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Book Series Descriptions

Ancient Israel and Its Literature

The Ancient Israel and Its Literature series publishes monographs, revised dissertations, and collections of essays on the history, culture, and literature of ancient Israel and Judah, particularly as these are reflected in or inform our reading of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Works on the social world of the biblical writings, the ancient Near Eastern context in which ancient Israel and Judah originated and lived, biblical or theological themes, or other comparable areas of study will also be considered.

Ancient Near East Monographs

The focus of this ambitious series is on the ancient Near East, including ancient Israel and its literature, from the early Neolithic to the early Hellenistic eras. Studies that are heavily philological or archaeological are both suited to this series, and can take full advantage of the hypertext capabilities of “born digital” publication. Multiple author and edited volumes as well as monographs are accepted. Proposals and manuscripts may be submitted in either English or Spanish. Manuscripts are peer reviewed by at least two scholars in the area before acceptance. Published volumes will be held to the high scholarly standards of the SBL and the Centro de Estudios de Historia del Antiguo Oriente. The partnership between the SBL and the Centro de Estudios de Historia del Antiguo Oriente was initiated under the auspices of SBL’s International Cooperation Initiative (ICI) and represents the type of international scholarly exchange that is the goal of ICI.

Archaeology and Biblical Studies

Archaeology and Biblical Studies seeks to promote the illumination of the Bible through archaeological, sociological, and historical studies. Preference is given to monographs or collections of essays that make an explicit connection with the Bible, but works illuminating Israelite religion or the culture of biblical peoples are also invited.

Bible and Its Reception

The Bible and Its Reception publishes monographs, collections of essays, and reference works that explore the ways that religious traditions, popular culture, media, politics, literature, film, music, and visual arts have adopted, adapted, and used biblical texts, themes, and figures throughout history.

The Bible and Women

The twenty-one volumes of The Bible and Women project, to be published simultaneously in German, English, Italian, and Spanish, aim to present a reception history and cultural history of the Bible, focusing on gender-relevant biblical themes, women in the text, and the women who throughout history have read, appropriated, and interpreted the Bible in text and image.

Biblical Encyclopedia

The SBL Press Biblical Encyclopedia series will provide English translations of all the volumes in W. Kohlhammer Verlag's Biblische Enzyklopädie series, plus a new overview volume to be published in English (SBL) and German (Kohlhammer) covering the entire biblical period. Each volume in the series thoroughly introduces readers to the latest research for a given biblical epoch by providing (1) a summary of the biblical account of the period in question; (2) a historical reconstruction of the period, based on biblical and extrabiblical evidence; (3) a critical study of the biblical literature deriving from or associated with the period; and (4) theological conclusions that readers may draw from the relevant biblical texts. For a complete list of Biblische Enzyklopädie volumes, see the Kohlhammer website

Biblical Scholarship in North America

The Biblical Scholarship in North America series publishes monographs and collected works that explore the scholars, movements, and organizations that have shaped and continue to shape North American biblical scholarship.

Early Christianity and Its Literature

The Early Christianity and Its Literature series publishes monographs, revised dissertations, and collections of essays on the history, culture, and literature of early Christianity, particularly as these are reflected in or inform our reading of the New Testament. Works on the social world of the biblical writings, the Greco-Roman context in which Christianity originated and lived, biblical or theological themes, or other comparable areas of study will also be considered.

Early Judaism and Its Literature

The Early Judaism and Its Literature series publishes works on the history, culture, and literature of Second Temple Judaism, including Hellenistic Jewish authors, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Jewish apocrypha and pseudepigrapha. Work on rabbinic literature that deals with Second Temple Judaism will also be considered.

Emory Studies in Early Christianity

Volumes in Emory Studies in Early Christianity (ESEC) investigate early Christian literature within the context of Mediterranean literature, religion, society, and culture. ESEC authors use interdisciplinary methods informed by social, rhetorical, literary, and anthropological approaches to move beyond limits within traditional literary-historical investigations. Whether monograph, revised dissertation, or collection of essays, each ESEC volume works from the presupposition that Christianity began as a Jewish movement in various geographical, political, economic, and social locations in the Greco-Roman World.

Global Perspectives on Biblical Scholarship

Volumes in the SBL Press Global Perspectives on Biblical Scholarship series provide a forum for biblical scholars from around the world to share research and to explore emerging methods, tools, and approaches to biblical scholarship with colleagues in the global village. In some cases papers originally presented at SBL International Meetings are collected into a single volume for the benefit of those unable to participate in person.

