6. Literary Studies and History of Interpretation

ADELMAN, RACHEL, The Female Ruse: Women 's Deception and Divine Sanction in the Hebrew Bible (Hebrew Bible Monographs, 74; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2015), pp. xvii + 256. £60. ISBN 978-1-909697-94-2.

This engaging and beautifully written monograph is the first full-length exploration of biblical narratives in which the ‘divine plot’ is advanced by women's deception and gendered trickery (p. x). In nine chapters, A. draws on a wealth of midrashic readings and literary theory to present nine unique close readings of the trickster stories of Rebekah, Leah and Rachel, Tamar, Michal, Abigail, Bathsheba, Esther and Joseph (as a ‘feminine figure’, p. 199), casting a spotlight on the role that female subterfuge plays in these narratives. Throughout, A. focuses on the final form of the text, even imputing a revelatory role to R, who is identified as redactor/rabbenu, p. 9). A strong focus is maintained on the interplay of inter-texts within the Hebrew Bible, with some delightful attention to detail. Strong female characters arise from these re-readings. Rebekah becomes a matriarch with ‘prophetic powers’ (p. 26); Tamar becomes ‘the vanguard of the divine’, who ‘steers the course of patriarchal history’ (p. 87); Esther ‘is transformed from puppet to puppeteer’ (p. 226). A. even engages in her own playful midrashim in response to some of the narratives. This is a rich, playful, and insightful read.

SHARON MOUGHTIN-MUMBY

AITKEN, JAMES K., and HILARY F. MARLOW (eds.), The City in the Hebrew Bible: Critical, Literary and Exegetical Approaches (LHBOTS, 672; London: T&T Clark, 2018), pp. xii + 248. £85.00. ISBN 978-0-567-67890-4.

This collection of essays focuses on the theme of the city in the Hebrew Bible and offers a wide range of approaches to the topic. Section A of the volume (‘Setting the Scene’) begins with J.K. Aitken's ‘Introduction: A City Perspective’, which gives an overview of important research on ‘the city in ancient Israel’ and the ‘ancient and biblical city’ before introducing the following essays in the volume. Next comes A.R. Gray, ‘Reflections on the Meaning(s) of עיר in the Hebrew Bible’, which studies the term עיר through a cognitive linguistic perspective. Concluding Section A, H.S. Pyper, ‘The Biblical Metropolis’, draws attention to the rhythm of life in Jerusalem and in the biblical texts. Section B (‘Perspectives from Cultural Geography and Spatial Theory’) begins with B.A. Anderson, ‘Mapping Narrative Complexity: Textual Geography, Literary Studies and the City in the Hebrew Bible’, which explores various ways of understanding Bethel and the biblical city drawing on insights from spatial theory, textual geography and literary studies. H.F. Marlow, ‘ “A Land with Fine Large Cities”: Mapping the Landscapes of Deuteronomy’, highlights the ‘multifocal’ approach of Deuteronomy's descriptions of land and cities. C. Meredith, ‘City as Labyrinth: The Song of Songs and the Urban Uncanny’, elucidates some of the tension and ambiguity surrounding the city in the Song. M. Mills, ‘Wasteland and Pastoral Idyll as Images of the Biblical City’, explores wasteland and pastoral idyll as iconographies used in prophetic texts that relate to the human and, thus, political order. D.W. Rooke, ‘Urban Planning According to Ezekiel: The Shape of the Restored Jerusalem’, compares Ezekiel's vision of the restored Jerusalem with Ebenezer Howard's (1850–1928) conceptions of cities, drawing attention to the ways in which both had to reckon with established cultural traditions that privileged higher social classes, and both emphasized new creations over older cities. In Section C (‘Literary and Exegetical Perspectives’), C. Sulzbach, ‘City Parody as a Literary Trope in Biblical Texts’, uses idol parodies to explore biblical depictions of Jerusalem and Babylon and observes the relationship between deities dwelling in cities and the resultant portrayals of those cities. R.P. Gordon, ‘Contested Eponymy: Cain, Enoch, and the Cities of Genesis 1–11’, then explores the implications of the double mention of Enoch's name in Gen. 4.17, raising the question of whether Enoch or Cain is identified as the builder of the city. R.S. Watson, ‘ “Therefore We Will Not Fear”? The Psalms of Zion in Psychological Perspective’, focuses on Pss. 46, 48, and 76 using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) analysis to demonstrate that those psalms are more different than is usually recognized, which calls into question their genre. Finally, S.J. Bennett, ‘Among the Ruins of a Walled City: Reflections on War and Peace in Ecclesiastes 12.1-7’, identifies three aspects of the city in Eccl. 12.1-7: that of physical space, conceived space and lived space. Overall, the volume presents a rich and diverse collection of essays that opens up numerous interpretative possibilities for scholars studying cities in the HB.

CAT QUINE

ALLEN, GARRICK V., and JOHN ANTHONY DUNNE (eds.), Ancient Readers and their Scriptures: Engaging the Hebrew Bible in Early Judaism and Christianity (Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, 107; Leiden: Brill, 2019), pp. xviii + 312. €105.00/ $126.00. ISBN 978-90-04-38336-4.

This very worthwhile volume derives from a 2014 St Andrews conference organized by the editors. The essays are arranged in four parts; some of the studies are more programmatic, others engage with details. In Part 1 on the Second Temple period L. Askin asks what Ben Sira's Bible and desk looked like (he did not have one and probably composed drafts from notes), M. Pajunen considers creation (applied with particularity) as the liturgical nexus of the blessings and curses in 4QBerakhot, and J.D.H. Norton engages with the problematic shadows cast by the hypothesis of a Qumran library. Part 2 concerns the NT practices of reading and reusing Scripture: S.E. Docherty compares ‘Rewritten Bible’, especially as in Pseudo-Philo's Biblical Antiquities, with exegetical methods in the NT, M. Karrer expounds the rich textual history and theology of some scriptural quotations, P. Sloan argues that through its use of Zech. 13.7–14.6 Mark 13 predicts Jesus’ death, and J.M. Lear re-describes the hybrid Isaiah quotation in Lk. 4.18-19 to show how Luke stresses sonship. In Part 3 on rabbinic literature W. Smelik re-envisages rabbinic sources on Adam's creation as a single, huge, Aramaic-speaking heretic, D. Börner-Klein reviews the variants of Ps. 139.16 in rabbinic texts, and A.J. Berkovitz describes the links between Psalm 22 and Esther understood as a Jewish passion counter-narrative, an example of Jewish and Christian exegetical controversy. In the final Part 4 a single essay by the editorsasks how the various contributions indicate the nature of ‘reading’ in antiquity.

GEORGE J. BROOKE

ANDERSON, BRADFORD A., and JONATHAN KEARNEY (eds.), Ireland and the Reception of the Bible: Social and Cultural Perspectives (LHBOTS, 665; Scriptural Traces, 13; London: T&T Clark, 2018), pp. xviii + 395. £95.00. ISBN 978-0-5676-7887-4.

This absorbing and informative volume spans 1500 years of biblical reception in Ireland from the Psalter-based education provided by early monasticism to the use of scripture in a Nigerian Pentecostal Church in 21st-century Dublin. The 21 articles, which vary in style, depth and detail, are grouped under four headings: ‘Ireland and the Transmission of the Bible’; ‘The Bible and Identity in Ireland’; ‘Ireland and Beyond: Reciprocal Influences’; and ‘Cultural and Artistic Appropriation: Imagery, Music and Literature’. A constant sub-theme of the multi-disciplinary essays is the difficulty posed by the post-Reformation association of the Bible with Protestantism and with prosely-tization (p. xi) and by the neglect of the Bible by many Irish Catholics until the Second Vatican Council. The OT, in particular, has suffered because of its perceived justification for British colonialism, and the greater Catholic emphasis on the NT (p. 328). Of special OT interest are the following articles: M. McNamara, ‘The Multifaceted Transmission of the Bible in Ireland, 550–1200 CE’; S. Ryan, ‘The Bible and “The People” in Ireland, ca. 1100–ca. 1650’; F. Ó Fearghail, ‘Translating the Bible into Irish, 1565–1850’; and S.D. Long, ‘The Bible in Music during Dublin's Golden Age’, which focuses, among others, on Dublin productions of Handel's OT-inspired oratorios. In a uniquely personal contribution (‘ “Casting Bread upon the Water”: A Voyage of Discovery’), C. McCarthy traces her engagement in biblical studies over 55 years, beginning with her study of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek in ‘blind obedience’ to her mistress of novices and culminating in her distinguished contributions to the BHQ and the Antioch Bible. Lack of space was doubtless responsible for certain obvious omissions, such as discussion of the use of OT themes in Irish medieval high crosses and other ecclesiastical relief sculpture. McNamara's concluding sentence (p. 39) could well apply to the whole volume: ‘It is hoped that what has been written here will inspire and aid the research and publication required to present the fuller picture that the subject merits.’

ROSALIE Ní MHAOLDOMHNAIGH

APOSTOLOS-CAPPADONA, DIANE (ed.), Biblical Women and the Arts (Biblical Reception, 5; London: T&T Clark, 2018), pp. xviii + 228. £95.00. ISBN 978-0-567-67460-9.

In the absence of an introduction, this volume begins with the editor's own exploration of how artistic canons, cultural mores and spiritual symbolism influence the depiction of Mary's maternal breast and the motif of Maria lactans in Western Art from late antiquity to the Renaissance. Following a survey of the depictions of Eve in Islamic Art, Z. Hadromi-Allouche shows how three of these from the 16th and early 17th centuries resonate with but also diverge from her depiction in the literature of mainstream Islam. O. Soltes illustrates that while Sarah and Esther are both distinguished by their beauty in the HB and Esther is regularly depicted as such, Sarah is often depicted in old age, contrasted with the youthful beauty of Hagar. C. Joynes’ essay argues that early depictions of the haemorrhaging woman, Cranach's portrayal of mothers bringing children to Jesus and an 11th/12th-century reliquary's depiction of the women at the tomb, all encourage a re-reading of the Markan episodes they depict and a re-evaluation of the place of gender in reception history. According to E. Nutu, fin-de-siècle art and literature illustrate not only the transformation of the daughter of Herodias into Salomé, femme fatale, but also the Baptist into a male icon worthy of her infatuation. A. Sheaffer explores the depiction of Judith, suggesting that the latter's conflation with Salomé and Delilah as biblical femme fatales from the Reformation until the beginning of the 20th century tells us more about the respective artists’ and cultures’ attitudes toward women than the biblical text. Mary the mother of Jesus returns to the fore in J. Nassichuk's illumination of Marcantonio Sabellico's 15th-century Carmina de Beata Virgine Maria, 13 elegies to the Virgin which draw on material from not only the NT but the OT as well. K. Harness's discussion of the plays of Mary Magdalene in the 17th-century court of Maria Magdalena, Archduchess of Tuscany illustrates how they were used not only for her own devotional consumption but also as part of her public identification with her namesake. Seventeenth-century Italy is also the setting for Guernico's famous painting, Christ and the Woman of Samaria, whose various versions, H. Hornik argues, illustrate different narrative moments of the episode in John 4. Finally, N. O'Hear's study of the depiction of the ‘Woman clothed with the Sun’ (Rev. 12) finds evidence of her conflation with the Virgin Mary in medieval apocalypses and some later illustrations, but also radical contemporization in modern Chicana art. While the limited attention to theatrical arts and the absence of cinematic arts are noteworthy, this volume's focus on biblical women primarily in the visual arts offers further evidence of gender as a fruitful analytical category for the study of the reception of the Bible.

DAVID J. SHEPHERD

BAR, SHAUL, A Nation Is Born: The Jacob Story (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2016), pp. xxv + 171. $25.00. ISBN 978-1-4982-3935-6.

B.'s objective is to rediscover Jacob (personality, achievements and failures) as an alternative to familiar tales with a didactic purpose and a batch of monographs each with its own slant. For B., Jacob is part of ‘the unbroken bond between God and his people’ linking the patriarchs, the promise of the land and the divine theodicy, with God's guiding hand as the glue. Sticking closely to the biblical text, it is deceptively simple but not simplistic, bespattered as it is by all manner of relevant detail not only from Jewish midrashim but also from a variety of wider ANE texts, including material from the Babylonian, Greek and Roman empires. A chapter on Deception is a timely reminder of a world where deception was universal in families, communities and even among the gods, and B.'s unpicking of the Dinah story, involving local and wider culture, goes well beyond what a simple reading of the narrative might suggest. Religious Practices, Angels and Dreams are treated similarly, and two final chapters cover Jacob and Joseph and the Testament of Jacob. By taking us outside the OT, B. opens doors to less familiar detail in an extraordinarily comprehensive guide to time, place and custom with a wealth of raw material—‘raw’ not in the sense that it is ‘uncooked’ (though it is) but rather ‘unadulterated resources’ from which any number of theories may be enriched and to which any good cook would want to deploy. There is good documentation and seven pages of Bibliography.

ALEC GILMORE

BEKKUM, KOERT VAN, JAAP DEKKER, HENK VAN DE KAMP, and ERIC PEELS (eds.), Playing with Leviathan: Interpretation and Reception of Monsters from the Biblical World (Themes in Biblical Narrative, 21; Leiden: Brill, 2017), pp. xxviii + 315. €115.00. ISBN 978-90-04-33795-4.

This wide-ranging collection of essays takes the reader from the 3rd millennium BCE to Harry Potter! It emerged from a conference held in Kampen in 2013 as part of the research programme of the Biblical Exegesis and Systematic Theology research group of the Theological Universities of Kampen and Apeldoorn, at which most of the papers were read, its theme ‘playing with Leviathan’ inspired by Ps. 104.26. The 16 essays are subdivided into six unequal parts, of which the first two perhaps bear most directly on the HB. In Part 1 (ANE) the single essay, by M. Korpel and J. de Moor, is on ‘The Leviathan in the Ancient Near East’. Part 2 (OT) includes five essays: ‘God and the Dragons in the Book of Isaiah’ (J. Dekker); ‘As a Fish on Dry Land: Some Remarks on Tannîn in Ezekiel’ (B. van Werven); ‘“Is your Rage against the Rivers, your Wrath against the Sea?”: Storm-God Imagery in Habakkuk 3’ (K. van Bekkum); ‘The Monster as a Toy: Leviathan in Psalm 104:26’ (G. Kwakkel); and ‘ “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find the(ir Wisdo)m”: Behemoth and Leviathan in the Book of Job’ (N. Ansell). In the one item in Part 3 (Early and Rabbinic Judaism) M. Mulder looks at Leviathan in 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, 1 Enoch and two later apocalyptic texts. In Part 4 (NT and Early Christianity) T. van Spanje argues against a suggestion that Satan was identified with Leviathan in Romans 16. Then in two further contributions, R. van Houwelingen and H. van de Kamp focus on passages in Revelation. Part 5 (Theological Reflections) includes papers on God and animal suffering (G. van den Brink), Leviathan in the works of theologian A.A. van Ruler (D. van Keulen), applications of Thomas Hobbes’ use of Leviathan as a symbol (A. de Bruijne), and a reflection on how myths relating to the Dragon/Snake may contribute to Christian dialogue on the fear of death and the Gospel of life with those who hold mythic world-views (K. Haak). The final part (Iconographic Representations) includes a number of illustrations and looks at works of late medieval and early modern art (A. de Kruijf) and in movies (R. Sonneveld). The perhaps surprising overall conclusion is that what appears to be a malign symbol can be used to present the sovereignty of God over the universe.

ADRIAN CURTIS

BENNETT, ZOë, and CHRISTOPHER ROWLAND, In a Glass Darkly: The Bible, Reflection and Everyday Life (London: SCM Press, 2016), pp. v + 324. £25.00. ISBN 978-0-334-05422-1.

This book is a creative exercise in hermeneutics, a unique collaboration between a biblical scholar and a practical theologian which brings the Bible into critical dialogue with their personal and professional experience, leads them to wrestle with differences as well as commonalities, and gives rise to fresh perspectives for critical reflection. The first two chapters focus on the centrality of the biblical text and, through an imaginative engagement with New Testament apocalyptic, consider ways in which this is grounded in experience. The next two chapters are largely autobiographical. We are shown how the authors’ understanding of the Bible and its use was challenged and developed through encounter, severally, with liberation theology and feminist theology. We also see how differences in how the Bible and life are related can show up between people and also within one person over the course of their life. This is illustrated vividly by Bennett's reflections, 31 years apart, on the death of her baby, and by Rowland's finding that the book of Daniel and other Babylon texts encapsulated his experiences of alienation in academe. Chapter 5 demonstrates how a historical figure might bring fresh understanding to the connections between life and the Bible and engages imaginatively with William Blake and John Ruskin. Chapter 6 examines the place of ideology in the Bible and in Marxist tradition and highlights the importance of self-awareness in the reader. The final two chapters assess the similarities, tensions and differences that have emerged from these journeys with the Bible.

FLEUR HOUSTON

BLYTH, CAROLINE, Reimagining Delilah's Afterlives as Femme Fatale: The Lost Seduction (LHBOTS, 652; London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017), pp. x + 198. £84.99. ISBN 978-0-567-67312-1.

In this volume on the reception history of Delilah, B. offers a new take on the ‘prismatic’ afterlives of this notorious biblical femme. Rather than provide a chronological overview of the history of interpretation of Judges 16, or focus on Delilah's afterlives in a particular form of reception, such as painting, B. organizes her book around her interest in the framing of Delilah as a femme fatale. Furthermore, she also considers how contemporary readers might trouble such negative imaginings of Delilah, precisely by challenging the broader negative cultural stereotype of the femme fatale. Following the introduction, ch. 1 offers a highly interesting discussion of three contexts in which fascination with the femme fatale peaked—fin de siècle European arts, 1940s and 1950s noir cinema and literature, and late 20th-century Hollywood neo-noir. B. highlights a number of characteristics of the classic femme fatale that emerge across these eras and genres, including deadly sexuality, animality and exoticism. This provides B. with an insightful cultural lens through which she critically views Delilah's interpret-tative afterlives produced by biblical scholars in their commentaries, books and articles (ch. 2) and cultural afterlives in art, music and film (ch. 3). Chapter 4 sees B. challenge this negative trend by offering an alternative filter for Delilah, urging the reader to a more nuanced understanding of the deadly female biblical character that takes into consideration her position in a male-dominated social world. This book offers a number of interesting takes on existing Delilah scholarship, as well as an innovative approach to reception-critical work. Although at times the different strands of the volume felt a little disparate, overall this book is a creative addition to an already rich field of research.

HOLLY MORSE

BOASE, ELIZABETH, and CHRISTOPHER G. FRECHETTE (eds.), Bible through the Lens of Trauma (Semeia Studies, 86; Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2016), pp. viii + 260. $33.95. ISBN 978-1-62837-145-1.

