The Story of Jericho: Further Light on the Biblical Narrative

1941 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 368-372
Author(s):  
John Garstang
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Narrative

"HOW PUISSANT HIS MIRACLES ARE!" CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE BIBLICAL NARRATIVE AND THE FOLK STORIES ABOUT THE RIBNITZER REBBE

2020 ◽  
pp. 40-67
Author(s):  
Natalya M. Kireeva ◽  
◽  
Maria M. Kaspina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Jewish Culture ◽  
Folk Stories

The article focuses on legends about miracles in Judaism. Particular attention is paid to miracles in the context of the early Biblical period of the prophets and modern Hasidism; similarities in motives and plots are found between the narratives of different times. The authors analyze in detail two 20th-century plots about miracles related to Chaim Zanvl Abramovich, known as the Ribnitzer Rebbe (1902–1995). The miracles that are told about him have many parallels with the legends about miracles performed by the founder of the Hasidic movement, Israel Baal Shem Tov (BeShT), who lived in the middle of the 18th century. The article reveals a connection between the Biblical and Hasidic miracle stories not only at the level of how the miracle is functioning in Jewish culture in general.

Ancient Israel's Neighbors

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian R. Doak
Keyword(s):  
Nearest Neighbors ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Social ◽  
Family Level ◽  
The Face ◽  
Social Turmoil

The purpose of this book is to tell the story of Israel’s nearest neighbors—not only discovering what the Bible has to say about them but also what we can know from archaeology, ancient inscriptions, and other sources. The Bible itself presents these neighbors in nuanced and conflicting ways; sometimes they are friends or even related to Israel at a family level, and sometimes they are enemies, spoken of as though they must die in order for Israel to live. We are left wondering how the biblical portrayal might have affected our thinking about these people as historical groups, on their own terms. How would an Aramaean have described her own religion? How would an Edomite have described conflict with Israel? This book explores both the biblical portrayal of the smaller groups surrounding Israel and what people can know about these groups through their own literature, archaeology, and other sources. By uncovering the identity of the Philistines as settlers along the coast at the same time that early Israel carved out their place in the land, for example, one can better understand the social turmoil and political maneuvering that lies just beneath the surface of the biblical narrative, and can see more clearly just how the authors of the Bible saw themselves in the face of others.

Waiting on Grace

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Barnes, SJ
Keyword(s):  
Jewish People ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Edith Stein ◽  
Indelible Mark ◽  
Theology Of Religions ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Call And Response ◽  
Religious Sensibility ◽  
The Matrix

Whereas much theology of religions regards ‘the other’ as a problem to be solved, this book begins with a Church called to witness to its faith in a multicultural world by practising a generous yet risky hospitality. A theology of dialogue takes its rise from the Christian experience of being-in-dialogue. Taking its rise from the biblical narrative of encounter, call, and response, such a theology cannot be fully understood without reference to the matrix of faith that Christians share in complex ways with the Jewish people. The contemporary experience of the Shoah, the dominating religious event of the twentieth century, has complexified that relationship and left an indelible mark on the religious sensibility of both Jews and Christians. Engaging with a range of thinkers, from Heschel, Levinas, and Edith Stein who were all deeply affected by the Shoah, to Metz, Panikkar, and Rowan Williams, who are always pressing the limits of what can and cannot be said with integrity about the self-revealing Word of God, this book shows how Judaism is a necessary, if not sufficient, source of Christian self-understanding. What is commended by this foundational engagement is a hope-filled ‘waiting on grace’ made possible by virtues of empathy and patience. A theology of dialogue focuses not on metaphysical abstractions but on biblical forms of thought about God’s presence to human beings which Christians share with Jews and, under the continuing guidance of the Spirit of Christ, learn to adapt to a whole range of contested cultural and political contexts.

Queering Delilah with Critical Theory and Gendered Bible Hermeneutics

2020 ◽  
pp. 493-507
Author(s):  
Caroline Blyth
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Queer Theory ◽  
Femme Fatale ◽  
Reading Habits ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Queer Spaces ◽  
Holy Man

Close your eyes and think of Delilah. Whom do you see? What does she look like? More often than not, this biblical character is visualized in both interpretive traditions and cultural retellings of Judges 16 as a femme fatale par excellence—a fatal woman whose exotic feminine allure and lethal sexuality ultimately destroyed Samson, that most heroic Hebrew holy man. In this chapter, I use gender-queer theory to interrogate the very “straight” ways in which these retellings make sense of the multiple ambiguities surrounding Delilah’s character within the biblical narrative. I take an intersectional approach, interpreting Delilah’s sexuality, gender, and ethnicity through a queer lens to conjuring up a myriad of alternative performances that her persona may inhabit. By so doing, I invite readers into delightfully queer spaces in the text that challenge essentialist reading habits and bring to light critical theoretical insights about Delilah’s interpretive and cultural afterlives.

Rhetoric and Poetic Imitation in Avitus' Account of the Crossing of the Red Sea (‘De spiritalis historiae gestis’ 5.371–702)

Traditio ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 29-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Red Sea ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Broad Outline

Book five of Avitus' biblical epic De spiritalis historiae gestis (hereafter SHG) is entitled De transitu maris rubri. The book tells the story of the Israelites' release from servitude in Egypt, following in broad outline the narrative of Exodus 1–15.1. The present study will concentrate on the concluding and culminating section of the book, the account of the march out of Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea (5.371–702). Avitus here elaborates the biblical narrative most freely and makes full use of the techniques of rhetorical and poetic amplification.

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