History of Biblical Studies

The SBL Press History of Biblical Studies series makes available in English translation seminal biblical-studies resources from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that have never before appeared in English in spite of their past and ongoing significance for biblical scholarship. Thus, the series has or will publish significant works by such leading biblical scholars as Julius Wellhausen, Albert Eichhorn, and Sigmund Mowinckel, to name just a few. In addition, the series will also consider the publication of monographs devoted to a history of biblical scholarship and may, in some circumstances, publish translations of more recent works important for the history of biblical studies.

International Voices in Biblical Studies

International Voices in Biblical Studies is an online, open-access series that facilitates the distribution of scholarship written in numerous regions of the world well beyond their respective spheres. The series has an editorial board comprised of scholars from around the world who solicit and receive manuscripts for peer review prior to acceptance for publication. The works published in this series will generally be in the area of reception history and criticism and will not be limited to any particular biblical text or historical timeframe. Whenever possible, the works will be published in English and the primary language of the author. Monographs, collections of essays, and articles can be submitted through the IVBS portal.

Reprints from Brill, JSOT Press, and Others

To ensure that scholars, students, and others interested in scholarly study of the Bible have access to key resources at a reasonable price, SBL Press has embarked on a program of reprinting select works, including many first released by a publisher other than SBL Press. Non-SBL Press titles currently available are listed below according to original series. We also invite reprint recommendations, especially from authors of out-of-print works. For further information or to recommend a title for reprinting, please contact Bob Buller.

Resources for Biblical Study

Resources for Biblical Study offers a variety of tools for teaching and research appropriate to biblical studies and cognate fields, including classroom texts, language tools, compilations of key articles in the history of research, collections of essays illustrating methodological issues, and reference works.

Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity

The Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity (RRA) series uses insights from sociolinguistics, semiotics, rhetoric, ethnography, literary studies, social sciences, cognitive science, and ideological studies in programmatic ways that enact sociorhetorical interpretation as an interpretive analytic. Rather than being a specific method for interpreting texts, an interpretive analytic evaluates and reorients its strategies as it engages in multifaceted dialogue with the texts and other phenomena that come within its purview. Using concepts and strategies of methods as an interactive interpretive analytic, sociorhetorical interpretation juxtaposes and interrelates phenomena from multiple disciplines and modes of interpretation by drawing and redrawing boundaries of analysis and interpretation. The corpus of works for RRA is writings in the environment of the first four centuries of the emergence of Christianity. The primary corpus is the New Testament, but full-length studies and commentaries may be produced on writings with some significant relationship to study of the New Testament, such as Wisdom of Solomon, Sibylline Oracles, Didache, Epistle of Barnabas, Protevangelium of James, or Infancy Gospel of Thomas.

Semeia Studies

Semeia Studies publishes scholarly monographs and collections of essays that represent the best of interdisciplinary biblical studies. Studies employing the methods and perspectives of linguistics, folklore studies, literary criticism, social anthropology, postmodern studies, and other comparable approaches are invited.

Septuagint and Cognate Studies

Septuagint and Cognate Studies (co-sponsored by the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies) is devoted to the study of the LXX, textual criticism, manuscript witnesses and other versions, as well as its literature, historical milieu, and thought. Cognate studies include the Jewish apocrypha and pseudepigrapha of the Hellenistic period as well as the subsequent development of this literature in Judaism and early Christianity.

Studia Philonica and Studia Philonica Monographs

The single most important source for Second Temple Jewish exegetical traditions is the three commentaries series written by Philo of Alexandria. Wanting to understand Second Temple Judaism more fully, a group of scholars founded the Philo Institute in 1971 to explore those traditions. The following year they began publication of The Studia Philonica as a venue for their research; however, the significance of Philo's work soon captured the interest of a broader group of scholars and quickly opened the journal's pages up to all aspects of Philonic studies. Six issues were released from 1972-1980 containing twenty-five articles, annual bibliographies, and abstracts of notable publications. The list of contributors is a who's who in Philonic studies in the 1970s and 1980s.

After a lapse of almost a decade, the journal was revived as The Studia Philonica Annual that is now in its twentieth year of publication (1989-2008). The Studia Philonica Annual is a scholarly journal devoted to furthering the study of Hellenistic Judaism, in particular the writings and thought of the Hellenistic-Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria (ca. 15 B.C.E. to ca. 50 C.E.). Each year the Annual publishes the most current Philonic scholarship along with an extensive bibliography that is maintained by David Runia.