This volume comprises revisions of papers presented to the ‘Biblical Literature and the Hermeneutics of Trauma’ programme unit of the SBL annual meetings in 2013 and 2014, plus one other essay. In an introductory essay, the editors present an overview of trauma studies and its relevance to biblical studies. In view of the nature of trauma, that ‘both resists yet demands expression’ (p. 11), they highlight the capacity of trauma studies to ‘reveal meaning not captured by the plain sense of the text’ (p. 13), as well as to shape the use of texts in recovery from trauma and the promotion of resilience. Essays are then presented in three categories. Four essays explore individual and collective aspects of trauma: R. Poser on the book of Ezekiel as a response to Exile; E. Boase on the construction of collective identity in Lamentations; C.G. Frechette on rape imagery in Isaiah 47; and P.B. Helsel on collective trauma and Qoheleth. Two essays give ‘new insights into old questions’: M.S. Odell on child sacrifice in Ezek. 16.15-22; and L. Stulman on the prose sermons in the book of Jeremiah. And six essays deal with aspects of recovery and promotion of resilience in and through biblical texts: B.A. Strawn on psalmic disclosure; S.E. Balentine on ‘Legislating Divine Trauma’; L.J.M. Claassens on the rape of Tamar; R.J. Schreiter on reading texts through the lens of resilience; G.O. West on Job and people living with HIV; and P.Y. Clark on 2 Corinthians and post-traumatic stress disorder. An index of ancient sources closes the volume. There are helpful insights to be garnered here by those studying the texts in question, as well as a helpful way into this important new area of biblical studies. This will be especially the case for those interested in the contemporary application of biblical texts in contexts of trauma and recovery.

SIMON P. STOCKS

BODA, MARK J., RUSSELL L. MEEK, and WILLIAM R. OSBORNE (eds.), Riddles and Revelations: Explorations into the Relationship between Wisdom and Prophecy in the Hebrew Bible (LHBOTS, 634; London: T&T Clark, 2018), pp. xiii + 306. £85.00. ISBN 978-0-5676-7164-6.

The essays in this collection have emerged from the Wisdom and Prophecy research group of the Institute for Biblical Research. The book has three main sections: first, five essays on ‘Methodology’ (R.L. Meek, ‘Prophet and Sage in Dialogue’; W. Kynes, ‘“Wisdom” as Mask and Mirror’; M. Sneed, ‘Methods, Muddles, and Modes of Literature’; S. Weeks, ‘Overlap? Influence? Allusion?’; J.W. Hilber, ‘The Relationship of Prophecy and Wisdom in the Ancient Near East’); second, five essays on ‘Wisdom among the Prophets’ (E. Ortlund, ‘Spiritual Blindness and Wisdom Traditions in the Book of Isaiah’; L.C. Allen, ‘The Structural Role of Wisdom in Jeremiah’; W.R. Osborne, ‘Wisdom Gets “Tyred” in the Book of Ezekiel’; A.E. Steinmann, ‘Daniel as Wisdom in Action’; D.C. Timmer, ‘Where Shall Wisdom Be Found (in the Book of the Twelve)?’); third, four essays on ‘Prophecy among the Sages’ (R. O'Dowd, ‘A Prophet in the Sage's House?’; M.A. Shields, ‘You Can't Get a Sage to Do a Prophet's Job’; R. Schultz, ‘Was Qohelet an Eschatological or an Anti-Apocalyptic Sage?’; T. Johnson, ‘From Where Should Apocalyptic be Found?’). It is probably inevitable, particularly in relation to the essays in the first group, devoted as they are mainly to problems of definition, and comprehensively covering, as they do, the scholarly study of the subject in the past, that one should end up impressed (not to say confused) by the diversity in approaches and proposals. So it is not only useful but also rather essential that the collection should conclude with a shorter fourth section, containing three ‘Responses’ each of which responds to the essays in one of the first three sections (K.J. Dell, ‘Response on Methodological Matters’; M.J. Boda, ‘Wisdom in Prophecy’; T. Longman III, ‘Prophecy and Wisdom’). These responses go a long way towards providing a lens through which one may bring a frame of reference to bear on these very different contributions. The essays generally concentrate on lexical, intertextual, literary and theological issues; more consideration of the texts within their wider historical and cultural contexts would have been a benefit.

ANDREW MAYES

BOORER, SUZANNE, The Vision of the Priestly Narrative: Its Genre and Hermeneutics of Time (Ancient Israel and Its Literature, 27; Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2016), pp. xv + 619. $89.95. ISBN 978-0-88414-062-7.

B. offers a thorough investigation of the priestly material that addresses form, composition and theological intent. In the first chapter she provides a history of interpretation around the complex debates concerning the priestly texts. Her analysis consistently parallels Martin Noth's definitions of ‘Pg’, or the priestly Grundschrift which describes the earliest independent P narrative. She holds that Pg was dependent on earlier traditions reflected in non-P throughout Genesis 1–Numbers 27. The second chapter addresses the structure of Pg as a whole and once again B. gives a detailed survey of the scholarly literature which, at times, repeats elements of her opening analysis. In ch. 3 B. discusses the nature of Pg's genre and hermeneutics. Her argument is that Pg's historiography creates a composition that collapses time (past, present and future) into timeless ritual, thereby offering its own hermeneutic of time (pp. 210-15). This ritualized history, she argues, allows the reader ‘the means of entering into, and embodying, the world of the text’ and participating in the eschatological future (p. 213). The fourth chapter develops B.'s main arguments around Pg's hermeneutics of time as she offers a detailed discussion of priestly material in Exodus 7–Numbers 27. Chapter 5 then seeks to capture the whole of Pg's narrative form by focusing on Genesis. The final chapter is less convincing as B. argues how an exilic/postexilic audience would have heard the Pg narrative. Despite this, the volume offers valuable research into Pg both textually and theologically.

MARK W. SCARLATA

BRENNER-IDAN, ATHALYA, GALE A. YEE and ARCHIE C.C. LEE (eds.), The Five Scrolls (Texts@Contexts, 6; London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2018), pp. xiv + 230. £85.00. ISBN 978-0-567-67893-5.

Scholars from a variey of geographical/cultural/social contexts here offer readings of particular biblical texts from the scholars’ respective modern contexts. There are six perspectives on the book of Ruth (M. Masenya in an African religio-cultural context; A. Rees in the light of Australian asylum-seeker discourse; H.W. Kim in a Korean context; G.O. West and B.G. Haddad in the context of HIV in southern Africa; G.A. Yee in terms of racial melancholia; and N. Mtshiselwa providing an African reading with Latino/a critical tools); two on the Song of Songs (C.B. Anderson offers a womanist reading in the age of AIDS; and M.L.G. Bachmann reads the book in a context of gender violence); three on Ecclesiastes (J. Havea considers 3.9-13 in the context of the Pacific islands; H. Wei offers a cross-textual reading with the Chinese Buddhist text the Heart Sutra; and K. Spronk contemplates the varying contexts in which readers deal with Qoheleth's perspective on death); two on Lamentations (A.C.C. Lee on ‘Daughter Zion’ and the Chinese story of Lady Meng's Tears; and A. Brenner-Idan on Lamentations as musical performance); and two on the book of Esther (O. Brison looks at the banquets of Vashti and Esther and at modern women-only Israeli/Jewish ceremonies; and J.S. du Toit reads Children's Bibles as commentary on 20th-century Afrikaner culture). There is much to stimulate any reader in this collection of essays on ‘texts@contexts’ (as the series title styles it), but this reviewer was especially attracted to Wei's tracing of suggestive analogies between the word hebel (traditionally ‘vanity’) in Ecclesiastes and the word kong (‘emptiness’) in the Heart Sutra. Perhaps ironically in view of that concept, one can certainly say that The Five Scrolls is far from being an ‘empty’ collection of studies.

JOHN JARICK

BRIGGS, RICHARD S., Theological Hermeneutics and the Book of Numbers as Christian Scripture (Reading the Scriptures; Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2018), pp. xvi + 332. $55.00. ISBN 978-0-268-10373-6.

For those wanting to read the HB as Christian Scripture the book of Numbers is not an obvious place to begin. This is precisely why B. has made Numbers the chosen exemplar for his proposed theological hermeneutic: if it works for Numbers, then it must really work! Drawing on theorists and exegetes from antiquity to modernity, B. sets out his basic questions and approach, and then in a series of six case studies applies his methodology to mainly narrative pericopae from Numbers 11–25. There is much to commend in B.'s nuanced presentation. A noteworthy methodological principle is the concern to distinguish between a theological reading and flat historical literalism, the latter being countered by B.'s ‘ascriptive realism’ that respects the literal meaning of the text but seeks its significance in other than strictly historical categories. Another plus is B.'s understanding of Christian exegesis as something much more subtle than simply ‘seeing Jesus’ everywhere, together with his definition of a Christian reading as one that attempts to see what the text looks like within a Christian framework rather than claiming such a framework as the only valid one. That said, I would welcome more on how B. understands the term ‘scripture’, especially as he asserts that normal hermeneutical expectations cannot necessarily be applied to scripture. Additionally, in several places acknowledged feminist concerns appear to be subordinated to theological ones; and throughout the main text male interlocutors have pride of place while female interlocutors are largely buried in the endnotes (footnotes would have helped).

DEBORAH W. ROOKE

BROWNLEE, VICTORIA, Biblical Readings and Literary Writings in Early Modern England, 1558–1625 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), pp. xiii + 256. £55.00. ISBN 978-0-19-881248-7.

B. (a lecturer in English at the National University of Ireland, Galway), after an Introduction, and a first chapter, ‘The Engrafted Word’ (which explores the ways in which the Bible was read and received in early Modern England), provides a series of studies which explore how the varied and imaginative use of the Bible reflects how well the Scriptures were known, and how the dominant forms of exegetical practice were deployed. The studies also investigate how biblical interpretation was used to both mirror and direct social, cultural and political debates and practices in the period. The chapter titles will provide the flavour of the wonderful range of genres and topics presented: ‘ “Our King Salomon”: Biblical Typology and the Kingship of Solomon in Tudor and Stuart England’; ‘A Tale of Two Jobs: Reading Suffering, Providence, and Restoration in King Leir and King Lear’; ‘ “By moste sweete and comfortable allegories”: Discerning Spiritual Signs in the Song of Songs’; ‘Typologies of Marian Maternity: Literal and Spiritual Birth in Seventeenth-Century Women's Writing’; and ‘Reading Revelations: Figuring the End in Post-Reformation Literary Culture’. An Afterword reflects on recent cinematic productions of biblical stories. It can be seen here especially, that while biblical scholars seek to familiarize themselves, if interested in reception history and the history of interpretation, with a volume such as this, the compliment has yet to be returned and the book seems written, alas, with a lack of awareness that contemporary biblical studies is devoted to unravelling the complexities of encounters with, and uses of, the Bible in cultures and societies, past and present, (biblically) literate and non-literate, and has produced an array of relevant historical, literary and sociological research.

DAVID J. CHALCRAFT

BYRON, GAY L., and VANESSA LOVELACE (eds.), Womanist Interpretations of the Bible: Expanding the Discourse (Semeia Studies, 85; Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2016), pp. xiv + 387. $49.95. ISBN 978-1-62837-152-9.

This exemplary collection of 18 essays showcases work concerning womanist interpretations of biblical texts and characters in both OT and NT, and is highly recommended to any scholars working on aspects of characterization, reception, feminism and womanist readings of biblical materials. The volume is divided into five parts: ‘Gender and Sexuality’; ‘Agency and Advocacy’; ‘Foregrounding Women on the Margins’; ‘Illuminating Biblical Children/Childhood’; and ‘In Response’. Of particular interest to scholars of the OT are the following titles: G.L. Byron and V. Lovelace, ‘Methods and the Making of Womanist Biblical Hermeneutics’; S. Davis, ‘The Invisible Women: Numbers 30 and the Politics of Singleness in Africana Communities’; W. Gafney, ‘A Womanist Midrash of Delilah: Don't Hate the Playa, Hate the Game’; C.B. Anderson, ‘The Song of Songs: Redeeming Gender Constructions in the Age of AIDS’; L.L. Sechrest, ‘Antitypes, Stereotypes, and Antetypes: Jezebel, the Sun Woman, and Contemporary Black Women’; S.T.J. Smith, ‘ “Battered Love”: Exposing Abuse in the Book of Job’; G.L. Byron, ‘Black Collectors and Keepers of Tradition: Resources for a Womanist Biblical Ethic of (Re)Interpretation’; S. Jacob and J.T. Kaalund, ‘Flowing from Breast to Breast: An Examination of Dis/placed Motherhood in African American and Indian Wet Nurses’; V. Lovelace, ‘ “We Don't Give Birth to Thugs”: Family Values, Respectability Politics, and Jephthah's Mother’; V. Bridgeman, ‘ “I Will Make Boys their Princes”: A Womanist Reading of Children in the Book of Isaiah’; A. Spencer-Miller, ‘Looking Forward from the Horizon: A Response in Africana Sisterhood and Solidarity’; K.D. Sakenfeld, ‘Challenged and Changed’; E.M. Townes, ‘The Road We Are Traveling’. The volume is as refreshing as it is important, positioning womanist perspectives at the forefront of the ever-developing scene of biblical scholarship in a manner much needed.

ZANNE DOMONEY-LYTTLE

CASPI, MISHAEL M., and JOHN T. GREENE, Eve: The Unbearable Flaming Fire (Biblical Intersections, 10; Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2013), pp. vii + 174. $90.30. ISBN 978-1-4632-0160-9.

The editors have provided a ‘Prolegomenon’ that sets the scene for this short collection, the product of the ISBL seminar, Biblical Characters in the Three Traditions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). Following the Prolegomenon there are a further six essays, comprising Rachel S. Havrelock, ‘The Mother of Life and the Infertility of Eden’; Tova Forti, ‘The Polarity of Wisdom and Fear of God in the Eden Narrative and in the Book of Proverbs’; Irit Aharony, ‘Did Eve Know What Was Hidden in the Apple?’; Michael M. Caspi, ‘The Whore and the Wife’; John T. Greene, ‘The Death and Resur-rection(s) of Eve: Reversing the Misfortunes of the Theios Aner and Other Dying and Rising Gods and Goddesses’; and Herb Hain, ‘Eve in Eden’. The essays vary in terms of length and quality; the substantial contributions by Caspi and Greene account for 99 pages in addition to their Prolegomenon (another 15 pages). Only two of the essays— Aharony and Greene—are furnished with a bibliography, and there is no index. Although perhaps situated somewhere adrift of the mainstream of biblical scholarship, there is sufficient here to suggest that those whose interest lies in the history of interpretation of Eve in any or all of the three traditions should find something of interest here as well as something with which to engage.

GEORGE NICOL

CASPI, MISHAEL M., and JOHN T. GREENE, Portraits of a King Favored by God: David the King—God's Poet, Warrior, and Statesman (Biblical Intersections, 8; Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2012), pp. xxvi + 243. 150.00 ISBN 978-1-61143-405-7.

Following the editors’ ‘Prolegomenon’, which takes the form of a lengthy meditation on the duel between David and Goliath in biblical, rewritten Bible and Islamic tradition, the book, which is a product of the long -running ISBL seminar, Biblical Characters in the Three Traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), contains a further ten papers: Richard E. Sherwin, ‘King David Three Thousand Years Later: David and my Ortho-practic Experiences’; John T. Greene, ‘The Idea of a King David: Creating a Ruler, a Dynasty, and his Capital City Stories and History: David as Literary and Historical Figure’; Mishael M. Caspi, ‘The Strings of David's Life’; Azila Reisenberger, ‘David's Laments as a Vehicle of Vindication’; Yitzhak Peleg, ‘Two Readings of the Story of David and Bathsheba and their Meanings’; Angeline M.G. Song, ‘Counterpoint and Contrast: “Tamar Versus Tamar Verses”: A Focalized-Emphathetic [sic] Reading’; J. Harold Ellens, ‘David as Son of Man: Hebrew Narratives of Divine Exaltation as Sources of Second Temple Son of Man Traditions (Psalms 2, 8, 72, 80 and 110)’; Adrianne L. Spunaugle, ‘The Portrait of David: Comparing the Bible and Talmud’; Max Stern, ‘King David: Six Portraits in Music’; and Nancy Tan, ‘Disappearing “Daughters” in the Tradition of David (Sir. 47:6)’. Given the unabated flow of scholarly publications relating to David and/or Israelite kingship, collections like this, coming from what is perhaps not one of the more prominent publishers in the field, can sometimes be missed. Yet the collection contains several interesting and thoughtful essays, including some from perspectives that may be less usual in biblical studies.

GEORGE NICOL

COPIER, LAURA, and CAROLINE VANDER STICHELE (eds.), Close Encounters between Bible and Film: An Interdisciplinary Engagement (Semeia Studies, 87; Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2016), pp. viii + 333. $48.95. ISBN 978-1-62837-158-1.

This collection of articles is of great interest to anyone who wishes to explore the interaction between film and the Bible. The volume commences with an Introduction by the editors and then an opening essay by G. Aichele on ‘Film Theory and Biblical Studies’. The ensuing first part, devoted to studies on how film techniques can serve as an interpretative lens, comprises three essays: L.J. Kreitzer, ‘The Obtrusive Glimpse: Alfred Hitchcock and the Naked Young Man (Mark 14:51-52)’; R. Walsh, ‘On the Harmony of the (Asocial) Gospel: Intolerance's Crosscut Stories’; and R. Zwick, ‘Reading Biblical Stories with Cinematic Eyes: A Methodological Approach from the Perspective of Transmedial Narratology’. The second section, containing studies about ‘close encounters between texts and films’, features another four studies: M. Fletcher, ‘“Behold, I'll Be Back”: Terminator, the Book of Revelation, and the Power of the Past’; D. Shepherd, ‘ “David's Anger Was Greatly Kindled”: Melodrama, the Silent Cinema, and the Books of Samuel’; L. Copier and C.V. Stichele, ‘Death and Disaster: 2012 Meets Noah’; and T. Laine, ‘Religion as Environmental Ethics: Darren Aronofsky's Noah’. The final part, covering interdisciplinary topics, consists of six articles: D. Pezzoli-Olgiati, ‘Controversial Mary: Religious Motifs and Conflicting Receptions of Godard's Je vous salue, Marie’; R.P. Seesengood, ‘A World of Feeling: The Affect of Lars von Trier and/as Biblical Apocalyptic’; J.L. Staley, ‘Martin Scorsese's Aviator as Theological Complement to his Last Temptation of Christ’; M.S. Rindge, ‘Lusting after Lester's Lolita: Perpetuating and Resisting the Male Gaze in American Beauty’; A. Pelham, ‘Objects and the “Extended Self”: The Construction of Identity in Moonrise Kingdom and the Tabernacle Narratives’; and J. Punt, ‘The Odds Are Ever in the Empire's Favor: Postcolonial Subjects Positioning in the Hunger Games’. The volume further includes an Index of Ancient Sources and Modern Films, and an Index of Modern Authors and Directors. Some of the essays stand closer to biblical studies; others are more tenuously linked to the field. All in all, though, this is an interesting collection and well worth reading.

