The Spirit in the DtrH/Former Prophets

While the Spirit in the Deuteronomistic History (DtrH) may not have the same explicit role as he does in the New Testament book of Acts, the Spirit is nonetheless ever-present in the lives of both Israel and Judah’s leaders and prophets. To be sure, the Spirit moves in a variety of ways and with a very similar modus operandi in the DtrH to that in the NT as he empowers, strengthens for service, and inspires the prophets. We also find that in the DtrH the Spirit convicts of sin, effects miracles through the man or woman of God, and renders discernment to those he has called. Put simply, the Spirit’s role in the DtrH, as in the NT, is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

The Oxford Handbook of Jeremiah

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book of Jeremiah, its historical background, distinctive literary character, language of trauma and resilience, dominant ideologies, and the state of twentieth- and twenty-first-century Jeremian scholarship. It concludes with an explanation of the goals and structure of the Handbook. Like the ancient book and the prophetic persona, the interpretation of Jeremiah has also been fractured and at times conflictual. Certain recent schools of Jeremiah scholarship explore new spaces for reading the ancient text that reconfigure, redeploy, and move beyond conventional interpretations, while others concentrate on historical issues, examining variant manuscripts and comparative Near Eastern texts. Until now, these divergent schools of thought have worked in relative isolation. This Handbook, the introductory chapter notes, seeks to bridge the gap between the current scholarly debate. It recognizes the importance of both post-historical and hermeneutic interpretive perspectives and ancient contextual approaches. It engages historical methodologies as well as literary and situated readings. This essay suggests that it is an opportune moment, within the frame of a single, field-encompassing volume, for a synthetic anthology that encourages the fruits of these disparate technical subfields to be gathered in order to nourish the field as a whole. Jeremiah, prose and poetry, trauma, Deuteronomistic History, methodology, SBL, Writing/Reading Jeremiah, biblical studies

A Critical Introduction

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book of Jeremiah, its historical background, distinctive literary character, language of trauma and resilience, dominant ideologies, and the state of twentieth- and twenty-first-century Jeremian scholarship. It concludes with an explanation of the goals and structure of the Handbook. Like the ancient book and the prophetic persona, the interpretation of Jeremiah has also been fractured and at times conflictual. Certain recent schools of Jeremiah scholarship explore new spaces for reading the ancient text that reconfigure, redeploy, and move beyond conventional interpretations, while others concentrate on historical issues, examining variant manuscripts and comparative Near Eastern texts. Until now, these divergent schools of thought have worked in relative isolation. This Handbook, the introductory chapter notes, seeks to bridge the gap between the current scholarly debate. It recognizes the importance of both post-historical and hermeneutic interpretive perspectives and ancient contextual approaches. It engages historical methodologies as well as literary and situated readings. This essay suggests that it is an opportune moment, within the frame of a single, field-encompassing volume, for a synthetic anthology that encourages the fruits of these disparate technical subfields to be gathered in order to nourish the field as a whole. Jeremiah, prose and poetry, trauma, Deuteronomistic History, methodology, SBL, Writing/Reading Jeremiah, biblical studies

The Philistines in the Highlands: A View from Ashkelon

The collapse of Bronze Age Mediterranean trade was a long-term process that took place through the 12th and 11th centuries BCE. The effects of this decline were particularly acute for coastal cities such as Philistine Ashkelon. This paper examines the response to this crisis in Philistia by examining redactional strata in the Deuteronomistic History that might speak to the period of early Philistine activity in the highlands. Through the memories preserved in these texts and in archaeological results from the late Iron Age I–early Iron Age IIA, it is argued that the Philistines reacted to the loss of Mediterranean trade by conducting raids that devastated rural highland settlements.