Bøger udgivet af Eisenbrauns

In this classic monograph, Albrektson, in 6 chapters spanning only 110 pages of text, examines the evidence for ancient Hebrew conceptions of divine activity in history against its context in the ancient Near East. The main conclusion is negative-that is, that the distinctiveness of the Old Testament in this regard is a matter of degree not kind. Since its original publication in 1967, the book has been cited over and over as a publication that set forth new directions of understanding and research on the topic of the gods and their involvement in history.The ground-breaking nature of Albrektson's monograph is revealed in comments from a long review by W. G. Lambert, shortly after the essay's publication:"Among the Moabites, Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Hittites, the gods were understood to show their will by intervention in history as much as this is ascribed to Yahweh by the Hebrews. A city or country may suffer devastation as a punishment: the event reveals the will of the god responsible. The author is correct to insist that this is not a distinctively Hebrew idea. . . . [This is] a very stimulating book that shows an author willing to cut across current opinion and to take his stand on original evidence. Old Testament studies have much to gain from works of this kind."-W. G. Lambert, Orientalia 39 (1970) 170ff.

Though Esther's position as a queen in the Persian court is unquestioned in Jewish thought, the historicity of this datum raises some questions. Scholars have pointed out that Esther, as a Jew, could not have become King Ahasuerus' wife according to a Persian law that allowed Persian kings to marry only women from seven specific noble families. Scholars do agree on the "late" production of the Book of Esther, though they differ concerning the approximate date of its composition.Nevertheless, in Jewish thought Esther was, is, and will always be regarded as the queen of Persia, an idea based, perhaps, on the need for security and comfort for diaspora Jews, who passed this story on to their children through the generations to give them hope even in their darkest hours. Esther's status in Jewish thought as a Persian queen is based on the contents of the different versions of the Book of Esther and also on the Persian socio-historical background of the events described in the book.This study includes an introduction, an examination of Esther's character in the Book of Esther, in comparison to other royal women in the OT, and in light of the Resh Galuta, and conclusions. The study follows the evolution of Esther's status inside and outside the royal palace and her power in comparison to other similarly placed women. Whether she was a member of the pilagshim or carried the title of Queen (of the Jews?) is a question of secondary importance. Of more importance is that Esther was indeed Resh Galuta, the one woman in Jewish history who is known to have been the Head of the Diaspora, the formal leader of all the Jews in exile.

Bengt Holmberg is widely known and respected as one of the pioneers of the sociological study of the New Testament. His dissertation, Paul and Power, published by CWK Gleerup in 1978 and by Fortress Press in 1980, was among the first studies to use sociological theory to explore and more deeply understand the Pauline letters, and it set the agenda for much future research. Partly on the basis of his conviction that the ultimate reality escapes scholarly analytical categories, Holmberg always sensed both the advantages and the dangers of sociological approaches to the study of religious phenomena. This perception was discussed with much insight and expanded in his second monograph, Sociology and the New Testament, published by Fortress Press in 1990. In recent years, he has continued to publish prolifically on this topic, and his recent efforts have focused on what culminated in a 2008 article published in Exploring Christian Identity. This volume, a celebration of the life and work of Prof. Holmberg, derives its focal point from his core interests and celebrates his long commitment to Lund University, where he spent much of his academic life. The essays presented here come from former students and an international assemblage of colleagues and admirers; they pay tribute to his efforts to integrate sociological research and approaches with New Testament studies and the development of early Christianity.

"In this book, Ola Wikander studies Indo-European influences in the literary world of the Hebrew Bible and the Ugaritic texts, tracing a number of poetic motifs and other concepts originating in the Indo-European linguistic milieux of the greater Ancient Near East (e.g., among Anatolians and in Indo-European traditions transmitted through Mitanni)--and possibly at earlier, reconstructible levels--as they influenced what became Northwest Semitic poetic culture. The methodology used is what Wikander refers to as "etymological poetics": the study of poetic and mythological structures as transmitted through specific lexical material. One of the motifs discussed is that of destroying heat being used as a metaphor for forgetting important cultural memories and, consequently, of the resilience of such memories being expressed as resistance to burning. Thus, bringing these ancient connections between Indo-European and Northwest Semitic culture into the open is, in a sense, showing their "Unburning Fame"--