LENA-SOFIA TIEMEYER

COUEY, J. BLAKE, and ELAINE T. JAMES (eds.), Biblical Poetry and the Art of Close Reading (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), pp. xiii + 313. £75.00. ISBN 978-1-107-15620-3.

The stated object of this collection is to present examples of close reading of biblical poetic texts across the entire HB. The editors defend this approach on the grounds that too much traditional interpretation depends largely on historical-critical assumptions, and that there is little currently available offering this wider perspective. Both of these claims may be debatable; however, it is instructive to have such an impressive array of essays devoted to more aesthetic dimensions of Hebrew poetry. Part I (The Psalms) comprises C.J. Sharp, ‘Words that Devour: Discursive Praxes and Structural Strategies in Psalm 50’; E.T. James, ‘ “Silence is Praise”: Art and Knowledge in Psalm 65’; R. Alter, ‘The Glory of Creation in Psalm 104’. In Part II (Wisdom Literature) are E.L. Greenstein, ‘Bildad Lectures Job: A Close Reading of Job 8’; A.W. Stewart, ‘Poetry as Pedagogy in Proverbs 5’; S. Chavel, ‘The Utility and Futility of Poetry in Qohelet’. Part III (The Song of Songs) is comprised of T. Linafelt, ‘Structure, Sound and Sense: A Close Reading of Chapter One of the Song of Songs’; and S. Zhang, ‘How Is a Love Poem (Song 4:1-7) Like the Beloved? The Importance of Emotion in Reading Biblical Poetry’. Part IV (The Prophetic Books) includes F.W. Dobbs-Allsopp, ‘Isaiah's Love Song: A Reading of Isaiah 5:1-7’; J.B. Couey, ‘Poetry, Language and Statecraft in Isaiah 18’; K.M. Heffelfinger, ‘The Servant in Poetic Juxtaposition in Isaiah 49:1-13’; S. Burt, ‘“It Is a Lamentation – It Has Become a Lamentation!”: Subverting Genre in Ezekiel 19’; J.M. O'Brien, ‘The Enduring Day of Wrath: Zephaniah 1, the Sibylline Oracles, and the Dies Irae’. Two essays—B.A Strawn, ‘YHWH's Poesie: The Gnadenformel (Exodus 34:6b-7), the Book of Exodus, and Beyond’; and S. Weitzman, ‘The Decipherment of Sorrow: David's Lament in 2 Samuel 1:17-27'—make up Part V (Poetry in Biblical Narrative). There is much to enjoy here, perhaps somewhat undermined by rather traditional use of extensive footnotes; it would also have been helpful to have had Hebrew script rather than transliteration in a volume which so often (and rightly) focuses on the shape of text.

ALASTAIR G. HUNTER

CROWTHER, DANIEL J., SHIRIN SHAFAIE, IDA GLASER, and SHABBIR AKHTAR (eds.), Reading the Bible in Islamic Context: Qur'anic Conversations (Routledge Reading the Bible in Islamic Context Series, 1; London: Routledge, 2018), pp. xvii + 319. £84.00/ $112.00. ISBN 978-1-138-09357-7.

This volume emerges from a conference held in Oxford in September 2015 and offers a number of experimental, context-specific probes developed through a range of methodological and theological approaches to reading the Bible and the Qur'an from Christian and Muslim perspectives. The 15 essays are grouped together under three headings: ‘Intertextual Conversations’, ‘Questions about Texts’, and ‘Analogical Explorations’. The first part brings together five case studies using a range of methodologies that focus on reading traditions from the HB/OT alongside their qur'anic counterparts and Christian and Islamic theological interpretation. These are: ‘Abraham in Narrative Worldviews: Reflections on Doing Comparative Theology through Christian-Muslim Conversation in Turkey’ (G. Bristow); ‘Toward Inter-theological Hermeneutics: A Case Study in Reading between the Joseph Stories’ (S. Shafaie); ‘The “Sin” of David in Light of Islamic Thought’ (A. Makhlabi and L. Ciccarelli); ‘David and the Single Ewe Lamb: Tracking Conversation between Two Texts (2 Samuel 12:3 and Q38:23) When They Are Read in their Canonical Contexts’ (C.M. Walker); and ‘Facing Mirrors: The Intertwined Golden Calf Story’ (M. Ghandehari and M. Fayzbakhsh). The second set of five essays concentrates on questions raised by Muslim readings of the Bible: ‘The Fourth Source: Isrā'īliyyāt and the Use of the Bible in Muslim Scholarship’ (W.M.F.A.W. Razali, A.Y.M. Noor and J. Awang); ‘Constrained by Scriptural Polemics: Hamiduddin Farahi on the Akedah’ (N.M. Nasir); ‘The Culture Shock of the Bible’ (D.J. Crowther); ‘Islamic Tradition and the Reception History of the Bible’ (M. O'Kane and T. Bhamji); and ‘The Morphology of the Narrative Exegesis of the Qur'an: The Case of the Cow of the Banū Isrū'īl (Q2:67-74)’ (S.A. Aghaei). The final five essays offer analogies to understanding the relationship of biblical and qur'anic tradition: ‘The Place of Purity in Faith’ (D. Swanson); ‘Biblical Ruth as a Qur'anic Queen of Sheba: Scriptural Narratives of Foreigner Assent’ (G.L. Jardim); ‘Indirection in Biblical and Qur'anic Discourses, and in Bible Translation in Islamic Contexts’ (A. Warren-Rothlin); and essays on the Gospel of John (D. Madigan) and the Epistle to the Romans (M. Lodahl). The volume is book-ended by contributions from two of the editors, ‘Biblical Interpretation in Islamic Context’ (I. Glaser) and ‘Three Methods for a Muslim Reading of the Bible’ (S. Akhtar); the former offers a full introduction to the volume and its approach, with reflections from a Christian perspective, and the latter presents concluding remarks on the challenges facing Muslims who want to read the Bible and engage with Jewish and Christian interpretative traditions. The volume balances the study of the Bible and Qur'an in historical context with studies of the reception and theological development of the narratives and themes surveyed. It offers useful critical reflection on the myriad challenges of reading the Bible and Qur'an from Christian and Muslim theological perspectives, highlighting hermeneutical and doctrinal challenges as well as the difficulties involved in reading across theological categories. The work would be useful to a scholarly readership with a background in biblical or qur'anic studies interested in developing interfaith engagement, particularly with respect to the methodological issues involved. It would also be of interest to an informed Christian and Muslim readership.

KATHARINA E. KEIM

DAVIDSON, STEED VERNYL, Writing/Reading the Bible in Postcolonial Perspective (Brill Research Perspectives in Biblical Interpretation, 2.3; Leiden: Brill, 2017), pp. v + 99. €70.00. ISBN 978-90-0435766-2.

The volume gives a thorough account of the link between the Bible and empire, as evidenced in postcolonial scholarship. It sets the scene with a unit defining ‘empire’ and ‘colonialism’ as central terms, situating this within the wider field of postcolonial studies. The author then examines the Bible as a product of imperial geopolitics, whether this be the empires of the ancient world or those of later centuries, based on the territorial aims of European nations. Since the biblical materials were written in imperial contexts, they carry within them the marks of a monolithic modelling of cultural and political meaning. This in turn makes them easy to use resources for establishing the primacy of later totalitarian regimes. However, they also carry messages expressive of voices resistant to imperial subordination. D.'s book is a thorough, carefully constructed and referenced discussion of postcolonial biblical studies as balanced between imperial and colonial voices, fluently written and drawing upon a range of modern scholars.

MARY E. MILLS

DE-WHYTE, JANICE PEARL EWURAMA, Wom(b)an: A Cultural-Narrative Reading of the Hebrew Bible Barrenness Narratives (Biblical Interpretation Series, 162; Leiden: Brill, 2018), pp. xi + 320. €110.00. ISBN 978-90-04-36097-6.

In this revised doctoral thesis (McMaster Divinity School, supervised by Mark Boda), D. offers a reading of the HB barrenness narratives. Chapters discussing method and examining attitudes towards infertility found in the ANE and Akan (a major tribal grouping in Ghana) cultures respectively set the scene. The choice of Akan to provide ‘a helpful interpretive bridge between modern Western perspectives and the original HB and ANE contexts’ derives from D.'s own Akan heritage and provides comparisons and contrasts (Akan is a matrilineal culture) that are certainly of interest, although not always entirely to the point. Following these chapters, the book is divided into two major parts that distinguish between ‘biological’ and ‘social’ barrenness. Under the former term she treats the ‘beautiful and barren’ Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel as well as Manoah's wife, Hannah and the woman of Shunem from the former prophets. The latter term encompasses narratives about women who are not necessarily infertile but are childless by circumstance: conjugal deprivation within marriage (Leah and Michal), following violation (Dinah and Tamar, daughter of David), and widowhood (Judah's daughter-in-law Tamar and Naomi–Ruth). D.'s terms ‘wom(b)an’ and ‘wom(b)anhood’ reflect a cultural belief prominent in Akan society that a woman's fulfilment resides in reproduction. D.'s assumption that the characters and events she discusses existed (see p. 11) appears to determine the sort of questions she asks the texts, and probably those she does not ask as well. For example, she does not consider why all the biologically barren women eventually conceive.

GEORGE NICOL

ESTELLE, BRYAN D., Echoes of Exodus: Tracing a Biblical Motif (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2018), pp. xiv + 392. $40.00. ISBN 978-0-8308-5168-3.

E. offers a detailed intertextual and biblical theological study of the exodus motifs that appear in Scripture. He begins with a hermeneutical discussion focusing on the use of allusion and typology and how these are used by the biblical authors to interpret earlier texts. He sets out the criteria by which we can establish allusion and typology and utilizes Richard Hays’ approach to ‘echoes’ within Scripture. He then examines the motifs of creation and covenant in Genesis as a backdrop for how we might understand Exodus. He argues that Exodus 15 contains the central motifs of the exodus event which shape and influence the psalms, Deutero-Isaiah and other postexilic literature that expand on themes of liberation, God's sovereignty and salvation. He contends that the exodus is the paradigmatic event through which we might read the ‘meganarrative’ of biblical salvation. He then moves into a discussion on how these theological streams appear in the NT. The second half of the book surveys exodus motifs in the Gospels, epistles and Revelation. Influenced by classic Reformed theology, E. offers a detailed and extensive study of intertextual connections that provide an overarching theology of salvation in the Bible. The book offers rich scriptural engagement that would benefit clergy, preachers and students looking to make connections between the OT and NT.

MARK W. SCARLATA

FARBER, ZEV, Images of Joshua in the Bible and their Reception (BZAW, 457; Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016), pp. xiv + 491. €139.95/$196.00/£126.99. ISBN 978-3-11-033888-1.

Originally a doctoral thesis submitted to Emory University under the supervision of Jacob Wright, F.'s wide-ranging and erudite study is concerned to trace the various images of the character Joshua as he appears in the HB and how those images are taken up and used in four different settings: Hellenistic and Second Temple Judaism, the Samaritans, early Christian sources and finally in rabbinic texts. Although conscious that it adds considerably to the book's length, F. has helpfully included the full text for all references to Joshua, including the original and his own translation. After a brief introductory chapter, he then devotes two chapters to exploring the biblical representations of Joshua. The first provides a synchronic reading, concluding with twelve main images for Joshua, though he acknowledges that this number could be increased or decreased depending on how ‘image’ is construed. He then offers a diachronic reading which stresses unresolved tensions in Joshua's presentation. It is these, he argues, which are taken up in dialogue with his synchronic images in the subsequent readings of Joshua, with the tensions allowing Joshua to be presented in quite diverse ways. Complicating this is the fact that some rabbinic readings also seem to be in dialogue with early Christian sources. F.'s argument is clear, and having so many sources gathered is very helpful. One unanswered question, though, is why Joshua is taken up so little in both the HB and also subsequent sources—F. notes the paucity of reference in later texts, but might have explored the relative absence in his main source too.

DAVID G. FIRTH

FISCHER, IRMTRAUD (ed.), Gender Agenda Matters: Papers of the ‘Feminist Section’ of the International Meetings of The Society of Biblical Literature, Amsterdam 2012—St Andrews 2013—Vienna 2014 (with the cooperation of Daniela Feichtinger; Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015), pp. viii + 277. £47.99. ISBN 978-1-4438-7634-6.

K. Cobb, in a thought-provoking opening chapter, provides a deconstructive reading of the midwives’ excuse in Exod. 1.19; N. Ansell argues in favour of reading a feminine pronoun for God in Num. 11.15; A. Létourneau examines the role of Jael and the vacillation between masculinity and femininity in the murder of Sisera; F. Olojede wonders why, given that so many texts in the HB describe gruesome murders and rape, there is not a single instance of spousal abuse or wife-battering in the biblical narratives; K.H. Gardner discusses the narratives concerning Michal, Abigail and Bathsheba, all of which provide a literary witness to women confronting male power and aggression; and B. Rabarijaona seeks out the female characters that are hidden in the text of the book of Nehemiah. The remaining chapters focus on the NT: J. Glessner considers the representation of Joseph in Matthew's infancy narrative; M.M.S. Ibita provides a feminist ecological and economic reading of Mt. 6.25-34; F. Tofighi reads 1 Cor. 11.5-16; 14.34-35 (on the role of women) in conjunction with Romans 13 (an overtly political passage) in order to consider how Paul's message might promote a feminist perspective on secular government; L. Nortjé-Meyer provides a review of feminist interpretation of the letter of Jude and compares it with interpretations based on historical-critical methods; R. Ratcliffe discusses the Acts of Paul and Thecla and considers the way in which Thecla was viewed by early Christian male writers as weak and vulnerable—however, seen from a feminist perspective, she can emerge as empowered and liberated. In the final chapter, I. Fischer outlines some of the problems involved in the publication of The Bible and Women: An Encyclopedia of Exegesis and Cultural History, of which she is one of the General Editors. This is an ambitious project involving 300 scholars world-wide, participating in a publication which is to appear in 21 volumes and in four languages (English, Italian, German and Spanish). The essays contained in this volume provide a welcome addition to the field of feminist biblical criticism.

ERYL W. DAVIES

FRIEDMAN, RICHARD ELLIOTT (ed.), The Creation of Sacred Literature: Composition and Redaction of the Biblical Text (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2016), vi + 99. $14.00. ISBN 978-1-4982-9493-5.

This is a straightforward reprint of the 1981 publication by the University of California Press (not reviewed in the B.L.). The articles are in three sections. First, ‘Synthetic Studies’, with Robert Alter, ‘Sacred History and Prose Fiction’; Richard Elliott Friedman, ‘Sacred History and Theology: The Redaction of Torah’; and Baruch Halpern, ‘Sacred History and Ideology: Chronicles’ Thematic Structure—Indications of an Earlier Source’. Secondly, ‘Case Studies’, with Shemaryahu Talmon, ‘Polemics and Apology in Biblical Historiography: 2 Kings 17:24-41’; Jacob Milgrom, ‘The Case of the Suspected Adultress, Numbers 5:11-31: Redaction and Meaning’; and Nahum M. Sarna, ‘The Anticipatory Use of Information as a Literary Feature of the Genesis Narratives’. And finally, a Conclusion by John Russiano Miles, ‘Radical Editing: Redaktionsgeschichte and the Aesthetic of Willed Confusion’. The reminder of the state of redaction-critical studies nearly 40 years ago is instructive. Of value would have been a Foreword offering the rationale for reprinting this just now.

DWIGHT D. SWANSON

FUCHS, ESTHER, Jewish Feminism: Framed and Reframed (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2018), pp. x + 211. $95.00. ISBN 978-1-4985-6649-0.

F. has worked to depatriarchalize religious systems and sacred texts throughout her career, and this volume continues that theme to some extent. The purpose of the book is to re-examine, reframe and re-present Jewish feminist studies which, in its academic history, ‘has not been adequately theorized, contextualized, or historicized’ (p. vii), and which has resulted in a lack of dialogue and communication between Jewish women's studies and scholarship in women's and gender studies. In short, F. argues that this lack of communication between perspectives has meant Jewish feminist studies has not been viewed as a framework in its own right but, rather, it has been treated as a subfield in the broader categories of women/gender studies. To address this, F. has carried out a painstaking review of Jewish feminist scholarship, from the 1970s to contemporary times, which addresses the frameworks of liberal, personal, masculinist and essentialist perspectives in particular. The result is a concise and careful overview of literature which exposes the gaps and constraints Jewish feminist scholarship has been subject to because of its erroneous classification as a subfield of women's and gender studies. This is an undoubtedly essential and important piece of work which, as the title suggests, reframes and re-presents Jewish feminist scholarship as its own field of research. It will encourage scholars of biblical studies to re-examine their own approaches to subfields in the discipline, perhaps prompting them to reframe traditional approaches to biblical texts.

ZANNE DOMONEY-LYTTLE

GARTON, ROY E., Mirages in the Desert: The Tradition-historical Developments of the Story of Massah-Meribah (BZAW, 492; Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017), pp. xvi + 316. €99.95/£90.99/$140.00. ISBN 978-3-11-046153-4.

In this slightly revised Baylor doctoral dissertation, supervised by James Nogalski, G. closely scrutinizes the tradition-historical development of the Massah-Meribah tradition (M-Mt). Noting the prevalence of M-Mt and the lack of scholarly interest in it in its own right, G. surveys relevant scholarship and briefly summarizes the chapters that follow. He begins from Deuteronomy where six M-Mt texts reside within two of its macro-redactional blocks (chs. 5–11 and 31–34). Discussion of these texts, largely dependent on redaction criticism and characterized by lengthy footnotes, suggests ‘at least five stages in M-Mt's Traditionsgeschichte’. Turning to the remainder of the Pentateuch, D. examines the relationship between the narratives of Exod.17.1-7 and Num. 20.1-13. He finds little verbatim correspondence between the two and argues that the latter is not a post-P revision of the former. Finding at least five stages of literary growth in Exod.17.1-7, he suggests ‘a shared oral foundation’ with Num. 20.1-13 followed by ‘a subsequent period of independent tradition-historical and literary development’. The Numbers passage had at least six stages of literary growth, including four post-Priestly developments, with Moses and Aaron's sin an innovation at the final stage. The book ends with a brief summary and suggestions for further study. Throughout there are numerous tables and at the end there are five appendixes, which are important for illustrating aspects of G.'s argument. While some of his arguments and conclusions will stimulate debate, this closely argued book should also encourage further study of the M-Mt and be of interest to those scholars working more generally with the Pentateuchal traditions.

GEORGE NICOL

GOH, SAMUEL T.S., The Basics of Hebrew Poetry: Theory and Practice (foreword by Tremper Longman III; Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2017), pp. xvi + 209. $27.00. ISBN 978-1-5326-0190-3.

