Episodes

  • Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer, "In Search of Jonathan: Jonathan Between the Bible and Modern Fiction" (Oxford UP, 2023)

    Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer, "In Search of Jonathan: Jonathan Between the Bible and Modern Fiction" (Oxford UP, 2023)
    Nov 17 2024
    In both modern fiction and the biblical texts of 1 Samuel 13-2 Samuel 1, the character of Jonathan serves as a key literary and theological figure. Throughout In Search of Jonathan: Jonathan Between the Bible and Modern Fiction (Oxford UP, 2023), Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer interprets Jonathan's portrayal in traditional biblical literature and modern fiction. Each chapter provides first an analysis of Jonathan's characterization in 1-2 Samuel, followed by an examination of the depictions of Jonathan in modern fiction. Together, biblical and modern literature demonstrate how fictional retellings deepen and challenge the ways that scholars interpret Jonathan's character. Throughout the volume, Tiemeyer offers an interpretation of Jonathan as a plausible and psychologically consistent character while grappling with questions posed by his actions in the text. Tiemeyer asks, what kind of man is Jonathan who shows initiative and daring leadership ability, but who is also willing to lay down his crown before the usurper David's feet in humble submission? What kind of son is Jonathan who rebels against his father and takes David's part in the conflict between him and Saul, yet remains loyal to Saul until the bitter end on Mount Gilboa? To answer these questions, Tiemeyer considers depictions of Jonathan in modern fiction. Modern approaches, as Tiemeyer discusses, illuminate dormant yet integral aspects of the biblical texts. These modern retellings highlight, transform, and subvert the biblical portrayal of Jonathan. Posing these questions to the reader and other biblical scholars, Tiemeyer challenges the ways that scholars perceive Jonathan and his portrayals across biblical and modern literature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biblical-studies
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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • Naomi S. S. Jacobs, "Delicious Prose: Reading the Tale of Tobit with Food and Drink: A Commentary" (Brill, 2018)

    Naomi S. S. Jacobs, "Delicious Prose: Reading the Tale of Tobit with Food and Drink: A Commentary" (Brill, 2018)
    Nov 8 2024
    In Delicious Prose: Reading the Tale of Tobit with Food and Drink (Brill, 2018), Naomi S.S. Jacobs explores how the numerous references to food, drink, and their consumption within The Book of Tobit help tell its story, promote righteous deeds and encourage resistance against a hostile dominant culture. Jacobs' commentary includes up-to-date analyses of issues of translation, text-criticism, source criticism, redaction criticism, and issues of class and gender. Jacobs situates Tobit within a wide range of ancient writings sacred to Jews and Christians as well as writings and customs from the Ancient Near East, Ugarit, Greece, Rome, including a treasure trove of information about ancient foodways and medicine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biblical-studies
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    1 hr and 1 min
  • Dominick Hernández, "The Prosperity of the Wicked: A Theological Challenge in the Book of Job and in Ancient Near Eastern Literature" (Gorgias Press, 2022)

    Dominick Hernández, "The Prosperity of the Wicked: A Theological Challenge in the Book of Job and in Ancient Near Eastern Literature" (Gorgias Press, 2022)
    Oct 24 2024
    Does Job convincingly argue against a fixed system of just retribution by proclaiming the prosperity of the wicked, an argument that runs contrary to traditional biblical and ancient Near Eastern wisdom? Addressing this question, Dominick Hernández gives careful consideration to the rhetoric, imagery, and literary devices used to treat the issue of the fate of the wicked in Job's first two rounds of dialogue. Tune in as we speak with Dominick Hernández about his monograph on the Book of Job, The Prosperity of the Wicked: A Theological Challenge in the Book of Job and in Ancient Near Eastern Literature (Gorgias Press, 2022) Dr. Dominick Hernández is Associate Professor of Old Testament and Semitics at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, and Director of Talbot en Español. Michael Morales is Professor of Biblical Studies at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and the author of The Tabernacle Pre-Figured: Cosmic Mountain Ideology in Genesis and Exodus (Peeters, 2012), Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord?: A Biblical Theology of Leviticus (IVP Academic, 2015), and Exodus Old and New: A Biblical Theology of Redemption (IVP Academic, 2020), and a recent 2 volume commentary on Numbers. He can be reached at mmorales@gpts.edu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biblical-studies
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    23 mins
  • Bruce Gordon, "The Bible: A Global History" (Basic Books, 2024)

