rises to the surface? David, Israel’s shepherd king, faced critical choices throughout his life, and we can learn a lot from how he handled them. In Crucible, we witness how faith, trust, fear, truth, despair, sacrifice, and humility refined David and drew him closer to the heart of God. We learn that God will use the choices we make to transform us into people after His own heart—and shape our lives forever.

    This monograph explores how the mountain narratives of the Hebrew Bible canonically preceding the establishment of the tabernacle cultus may therefore serve to prefigure that cultus. Examining the creation, deluge, and exodus accounts in light of cosmic mountain ideology, the study develops a cosmogonic pattern of being delivered through the waters to the mountain of God for worship. As a symbol for approaching the divine Presence, this pattern is ultimately cultic, and includes a gate liturgy running as an undercurrent through each narrative. Moses alone, for example, is permitted ascent to the summit of Sinai, a role later mimicked by the high priest’s annual entrance into the holy of holies. From Adam’s descent of the holy mountain to the high priest’s “ascent” of the architectural mountain of God, The Tabernacle Pre-Figured makes a compelling case that to dwell in the divine Presence via the tabernacle cultus presents a mediated return to the original telos of the cosmos.

    But behind the heady debates is a terrific story—one that anyone can understand, and one that has gripped people for ages.If you are not a Bible scholar but want to be able to read Genesis and understand its big picture, this brief, witty book is the guide you've been waiting for. Clear summaries and thought-provoking questions provide direction for personal reflection and group discussion. Peter Enns, a Biblical Studies professor, and Jared Byas, an Old Testament professor, summarize Genesis' key themes and help us see the book as an ancient story, one with continued relevance for human experience today. "Genesis for Normal People" illuminates the characters that fill the book of Genesis, causing us to resonate with their choices and struggles even as we marvel at their distant world. And that's what you'll find here—not scientific proof texts or simple moral tales, but a distant world made available, and a story that is often strange, sometimes dangerous, and always filled with rich possibilities.Table of Contents:Chapter One: The Genesis of GenesisChapter Two: Genesis from 30,000 FeetChapter Three: Genesis 1 — Yahweh Is BetterChapter Four: Genesis 2-4 — Adam Is IsraelChapter Five: Genesis 4-5 — Cain Is a FoolChapter Six: Genesis 6 — Everyone Is AnnihilatedChapter Seven: Genesis 10-12: Babylon Is EvilChapter Eight: Genesis 12-22 — Abraham Is ChosenChapter Nine: Genesis 23-25 — Isaac Is the Father of IsraelChapter Ten: Genesis 25-35 — Jacob Is Israel (Literally)Chapter Eleven: Genesis 36-50 — Israel Is SavedConclusion: Now What?Guide for Group Discussions

    

    The sermons review events described in earlier books and challenges Israel to faithful living in the future.The theological significance of Deuteronomy cannot be overestimated. Few books in the Bible proclaim such a relevant word of grace and gospel to the church today. At its heart, Deuteronomy records the covenantal relationship between God and his people. God graciously has chosen Israel as his covenant partner and has demonstrated his covenantal commitment to them. Moses challenges the Israelites to respond by declaring that Yahweh alone is their God and by demonstrating unwavering loyalty and total love for him through obedience.Daniel Block highlights the unity between the God depicted in Deuteronomy and Jesus Christ. Christians who understand the covenantal character of God and who live under the grace of Christ will resist the temptation to retreat into interior and subjective understandings of the life of faith so common in Western Christianity.

    Richard Bauckham, James Davila, and Alexander Panayotov’s new two-volume collection of Old Testament pseudepigrapha contains many previously unpublished and newly translated texts, complementing James Charlesworth’s Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and other earlier collections.Including virtually all known surviving pseudepigrapha written before the rise of Islam, this volume, among other things, presents the sacred legends and spiritual reflections of numerous long-dead authors whose works were lost, neglected, or suppressed for many centuries. Excellent English translations along with authoritative yet accessible introductions bring those ancient documents to life for readers today.