In this useful introduction to the Psalms, G. provides an overview of how Hebrew poetry functions, reminding readers that the genre is not restricted to Psalms, covering as it does some two-thirds of the HB. That said, it is a pity that his three worked examples (Ps. 1, Eccl. 1.3-8, and Job 42.2-6) include no prophetic material. Chapter 1 offers an introduction of the main topics covered together with preliminary definitions of the terminology which will be encountered. Chapters 2-4 then deal in turn with parallelism, metre and figurative language. These are well pitched to the presumed readership of students and informed lay people, and are informed by up-to-date scholarship without ignoring classic discussions. The discussion of metre perhaps spends too much time on what is, by a growing consensus, something which is largely absent from Hebrew poetry. G. does recognize this, and stresses instead the appropriateness of the study of rhythm as a more helpful category. The review of figurative language addresses recent approaches to metaphor, applying contemporary theoretical analyses. Some of these seem a little too technical for what is often a fairly obvious interpretation, but it is good to see a recognition of the importance of metaphor and other tropes in Hebrew poetry. Chapters 5-7 offer detailed readings of the three chosen examples: at times these become a little overly technical, especially if readers are not familiar with Hebrew; on the whole, however, they serve well as illustrations of the theory in the earlier chapters.

ALASTAIR G. HUNTER

GOSSAI, HEMCHAND (ed.), Postcolonial Commentary and the Old Testament (London: T&T Clark, 2019), pp. xi + 332. £120.00. ISBN 978-0-567-68095-2.

This collection covers a significant portion of the OT. The papers are united by a common concern about imperial power and colonialism but differ significantly in their focus and approach. Some are more commentary-like in their attempt to cover the whole biblical book they are dealing with, others focus on single issues or a selection of passages. Some approach their task historically, others are more reader-oriented. The papers are: ‘The Exodus Story as a Foundation of the God of the “Fathers” ’ (R.S. Wafula); ‘Leviticus’ (A. Laffey); ‘Numbing Numbers: Land and People of the Wilderness’ (J. Havea); ‘Numbers’ (D.R. Mbuwayesango); ‘The Empire, the Local, and its Mediators: Deuteronomy’ (K. Berge); ‘Judges: Subaltern Women’ (C. Garcia-Alfonso); ‘Judges’ (D.C. Erickson); ‘Subaltern Existence as the Part to Perfect Empire: Wisdom of Solomon’ (D.C. Timmer); ‘The Empire of Solomon: An Analysis of Imperial Rhetoric in 1 Kings 3–11’ (K. Latvus); ‘The Chronicler's Narrative on Saul (1 Chron. 10:1-14): A Decolonial Reading of Chronicles’ (G. Snyman); ‘Nehemiah’ (R. Boer); ‘Esther on Trial: Resistance of “Collaboration Horizontale”?’ (D.L. Smith-Christopher); ‘The Enthronement Psalms: The Poetic Metanarrative of Imperialism’ (R.M. Victor); ‘The Empire and First Isaiah’ (D.N. Premnath); ‘Jeremiah's Welfare Ethic: Challenging Imperial Militarism’ (H. Gossai); ‘The Collecting Impulse in Lamentations: Postcolonial Traumata Made Miniature in Word-Objects’ (G.L. Cuellar); ‘Jonah’ (S.V. Davidson); and ‘Reading Nahum with the Oppressed: Power as a Social Justice Issue’ (W.J. Wessels). In terms of quality the collection is a mixed bag. There are some outstanding contributions but also a few not very convincing ones. (Curiously, the publisher's website has discrepant information about the contents of this book; it may be that some additional authors were commissioned to produce chapters for the work but did not deliver, and the webpage has thoughtlessly not been updated accordingly, at least not at the time of writing this review.)

TCHAVDAR S. HADJIEV

GUTJAHR, PAUL C. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), pp. xl + 692. 32 figures. £97.00. ISBN 978-0-19-025884-9.

The flow of Oxford Handbooks on biblical topics continues unabated, and this is perhaps an inevitable if not unwelcome addition to the series. Its contributors come from a wide range of disciplines—specialists in religion, theology, philosophy, various kinds of history, english literature, communications, education, American studies, sociology, anthropology, art, environmental studies and law jostle alongside and indeed far outnumber those in Biblical Studies, to the extent that I recognized the names of only two of the 45 contributors. The nature of the topic means that the essays are largely reception-focused, and in many of them the discussion addresses the Bible's status as a physical or cultural artefact rather than the use or interpretation of its text. That is an observation rather than a criticism, however, and there is much here to enlighten and entertain—one of the most intriguing chapters for me as a non-US reader was Bielo's on biblical theme parks and ‘immersive experience’ exhibits of biblical narratives. The volume as a whole is eloquent testimony of the extent to which the (concept of the) Bible has permeated and influenced North American culture. The full content of the Handbook is as follows. ‘Part I: Bible Production’ contains P.C. Gutjahr, ‘Protestant English-Language Publishing and Translation’; R.W. Dalton, ‘The American Children's Bible’; L.D. Fisher, ‘The Bible and Indigenous Language Translations in the Americas’; and S. Perry, ‘American Bible Bindings and Formats’. ‘Part II: Biblical Interpretation and Usage’ examines interpretation in the 17th century (R.E. Brown), 18th century (J. Stievermann), 19th century (M.A. Noll), and 20th and 21st centuries (D.J. Treier and C. Hefner), and usage in digital culture (J.B. Weaver), the feminist movement (C. Setzer), the LGBT community (T.J. Hornsby), African-American culture (A. Smith), the creationism debate (S.L. Trollinger and W.V. Trollinger Jr), the ‘King James Only’ movement (J.A. Hentschel), and the sermonic tradition (D. Coleman). ‘Part III: The Bible in American History and Culture’ investigates the Bible's place in public schools (S. Rosenblith and P. Womac), the law (D.L. Dreisbach), politics (D.A. Morris), slavery (E.B. Powery), sport (J. Scholes), the military (E. Waggoner), the creation of the nation (E. Shalev), the Civil War (P. Harvey), the Religious Right (R. Barrett-Fox), and environmentalism (C.B. DeWitt). ‘Part IV: The Bible and the Arts’ covers Bible-related elements in art (K. Schwain), cinema (W.D. Romanowski), literature (S. Wolosky), graphic novels and comic books (A.T. Coates), music (J.C. Bivins), and ‘performing the Bible’ (J.S. Bielo). ‘Part V: The Bible and Religious Traditions’ covers Judaism (J.D. Sarna), Catholicism (D. Senior), Orthodox Christians (A.G. Roeber), Mainline Denominations (E. Coffman), Evangelicalism (J.G. Stackhouse Jr), Fundamentalism (R.J. Stephens), Pentecostalism (M.J. McClymond), Mormonism (D. Holland), Seventh-day Adventists (N. Miller), Jehovah's Witnesses (M.J. Gilmour), and Christian Scientists (M.W. Hamilton).

DEBORAH W. ROOKE

HäUSL, MARIA (ed.), Denkt nich mehr an das Frühere! Begründungsressourcen in Esra/Nehemia und Jes 40–66 im Vergleich (Bonner Biblische Beiträge, 184; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht/Bonn: Bonn University Press, 2018), pp. 262. €40.00. ISBN 978-3-8471-0763-7.

The ten essays (eight in German, two in English) originated as papers delivered as part of a conference at Dresden University in 2016. They all focus on the various aspects of identity formation of postexilic Israel as displayed in Ezra–Nehemiah and Isaiah 40– 66. The issue is treated under five main rubrics: (1) Talking about God. Here B. Becking offers a detailed study of the various prayers in the book of Nehemiah; he is able to show that God gives life to those who observe Torah. U. Berges and B. Obermayer focus on the provocative language of violence in Isaiah 56–66 and argue that Yahweh is pictured as a powerful lone warrior who establishes law and justice. (2) Recourse to tradition. S. Grätz describes the various forms of innovation in Ezra-Nehemiah and A. Groenewald describes Isa. 65.16b-25 as an ‘anti-trauma vision which invokes resilience in the servant-community as it transforms them into harbingers and heralds of hope’ (p. 106). (3) The significance of time. Here U. Becker analyses the various texts that focus on Cyrus, arguing that the portrait of Cyrus in Isaiah 40–55 depends on Ezra 6 and Ezra 1. U. Schmidt describes the role of the future in the concept of Isaiah 40–55 and how its importance changes in the last chapters of Isaiah. (4) The significance of space. R. Heckl shows how the description of the rebuilding of Jerusalem is reshaped into a legend of Jerusalem as holy city. Similarly A. Spahn's contribution argues that the city in Isaiah 40–66 is of high significance for the constitution of the postexilic community. (5) Recourse to ethics. D. Erbele-Küster asks which Torah Ezra refers to and how legal and ethical norms are employed to make the new vision of the law mandatory for the community. A. Schüle again looks at Isa. 63.7–64.11; arguing for two partial compositions in Isaiah 58–62 and Isaiah 63–66, he proposes that the prayer of the people makes the prophetic vice redundant. This is an interesting collection, and the contributions by Becking, Becker and Grätz offer significant perspectives on the relationship between Ezra–Nehemiah and Isaiah 40–66.

ANSELM C. HAGEDORN

HAVEA, JIONE (ed.), Sea of Readings: The Bible in the South Pacific (Semeia Studies, 90; Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2018), pp. xiii + 235. $32.95. ISBN 978-1-62837-202-1.

This is a collection of essays about the manner in which stories from the Bible have been assimilated and reinterpreted in several (primarily Samoan and Tongan) cultures in the South Pacific islands. After an introduction by H., the 14 essays are divided into three sections, somewhat cryptically entitled ‘Island Twists’ (four essays), ‘Island Turns’ (six essays) and ‘Across the Sea’ (four essays). The ‘Island Twists’ are provided by M. Ma'ilo (on a reimagining of the prodigal son theme from Luke 15), H. himself (on Jonah in the light of cultural insights from a Samoan novel by Sia Figiel), L.L. Afutiti (on how Samoan wisdom can be used to help bring biblical passages home more tellingly to Samoan congregations, with particular application to Mk 1.16-20), and T. Koloamatangi (a contribution printed in Tongan, with a few brief summaries interspersed in English, on the ways in which literary and musical composers can relate traditional themes to biblical ones). The ‘Island Turns’ are provided by B.F. Kolia (examining key verses in the Song of Solomon in the light of traditional Samoan taboos on mentioning sexual organs or activity), M.W. Mariota (exploring the triple cultural conditioning of Moses [Hebrew, Egyptian and Midianite] in Exodus 2–3 as an insightful example of how people can adapt successfully to multiple cultural heritages), I.V. Foi'akau (applying the traditional Fijian practice of communal discussion to the story of Zipporah in Exod. 4.24-26 as a means of giving Fijian women of varied social standing a more united and coherent voice in a patriarchal society), A.M.G. Song (assessing Esther as a strong but tactful woman who cleverly negotiates the divergent parameters of her Jewish ethnicity and her social position in the Persian court), M. Neemia (comparing the relatively favourable attitudes towards the ger in the OT laws with the less favourable Samoan attitudes towards non-family ‘outsiders’ such as inter-island migrants), and V. Nofoaiga (exploring a locally relevant interpretation of Mt. 7.24–8.22). Finally, the ‘Across the Sea’ essays present critiques and perspectives from elsewhere in the world: F.C. Black, G.O. West, D. Patte, and C. Raymond each engage in dialogue with the earlier essays and provide useful comparisons. All in all, this volume is not light reading, but is worth the effort and raises questions about the presuppositions of all readers of the Bible, including this reviewer, born and raised on a relatively large anglophone island near the European mainland, and ‘exiled’ for twenty adult years in four very different non-European cultures.

DAVID J. CLARK

HELLER, ROY L., The Characters of Elijah and Elisha and the Deuteronomic Evaluation of Prophecy: Miracles and Manipulation (LHBOTS, 671; London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2018), pp. xii + 250. £85.00. ISBN 978-0-567-67901-7.

In a previous volume, H. discussed the character of Samuel (see B.L. 2008, pp. 100-101), and now he turns his attention to Elijah and Elisha. His thought-provoking thesis is that their stories ‘highlight the ambiguous nature of prophecy itself ’ (p. 4) and their effect is to produce a sense of ambivalence about prophecy in the mind of the reader. It is also argued that this ambivalence parallels the evaluation of prophecy in Deut. 13.1-6 (MT) and 18.15-22. In a footnote, the point is made that the law of the prophet in Deuteronomy 18 ‘both entertains and encourages the questioning of prophetic signs and oracles’ (p. 175 n. 140). After an introductory chapter which includes a discussion of the power and significance of ambiguity, two major chapters deal in detail with narratives focused on Elijah, and then Elisha. These chapters conclude that the life and work of both these figures is shown to be ambiguous (pp. 109, 215) and that this is true of prophecy as a phenomenon. The concluding chapter includes a helpful analogy with the book of Jeremiah where the issue of true versus false prophecy is far from clear cut. In some places Elisha seems to have become Elijah (see e.g. pp. 151, 152 and 214) and there are occasional problems with the Hebrew (e.g. p. 90 [letters left to right] and p. 156 [words reversed]). This reader wishes he had come across the suggestion that hinneh could be translated ‘wow!’ (e.g. p. 163) while he was still teaching a beginners’ Hebrew module!

ADRIAN CURTIS

HERBST, JOHN W., Development of an Icon: Solomon before and after King David (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2016), pp. xiii + 242. $31.00. ISBN 978-1-4982-8247-5.

In this book, based on his doctoral thesis written at Union Presbyterian Seminary under the supervision of Samuel E. Balentine, H. addresses the ambivalence in the portrayal of Solomon in 1 Kings 1–11 from a diachronic perspective. He argues that the pre-exilic Solomon story (comprising most of 1 Kgs 3–11), characterizing the king as both powerful and susceptible to the dangerous charms of foreign women, was further complicated and darkened during the exile, and linked with the preceding Davidic narratives by means of the succession narrative (2 Sam. 9–20, especially 2 Sam. 11–12, the ‘revolt narrative’ of 2 Sam. 13–20, and 1 Kgs 1–2) and 1 Kgs 3.16-28. The argument, based on the ideological content of the proposed textual layers, as well as grammatical, linguistic, literary and historical-critical evidence, is preceded by a thorough and clearly presented review of recent literature on Solomon in the Deuteronomistic history. H.'s work, convincingly demonstrating the literary unity of the Davidic and Solomonic narratives in the Deuteronomistic History, will interest scholars working with redaction-critical approaches and those tracing the development and reception of the figure of Solomon within the biblical canon and beyond.

ELA LAZAREWICZ-WYRZYKOWSKA

JASPER, DAVID, The Language of Liturgy: A Ritual Poetics (London: SCM Press, 2018), pp. xiii + 224. £30.00. ISBN 978-0-334-05571-6.

In this book, J., combining his expertise and linguistic sensitivity as a literary scholar with his knowledge of the liturgical debates and his experience as a priest in the Anglican Church, offers an insightful and lucid analysis of the affinities and differences between the language of worship and poetry, and the intertwining of the former with politics and philosophy. He focuses on the Anglican tradition, but his observations and conclusions are relevant also for other Christian churches. He begins by proposing a particular poetics of liturgy, a ‘ritual poetics’, contrasted with ‘literary poetics’. This is followed by an examination of performative aspects of the liturgies of the early Church, and a consideration of the continuity in the vernacular liturgical language in England from the literature of the Middle Ages to the 16th-century Book of Common Prayer. The next three chapters are dedicated to the debates surrounding the liturgical revisions of the 20th and 21st centuries, in their political, ecumenical and philosophical contexts. This is followed by a theological consideration of the implications of the book's proposals for the eucharistic body. The book closes with Conclusions outlining the main arguments of the book and an Appendix, discussing intercessory prayer and offering some practical recommendations in this respect. This work is relevant for all readers interested in the liturgy and language of the Church, from either an academic or a pastoral perspective, and can provide a helpful grounding for scholars dealing with biblical translations and the reception of scriptural passages in Christian liturgies.

ELA LAZAREWICZ-WYRZYKOWSKA

JEFFREY, DAVID LYLE, In the Beauty of Holiness: Art and the Bible in Western Culture (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2017), pp. xxiii + 424. 146 illustrations. $49.00/£40.99. ISBN 978-0-8028-7470-2. [Distributed in the UK by Alban Books.]

Although the reference to the Bible in its title might suggest that J.'s volume is primarily a discussion of how biblical themes have been portrayed in Western art over the millennia—along the lines of his 1992 Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature—it is in fact a more generalized work about mainly Christian theological art and the expression of transcendent beauty in material form. Structured in two parts, it begins by treating ‘Art and Worship to 1500’, and then moves to ‘Art and the Bible after 1500’, the Protestant Reformation forming a significant watershed in this as in many other areas. The first part, having discussed biblical and Augustinian concepts of beauty and holiness, focuses on the aesthetics and symbolism of sanctuaries, including their proportions, their use of light, wall paintings and painted altarpieces. The second part deals with figurative art rather than with structures. It begins with Italian Renaissance treatment of sacred subjects, and after a corresponding chapter on Protestant art moves onward through the Romantic and pre-Raphaelite periods to figures such as Picasso, Dali, Van Gogh and Chagall, charting the ways in which religious sensibilities are both expressed in and banished from figurative art. As J. himself admits, this is more a series of vignettes than a comprehensive history, but if taken as such it offers some intriguing glimpses—beautifully aided by the lush coloured illustrations—into how art, the sacred, and prevailing cultural forces have interacted in Western contexts.

DEBORAH W. ROOKE

KALIMI, ISAAC, Fighting over the Bible: Jewish Interpretation, Sectarianism and Polemic from Temple to Talmud and Beyond (The Brill Reference Library of Judaism, 54; Leiden: Brill, 2017), pp. xi + 342. €125.00. ISBN 978-90-04-33910-1.

This book contains ten stand-alone chapters which discuss various issues within early Jewish exegesis. It is split into two distinct parts: the first deals with general textual problems within the HB that early rabbinic figures dealt with and the second is about particular case studies in which there was a large dispute either within Judaism or among the Abrahamic religions. Each of these chapters carries the overall theme of how the sacred text of the HB has been interpreted and why this has prompted controversy and conflict. K.'s focus is mainly on the Oral Torah and how the Mishnah and Talmud have affected the way in which Jewish writers have understood biblical texts from the Second Temple until Saadia Gaon and Ibn Ezra. Texts that are significant to all three Abrahamic religions such as the binding of Isaac and the lex talionis are given special analysis with reference to how each religion has translated and interpreted the Hebrew and how the different theological views can be reconciled. The book requires knowledge of early Rabbinic Judaism and would be easier to follow with Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic knowledge. The arguments are straightforward and have a clear conclusion at the end of each chapter. The Appendix ‘And What Now?’ gives a strong analysis of how disagreeing factions can reconcile ideas for a more peaceful future and presents a persuasive argument for peaceful coexistence between Jews and Christians in the modern world.

JACOB GREENHOUSE

KALIMI, ISAAC, Writing and Rewriting the Story of Solomon in Ancient Israel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), pp. xviii + 385. £90.00. ISBN 978-1-108-47126-8.

