Flora and Fauna of the Hebrew Bible

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mari Joerstad
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Natural World ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Normative Dimension ◽  
Noah's Ark

The flora and fauna of the Hebrew Bible has long fascinated scholars and lay readers alike. From illustrated volumes aimed at children, to the detailed tables and charts of archaeozoology and archaeobotany, the plants and animals of the Bible fascinate because of their many ties to daily life. What did people in ancient Israel eat? How did they garden? What wildflowers and trees grew around their homes? Which animals did they encounter in the desert? Animals and plants also feature centrally in some of the most memorable stories of the Bible: Noah’s ark, Balaam’s ass, Isaiah’s vineyard, Jonah in the belly of the fish, the Song’s lush gardens, God’s menagerie in Job—the list goes on. Because flora and fauna touch on topics historical, archaeological, literary, and symbolic, the study of the Bible’s flora and fauna is by necessity many-pronged. It requires multiple methodologies, as well as attention to a host of topics, including but not limited to law and purity regulations, agriculture and husbandry, metaphor theory, fables and parables, history of domestication, and so on. The recent growth in interest in ecological readings of the Bible has added a new, normative dimension to the study of flora and fauna in the Bible. While many early (and contemporary) studies focus on identification and classification of mentioned species in the Bible, ecological readings instead look at the quality of relationships between humans and their plants and animals, God’s relationship to non-human creatures, as well as relationships among non-human creatures. Scholars in the ecological vein often attempt either to derive ecological guidelines for present-day practice from the text or to critique the text’s lack of attention to responsible human conduct toward the natural world.

History of Ancient Israel

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. G. M. Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The People ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
History Of ◽  
External Sources ◽  
Historical Reliability ◽  
The 19Th Century

The history of ancient Israel is best known to most people from the narratives in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. There, however, the name “Israel” covers a wide diversity of social and political entities over the course of many centuries. The first attestation of the name outside the Bible (on the Egyptian stela of Merneptah, c. 1208 bce) seems to refer at most to some ill-defined tribal federation. It then served for at least two different monarchies and later again as a social or religious title for the people who inhabited the Achaemenid (Persian) province of Yehud. The value of the biblical written records varies considerably with regard to historical content, and this must further be evaluated on the basis of internal literary analysis and in the light of evidence that comes from archaeological research, including in particular from epigraphic sources both from Israel itself and from many near and more distant nations. How to combine these differing forms of evidence has been the topic of lively and sometimes rancorous debate, which varies in its detail from one period to another, often depending on the extent to which external sources are immediately available. Solutions are not always available, but exploration into the nature of these problems and misunderstandings in the application of appropriate methods reveal where the problems lie and, in some cases, what are plausible solutions. Until the 19th century, the history of ancient Israel was, for most people, coterminous with the familiar narrative of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. No relevant external sources were known, and there was no reason to doubt its essential historical reliability, allowance made, of course, for those who could not accept the miraculous as historically factual. Archaeological and epigraphical discoveries over the last two centuries or so, together with the introduction more recently of new and different historical methods, have led to aspects of this topic being fiercely contested in current scholarship. Taking a general familiarity with the outline “story” for granted, the following analysis will present some of the major topics on which new data have become available and on which opinion remains divided.

Clio and Canons: in Search of a Cultural Poetics of the Hebrew Bible

1997 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 300-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert P. Carroll
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
New Historicism ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
Cultural Poetics ◽  
Leading Edges

AbstractThe enterprise of writing "histories" of "ancient Israel" in which biblical historiography is reproduced by old credulists or critiqued by new nihilists represents one of the leading edges of contemporary biblical studies in relation to the Hebrew Bible. This quest for a cultural poetics or cultural materialist accounts of the Bible is virtually equivalent to a New Historicism in the discipline. In this article analyses of three topics from current debates in biblical studies (historiography of "ancient Israel", the empty land topos, canons and context) are used to provide insights into how new historicist approaches to contextualizing literature may contribute to these current debates about the Bible.