    It is a work of remarkable theological richness, passion, and honesty. Yet it is also widely recognized as an immensely difficult text to understand. C. L. Seow's two-volume commentary -- the first in the Illuminations biblical commentary series -- pays close attention to the reception history of Job, including Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Western secular interpretations as expressed in theological, philosophical, and literary writings and in the visual and performing arts. In addition, this volume offers a primarily literary-theological interpretation of Job, a new translation, and commentary, resulting in a "history of consequences" that draws on insights from a rich tapestry of historical and contemporary interpretations.

    The book of Ecclesiastes and its speaker Qohelet are famous for saying that there is 'nothing new under the sun'. In the literary tradition of the modern West this has beentaken as the motto of a book that is universal in scope, Greek in its patterns of thought, and floating free from the particularism and historical concerns of the rest of the Bible. Jennie Barbour argues that reading the book as a general compendium in this way causes the reader to miss a strongundercurrent in the text.'Nothing new under the sun' is, in fact, a historical deduction made by Qohelet on the basis of long-range observation, conducted through his study of his nation's traditions: the first sage to turn from the window to the Book is not Ben Sira, but Qohelet himself. While Ecclesiastes says nothingabout the great founding events of Israel's story, it is haunted by the decline and fall of the nation and the Babylonian exile, as the trauma of the loss of the kingdom of Solomon persists through a spectrum of intertextual relationships. The view of Qohelet from the throne in Jerusalem takes inthe whole sweep of Israel's remembered historical experiences; Ecclesiastes is revealed as not simply as a piece of marketplace philosophy, but as a learned essay in processing a community's memory, with strong ties to the rest of Jewish and Christian scripture.

    

    From the author of In the Footsteps of Jesus and The Biblical World comes a vibrant family reference that brings to life the fascinating characters of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. From the fall of Adam and Eve to Judas' betrayal of Jesus, the key events of the Bible are expressed through the lives of hundreds of people. Told through exquisite art and artifacts, intriguing sidebars, and unique family tree features, this illuminating volume tells the stories of Biblical characters and highlights their greater meaning for mankind. Illustrated with lavish color photography and exquisite historical artwork, this reference runs chronologically, with each person listed by order of appearance.

    John 1 uses ritual props and staging to introduce Jesus as the Lord; Helaman 5 recounts an endowment of power; Ether 3 is a temple account; and Isaiah is an underground prophet, describing the dark apostasy of his day in code. This book is a follow-up to Plain and Precious Things: The Temple Religion of the Book of Mormon's Visionary Men, which should be read first.

    Its connections with studies in masculinities, with queer theories, with lesbian and gay studies may appear thin and flimsy. As the current terminology shifts perceptibly to 'gender criticism', this book examines the continued place of feminist biblical studies within the discipline. Is it now the time, Deryn Guest asks, for feminist biblical scholars to resist more strongly than ever the threats of a diluted feminist agenda and feminist politics, the erasure of women's concerns from public consciousness, the loss of autonomy for feminist space? Or is it the time to make a definite shift and abandon the language of 'feminism'? Readers of this scintillating volume will find themselves invited into a sophisticated discussion of the question as they consider how far feminist biblical scholarship should be more inclusive of the newer critical voices emerging from trans- and intersex studies, testing the extent to which it can examine the construction of heterosexuality and make the apparatus of biblically prescribed heteronormativity an object of critical study. The book closes with the intriguing possibilities available for 'queer straight' practitioners of biblical studies with an armoury of genderqueer strategies in their hermeneutical toolbox.

    Chronicles offers the first attempt to understand and interpret the entire sweep of Old Testament history from the creation of the world to the Israelites' return from exile.This commentary presents 1-2 Chronicles as a liturgical and theological interpretation of Israel's history. Hahn emphasizes the liturgical structure and content of Chronicles and provides fresh insight on salvation history: past, present, and future. He also shows how Chronicles provides important insights into key New Testament concepts. The book gives professors, students, and pastors a better understanding of Chronicles, salvation history, and theological interpretation of the Old Testament.