This detailed study offers a comprehensive literary- and historical-critical reading of, for the most part, the biblical texts which deal with the reign and person of Solomon. While peripheral later materials are touched on, the main thrust is an examination of the pertinent sections of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles. Accepting the late date of Chronicles and its fundamental dependence on Samuel–Kings, K. provides a detailed account of the differences between these sources and the reasons for them, and covers extensively the various theoretical positions which have developed over the last century. Chapters 2-4 deal with questions of historicity: K. is clearly no admirer of the so-called minimalist school, and devotes most of Chapter 3 to dismissing their arguments (including, somewhat strangely, an extended rebuttal of G. Garbini's 1988 History and Ideology in Ancient Israel—surely something of a paper tiger at this distance in time). Arguing that the (agreed) almost complete absence of direct evidence from the 10th century BCE should not be read negatively, and disagreeing with the low dating of I. Finkelstein and others regarding key architectural features, K. sets himself clearly among those who would take the Samuel–Kings material as broadly historical. Perhaps too ready an acceptance of a largely uncontested theory of the origins and transmission of the core traditions somewhat undermines his confidence on their historical reliability; this is, however, not the main point of this excellent study, whose usefulness does not ultimately depend upon where the reader stands on the historicity or otherwise of the United Monarchy.

ALASTAIR G. HUNTER

KAMRADA, DOLORES G., Heroines, Heroes and Deity: Three Narratives of the Biblical Heroic Tradition (LHBOTS, 621; London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2016), pp. 232. $114.00. ISBN 978-0-5676-6237-8.

This revised doctoral thesis submitted to the University of Vienna explores three examples of hero/heroine narratives in the HB, namely Jephthah's daughter, Samson and Saul. Literary and ritual aspects are of particular attention and the overall arguments centre on the hero's close relationship with the deity, signalled through the presence of the divine spirit, and the tragic deaths of the central figures. The last use of military ḥērem and the non-tragic death of David indicate that his reign ended the heroic age. Chapter 1 focuses on Jephthah's daughter and argues that her sacrifice corresponds to characteristic features of ḥērem dedication. However, K. argues that this sacrifice was an example of ‘positive ḥērem’ that differed in nature to the negative nature of war-ḥērem (destruction of a hated enemy). She argues that the self-sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter restores the balance between Yahweh, the male (hero) father and the female part of society. Chapter 2 largely focuses on the motif of hair in the Samson cycle, particularly exploring the mythological associations of hair motifs and themes surrounding ‘well-arranged’ and ‘dishevelled’ hair that are combined in the figure of Samson. Chapter 3 focuses on Saul, especially highlighting his ongoing association with divination. K. notes a number of leitmotifs reflecting folkloric themes (miraculous conception, heroic/kingly height, etc.) present in the narrative that might suggest a once independent Saul cycle, though she observes the current form contrasts David to Saul and makes him the central figure, ending the heroic age. A discussion of dating would have been a welcome addition but this book offers numerous interesting insights into these narratives, not least Jephthah's connection with Gilead and the central role of ritual in each narrative. It is to be recommended.

CAT QUINE

KLINE, JONATHAN G., Allusive Soundplay in the Hebrew Bible (Ancient Israel and Its Literature, 28; Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2016), pp. xiii + 155. $27.95. ISBN 978-1-62837-144-4.

It is easy to spot one biblical writer quoting another, e.g. Mic. 3.12 in Jer. 27.18, but allusion is more difficult to identify. K. introduces the question of soundplay and wordplay, the processes by which one writer commented on another by playing with words. The business of creating or transmitting a text was often a debate with what had gone before, sometimes developing, more often criticizing, the earlier position. The wordplay was not just with words of close proximity within a text; this has long been recognized. The obvious examples—Amos's basket of fruit, Jeremiah's almond branch—prove that this was done, but the extent to which this shaped texts is not fully recognized. There were also allusions and changes across generations, made in many ways: pronouncing the written text in a different way, rearranging the letters of the text, replacing one letter by another that looked similar—a daleth by a resh and vice versa—or replacing one letter by another that sounded similar—such as a shin by a tsade, and vice versa. These changes were ‘a means of generating theological discourse’ (p. 41). They were not scribal errors or lexical updating. Most of these changes are found in later texts such as the second half of Isaiah and Malachi (p. 120). K.'s volume is the first book to address this matter, although there have been many articles. The subject is more important than even the author seems to realize, not least for recovering the older religion now buried beneath the current text. The volume would have been better had it included discussion of the tiqqune sopherim.

MARGARET BARKER

LABUSCHAGNE, CASPER J., Numerical Secrets of the Bible: Introduction to Biblical Arithmology (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2016), pp. xv + 192. $25.00. ISBN 978-1-4982-8426-4.

This is a reprint of a work first published by Bibal Press in 2000 (with a different subtitle, Rediscovering the Bible Codes), and reviewed in B.L. 2001, p. 100.

(BOOK LIST EDITOR)

LEGASPI, MICHAEL C., Wisdom in Classical and Biblical Tradition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), pp. xiii + 314. £47.99. ISBN 978-0-19-088512-0.

L. offers an elegant and probing analysis of wisdom, setting the classical-biblical tradition(s) against modern constructs. He defines ancient wisdom as ‘a program for human flourishing that is ordered to a holistic, authoritative account of reality in its metaphysical, cosmic, political, and ethical dimensions’ (p. 11), and traces this four-dimensional account across key traditional figures and texts. Successive chapters thus explore Homer, the HB/OT (Gen. 1–3, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes), Job, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, Hellenistic Judaism (notably the Wisdom of Solomon), and the NT. The NT's critique of certain forms of wisdom is well handled, partly by contrasting the gospels with 4 Maccabees. A lyrical conclusion suggests that the wisdom found in these witnesses is at turns ‘lucid'—seeing the multi-dimensional nature of reality clearly—and ‘opaque'— emphasizing the limits of our ability to apprehend such reality. On its own terms L.'s account seeks to rehabilitate a dialogue with these older voices for the sake of relocating wisdom in our present day. Along the way it offers several profound readings of scriptural texts that point to a more theological account of biblical conceptions of wisdom. Tensions between ‘lucid’ and ‘opaque’ biblical texts are deftly handled. A particular recurring insight is the significance of ‘metaphysical vulnerability’ in the scriptural accounts, such as Proverbs’ ‘fear of YHWH’ as of a just judge, or Job's emphasis on personal integrity in navigating experiences of disorder. Overall, this is a rich and indeed wise portrait of wisdom, with real insight for philosophers, theologians, and biblical scholars.

RICHARD S. BRIGGS

LIEW, TAT-SIONG BENNY, and ERIN RUNIONS (eds.), Psychoanalytic Mediations between Marxist and Postcolonial Readings of the Bible (Semeia Studies, 84; Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2016), pp. viii + 241. $53.95. ISBN 978-1-62837-141-3.

This collection of essays constitutes an innovative attempt to use psychoanalysis to bridge the divide between Marxist and postcolonial theoretical frameworks. Studies focus on how oppression and exploitation (particularly deriving from capitalism and colonialism) find expression in the Bible, through fantasy, dream and storytelling. Following the editors’ Introduction, essays are arranged into three parts. Part 1, ‘Theoretical Reflections’: ‘Conversations in Africa: Postcolonial and Marxist Hermen-eutics, and a Psychoanalytical Fulcrum?’ (Jeremy Punt); ‘Imperial Fetish: On AntiImperial Readings of the Bible’ and ‘Freud, Adorno, and the Ban on Images’ (both Roland Boer). Part 2, ‘Textual Engagements’: ‘The End-or Medium’ (Jione Havea); ‘Haunting Silence: Trauma, Failed Orality, and Mark's Messianic Secret’ and ‘The Gospel of Bare Life: Reading Death, Dream, and Desire through John's Jesus’ (both Tat-siong Benny Liew); and ‘Psychoapocalypse: Desiring the Ends of the World’ (Tina Pippin). Part 3 contains responses from Theodore Jennings, Christina Petterson and Fernando Candido da Silva. The contributors do not succeed in entirely reconciling Marxist and postcolonial approaches to the Bible—nor do they set out to do so—but they offer fresh and stimulating interpretations of selected passages. I found Havea's new perspective on 1 Samuel 28 especially intriguing. Some readers may be a little put off by the volume's emphasis on psychoanalysis (Freud in particular) over against close study of the biblical text, but the volume should prove valuable to readers interested in the intersection between those two disciplines.

SIMEON WHITING

LIEW, TAT-SIONG BENNY, and FERNANDO F. SEGOVIA (eds.), Colonialism and the Bible: Contemporary Reflections from the Global South (Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies in Religion and Theology, 1; Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2018), pp. lxi + 336. $120.00. ISBN 978-1-4985-7275-0.

Colonialism and the Bible is divided into three major sections prefaced by an extended introduction in which the two editors lay out in some detail the scope and focus of the book. In his introductory chapter, ‘Colonialism and the Bible: A Critical Stocktaking from the Global South’, Segovia explains that, rather than approach the topic from the perspective of the Global North, the project is approached from the margins or periphery, the Global South. In Liew's chapter, ‘What Does the New Testament Really Say?’, the late Michael Prior's work on Luke-Acts is used as a starting point for exploring the uses and limits of the Bible as a tool for critiquing colonialist and postcolonialist issues. Part 1, ‘Africa and the Middle East’, offers a series of critical biblical and theological reflections centred on particular countries: S. Marzouk, ‘Interrogating Identity: A Christian Egyptian Reading of the Hagar-Ishmael Traditions’; D.R. Mbuwayesango, ‘The Bible as Tool of Colonization: The Zimbabwean Context’; K. Ngwa, ‘Bible and Colony-Related Necropolitics’; M.E. Andraos, ‘The Bible as a De-Colonial Tool for Palestinian Christians Today’; Y. Munk, ‘Israeli Cinema's Interpretation of the Biblical Imperative of Colonization’; and M. Raheb, ‘Towards a Postcolonial Hermeneutics for the Palestinian Context’. The theme of the Global South is continued when attention is switched in Part 2 to ‘Asia and the Pacific’ and in this lengthy section, again, contributions are offered from specific countries: E.S. Fernandez, ‘Colonial Storms and Post-colonial Moves: Exploring Alternative Filipino Biblical Hermeneutics’; N. Kim, ‘Carrying Out “The Great Commission” until the “Second Coming of Christ”? Overseas Mission Currents in the Context of US Military Imperialism’; H. Kinukawa, ‘The Jesuit Missionary Enterprise: Christianity, Slave Trade, and Gun Powder Enter Japan’; J.J. Sebastian, ‘Evoking the Bible at a Funeral in an Indian-Christian Community’; and J. Te Paa Daniel, ‘Bible and Colonialism: Aotearoa New Zealand’. Part 3, ‘Latin America and the Caribbean', contains four chapters of a slightly more general nature: N.E. Bedford, ‘The Most Burning of Lavas: The Bible in Latin America’; C.F. Cardoza Orlandi, ‘La biblia, la mar y el Caribe/The Bible, the Sea, and the Caribbean: Late 19th to Early 21st Century’; I. Petrella, ‘Without the Bible: A New Liberation Theology’; and V. Westhelle, ‘Transfiguration: The Figural Approach to Reading the Bible in Latin America’. Segovia concludes this very substantial project with a survey of the various contributions of its authors (‘Colonialism and the Bible: Trajectories, Evaluations, Proposals’), and argues that the volume clearly demonstrates that the process of liberation and decolonization remains an ongoing and pressing task not only for the Global South but also for the Global North. Despite the fact that some of the issues are less well argued than others in this volume, the emanation of the contributions from very different socio-political settings ensures a great variety of approaches. The project also demonstrates clearly the usefulness and adaptability of the late Michael Prior's work on the Palestinian question and his unquestionable influence on all the authors and editors of the book.

MARTIN O'KANE

LILLIE, CELENE, The Rape of Eve: The Transformation of Roman Ideology in Three Early Christian Retellings of Genesis (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2017), pp. xiv + 349. $79.00. ISBN 978-1-5064-2336-4.

This monograph, which has developed out of L.'s doctoral thesis, puts forward a convincing argument for reading the account of the rape of Eve in the Secret Revelation of John, the Reality of the Rulers, and On the Origin of the World as a critique of Roman imperial power. In view of the interests of the reader of the B.L., it is worth noting that this volume, which does offer a fascinating insight into the intertextual and intratextual milieu of the Nag Hammadi texts within a wider body of myths and narratives concerned with sexual violence and empire in Roman antiquity, does not engage extensively with the issue of the reception of Genesis in these texts per se. Yet the overall argument does turn, to a certain extent, on an exegetical issue. In the fourth chapter L. offers an interesting analysis of the potential impact of the different names used for God in LXX Genesis 2–3, and the interpretation of the text we find in the three retellings. Here she suggests that for the writers of these works, the occasions in Genesis where the text refers to Theos were understood to refer to the divine world, while those referring to Kurios ho theos were associated with the evil chief archon or archons. She goes on to argue that the particular associations of the term kurios in the Roman imperial context allowed the writers to draw an association between this character in Genesis and the violent Roman leadership in their own texts. While there are a number of weaknesses in L.'s argument (including reference to Gen. 1.1–2.4a as the ‘Elohist’ account, and issues with the presentation of Hebrew text), within this volume there is nonetheless some original and highly interesting discussion of the reception and reuse of Genesis in the context of Nag Hammadi.

HOLLY MORSE

MACY, HOWARD R., Discovering Humor in the Bible: An Explorer's Guide (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2016), pp. xiii + 126. $19.00. ISBN 978-1-4982-9259-7.

This slim and easy-to-read volume is designed primarily for a student-aged American readership. It makes the valid and often overlooked point that there is humo(u)r in the Bible, and that this can contribute to both the punch and the poignancy of the message. Failure to recognize the fun and to over-solemnize the Bible risks deterring potential readers and misleading serious readers. This book would provide stimulating material for a discussion group among church members or college students and would almost certainly make participants think about the Bible in new and challenging ways. The author gives many examples of passages in the OT and the NT as well as the Deuterocanon where the events or descriptions should raise a laugh, or at least a snigger. These are taken mainly but not entirely from narrative texts (with the notable omission of Revelation!), and from the OT including the announcement of the forthcoming birth of Isaac in Genesis 18 and the stories of Ehud and Eglon in Judges 3, David trying on Saul's armour in 1 Samuel 17, and Naaman having to wash in the Jordan in 2 Kings 5. There is, however, considerable repetition of examples and it is hard to avoid the impression that M. may be over-egging his recipe. The resulting dish is not without nutritional value, but sometimes needs to be taken with an extra pinch of salt.

DAVID J. CLARK

MÄKIPELTO, VILLE, Uncovering Ancient Editing: Documented Evidence of Changes in Joshua 24 and Related Texts (BZAW, 513; Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018), pp. ix + 305. £79.00. ISBN 978-3-11-059811-7.

This is a revised Helsinki dissertation supervised by Juha Pakkala. It offers an analysis of the ancient textual witnesses of Joshua 24 as well as their inter-relationship and history. A review of scholarship convincingly demonstrates the ascendency of text criticism in light of the findings from Qumran. This is followed by a discussion of the textual witnesses of Joshua that stresses ‘There was no single book of Joshua in Second Temple Judaism’ (p. 16). The heart of the volume is a 120-page third chapter that offers a full analysis of the relationship between the Old Greek and MT of Joshua 24 including helpful tables with the text laid out in Hebrew, Greek and English translation. M. concludes that of 28 ‘significant content related differences’ the Old Greek is to be preferred in 75 per cent of cases (p. 157). He further suggests that both the Old Greek and proto-MT drew on a common Hebrew text but also display separate editorial reworking. A chapter exploring the impact of these findings on the literary- and redaction-critical study of Joshua 24 as well as connections between Joshua 24 and Genesis, Exodus, Numbers–Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and Samuel–Kings, as well as various historical summaries follows. This is a methodologically reflective and cautious monograph—with the exception of the employment of contested mediaeval manuscripts of Samaritan Joshua texts based on the suggestion that they are interesting and might contain more ancient testimony. Overall this is a masterful example of how lower and higher criticism offer exciting synergies in current biblical studies.

CHARLOTTE HEMPEL

MASON, ERIC F., and EDMONDO F. LUPIERI (eds.), Golden Calf Traditions in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Themes in Biblical Narrative, 23; Leiden: Brill, 2018), pp. xxii + 327. €156.00/$188.00. ISBN 978-90-04-38675-4.

This series goes from strength to strength. As always, the articles are erudite and of a consistently high standard, and they shed fascinating light on the life and afterlife of a given biblical narrative. The current volume, containing 17 essays, is centred on the reception of the ‘Golden Calf ’ episode (first mentioned in Exod. 32 and Deut. 9) in later, predominantly Jewish and Christian, traditions. The articles are arranged in roughly chronological order. The first five articles deal with the topic in the HB and other ancient Jewish texts: R.A. Di Vito, ‘The Calf Episodes in Exodus and Deuteronomy: A Study in Inner-Biblical Interpretation’; R.W. Klein, ‘The “Sin” of Jeroboam’; P.A. Viviano, ‘Do the Books of Hosea and Jeremiah Know of a Sinai/Horeb Golden Calf Story?’; R.J. Bautch, ‘The Golden Calf in the Historical Recitals of Nehemiah 9 and Psalm 106’; and D. Assefa and K.C. Bautch, ‘Did the Sheep Worship the Golden Calf? The Animal Apocalypse's Reading of Exodus 32’. The next three essays look at how three select Jewish-Hellenistic authors dealt with the Golden Calf incident: T.H. Tobin, ‘Philo of Alexandria's Interpretations of the Episode of the Golden Calf ’; G.E. Sterling, ‘When Silence Is Golden: The Omission of the Golden Calf Story in Josephus’; and J.C. Endres and P.C. Ajer, ‘Leaders without Blemish: Pseudo-Philo's Retelling of the Biblical Golden Calf Story’. The following four studies are devoted to the Golden Calf imagery found in the NT: A.J. Lucas, ‘Paul and the Calf: Texts, Tendencies, and Traditions’; J.B. Green, ‘ “They Made a Calf”: Idolatry and Temple in Acts 7’; E.F. Mason, ‘Traces of the Golden Calf in the Epistle to the Hebrews’; and E. Lupieri, ‘A Beast and a Woman in the Desert, or the Sin of Israel: A Typological Reflection’. The final five articles explore the often polemical use of the narrative in later Rabbinic, Patristic, and Islamic traditions: D. Schoenfeld, ‘ “A Good Argument to Penitents”: Sin and Forgiveness in Midrashic Interpretations of the Golden Calf ’; W. Dingman, ‘Anti-Judaism and Pedagogy: Greek and Latin Patristic Interpretations of the Calf Incident’; A. Radde-Gallwitz, ‘Justin Martyr and the Golden Calf: Ethnic Argumentation in the New Israel’; A.J. Hayes, ‘The Incident of the Golden Calf in Pre-Islamic Syriac Authors’; and M.E. Pregill, ‘ “A Calf, a Body that Lows”: The Golden Calf from Late Antiquity to Classical Islam’. To be recommended.

LENA-SOFIA TIEMEYER

MBUVI, AMANDA BECKENSTEIN, Belonging in Genesis: Biblical Israel and the Politics of Identity Formation (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2016), pp. xii + 167. $49.95. ISBN 978-1-6025-8747-2.