Biblical Israel in the Ninth Century?

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
PHILIP R. DAVIES
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Critical History ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
United Monarchy ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Crucial Part

Most archaeologists of ancient Israel still operate with a pro-biblical ideology, while the role that archaeology has played in Zionist nation building is extensively documented. Terms such as ‘ninth century’ and ‘Iron Age’ represent an improvement on ‘United Monarchy’ and ‘Divided Monarchy’, but these latter terms remain implanted mentally as part of a larger portrait that may be called ‘biblical Israel’. This chapter argues that the question of ‘biblical Israel’ must be regarded as distinct from the kingdoms of Israel and Judah as a major historical problem rather than a given datum. ‘Biblical Israel’ can never be the subject of a modern critical history, but is rather a crucial part of that history, a ‘memory’, no doubt historically conditioned, that became crucial in creating Judaism. This realization will enable us not only to write a decent critical history of Iron Age central Palestine but also to bring that history and the biblical narrative into the kind of critical engagement that will lead to a better understanding of the Bible itself.

Quality of Life and Functional Outcomes after Multiligament Knee Reconstruction

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (10) ◽  
pp. 970-978 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Hatch ◽  
Diego Villacis ◽  
Dhanur Damodar ◽  
Michael Dacey ◽  
Anthony Yi
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Linear Regression Analysis ◽  
Previous History ◽  
Life Questionnaire ◽  
Knee Ligament ◽  
Management Protocol ◽  
Knee Ligament Surgery ◽  
History Of

AbstractWe aimed to determine factors that affect the quality of life of patients undergoing a standardized surgical and postoperative management protocol for knee dislocations. A total of 31 patients (33 knees) were included in this study. We contacted patients at a minimum of 12 months postoperatively (mean: 38 months; range, 12–111 months) and administered the previously validated Multiligament Quality of Life questionnaire (ML-QOL), 2000 International Knee Documentation Committee Subjective Knee Form (IKDC), and Lysholm Knee Scoring Scale. We performed independent two-sample t-tests and age-adjusted multivariable linear regression analysis to examine the difference in these scores. Patients who underwent previous knee ligament surgery had significantly worse mean ML-QOL scores relative to patients who did not undergo previous knee ligament surgery (114.3 versus 80.4; p = 0.004) (higher score indicates worse quality of life). All other differences in the ML-QOL scores were not statistically significant. IKDC and Lysholm scores did not differ significantly with regards to the studied variables. Among patients with no previous knee ligament surgery, patients undergoing surgery within 3 weeks of injury had significantly worse mean ML-QOL scores relative to patients undergoing surgery greater than 3 weeks after their injury (98.7 versus 74.7; p = 0.042) and patients with Schenck classification of III or IV had significantly worse mean ML-QOL scores relative to patient with a Schenck classification of I or II (88.7 versus 62.9; p = 0.015). We found that patients with a previous history of knee ligament surgery had a significantly worse quality of life relative to those with no history of knee ligament surgery. This is a level III, retrospective cohort study.

Education in the Hebrew Bible

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Schniedewind ◽  
Elizabeth VanDyke
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Culture Studies ◽  
Biblical Literature ◽  
Ben Sira ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
Scribal Culture ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
History Of ◽  
Biblical Sources