    347-419), one of the West's four doctors of the church, was recognized early on as one of the church's foremost translators, commentators and advocates of Christian asceticism. Skilled in Hebrew and Greek in addition to his native Latin, he was thoroughly familiar with Jewish traditions and brought them to bear on his understanding of the Old Testament. In 405 Jerome completed his Latin translation of the Old Testament, based on the Hebrew text, and not long afterward began to work on commentaries devoted to the major prophets--Daniel (407), Isaiah (408-410), Ezekiel (410-414), culminating with Jeremiah but reaching only through chapter 32 before his death in 419. Throughout the commentary Jerome displays his familiarity with both Hebrew and Greek texts of Jeremiah, often establishing the literal meaning through the Hebrew text and offering a spiritual interpretation that draws on the Septuagint. He frequently interacts with other translations known from Origen's Hexapla. Jerome's extensive education in the classics and Jewish tradition as well as in both Antiochene and Alexandrian exegesis shine through the commentary at every point. Here for the first time Michael Graves supplies readers with a highly readable translation in English, useful textual notes and a helpful introduction.

    Its bilingual centre offers the text in Hebrew and English, and shows the forty poems in their original form, in 412 strophes and 165 stanzas. The commentary points out how these proportions and the remarkable precision of the poet (who counted syllables on all text levels) affect the thematics of the book, so that the portrait of the hero can be redrawn; his stubbornly defended integrity meets vindication and his last words, generally misunderstood, require a positive understanding. The poetry and its slim framework in prose are a unified composition which deserves a synchronic approach.

    Friedrich W Krummacher (1796-1868) deploys his characteristic style to draw out the spiritual significance in every event and it makes for compelling reading.Pastors will appreciate the wealth of pastoral application suggested, and as an aide to devotional reading it is first-rate.This edition, based on a translation published in 1836, has been completely re-typeset for issue as an eBook.

    It divides the core textual traditions along political lines that reveal deeply contrasting assumptions, an approach that places biblical controversies in dialogue with anthropologically informed archaeology. Starting from close study of selected biblical texts, the work moves toward historical issues that may be illuminated by both this material and a larger range of textual evidence. The result is a synthesis that breaks away from conventional lines of debate in matters relating to ancient Israel and the Bible, setting an agenda for future engagement of these fields with wider study of antiquity.

    Some of his answers may appear deceptively traditional, such as his perfective-imperfective identification of the qatal-yiqtol opposition. However, his approach is distinguished from the traditional approaches by its modern linguistic foundation. One distinguishing sign is his employment of the phrase "aspect prominent" to describe the Biblical Hebrew verbal system. As with almost any of the world's verbal systems, this aspect-prominent system can express a wide range of aspectual, tensed, and modal meanings. In chap. 3, he argues that each of the forms can be semantically identified with a general meaning and that the expressions of specific aspectual, tensed, and modal meanings by each form are explicable with reference to its general meaning. After a decade of research and creative thinking, the author has come to frame his discussion not with the central question of "Tense or Aspect?" but with the question "What is the range of meaning for a given form, and what sort of contextual factors (syntagm, discourse, etc.) help us to understand this range in relation to a general meaning for the form?" In chap. 4 Cook addresses long-standing issues involving interaction between the semantics of verbal forms and their discourse pragmatic functions. He also proposes a theory of discourse modes for Biblical Hebrew. These discourse modes account for various temporal relationships that are found among successive clauses in Biblical Hebrew. Cook's work addresses old questions with a fresh approach that is sure to provoke dialogue and new research.

    As a response to a growing despair over life in servitude and exile, Isaiah 40-66 was written. Paul Hanson examines the writings of Second and Third Isaiah. What he discovers is a poetic argument for a loving and attentive God and the rightful place of God's creatures in the unfolding of history.

    This book seeks to illuminate the critical role the prophets played in God's overarching purposes for his creation, and how we in the 21st century may also learn to collaborate with God.

    Not so widely known is the impact of the SP outside the Samaritan community. Recently there has been a resurgence of interest in this scripture, as evidenced by several translations of the SP as well as reference in Qumran scroll studies to the SP or an SP-like tradition in an effort to describe some of the textual evidence present in the scrolls. This volume presents a general introduction to and overview of the SP, suitable for a course text and as a reference tool for the professional scholar.