This volume, emerging from M.'s doctoral dissertation at Duke Divinity School, explores the role family relationships have in shaping communal identity by exploring the theological contributions of the genealogies in the primeval history and the ‘family tree’ as a non-hierarchical image of social structure in the ancestral narrative. M. argues the genealogies establish the family tree, a non-hierarchical model of social structure, as the norm for Israel. Using this idea to read the narrative in an ideological, postcolonial fashion, M. argues that Genesis contrasts the failed, hierarchical order of the Tower of Babel with the positive image of the family tree from Genesis 10 and the ancestral narrative to affirm a national identity that is organic and finds commonality with others across many lines of difference. While M.'s aim to read Genesis in an ideological, postcolonial fashion does produce interesting discussions of the text, it does not generate any notable new exegetical insights. As a whole, M.'s argument helpfully supports the growing body of readings that challenge Eurocentric and imperial modes of interpretation. In the sense that it is a solid book on that topic that says little which surprises the reader, it demonstrates how familiar the guild now is with this approach. That both reflects real progress and also highlights the danger in complacency creeping in to the field. In sum, M.'s book is a sound study on Genesis that will be of use to those interested in postcolonial interpretation.

C.A. STRINE

MIERT, DIRK VAN, The Emancipation of Biblical Philology in the Dutch Republic, 1590– 1670 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), pp. xxiv + 296. £75.00. ISBN 978-0-19-880393-5.

This fascinating and richly researched book is a companion to Jetze Touber's Spinoza and Biblical Philology in the Dutch Republic (see below, p. 155), and both authors have collaborated with others in editing Scriptural Authority and Biblical Criticism in the Dutch Golden Age (see B.L. 2018, pp. 151–52). The volumes are all products of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) project on ‘Biblical Criticism in the 17th Century’. M. argues that from the last decade of the 16th century onwards, while scholars of the Bible could not bite the Calvinist hand that was their regular paymaster, they became increasingly independently minded and their publications ever more radical, largely because of the logic of philology itself. The major figures in the story are Joseph Scaliger, Daniel Heinsius, Hugo Grotius, Claude Saumaise, and Isaac de La Peyrère. The trajectory towards ever more precise philology seems to have been both stimulated and somewhat interrupted by the initial and revising work of various scholars on the States’ Translation. Scaliger's self-censored learning was not deemed threatening because it was dispersed in highly learned works. Heinsius, Leiden's star, argued for the listing of variants but not for changes to the Textus Receptus. Saumaise is contextualized in relation to the so-called ‘Hairy War’, a forceful debate about what the Bible had to say about long-haired men. M. concludes that there had already been several decades of argument about the worth and purposes of biblical philology by the time Spinoza entered the discussion. This is a valuable analysis of a time when the Bible was at the forefront of daily life and politics.

GEORGE J. BROOKE

MOORE, MICHAEL S., What Is this Babbler Trying to Say? Essays on Biblical Interpretation (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2016), pp. xix + 348. $42.00. ISBN 978-1-4982-0852-9.

This collection brings together 17 of M.'s previously published essays spanning the years 1983 to 2004. Now revised and updated, they are arranged in three parts: ‘Torah’, ‘Prophecy and Apocalyptic’, and ‘Wisdom and Other Writings’. The first part comprises ‘Another Look at Balaam’, ‘Balaam the “Prophet”?’ and ‘Role Preemption in the Israelite Priesthood’; the second has ‘Yahweh's Day’; ‘Jeremiah's Progressive Paradox’; ‘Jeremiah's Identity Crisis’; ‘The Laments in Jeremiah and 1QH: Mapping the Metaphorical Trajectories’; ‘Jehu's Coronation and Purge of Israel’; ‘Big Dreams and Broken Promises: Solomon's Treaty with Hiram’; ‘Searching in Sheba: The Desire for “Biblical Literacy”’; and ‘Resurrection and Immortality: Two Motifs Navigating Confluent Theological Streams in Daniel 12:1-4’. The third contains ‘Ruth the Moabite and the Blessing of Foreigners’; ‘To King or Not to King: A Canonical-Historical Approach to Ruth’; ‘Job's Texts of Terror’; ‘Human Suffering in Lamentations’; ‘Bathsheba's Silence’; and ‘“Wise Women” or “Woman Wisdom?”: A Biblical Study of Gender Roles’. There is a lengthy bibliography, and author, subject and textual indexes. The collection showcases the breadth of the author's interests and the facility with which he applies the tools of his trade to the tasks he undertakes. Many of the footnotes refer to books and articles that have appeared since the original publication of these articles, which indicates that M. has maintained an interest in matters he has addressed at various stages of his career and has now sought to bring such matters up to date.

GEORGE NICOL

MORROW, JEFFREY L., Three Skeptics and the Bible: La Peyrère, Hobbes, Spinoza, and the Reception of Modern Biblical Criticism (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2016), pp. xi + 185. $25.00. ISBN 978-1-4982-3915-8.

There is much of value in this thought-provoking discussion of three scholars whose contribution to the modern beginnings of historical biblical criticism is—with the exception of Spinoza—not always recognized. The core of M.'s thesis is that in each case a political agenda can be seen to underpin the specific attack on the older allegorical methods. Specifically, in the context of the experience of the Thirty Years War these reformed thinkers saw the future peace of Europe in terms of stable, strong, centralized secular authority. The new critical methods, whose primary effect was to undermine the convention of Mosaic authorship of Torah, effectively deprived the Church of its authority and led to ‘objective’ interpretation which was the property of the secular powers. M. offers much that is new in his detailed analysis, and much food for thought. It is a timely reminder that what we take to be scientific approaches have historically deep-rooted assumptions at their core. That said, the claim that the overtly political agenda of the ‘three skeptics’ was the primary shaping mechanism for biblical criticism, and continues unnoticed to the present day, might be somewhat over-drawn. This is a stimulating and provocative monograph; it is a pity that it is somewhat marred by too many careless typos and errors of presentation.

ALASTAIR G. HUNTER

MÜLLNER, ILSE, and BARBARA SCHMITZ (eds.), Perspektiven. Biblische Texte und Narratologie (Stuttgarter Biblische Beiträge, 75; Stuttgart: Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, 2018), pp. 400. €49.20. ISBN 978-3-460-00751-2.

This collection of 16 essays examines narrative viewpoint within OT texts. M.'s discussion of narrative voices and perspectives serves as the methodological introduction. C. Dohmen explores the combination of perspectives (YHWH//Elohim) in the Genesis flood narrative. C. Frevel shows the interrelation of legislation and narrated events within the book of Numbers. B. Schöning writes on the proleptic description of Goliath's head being brought to Jerusalem (1 Sam. 17.54)—before the city has been conquered. A. Fischer notes that Uriah's death was evil in the eyes of the Lord—but not of David (2 Sam. 11.25-27). K. Bodner shows how Sheba's rebellion against David (2 Sam. 20) foreshadows Jeroboam's later revolt against Rehoboam. M. Nitsche discusses the sympathetic portrayal of Solomon's wisdom at work in 1 Kings 3. B. Schmitz considers the narrative portrayal of Judas Maccabeus as the recipient of divine help in 2 Maccabees. S. Eder discusses empathetic perspectives in Pss. 30.7-13 and 64, while S. Gillmayr-Bucher analyses Psalm 102 using M.-L. Ryan's theory of possible worlds (knowledge, intention, wish, moral and obligation). T. Häner considers the figure of Ezekiel as a sign, A. Giercke-Ungermann discusses the role of the narrator in the Minor Prophets (especially Jonah), and D. Helms examines Daniel 4's use of the narrative voice of Nebuchadnezzar. In addition, I. de Jong explores the dream of Cambyses in Herodotus (3.30; 3.61-65), and E. Tyrell compares mediatedness and immediacy in Herodotus and Genesis–Kings, while G. Langer considers how the stories in Midrash Leviticus Rabbah changed it from a cultic book to an instructional text. Overall, these essays illustrate the lively current use of narrative methods in OT study.

JEREMY CORLEY

NAUMANN, THOMAS, Ismael. Israels Selbstwahrnehmung im Kreis der Völker aus der Nachkommenschaft Abrahams (Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alten und Neuen Testament, 151; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht [Neukirchener Theologie], 2018), pp. xiii + 554. €70.00. ISBN 978-3-7887-3260-8.

This detailed study, based on the author's 1996 Habilitationsschrift, aims at making the complex profile of Ishmael in the HB visible. This is done by a decidedly synchronic reading of the relevant texts in the hope to discover the sense of the final form of the narrative. N. argues that the narrative proposes an inclusive view of the sons of Abraham without glossing over the obvious ambivalences and differences. The main body of the work is devoted to a close reading of Genesis 16–17 and Gen. 21–22, 25.1–18. Further chapters address the problem of the historicity of the Ishmaelites and the reception of Ishmael in Jubilees, Josephus, Artapanos, Philo of Alexandria, and the so-called Judaeo-Arabic traditions of Hagar and her son. Though the fact that the younger son is treated preferentially is a prominent feature of the narrative, N. stresses that this does not necessarily lead to conflict as in the case of Jacob and Esau. Since the relationship to the nations is always implied in the narrative, a portrait of a people related to Abraham is painted that implies that the God of Israel also turns to non-Israelites. This is a powerful synchronic reading of the role and theological significance of Abraham's first son, even though one sometimes has the impression that more diachronic approaches (e.g. M. Köckert) do more justice to the complexity of the literary structure.

ANSELM C. HAGEDORN

NEPI, ANTONIO, Dal fondale alla ribalta: I personaggi secondari nella Bibbia ebraica (with an introduction by Jean-Louis Ska; Epifania della Parola, 8; Bologna: Edizioni Dehoniane, 2015), pp. 272. €26.00. ISBN 978-88-10-40306-8.

N. teaches at the Istituto Teologico Marchigiano in Fermo and has written a two-volume commentary on Exodus. This book is a narratological study of secondary characters in the HB and it is full of neat close readings concerning how such figures are brought from the background into the foreground, from being hidden to being in the spotlight, even if only briefly. An opening chapter covers some of the key ways in which minor actors function in narrative: their flat character, their part in narrative, the hierarchy of roles, their place in anti-epic, their necessity and unexpected importance. A second chapter describes and analyses such characters as figures of contrast, as opponents, as the impotent, and as accusers. The third chapter considers minor agents who perform a connective role: guides, assistants in plot resolution, those who are the alter ego, and those who warn about danger or death. A fourth chapter engages with figures who play a discrete but pivotal role in a story, some of whom may be major figures elsewhere in the narrative. A concluding chapter reflects on what motivates narrators to use secondary characters. Throughout the notes are fulsome: they reflect N.'s various interactions with the primary sources and with the standard views on them by the major commentators, as well as being a valuable resource of references to those who have led the way in reading the Bible as literature and to the major literary theorists. This insightful book deserves to be translated into English.

GEORGE J. BROOKE

NEUBER, CAROLIN (ed.), Der immer neue Exodus. Aneignungen und Transformationen des Exodusmotivs (Stuttgarter Bibelstudien, 242; Stuttgart: Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, 2018), pp. 270. €30.00. ISBN 978-3-460-03385-6.

The rich and varied significance of the exodus tradition in the process of identity construction in different historical and cultural contexts is well illustrated in this volume. The essays are presented in roughly chronological order beginning with interpretations of the exodus within the HB, through its role in early Judaism and Christianity, Rabbinic and Jewish tradition, the Quran and in modern secular media culture. The introduction by the editor (‘Ein altes Motiv immer neu. Zu den Transformationen des Exodus’) together with the first four essays (A. Michel, ‘Exodus—historisch, mythisch, theologisch’; A. Grund-Wittenberg, ‘ “Und gedenke, dass du Sklave warst im Land Ägypten” [Dtn 5,15]. Zur Transformation des Exodusmotivs durch seine Verknüpfung mit der Sabbattradition’; C. Neuber, ‘Auszug in die Wüste des Gerichts. Transformation des Exodusmotivs in Ez 20’; and Y. Zakovitch, ‘The Exodus—The Biblical Big Bang: Reading Psalm 114’) are of most direct relevance to the Alttestamentler. Michel tentatively suggests possible historical elements in the tradition but locates its significant development in the Northern Kingdom with later transformations in the context of the Assyrian and Babylonian conquest. The following three essays explore the different interpretations of the significance of the exodus, for community solidarity with the weak in Deuteronomy 5, for judgement on apostasy in Ezekiel 20, and for understanding divine acts of creation in Psalm 114. The later essays too, on early Christianity and Judaism (H.-U. Weidemann, ‘Auszug unter dem Joch der Sklaverei. Transformationen des Exodus im Galaterbrief ’; C. Leonhard, ‘Exodus und Pesach. Transformation durch Interpretation im frühen Christentum und im Judentum’; S. Winter, ‘Christus—unser Passah?! Zu Rezeption und Transformation des Exodus in der christlichen Liturgie im Angesicht des Judentums’; A. Siquans, ‘Das Exodus-Motiv im Midrasch Schir ha-Schirim Rabba’; J. Magonet, ‘The Exodus Theme in Jewish Tradition’) and on early Islam (C. Rachik, ‘Der Exodus im Koran’), as well as that on exodus motifs in the TV series ‘The Simpsons’ (J. Heger, ‘Von der Befreiung des Schülervolkes von Rektor-Pharao. Das Exodusmotiv in der gelben Transformation der Simpsons’), well document the truth of the editor's introduction, that the exodus may be an ancient motif but it is one that is not only open to ongoing transformation but has had a transformative effect on the communities which have found in it the expression of an essential dimension of their self-understanding. Such transformations are not innocent, but usually serve strategic interests, mostly in crisis situations.

ANDREW MAYES

OLYAN, SAUL M., and JACOB L. WRIGHT (eds.), Supplementation and the Study of the Hebrew Bible (Brown Judaic Studies, 361; Providence, RI: Brown University, 2018), pp. xviii + 221. $30.95. ISBN 978-1-946527-05-9.

Olyan and his co-editor publish here ten studies arising from a symposium on this theme he convened at his university (Brown) in May 2016. He categorizes them into five textual genres: legal by Sara J. Milstein and Christophe Nihan; prophetic by Anja Klein and Olyan himself; lyrical (i.e. Psalms) by Marc Z. Brettler and Reinhard G. Kratz; pentateuchal narrative by Angel Roskop Erisman and Thomas Römer; deuteronomistic historical narrative by Konrad Schmid and the co-editor. Some offer illuminating insights by following well-trodden tracks of hypothetical source criticism (e.g. Gen. 39; 1 Kgs 24–25), while others concentrate on evidence from variant manuscript traditions evident from the LXX and the DSS (e.g. 1 Sam. 2; Lev. 23.42-44), and even the liturgical use of scripture (e.g. Ps. 145). Naturally some contributors mingle both approaches (e.g. Exod. 16; Judg. 6.1.1–8.35). Stylistic features evident in cuneiform laws are taken as evidence of supplementation in Deuteronomy 21–25. Evidence is offered to propose multiple stages of supplementation of comparable motifs in different prophets (e.g. Gog in Ezekiel with the second exodus in Deutero-Isaiah with the 70 years in Jeremiah), but the same can also be demonstrated when just one verse is subjected to scrutiny (e.g. Isa. 66.24). The excellence of the contributions matches the excellence of the editing.

MERVYN RICHARDSON

PYSCHNY, KATHARINA, and SARAH SCHULZ (eds.), Debating Authority: Concepts of Leadership in the Pentateuch and the Former Prophets (BZAW, 507; Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018), pp. viii + 357. £109.00. ISBN 978-3-11-054070-3.

Originating from two sessions of an EABS Research Unit ‘Concepts of Leadership in the Hebrew Bible’ (Leuven, 2016), the essays in this volume combine to form an excellent resource for scholars with an interest in this theme—related as it is to concepts of authority and power—in its broad development within the Pentateuch and Former Prophets. The book comprises K. Pyschny and S. Schulz, ‘Debating Authority— Concepts of Leadership in the Pentateuch and the Former Prophets: An Introduction’; W. Oswald, ‘Concepts of Leadership in the Book of Exodus’; C. Berner, ‘Moses vs. Aaron: The Clash of Prophetic and Priestly Concepts of Leadership in the Pentateuch’; C. Nihan and J. Rhyder, ‘Aaron's Vestments in Exodus and Priestly Leadership’; T. Hieke, ‘Priestly Leadership in the Book of Leviticus: A Hidden Agenda’; C. Frevel, ‘Leadership and Conflict: Modelling the Charisma of Numbers’; K. Pyschny, ‘Debated Leadership: Conflicts of Authority and Leadership in Num. 16–17’; K.M. Schäfers, ‘“[…] and the LORD's Anger was Kindled against Israel” (Num. 25:3)—Who's in Charge and Who's to Blame?: Punishment, Intercession, and Leadership-Related Competences in Num. 25’; R. Ebach, ‘“You Shall Walk Exactly on the Way which YHWH Your God has Commanded You”: Characteristics of Deuteronomy's Concepts of Leadership’; H. Samuel, ‘Competing Competencies: The Struggle for Authority in Deut. 17:8–13 in Comparative Perspective’; J.J. Krause, ‘Post Mortem Mosi: Conceptualizing Leadership in the Book of Joshua’; M. Schäfer and S. Schulz, ‘Gideon, a Liminal Leader: The Transformation of Leadership Concepts in Judg. 6–8’; F.-E. Focken, ‘The Structures of Offices in the Heroic Narratives and Judge Narratives and their Literary-Historical Development’; H. Bezzel, ‘Samuel's Political Career’; R. Müller; ‘Saul, the Charismatic King: Concepts of Political Leadership in 1 Sam. 11’; T.M. Steiner, ‘From David to Solomon, from Crisis to Leadership’; R. Sauerwein, ‘Prophetic Leadership in the Books of Kings’; J.M. Robker, ‘The Unique Status of Jehu's Dynasty’; K. Pyschny and S. Schulz, ‘Debating Authority—Concepts of Leadership in the Pentateuch and the Former Prophets: A Synthesis’. The book concludes with a List of Contributors and an Index of Ancient Sources. Each contribution is furnished with its own bibliography. This is a useful volume that nicely illustrates the importance and pervasiveness of the themes of Authority and Leadership in the OT.

GEORGE NICOL

RAPP, CLAUDIA, and ANDREAS KüLZER (eds.), The Bible in Byzantium: Appropriation, Adaptation, Interpretation (JAJSup, 25.6; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2019), pp. 160. €80.00. ISBN 978-3-525-57068-5.