The Studia Philonica Monographs further expand the scope of Philonic study. These five volumes, originally published by Brown Judaic Studies, are now part of SBL Press.

Text-Critical Studies

Text-Critical Studies publishes monographs, reference works, and collections of essays related to the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and closely related works. Individual volumes may investigate methodological issues, individual manuscripts, or selected passages.

The New Testament in the Greek Fathers

Volumes in The New Testament in the Greek Fathers make available the New Testament text as it is recoverable from the writings of the Greek Fathers. Each volume presents a critically reconstructed text of the New Testament of a given Father and evaluates the data in terms of its reliability and of the relationship of the Father’s text to known textual groups.

Wisdom Literature from the Ancient World

Wisdom Literature from the Ancient World is the first series to present scholarly editions of such a variety of wisdom texts from throughout the ancient world, including ancient Near Eastern, Greco-Roman, early Christian, and rabbinic wisdom. Each volume in the series provides an in-depth introduction to the wisdom text under examination, a critically reconstructed original text, and an English translation of and extensive commentary on that wisdom text.

Writings from the Ancient World

Volumes in Writings from the Ancient World provide teachers, literary critics, historians, general readers, and students direct access to key ancient Near Eastern writings that date from the beginning of the Sumerian civilization to the age of Alexander the Great. Volumes typically offer historical and literary background to the writings, the original text and English translation, explanatory or textual notes, and a bibliography.

Writings from the Ancient World Supplement series

The Writings from the Ancient World Supplement series publishes monographs, collections of essays, and revised dissertations on authors, texts, and topics pertinent to the Near Eastern world from the beginning of the Sumerian civilization to the age of Alexander. Subjects cover all aspects of Near Eastern culture, including art, architecture, economy, law, religion, society, literature, and history. This series complements the Writings from the Ancient World Series, which is limited to texts and translations.

Writings from the Greco-Roman World

Writings from the Greco-Roman World makes available ancient texts from the time of Alexander to Justinian. Volumes, which typically include an introduction, the original text and/or English translation, explanatory or textual notes, a bibliography, and indices, are ideal for both scholars and students of religion, culture, and philosophy in late antiquity. Writings from the Greco-Roman World continues the previous SBL Press series Texts and Translations.

Writings from the Greco-Roman World Supplement series

The Writings from the Greco-Roman World Supplement series publishes monographs, collections of essays, and revised dissertations on authors, texts, and topics pertinent to the Greco-Roman world from the time of Alexander to Justinian. Subjects covered include pagan, Jewish, and Christian authors and writings, as well as all aspects of Greco-Roman culture, including art, the economy, education, law, philosophy, religion, rhetoric, social life, architecture, and values.

Writings from the Islamic World

In the Muslim world, from the ninth to the thirteenth century, there was a burgeoning of interest in the Bible. It was in Islamic Tiberias that the first critical edition of the Hebrew Bible—the Masoretic Text—was produced, yet this is only one of many achievements during this extraordinarily productive era. In Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Yemen, Egypt, North Africa, and Spain Jews, Christians, and Samaritans produced multiple, often competing, translations of the Bible into Arabic. They also penned hundreds of linear, verse-by-verse, word-by-word commentaries, written from multiple perspectives and representing different traditions. This focus on the Bible generated a large cognate literature as well, including lexicons and grammars; legal monographs and codes; systematic works of theology and philosophy; polemical tracts and heresiographies. Muslims and Zoroastrians also showed increasing awareness of and interest in the Bible, as exemplified by the “Legends of the Prophets” anthologies produced during the period and the appeal to biblical verses in anti-Jewish and anti-Christian polemics.

To help create a foundation for the study of this, one of the last frontiers in the history of biblical studies, the Writings from the Islamic World (WIW) series makes available original sources from the Arabic tradition, including translations of the Bible and commentaries, as well as texts, translations, and studies related to the cognate literature. Texts in Arabic will be the primary focus, but works produced in other languages will be included as well, especially Armenian, Hebrew, Persian, and Syriac. Volumes, which typically include an Introduction, the original text with English translation, explanatory or textual notes, bibliography, and indices, are ideal for both scholars and students of religion, culture, and the history of exegesis during the medieval period.



 


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