Education is a wide-ranging topic concerning the variety of ways in which people acquire knowledge, skills, and behaviors. As a key facet of culture, one might expect education and instruction to appear frequently within the Hebrew Bible, yet biblical literature actually provides little direct evidence as to how the ancient Israelites learned. This is true both for traditional vocations, such as the production of pottery or soldiering, and for more scholastic pursuits, such as reading or accounting. Biblical scholarship has particularly focused on scribal education, with less attention to the broader questions of enculturation. Several passages, particularly Isaiah 28, Proverbs 22–23, and Ben Sira 51, refer to education and have engendered numerous discussions. Increasingly, though, scholars have turned to extra-biblical sources in order to understand scribal culture. Studies on scribalism in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Ugarit feature prominently in many overviews of Hebrew learning. In some cases, scholars posit that these foreign scribal systems directly influenced Israelite scribes. The New Kingdom administration of Egypt left its vestiges on the Late Bronze Levant, and the empires of Assyria, Babylon, and Persia also had a lasting impact on scribal curriculum and tradition. These contextual studies can also be used for comparison, helping scholars model what a scribal community in Israel may have looked like. Epigraphic material from the Levant has supplemented this picture. Archaeologists have excavated a number of school texts and seals that attest to the exercises and extent of Israelite education. However, the interpretation of the biblical, comparative, and epigraphic material remains fiercely contested among scholars. Scribal education had an immediate impact on the composition of the biblical corpus, and inquiries into Hebrew education often become intertwined with theories regarding the history of biblical literature. Furthermore, discussions of scribal culture are often divorced from questions of how the society as a whole transmitted skills and knowledge. The ancient Israelite scribe is thus decontextualized from his original setting. In sum, many questions regarding education in ancient Israel remain unanswered, tantalizing, and crucial to the field as a whole.

Yahweh and His Clio: Critical Theory and the Historical Criticism of the Hebrew Bible

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. D. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Social World ◽  
Historical Criticism ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

Discussion about the reconstruction of the history of ancient Israel seldom interacts with theoretical literature on the nature of history. Modern attempts to write Israel’s history, however, have been shaped by their theoretical underpinnings for the past two centuries. This essay explores the epistemological underpinnings of the historical criticism of the Hebrew Bible, outlines trends in historiographical theory, and assesses the impact newer theories of intellectual cultural history can have on studies of the history of the social world of ancient Israel.

Die Sogenannte Joaschinschrift – Echt Oder Falsch?

2005 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-74
Keyword(s):  
Ninth Century ◽  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Geological Investigation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
Good Accordance ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of

AbstractThe inscription consists of a sandstone plate, in the size of 24 times 30 cm and about 8 cm thick. The plate is broken at the upper edge and has, as it now is at hand, fifteen lines of Hebrew text. The text of the inscription is throughout written without internal matres lectionis, in good accordance with the custom of the ninth century B.C. A palaeographic comparison shows that the alphabet of the inscription is not copied from any other inscription, but the forms of the letters show an inclination to somewhat older forms. According to the original geological investigation, the stone with its inscription is genuine, but many scholars in the field of Hebrew epigraphic are sceptical. If the inscription is a fake, we also must ask, who made it and why was it made. If it is genuine, we stand before a completely singular document, which in the future will be very important for the study of the Bible and history of Ancient Israel.

scholarly journals ALIENASI ISRAEL UTARA

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (01) ◽  
pp. 24-39
Author(s):  
Adelvia Tamu Ina Pay Djera
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
Media Group