Drawn from papers read at the International SBL meeting in Vienna, July 2014, this volume introduces aspects of the reception history of the Bible in Byzantine culture and so serves as a reminder that the currently fashionable pursuit of reception history encompasses far more than the traditions of the Roman Catholic and Protestant West. It comprises Claudia Rapp, ‘The Bible in Byzantium: Text and Experience’; Karl Klimmeck, ‘Auf der Suche nach dem byzantinischen Bibeltext: Vom liturgischen Kodex zur Übersetzung’; Meredith L.D. Riedel, ‘Biblical Echoes in the Taktika of Leo VI’; Ernst Gamillscheg, ‘Die Lektüre der Bible in Byzanz: Kurze Beobachtungen zu einigen griechischen Handschriften mit Bibelkatenen’; Pinar Serdar Dincer, ‘The Vienna Genesis in the Light of Early Byzantine Illuminated Theological Manuscripts’; Johannes Koder, ‘Christentum und Islam: Überlegungen zum Transfer biblischer Glaubensinhalte in Spätantike und Fruhmittelalter’; Yannis Stouraitis, ‘Using the Bible to Justify Imperial Warfare in High-Mediaeval Byzantium’; Eirini Afentoulidou, ‘ “Exposed to the Eyes of All, upon the Public Theatre of the Universe”: The Last Judgement in Byzantium’; Alexandra Kyriaki Wasssiliou-Seibt, ‘Biblische Reminiszenzen in Bild und Text auf byzantinischen Bleisiegeln’; and Andreas Külzer, ‘Biblerezeption im Heiligen Land: Der Beitrag der Proskynētaria tōn hagiōn topōn’. There are many helpful diagrams and tables, but the few coloured illustrations are of poor quality and not much use.

MARGARET BARKER

ROBBINS, VERNON K., WALTER S. MELION, and ROY R. JEAL (eds.), The Art of Visual Exegesis: Rhetoric, Texts, Images (Emory Studies in Early Christianity, 19; Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2017), pp. xix + 511. $69.95. ISBN 978-1-62837-172-7.

This volume is, as the title indicates, devoted to the concept of visual exegesis. In other words, how does visual culture enhance our understanding of biblical material, and how does the biblical material use images to describe theological concepts? Most of the articles focus on the NT and/or Christianity. After an Introduction by the editors, the essays fall into three parts. Part I, discussing methodology for visual exegesis and rhet-ography (the evocation of imagery in narratives), contains four articles: V.K. Robbins, ‘New Testament Texts, Visual Material Culture, and Earliest Christian Art’; R.R. Jeal, ‘Visual Interpretation: Blending Rhetorical Arts in Colossians 2:6-3:4’; L.G. Bloomquist, ‘Methodology Underlying the Presentation of Visual Texture in the Gospel of John’; and idem, ‘Eyes Wide Open, Seeing Nothing: The Challenge of the Gospel of John's Nonvisualizable Texture for Readings Using Visual Texture’. The second part, devoted to studies that use Roman visible material culture to enhance their exegesis of texts, contains three studies: H.O. Maier, ‘Imperial Situations, and Visualization in the Epistle to the Colossians’; B. Kahl, ‘The Galatian Suicide and the Transbinary Semiotics of Christ Crucified (Galatians 3:1): Exercises in Visual Exegesis and Critical Reimagination’; and R. Canavan, ‘Armor, Peace, and Gladiators: A Visual Exegesis of Ephesians 6:10-17’. The third part, exploring the use of Christian Art in visual exegesis, contains five essays: C.J. Nygren, ‘Graphic Exegesis: Reflections of the Difficulty of Taking about Biblical Images, Pictures, and Texts’; H. Luttikhuizen, ‘The Gifts of Epiphany: Geertgen tot Sint Jans and the Adoration of the Magi’; J. Clifton, ‘ “Exactitude and Fidelity”? Paintings of Christ Healing the Blind by Nicolas Poussin and Philippe de Champaigne’; M. Weemans, ‘Topos versus Topia: Herri met de Bles's Visual Exegesis of the Parable of the Good Samaritan’; and W.S. Melion, ‘Signa Resurrectionis: Vision, Image, and Pictorial Proof in Pieter Bruegel's Resurrection of Circa 1562-1563’. As a HB scholar, I benefitted mostly from the methodological discussions. The texts under scrutiny also offered fascinating models for what might be done also in the field of Hebrew Bible.

LENA-SOFIA TIEMEYER

ROBBINS, VERNON K., ROBERT H. VON THADEN JR, and BART B. BRUEHLER (eds.), Foundations for Sociorhetorical Exploration: A Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity Reader (Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity, 4; Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2016), pp. xxv + 492. $65.95. ISBN 978-1-62837-142-0.

This weighty volume assembles 11 previously published essays and one new contribution. It opens with a Glossary of terms important in Sociorhetorical Interpretation and an Introduction by the Editors. These two sections are highly abstract in nature, with few concrete examples to enhance understanding. Sociorhetorical criticism addresses every item of note in a text to draw in relevant ‘social, cultural, historical, psychological, aesthetic, ideological and theological information into a context of minute exegetical activity’ (p. 29) to illuminate each text. There are five sections of thorough and penetrating essays. Section 1 (‘The Emergence of Sociorhetorical Interpretation’) has one paper: V.K. Robbins, ‘Sociorhetorical Criticism: Mary, Elizabeth and the Magnificat as a Test Case’ (1994). Section 2 (‘Reworking Rhetoric and Topos’) contains G.A. Kennedy, ‘Reworking Aristotle's Rhetoric’ (1996); C. Miller, ‘The Aristotelian Topos: Hunting for Novelty’ (2000); and L.G. Bloomquist, ‘Paul's Inclusive Language: The Ideological Texture of Romans 1’ (2003). Section 3 (‘Cultural Geography and Critical Spatiality’) provides J.L. Berquist, ‘Theories of Space and Construction of the Ancient World’ (not previously published); C.V. Camp, ‘Sacred Space, or, Ben Sira “Tells” a Temple’ (2002); and B.B. Bruehler, ‘From this Place: A Theoretical Framework for the Social-Spatial Analysis of Luke’ (2011). Section 4 (‘Metaphor, Conceptual Blending, and Rhetorolects’) delivers L.R. Huber, ‘Knowing Is Seeing: Theories of Metaphor, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern’ (2007); R.H. von Thaden Jr, ‘A Cognitive Turn: Conceptual Blending within a Sociorhetorical Framework’ (2012); and V.K. Robbins, ‘Conceptual Blending and Early Christian Imagination’ (2007). Section 5 (‘Rhetorolects and Rhetography’) has V.K. Robbins, ‘Rhetography: A New Way of Seeing the Familiar Text’ (2008); and R.R. Jeal, ‘Clothes Make the (Wo)Man’ (2005). The book ends with a List of Contributors, Bibliography, Ancient Sources Index, Modern Authors Index and Subject Index, allowing the casual reader to find relevant material quickly.

HEATHER H. MCKAY

RUSSAW, KIMBERLY D., Daughters in the Hebrew Bible (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2018), xii + 225. $100.00. ISBN 978-1-978700-48-2.

Of the female characters who appear in the HB, daughters—that is, women who are neither wives nor mothers—are the least plentiful. Yet R.'s monograph is the third in recent years to be devoted to biblical daughters, the others being Joseph Fleishman's Father-Daughter Relations in Biblical Law (2011; see B.L. 2014, pp. 135-6) and Johanna Stiebert's Fathers and Daughters in the Hebrew Bible (2013; see B.L. 2015, p. 29). Unlike those two works, R.'s study focuses on daughters tout court rather than on daughters specifically in relation to their fathers, although R. acknowledges that being under a father's authority is a constitutive part of being a daughter. The book begins with a review of feminist scholarship on HB daughters, focusing particularly on virginity (was it necessary? did it matter?), inheritance (could daughters inherit?) and spatiality (where were daughters safe?), then moves on to discuss the position of daughters within the family, the Hebrew terminology used to speak of daughters, specific daughter characters in the HB (Lot's daughters, Rebekah, Dinah, Pharaoh's daughter, Miriam, Zelophehad's daughters, Jephthah's daughter, Tamar, Esther), and finally power dynamics in the HB and how daughters negotiate them. R. concludes that daughters have more power than servants, but less power than mothers or wives; that they inhabit a precarious position in the patriarchal biblical world, with little legal authority and no authority over their own sexuality; and that they negotiate patriarchal systems of power by sometimes resisting and sometimes acquiescing. An illuminating study, especially in its terminological discussion, if rather densely written.

DEBORAH W. ROOKE

SHERWOOD, YVONNE (ed., with the assistance of ANNA FISK), The Bible and Feminism: Remapping the Field (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), pp. xx + 709. £95.00. ISBN 978-0-19-872261-8.

Having the physical dimensions and extent of an Oxford Handbook, this is nevertheless a rather different kind of volume. As its title implies, its 36 chapters, arranged into three sections, set out not so much to introduce and delineate as to redescribe the field of feminist biblical studies. The thrust of the collection is unashamedly interdisciplinary and has at least as much of a focus on postbiblical and contemporary use of the Bible as it does on feminist interpretation of the biblical text. Indeed, several of the contributors are from disciplines other than biblical studies, and the focus in some essays is as much, if not more, on the Bible as a concept or an entity rather than on specific texts or detailed interpretations. The collection might thus be characterized as a metatext on the Bible and feminism, in which the title's two elements are brought into relationship by means of vehicles ranging from art and literature to women's history and biography, cultural critique, and the philosophy of medicine. It is a challenging and innovative volume, that will be of most benefit not primarily for beginners or those new to the field, but for those who are already familiar with what is at stake in feminist interpretation, as a listing of the contents will show. Part I, ‘Prophets and Revolutionaries’, contains ‘Death and the Maiden: Manifestos, Gender, Self-canonization, and Violence’ (J. Økland); ‘Joanna Southcott and Mabel Barltrop: Interpreting Genesis and Revelation’ (J. Shaw); ‘The First Woman Question: Eve and the Women's Movement’ (H. Morse); ‘Reflections on Reading the Bible: From Flesh to Female Genius’ (A. Jasper); ‘Another Esther: Sor Juana's Biblical Self-Portrait’ (P.K. Rappaport); ‘Reading “The Revelations of the Book/ Whose Genesis was June”: Emily Dickinson's Hermeneutics of the Heart’ (J. Leader); ‘Toni Morrison's Shulamites: The African-American Song’ (I. Pardes); ‘Stood Weeping Outside the Tomb: Dis(re)membering Mary Magdalene’ (A. Fisk); ‘Feminist Remap-pings in Times of NeoLiberalism’ (E. Schüssler Fiorenza); and ‘The Wandering Jewess: Feminism Seeks the Shekhinah’ (A. Ostriker). Part II, ‘An Unconventional Tour of the Biblical Canon, Beyond the “Canons” of Feminist/ Womanist Criticism’, contains ‘The Inheritance of Gehinnom: Feminist Midrash as a Vehicle for Contemporary Biblical Criticism’ (D. Kahn-Harris); ‘Moses, Feminism, and the Male Subject’ (J.L. Koosed); ‘Home at Last: The Local Domain and Female Power’ (R. Havrelock); ‘Judges 3 and the Queer Hermeneutics of Carnophallogocentrism’ (K. Stone); ‘Forget It: The Case of Women's Rituals in Ancient Israel, or How to Remember the Woman of Endor’ (A. Jeffers); ‘Sexual Politics and Surveillance: A Feminist, Metonymic, Spinozan Reading of Psalm 139’ (E. Runions); ‘A Foolish King, Women, and Wine: A Dangerous Cocktail from Lemuel's Mother’ (M.L.G. Bachmann); ‘My Mother Was a Wandering Aramean: A Nomadic Approach to the Hebrew Bible’ (A.-M. Schol-Wetter); ‘Queen Vashti's “No” and What it Can Tell Us about Gender Tools in Biblical Narrative’ (D.F. Sawyer); ‘Miriam Ben Amram, or How to Make Sense of the Absence of Women in the Genealogies of Levi (1 Chronicles 5.27–6.66)’ (I. Löwisch); ‘The Politics of Remembrance: Genealogies of 1 Chronicles 1–9 and Haunting Memories in China’ (W.C.A. Wong); ‘Corporal Ignorance: The Refusal of Embodied Memory’ (J.A. Glancy); ‘Can an Adulteress Save Jesus? The Pericope Adulterae, Feminist Interpretation, and the Limits of Narrative Agency’ (J. Knust); ‘Pinkwashing Paul, Excepting Jesus: The Politics of Intersectionality, Identification, and Respectability’ (J.A. Marchal); ‘Embodied Temporalities: Health, Illness, and the Matter of Feminist Biblical Interpretation’ (D.K. Buell); and ‘Unveiling the European Woman’ (F. Tofighi). Part III, ‘Offpage: Actualizations and Performances of Scripture beyond Protestant Models of “Reading”’, contains ‘The Ancient Goddess, the Biblical Scholar, and the Religious Past: Re-Imagining Divine Women’ (F. Stavrakopoulou); ‘Seeing Double: Textual and Archaeological Images of Israelite Women’ (C. Meyers); ‘“Limping, Yet Made to Climb a Mountain!” Re-Reading the Vashti Character in the HIV and AIDS South African Context’ (M Masenya); ‘The Reproductive Rite: (In)Fertility in the Sahanti and Ancient Hebrew Context’ (J.E.D. Sarfo); ‘“But I Still Read the Bible!”: Post-Christian Women's Biblicalism’ (D. Llewellyn); ‘Sneaky Snakes: Seduction, the Biblical Imagination, and Activating Art’ (M. Bal); ‘Material World: Gender and the Bible in Evangelical Purity Culture’ (S. Moslener); ‘Muslim Liberative Approaches and Legal Dilemmas Towards Gender Justice’ (Z. Kassam); ‘Scripturalizing and the Second Amendment’ (R.C. Rodman); and ‘The Impossibility of Queering the Mother: New Sightings of the Virgin Mother in the “Secular” State’ (Y. Sherwood). Bibliographies are specific to each essay, though there is a combined subject and author index for the whole volume.

DEBORAH W. ROOKE

SIQUANS, AGNETHE (ed.), Biblical Women in Patristic Reception/Biblische Frauen in patristischer Rezeption (JAJSup, 25.5; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2017), pp. 311. €100.00. ISBN 978-3-525-55270-4.

This collection of articles, part of the sub-series ‘Reading Scripture in Judaism and Christianity’, explores the reception history of female biblical characters in Patristic interpretation. The articles are organized in canonical order, beginning with discussions of female characters in the Pentateuch and ending with those mentioned in the NT. After an Introduction by A. Siquans, ‘Weibliche Stimmen? Biblische Frauen in der patrist-ischen Rezeption: Eine Einführung’, the volume continues with three articles devoted to Rahab: A. Felber, ‘Rahab und ihr Haus: Zur Heilsrelevanz der Kirche bei Origenes und Cyprian’; L.C. Chan, ‘Rahab as Harlot and Prophetess in 1 Clement: Fate of a Biblical Prostitute in the Wirkungsgeschichte’; and L.T. Liu, ‘Rahab the Harlot as Perfect Servant in 1 Clement: Negotiating Women's Role in Corinth’. The following three articles explore the reception of two women associated with Solomon: L. Miralles Maciá, ‘Doubly the Other: An Epyptian Princess for King Solomon in Rabbinic Traditions’; E. Birnbaum, ‘Sulamit und die Kirchenväter: Wer ist die Geliebte des Hoheliedes?’; and A. Taschl-Erber, ‘Intertextuelle Lektüre und typologische Interfigurationen im Hohelied-Kommentar des Hippolyt’. The final three essays deal with women characters in the deuterocanonical books (Judith) and in the NT (the women coming to Jesus’ grave [Lk. 23.56; 24.1] and Philip's four daughters [Acts 21.9]): O. Lehtipuu, ‘ “Receive the Widow Judith, Example of Chastity”: The Figure of Judith as a Model Christian in Patristic Interpretations’; E.M. Synek, ‘ “Πρῶται… τῶν διδασκάλων διδάσκαλοι: Anmerkungen zur Rolle der Myrophoren im Diskurs pro und contra Frauenämter’; and A. Siquans, ‘Prophetinnen und Jungfrauen: Die vier Töchter des Philippus in der patrist-ischen Rezeption’. The articles are either written in English or German and all the articles are accompanied by an Abstract in English. The articles are engaging and the book is useful, in particular due to its clear focus on select characters and patristic interpretation.

LENA-SOFIA TIEMEYER

SMIT, PETER-BEN, Masculinity and the Bible: Survey, Models, and Perspectives (Brill Research Perspectives in Biblical Interpretation, 2.1; Leiden: Brill, 2017), pp. vi + 97. €70.00/$81.00. ISBN 978-90-04-34557-7.

Although feminist and gendered studies are an established subfield in current biblical studies, masculinity studies have had a rather lesser profile, not least because they are a more recent intellectual development in the academic world in general. This situation is now changing, however, as S. demonstrates in his slim volume. Given its small compass— effectively, an extended essay—the piece is divided not into chapters but into four parts, providing in turn a survey of masculinity studies in general, a review of masculinity studies in both biblical testaments, a worked example of how an approach that includes masculinity studies can inform exegesis of the biblical text (in this case, Mk 6.17-32), and a few suggestions of directions for further research in masculinity and the Bible. The piece is rounded off with a 29-page bibliography. It is an extremely useful summary of the field, highlighting just how much has actually been done on biblical masculinities and providing a helpful point of entry for those who are interested in pursuing this as an area of research. The textual example is also enlightening and offers a good demonstration of the kind of insights that can be gained from this approach. My main criticism concerns the essay's English style, particularly in the reviews of scholarship, which is full of immensely long sentences peppered with parenthetical words and clauses and something of a trial to read. This surely could have been made more reader-friendly, especially since other parts of the essay are written much more clearly.

DEBORAH W. ROOKE

SPRONK, KLAAS, and HANS BARSTAD (eds.), Torah and Tradition: Papers Read at the Sixteenth Joint Meeting of the Society for Old Testament Study and the Oudtestamentisch Werkgezelschap, Edinburgh 2015 (OTS, 70; Leiden: Brill, 2017), pp. vii + 270. €110.00. ISBN 978-90-04-33748-0.

This volume takes as its theme the multifaceted tradition behind the Hebrew Bible. Comparing the present essays from the sixteenth joint meeting of SOTS and OTW with the similarly themed essays of the first joint meeting (The Witness of Tradition, ed. Adam van der Woude, 1972), one can discern the increasing complexity of this subject. The 12 essays in the present volume are ‘Reexamining the “Fathers” in Deuteronomy's Framework’ (Bill T. Arnold); ‘Did the Assyrian Envoy Know the Venite? What Did He Know? What Did He Say? And Should He Be Believed?’ (Graeme Auld); ‘ “I am a God and Not a Human Being”: The Divine Dilemma in Hosea’ (Samuel E. Balentine); ‘Covenant, Agreement, and Law: The Social Code Underlying the Book of Nehemiah’ (Bob Becking); ‘Geography in Numbers 33 and 34 and the Challenge of Pentateuchal Theory’ (Koert van Bekkum); ‘The Concept of Torah in the Book of Isaiah’ (Jaap Dekker); ‘The Kingship Motif in Isaiah 61:1-3’ (Hedy Hung); ‘The Influence of the Decalogue on the Shape of Exodus’ (William Johnstone); ‘The Greek Translators of the Pentateuch and the Epicureans’ (Michaël N. van der Meer); ‘Leviticus from a Gendered Perspective: Making and Maintaining Priests’ (Deborah W. Rooke); ‘Interpreting Torah: Strategies of Producing, Circulating, and Validating Authoritative Scriptures in Early Judaism’ (Jacques van Ruiten); and ‘The Inner Cohesion of Jeremiah 34:8-22, on the Liberation of Slaves during the Siege of Jerusalem, and its Relation to Deuteronomy 15’ (Klaas A.D. Smelik).