    Bruce Gordon, "The Bible: A Global History" (Basic Books, 2024)
    Oct 19 2024
    A “wonderful…highly comprehensive” (John Barton, author of A History of the Bible) global history of the world’s best-known and most influential book For Christians, the Bible is a book inspired by God. Its eternal words are transmitted across the world by fallible human hands. Following Jesus’s departing instruction to go out into the world, the Bible has been a book in motion from its very beginnings, and every community it has encountered has read, heard, and seen the Bible through its own language and culture. In The Bible: A Global History (Basic Books, 2024), Bruce Gordon tells the astounding story of the Bible’s journey around the globe and across more than two thousand years, showing how it has shaped and been shaped by changing beliefs and believers’ radically different needs. The Bible has been a tool for violence and oppression, and it has expressed hopes for liberation. God speaks with one voice, but the people who receive it are scattered and divided—found in desert monasteries and Chinese house churches, in Byzantine cathedrals and Guatemalan villages. Breathtakingly global in scope, The Bible tells the story of this sacred book through the stories of its many and diverse human encounters, revealing not a static text but a living, dynamic cultural force. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biblical-studies
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    1 hr and 17 mins
  • Peter Joshua Atkins, "The Animalising Affliction of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4: Reading Across the Human-Animal Boundary" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

    Peter Joshua Atkins, "The Animalising Affliction of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4: Reading Across the Human-Animal Boundary" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
    Oct 16 2024
    The Animalising Affliction of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4: Reading Across the Human-Animal Boundary (Bloomsbury, 2022) is a detailed investigation into the nature of Nebuchadnezzar's animalising affliction in Daniel 4 and the degree to which he is depicted as actually becoming an animal. Peter Atkins examines two predominant lines of interpretation: either Nebuchadnezzar undergoes a physical metamorphosis of some kind into an animal form; or diverse other readings that specifically preclude or deny an animal transformation of the king. By providing an extensive study of these interpretative opinions, alongside innovative assessments of ancient Mesopotamian divine-human-animal boundaries, Atkins ultimately demonstrates how neither of these traditional interpretations best reflect the narrative events. While there have been numerous metamorphic interpretations of Daniel 4, these are largely reliant upon later developments within the textual tradition and are not present in the earliest edition of Nebuchadnezzar's animalising affliction. Atkins' study displays that when Daniel 4 is read in the context of Mesopotamian texts, which appear to conceive of the human-animal boundary as being indicated primarily in relation to possession or lack of the divine characteristic of wisdom, the affliction represents a far more significant categorical change from human to animal than has hitherto been identified. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biblical-studies
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    45 mins
  • Harrison Perkins, "Reformed Covenant Theology: A Systematic Introduction" (Lexham Academic, 2024)

    Harrison Perkins, "Reformed Covenant Theology: A Systematic Introduction" (Lexham Academic, 2024)
    Oct 1 2024
    Covenant shapes our life with God. In Reformed Covenant Theology: A Systematic Introduction (Lexham Academic, 2024), Harrison Perkins shows how Christ and his work are the heart of that covenant relationship. Since God lives in covenant with his redeemed people, covenant theology provides a framework for Christians to grow in their life with God, to read the Bible, and to love the church. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biblical-studies
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    36 mins
  • Katharine J. Dell, "The Lord by Wisdom Founded the Earth" (Baylor UP, 2023)

    Katharine J. Dell, "The Lord by Wisdom Founded the Earth" (Baylor UP, 2023)
    Sep 13 2024
    The foundation of the earth, its division from the heavens and the waters, God's provision of all of nature as well as human and animal life, God's relationship to the world, and the ethics and morality of our human response; these key themes, related to both creation and covenant, emerge from the Wisdom literature of the Hebrew Bible. In her recent book, The Lord by Wisdom Founded the Earth (Baylor UP, 2023), Katharine J. Dell illumines the theological themes of creation and covenant by interpreting them through the lens of wisdom. Tune in as Dell offers a fresh reading from texts in Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes! Katherine J. Dell is professor of Old Testament Literature and Theology in the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St. Catherine’s College, Cambridge. Michael Morales is Professor of Biblical Studies at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and the author of The Tabernacle Pre-Figured: Cosmic Mountain Ideology in Genesis and Exodus (Peeters, 2012), Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord?: A Biblical Theology of Leviticus (IVP Academic, 2015), and Exodus Old and New: A Biblical Theology of Redemption (IVP Academic, 2020), and a recent 2 volume commentary on Numbers. He can be reached at mmorales@gpts.edu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biblical-studies
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    16 mins
  • Marilynne Robinson, "Reading Genesis" (FSG, 2024)

    Marilynne Robinson, "Reading Genesis" (FSG, 2024)
    Sep 12 2024
    For generations, the book of Genesis has been treated by scholars as a collection of documents by various hands, expressing different factional interests, with borrowings from other ancient literatures that mark the text as derivative. In other words, academic interpretation of Genesis has centered on the question of its basic coherency, just as fundamentalist interpretation has centered on the question of the appropriateness of reading it as literally true. Both of these approaches preclude an appreciation of its greatness as literature, its rich articulation and exploration of themes that resonate through the whole of Scripture. Marilynne Robinson’s Reading Genesis (FSG, 2024), which includes the full text of the King James Version of the book, is a powerful consideration of the profound meanings and promise of God’s enduring covenant with humanity. This magisterial book radiates gratitude for the constancy and benevolence of God’s abiding faith in Creation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biblical-studies
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    33 mins