Masyarakat sebagai elemen dasar dari peradaban manusia, sejatinya terbentuk dalam berbagai upaya dan interaksi sosial. Interaksi yang terjalin disebabkan oleh berbagai aspek, hubungan biologis, lokasi tempat tinggal, suku, pemahaman ideologi yang sama termasuk usaha untuk mencapai tujuan bersama melalui kesepakatan-kesepakatan sosial tertentu yang mengikat. Tulisan ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji fenomena ini dengan teori Karl Marx sebagai acuan dari munculnya konflik dalam kehidupan Bangsa Israel, lebih lanjut didukung oleh beberapa teori sosial lainnya. Adapun tulisan ini menggunakan metode hermeneutik untuk memahami situasi sosio-historis dari keberadaan Israel dan menganalisanya sesuai dengan teori-teori sosial.  Dinamika sosial kehidupan bangsa Israel menunjukkan bahwa sebagai komunitas,yaitu komunitas yang bersatu pada masa kepemimpinan Daud (Israel Bersatu) dan terpecah pada masa pemerintahan Salomo menjadi Israel Selatan dan Israel Utara. KEPUSTAKAAN Bernhard W. Anderson. The Books of the Bible. New York: CSS, 1991. Elly M. Setiadi & Usman Kolip. Pengantar Sosiologi: Teori, Aplikasi dan Pemecahannya. Jakarta: Kencana Prenada Media Group, 2011. George Ritzer & Douglas J.Goodman. Teori Sosiologi: Dari Teori Sosiologi Klask sampai perkembangan terakhir teori sosial postmodern. Bantul: Kreasi Wacana, 2016. Heine Andersen & Lars Bo Kaspersen. Classical and Modern Social Theory. Malden: Blackwell Publishers, 2000. John A. Titaley. Persepuluhan dalam Alkitab Ibrani Israel Alkitab. Salatiga: Satya Wacana Press, 2016. Norman K. Gottwald. The Hebrew Bible: A Socio-Literary Introduction. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985. Norman K. Gottwald. The Tribes of YHWH:  A Sosiology of The Religion of Liberated Israel. New York: Orbis Book, 1979. Norman K. Gottwald. The Politics of Ancient Israel. Louisville Kentucky:Westminster John Knox Press, 2001. Robert B. Coote & David Robert Ord. Sejarah Pertama Alkitab: Dari Eden hingga Kerajaan Daud berdasarkan Sumber Y. BPK Gunung Mulia; Satya Wacana Press, 2015. Robert B. Coote. Demi Membela Revolusi: Sejarah Elohist. Jakarta: BPK Gunung Mulia, 2011. Soerjono Soekanto. Sosiologi: Suatu Pengantar. Jakarta: Raja Grafindo Persada, 1982. Samuel Koenig. Mand and Society, the basic teaching of sociology. New York: Barners & Noble Inc, 1957

scholarly journals Africanization of Christianity: Henry Venn’s indigenization of Christianity

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-85
Author(s):  
Ekpenyong Obo Ekpenyong ◽  
Ibiang Obono Okoi
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Church Organization ◽  
History Of Christianity ◽  
African Christianity ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of ◽  
Native Literature ◽  
The Church

The history of Christianity has always been a two-way process of transformation in any given culture. Christianity and paganism are reciprocal; Christianity is necessary for revelation to be fulfilled, but the actual quality of this fulfillment depends upon the quality of the religious man transformed by revelation. Christianity, as a result of this, needs a natural religion, the same way it needs all human realities as the sole mission is to save what has first been created. The link between Gospel and culture is that Gospel whenever its introduced and established in a new culture, is “transposed” in a particular way a sweet melody into a new key. Moreover, the Gospel, when transposed from its biblical world to other cultural worlds, undergoes change itself as well as causing these other worlds to change. Crowther created an astonishing impact and contribution after his consecration in 1864; as he strived to indigenize or Africanize Christianity to make it possible for the Christian faith to be accepted by Africans without having to give up or disown their cultural values. This work seeks to find what part Henry Venn, the dynamic and accomplished secretary of the Church Missionary Society, played to see how Christian faith can go well together or combine with African beliefs and practices to produce Christianity which may become a religion for Africans. This work has shown that Henry Venn's ideas on native Church organization include: the native Church needs the ablest native pastors for its fuller development and that it should be under a native bishop and that a native Church is organized as a national institution. This work adopted a qualitative method that used historical and content analysis. This work concluded that for the Africanization of Christianity to be actualized, African Church must have its liturgy or incorporate what was good of the native religions to develop an authentically African Christianity. And that reducing the various African vernaculars into writing and developing native literature was a first step in the reforming movement toward Africanization of Christianity; just as Venn urged Crowther to undertake the translation of the Bible into Yoruba and to preach in Yoruba even while still at Freetown.

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