STEPHEN D. CAMPBELL

SPRONK, KLAAS, and EVELINE VAN STAALDUINE-SULMAN (eds.), Hebrew Texts in Jewish, Christian and Muslim Surroundings (Studia Semitica Neerlandica, 69; Leiden: Brill, 2018), pp. xi + 348. €100.00. ISBN 978-90-04-34330-6.

Dedicated to Dineke Houtman on the occasion of her retirement as professor of the Protestant University of Amsterdam and exploring a considerable number of theological and literary contexts in which Hebrew texts have been transmitted and disseminated, the volume brings together a large and very disparate number of studies. Some 20 chapters are preceded by a brief introduction by the editors that attempts to present a unifying overall theme to the book. The individual chapters are: J.C. de Moor, ‘Converted Demons: Fallen Angels Who Repented’; K. Spronk, ‘Jephthah and Saul: An Intertextual Reading of Judges 11:29-40 in Comparison with Rabbinic Exegesis’; E. van Staalduine-Sulman, ‘Two Women, One God and the Reader: Theology in Four Recensions of Hannah's Song (1 Samuel 2:1-10)’; L. Teugels, ‘Between Hermeneutics and Rhetorics: The Parable of the Slave Who Buys a Rotten Fish in Exegetical and Homiletical Midrashim’; T. Kadari, ‘The Beauty of Sarah in Rabbinic Literature’; G.W. Lorein, ‘David's Strengths and Weaknesses in the Targum of The Psalms’; F.J. Hoogewoud, ‘From “Writtenness” to “Spokenness”: Martin Buber and his Forgotten Contemporaries on Colometry’; C. Houtman, ‘Imitating Dutch Protestants: Jewish Educational Literature on the Biblical History from the 19th and the First Half of the 20th Century’; M. Poorthuis, ‘Jewish Influences upon Islamic Storytelling: The Example of David and Bathsheba’; W. van Bekkum, ‘Elazar ben Jacob of Baghdad in Jewish Liturgy’; A. Lehnardt, ‘Midrash Bereshit Rabbah in Christian Bindings: A Newly Discovered Medieval Ashkenazic Manuscript Fragment from Jena’; H.-M. Kirn, ‘Martin Luther: Precursor of Modern Antisemitism?’; H. Sysling, ‘ “You Are Constantly Looking over my Shoulder”: The Influence of the Relationship between Franz Rosenzweig and Margit Rosenstock-Huessy on the Gritlianum and on The Star of Redemption II 2’; G. van Klinken, ‘Local Leadership in the Galilee: ‘Abd Allah Salman Saleh Khayr (1906– 1971)’; E. Ottenheijm, ‘Finding Pearls: Matthew 13:45-45 and Rabbinic Literature’; P.W. van der Horst, ‘ “You Christians Are Being Led Astray!” Some Notes on the Dialogue of Athanasius and Zacchaeus’; L. Mock, ‘ “Stay Here with the Ass”: A Comparative Exegetical Study between Cyril's Fifth Festal Letter and Rabbinic Exegesis in Babylonian Talmud and Genesis Rabbah 56:1-2’; M.C. Mulder, ‘The Voice of Community: Jewish and Christian Traditions Coping with an Absurd Commandment (Deut. 21:18-21)’; S. Schoon, ‘Noachide Laws: A Viable Option as an Alternative for Full Conversion to Judaism?’; and M. Misset-van de Weg, ‘A Queen of Many Colours’ (on the Queen of Sheba). The titles of the various chapters speak for themselves: this is a volume that explores primarily the interpretation of Hebrew texts in a range of Jewish contexts—albeit very interesting contexts—while Christian and, most particularly, Muslim contexts appear to be included as something of an afterthought.

MARTIN O'KANE

SROKOSZ, MERIC, and REBECCA S. WATSON, Blue Planet, Blue God: The Bible and the Sea (London: SCM Press, 2017), pp. xi + 255. £19.99. ISBN 978-0-334-05633-1.

As the title suggests, this unusual and timely book is a response to David Attenborough's BBC series The Blue Planet I and II. Co-authored by a biblical scholar and an oceanographer, its premise is that the sea passages in the Bible (particularly the OT) have been neglected and merit further exploration. Written not only for ‘people of faith’, but for all who are open to be challenged by an ancient text, the book sets out to provoke its readers to consider their attitudes and behaviour towards the sea, and to respond practically (p. x). In a BBC Radio 4-style exploration, the authors trace the multiple significances of the sea in the Bible, as a ‘good’ part of creation. The chapters, which range from titles such as ‘The Sea and Spirituality’ through ‘The Vast Vulnerable Sea’ to ‘Economics, Hubris and Human Community’, tend to include an overview of relevant biblical passages, an exploration of resonances in English-language poetry (e.g. Keats, Blake, Wordsworth), and accessible, often intriguing, insights from the field of oceanography. Each chapter ends with a ‘Key Message’, a ‘Challenge’, material for ‘Reflection and Discussion’ and an ‘Action’. I would have liked to have seen biblical scholarship showcased more explicitly in the volume, though it clearly underpins the discussion throughout. This volume will attract informed readers with a love of English poetry and an interest in current events or science, who are open to engaging with biblical poetry and narrative.

SHARON MOUGHTIN-MUMBY

STRØMMEN, HANNAH M., Biblical Animality after Jacques Derrida (Semeia Studies, 91; Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2018), pp. xi + 182. $32.95. ISBN 978-1-62837-212-0.

S. seeks to contribute to the growth of animal studies, particularly as applied to the Bible (here ‘the biblical archive’, to emphasize its multiplicity of views on, for example, animals), in the light of its important influence as a Western cultural text. She focuses on the ‘killability (and edibility) of animals’ and ‘human sovereignty and power over animals’, in conversation with Jacques Derrida. The introduction summarizes the state of play of animal studies—secular, theological and biblical—before introducing Derrida and his often-overlooked writings on animals. The body of the book is a close reading of four texts: Genesis 9 and Acts 10 on animals as food, Daniel and Revelation 17 on animal images in power and politics. S.'s approach seeks neither to blame nor exonerate the Bible but to unsettle the standard anthropocentric interpretations, and to show how the nuances and ambiguities of the stories blur the boundaries between humans and animals. At times the text marginalizes animals (and women) in problematic ways (evil as beast and whore in Revelation) and at others overthrows human power and superiority, under divine sovereignty. A final conclusion draws together the results and ponders the philosophical and ethical underpinning of animal studies, its difficulties and limitations. The biblical studies at the core demonstrate wide scholarship and careful reading, and are insightful, thought-provoking and accessible. The introduction and conclusion are philosophically dense and playfully self-critical, as one would expect in Derrida studies, but with a constructive positivity sometimes lacking in such studies.

ELIZABETH ANN HARPER

SYKORA, JOSEF, The Unfavored: Judah and Saul in the Narratives of Genesis and 1 Samuel (Siphrut, 25; University Park, PN: Eisenbrauns, 2018), pp. xvi + 243. $74.95. ISBN 978-1-57506-958-6.

In this slightly revised Durham thesis, supervised by Walter Moberly and attractively presented in 19 short chapters, S. probes the notion of election, paying particular attention to the un-chosen within Israel represented by Judah and Saul. He pursues an ‘experimental reading’ of Genesis 37–50, omitting the ‘intrusive’ chs. 38 and 49, and he concludes that Joseph appears therein as the chosen character with Judah foremost among those unfavoured. Turning to ch. 38, he argues that, despite Joseph's saving Israel from famine, Judah's line will enjoy kingship. Also, the blessings addressed to Judah and Joseph in ch. 49, despite several similarities, have a present reference for Joseph but a future one for Judah, which permits him to far surpass his unfavoured status early in the story. After noting literary and theological connections between the Joseph story and 1 Samuel, S. limits his first examination of Saul's ‘fall from grace’ to 1 Samuel 13–15, apart from the intrusive 13.7b-15a. He highlights the contrast between Saul and Jonathan in ch. 14, although at its end Saul nonetheless remains king only to be rejected in the following chapter on account of his disobedience. However, Saul's dynasty has already been rejected in the ‘canonical’ form of the text, which includes 13.7b-15a—a passage that may allude to David's future appearance, although he has not yet been introduced into the story. In his concluding chapter S. briefly addresses hermeneutical and theological concerns. Several aspects of this interesting study could have benefited from fuller development and others are open to debate. There is certainly food for thought here.

GEORGE NICOL

TAYLOR, MARION ANN, with AGNES CHOI (eds.), Handbook of Women Biblical Interpreters: A Historical and Biographical Guide (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2012), pp. xvii + 585. $40.00. ISBN 978-1-5409-6070-2.

The initial intention of the editors of this volume was to focus on women interpreters of the Bible during the 19th century, but it was subsequently decided to extend the project to include women interpreters of the Bible throughout history. As such, this is a highly ambitious venture which represents the culmination of years of collaborative research from almost 130 contributors. Each of the 180 entries contains a short biography of the subject, details about formative influences on their work, an analysis of their approach and methods of biblical interpretation and ends with a bibliography of primary and secondary sources. The emphasis is clearly on women interpreters from earlier periods of history, and no living female interpreter is included in the volume. Some will inevitably want to raise questions concerning the selection of interpreters included in the volume; nevertheless, this is a wide-ranging and fascinating book and will be of interest to all who wish to discover the rich expositions and theological reflections of long-forgotten women interpreters of the Bible throughout the centuries.

ERYL W. DAVIES

TOUBER, JETZE, Spinoza and Biblical Philology in the Dutch Republic, 1660–1710 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), pp. xviii + 314. £75.00. ISBN 978-0-19-880500-7.

The aim of this book is to examine the impact of Spinoza's biblical philology on the practice of biblical philology among the Dutch Reformed in the last half of the 17th century. T. rejects the widespread view that his engagement with philology was a ruse to put an end to revealed religion. Rather, he thinks Spinoza had a sincere interest in the meaning of biblical texts (though he considered the Bible to have limited usefulness as the revelation of a providential God). Thus, Spinoza was a full participant in Dutch philology of the later 17th century, but he was not the only one: a number of ‘scripturarians’ —scholars and pastors—pursued the philological, historical, and antiquarian study of the Bible. But Spinoza was influential on a number of them, though for some he exceeded their hermeneutical limits. The ‘orthodox’ of course fought back, but according to T., ‘The most common reaction was probably a combination of accommodation and exclusion’ (p. 274). The result was that by 1700, there was a widening of the range of hermeneutical approaches allowed in the Dutch Reformed Church. A very interesting study, even for those interested in more than the situation in the Netherlands of the later 17th century.

LESTER L. GRABBE

WIESGICKL, SIMON, Das Alte Testament als deutsche Kolonie. Die Neuerfindung des Alten Testaments um 1800 (BWANT, 214; Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2018), pp. 262. €75.00. ISBN 978-3-17-033347-5.

This lively, well-written book is a publication of the author's PhD thesis at Erlangen (supervised by Andreas Nehring and Jürgen van Oorschot). The book is not quite as provocative as its title, which is intended to be eyebrow-raising. The author explores why German higher criticism developed into an objective science modelled on the natural and social sciences rather than a more self-reflective, geisteswissenschaftlich one in the crucial years 1750–1800. Contra Edward Said, who (according to the author) argued that Germany in this period was less Orientalist than France or England, W. argues that Herder, Michaelis and Eichhorn were profoundly shaped by the European ‘provincializing’ of the rest of the world, and wittingly and unwittingly shaped their discipline according to this fantasy. From this vantage point, the author seeks to contextualize the historical-critical method, which emerges in this book as inseparable from the rise of travel literature and the ‘othering’ of the ANE (p. 44) and Germany's own Jewish population by Protestant scholars. Higher criticism's concern with origins, too, is placed alongside Herder's (and others’) evolutionary idea that the ANE represented the ‘childhood of the world’. I missed a deep, postcolonial reading of a single book of Herder's or Michaelis's, say—but the author's intent, in part, is to break our enchantment with texts and abstract ideas. Overall the argument is fresh and compelling; less a Jeremiad, thankfully, than a slow and steady questioning of the methods, fantasies and assumptions of the era that helps the era be seen in new and not wholly unsympathetic light. I hope more studies like this will follow.

NATHAN EDDY

YEE, GALE A. (ed.), The Hebrew Bible: Feminist and Intersectional Perspectives (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2018), pp. ix + 183. $19.00. ISBN 978-1-5064-2548-1.

This textbook aims to familiarize advanced undergraduate/graduate students with key issues from feminist and intersectional perspectives, which are often neglected in standard introductions. Intended to be ‘introductory and not exhaustive’ (p. vii), the introduction and four chapters seek to broaden students’ perspectives, provoking them to ask their own feminist and intersectional questions and to wrestle with the text (p. ix), as well as providing suggestions for further reading. In her editorial introduction, Y. sets the scene with a brief introduction to the emergence of radical feminism in the US and on the global stage, moving on to a selective tour of important voices in feminist biblical scholarship and intersectional perspectives. In Part I, C.J. Sharp highlights key moments of feminist interest in the Torah/Pentateuch. In Part II, V. Lovelace alerts readers to the politics of ‘belonging’ in the Deuteronomistic History and the way in which the DH creates boundaries between ‘the Israelite “us” and the foreign “them” ’ (p. 103). In Part III, C.L. Carvalho introduces some of the hurdles involved in teaching/preaching the prophetic texts to audiences today, calling particular attention to the female personification of cities as women, the invisibility of historical women, and the intersection of gender, poverty and disability in the prophetic material. Finally, in Part IV, J. Fentress-Williams and M.D. Knowles provide a tour of the role of women in the Writings, highlighting the positive dimensions of these texts—and what they have to offer ‘strategies of liberation and change’ (p. 153) today—as well as some of their more disturbing moments, such as the forcible eviction of ‘foreign’ wives and children in Ezra–Nehemiah. This isn't a book to go to for a close treatment of a specific biblical passage or issue. However, it usefully fulfils its aim of alerting uninitiated readers to the sheer diversity of questions and issues raised by feminist and intersectional readings of the HB.

SHARON MOUGHTIN-MUMBY

ZORNBERG, AVIVAH GOTTLIEB, Moses: A Human Life (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2016), pp. x + 225. $25.00. ISBN 978-0-300-20962-4.

Z.'s biography of Moses brings together a rich literary reading of the biblical text, Midrashic insights, and contemporary psychology and sociology. The latter enables Z. to enter Moses’ character and social world, whereas the literary reading focuses on the biblical text's own characterological concerns. The Midrashic—as well as Kabbalistic and later Jewish—interpretation gives readers the life of a man who was even larger than his biblical life. Z.'s style is winding, anecdotal and always insightful. She argues that Moses becomes a ‘repository of memory’ for Israel as they leave Egypt (p. 47). This proves important, since the people will tend to repress and even deny their own redemption. As a character both ‘inside and outside’ his people (p. 70), Moses can represent the people of Israel, but also humanity, and even God himself. But he does so as one who is anav—humble, or lowly. Z.'s brilliant study concludes with a look at a Moses who ‘wrote his own book’, Deuteronomy, where, for the first time, the ‘complex I for the first time appears in the biblical text’ (p. 172). This ‘I’ answers the question he originally posed to Yahweh, ‘Who am I…?’ (Exod. 3.14). This book will prove invaluable to teachers and students who want a deeper sense of the originating and ongoing significance of this ‘man of God’.

MATTHEW J. LYNCH

Note also the following books reviewed in other sections of this Book List:

AARON, DAVID H., Genesis Ideology: Essays on the Uses and Meanings of Stories — see p. 51

BODA, MARK J., et al. (eds.), Inner Biblical Allusion in the Poetry of Wisdom and Psalms — see p. 86

BROOKE, GEORGE J., and ARIEL FELDMAN (eds.), On Prophets, Warriors, and Kings: Former Prophets through the Eyes of Their Interpreters — see p. 64

BUTTERFIELD, ROBERT A., Making Sense of the Hebrew Bible — see p. 1

DELL, KATHERINE, and WILL KYNES (eds.), Reading Proverbs Intertextually — see p. 89

EDE, FRANZISKA, Die Josefsgeschichte. Literarkritische und redaktionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zur Entstehung von Gen 37–50 — see p. 53

FRENCH, BLAIRE A., Chronicles through the Centuries — see p. 103

GILLINGHAM, SUSAN, Psalms through the Centuries. II. A Reception History Commentary on Psalms 1–72 — see p. 92

GOLDINGAY, JOHN, A Reader's Guide to the Bible — see p. 4

GOW, ANDREW, and PETER SABO (eds.), Tzedek, Tzedek Tirdof: Poetry, Prophecy, and Justice in Hebrew Scripture: Essays in Honor of Francis Landy on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday — see p. 4

GRAFIUS, BRANDON R., Reading Phinehas, Watching Slashers: Horror Theory and Numbers 25 — see p. 54

GREENWOOD, KYLE R. (ed.), Since the Beginning: Interpreting Genesis 1 and 2 through the Ages — see p. 55

GUEST, DERYN, YHWH and Israel in the Book of Judges: An Object-Relations Analysis — see p. 65?

HILDEBRANDT, SAMUEL, Interpreting Quoted Speech in Prophetic Literature: A Study of Jeremiah 2.1–3.5 — see p. 75

LASS, MAGDALENA, Zum Kampf mit Kraft umgürtet. Untersuchungen zu 2 Sam 22 unter gewalthermeneutischen Perspektiven — see p. 67

LIEW, TAT-SIONG BENNY (ed.), Present and Future of Biblical Studies: Celebrating 25 Years of Brill's Biblical Interpretation — see p. 10

MANGUM, DOUGLAS, and DOUGLAS ESTES (eds.), Literary Approaches to the Bible — see p. 11

MCKNIGHT, SCOT, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible — see p. 11

OLSEN, DEREK A., The Honey of Souls: Cassiodorus and the Interpretation of the Psalms in the Early Medieval West — see p. 98

PATTERSON, TODD L., The Plot-structure of Genesis: ‘Will the Righteous Seed Survive?’ in the Muthos-logical Movement from Complication to Dénouement — see p. 57

SCHULZ, SARAH, Die Anhänge zum Richterbuch. Eine kompositionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung von Ri 17–21 — see p. 68

TOCZYSKI, ANDRZEJ, The ‘Geometrics’ of the Rahab Story: A Multi-dimensional Analysis of Joshua 2 — see p. 69

WATTY, WILLIAM W., The Nathan Narrative in 2 Samuel 7:1-17: A Traditio-historical Study — see p. 69

YOON, SUNG-HEE, The Question of the Beginning and the Ending of the So-Called History of David's Rise: A Methodological Reflection and its Implication — see p. 70