Social memory studies offer an under-utilised lens through which to approach the texts of the Hebrew Bible. In this volume, the range of associations and symbolic values evoked by twenty-one characters representing ancestors and founders, kings, female characters, and prophets are explored by a group of international scholars. The presumed social settings when most of the books comprising the TANAK had come into existence and were being read together as an emerging authoritative corpus are the late Persian and early Hellenistic periods. It is in this context then that we can profitably explore the symbolic values and networks of meanings that biblical figures encoded for the religious community of Israel in these eras, drawing on our limited knowledge of issues and life in Yehud and Judean diasporic communities in these periods. This is the first period when scholars can plausibly try to understand the mnemonic effects of these texts, which were understood to encode the collective experience members of the community, providing them with a common identity by offering a sense of shared past while defining aspirations for the future. The introduction and the concluding essay focus on theoretical and methodological issues that arise from analysing the Hebrew Bible in the framework of memory studies. The individual character studies, as a group, provide a kaleidoscopic view of the potentialities of using a social memory approach in Biblical Studies, with the essay on Cyrus written by a classicist, in order to provide an enriching perspective on how one biblical figure was construed in Greek social memory, for comparative purposes.

Remembering Biblical Figures in the Late Persian and Early Hellenistic Periods: Social Memory and Imagination

History

Ben Zvi, Ehud

Edelman, Diana V.

Ancient Civilizations

Oxford University Press

This textbook will teach students who have completed an introductory course in Hebrew how to read and interpret biblical texts from the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. It can be used in intermediate-level university or seminary classes or by students working alone. The book presents texts drawn from the complete range of biblical literature, exposing the student to all the major styles of Hebrew found in the Bible. It also provides extensive explanations of the chosen texts, focusing on structure, genre, literary devices, and accents. There are assignments for classroom use, and space is available for student responses. The book includes topics for further thought and suggestions for further reading on specific issues.

Readings in Biblical Hebrew: An Intermediate Textbook (Yale Language Series)

Reference

Hancock, Maxine

Beinert, Richard A.

Foreign Language Study & Reference

Yale University Press

In this new and refreshing approach to the story, Ben Zvi starts with the premise that Jonah, like most books, was written to be read. He therefore concentrates on intended and unintended readership(s) of Jonah and the network of messages that they were likely to derive through their reading and rereading. He starts with the historical and social matrix of the production and reading of the book in antiquity, analyzes its self-critical approach and its metaprophetic character as a comment on the genre of prophetic books and on prophets. How does the historical fact of Nineveh's destruction acually shape the reading? Or the perception of Jonah as a runaway slave?Ben Zvi demonstrates the malleability of interpretation of the Book of Jonah and its limitations, as attested in different communities of readers. He asks why certain messages are easily accepted by particular historical communities, whereas others are not raised at all.

The Signs of Jonah: Reading and Rereading in Ancient Yehud (The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies)

Religion & Spirituality

Sheffield Academic+press

Hosea by Ehud Ben Zvi is Volume XXIA/1 of The Forms of the Old Testament Literature, a series that aims to present a form-critical analysis of every book and each unit in the Hebrew Bible. Fundamentally exegetical, the FOTL volumes examine the structure, genre, setting, and intention of the biblical literature in question. They also study the history behind the form-critical discussion of the material, attempt to bring consistency to the terminology for the genres and formulas of the biblical literature, and expose the exegetical process so as to enable students and pastors to engage in their own analysis and interpretation of the Old Testament texts. His second work for the FOTL series, Ehud Ben Zvi's Hosea features a comprehensive introduction and careful commentary with special attention to themes of exile and restoration, as well as extended discussion of didactic prophetic readings. An excellent form-critical interpretation of the book of Hosea, this volume will be a valuable aid to scholars, students, and teachers.

Hosea (The Forms of the Old Testament Literature (FOTL))

Wm. B. Eerdmans-Lightning Source

The Forms of the Old Testament Literature Series has long been acknowledged as a unique and valuable commentary on the Old Testament. The volumes in the FOTL series are specifically concerned to explore the structure, genre, setting, and intention of each type of biblical literature so the fullest possible meaning of Scripture can be uncovered. This new addition to the FOTL commentary series presents a complete form-critical analysis of the book of Micah. Ehud Ben Zvi looks at how Micah was read by its ancient audience and explores the social setting that stands behind it. Emphasis is placed on the construction of the past, on the images of the future, and on the relevance of both of these to the present of the community or communities of readers for whom the book was intended. His various lines of investigation lead to a deeper understanding of Micah and its enduring message.

Micah: Volume XXIB (Forms of the Old Testament Literature Series) (The Forms of the Old Testament Literature (FOTL))

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Signs of Jonah: Reading and Rereading in Ancient Yehud (JSOT Supplement)

Sheffield Academic Pr

A conversation between James D. Nogalski and Ehud Ben Zvi on the question of The Twelve, its implications for the historically oriented study of the prophetic books in the Hebrew Bible, and for the reconstruction of the intellectual history of ancient Israel.

Two Sides of a Coin: Juxtaposing Views on Interpreting the Book of the Twelve / the Twelve Prophetic Books (Analecta Gorgiana)

Nogalski, James D.

Gorgias Pr Llc

History, Literature and Theology in the Book of Chronicles presents a new way of approaching this key biblical text, arguing that the Book employs both multiple viewpoints and the knowledge of the past held by its intended readership to reshape social memory and reinforce the authority of God. The Book of Chronicles communicates to its intended readership a theological worldview built around multiple, partial perspectives which inform and balance each other. This is a worldview which emphasizes the limitations of all human knowledge, even of theologically "proper" knowledge. When Chronicles presents the past as explainable it also affirms that those who inhabited it could not predict the future. And, despite expanding an "explainable" past, the Book deliberately frames some of YHWH's actions - crucial events in Israel's social memory - as unexplainable in human terms. The Book serves to rationalise divinely ordained, prescriptive behaviour through its emphasis on the impossibility of adequate human understanding of a past, present and future governed by YHWH.

History, Literature and Theology in the Book of Chronicles (BibleWorld)

Routledge

The series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) covers all areas of research into the Old Testament, focusing on the Hebrew Bible, its early and later forms in Ancient Judaism, as well as its branching into many neighboring cultures of the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world.

A Historical-Critical Study of the Book of Zephaniah (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 198)

de Gruyter

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ben Zvi, Ehud. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Ben Zvi, Ehud

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ben Zvi, Ehud. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Remembering Biblical Figures in the Late Persian and Early Hellenistic Periods: Social Memory and Imagination

Readings in Biblical Hebrew: An Intermediate Textbook (Yale Language Series)

The Signs of Jonah: Reading and Rereading in Ancient Yehud (The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies)

Hosea (The Forms of the Old Testament Literature (FOTL))

Micah: Volume XXIB (Forms of the Old Testament Literature Series) (The Forms of the Old Testament Literature (FOTL))

Signs of Jonah: Reading and Rereading in Ancient Yehud (JSOT Supplement)

Two Sides of a Coin: Juxtaposing Views on Interpreting the Book of the Twelve / the Twelve Prophetic Books (Analecta Gorgiana)

History, Literature and Theology in the Book of Chronicles (BibleWorld)

History, Literature and Theology in the Book of Chronicles (BibleWorld)

A Historical-Critical Study of the Book of Zephaniah (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 198)