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Coming this Summer!
 Exploring Ecological Hermeneutics
In these groundbreaking essays, sixteen scholars seek ways to identify with Earth as they read and retrieve the role or voice of Earth within the biblical text and its interpretation.
Last Stop before Antarctica: The Bible and Postcolonialism in Australia, Second Edition
by Roland Boer
Drawing upon colonial literature, including explorer journals, poetry, novels, and translations, this second edition creates a mutually enlightening dialogue between postcolonial literature and biblical texts on themes such as exodus and exile, translation, identity, and home.
Writing and Reading War: Rhetoric, Gender, and Ethics in Biblical and Modern
Contexts
edited by Brad E. Kelle and Frank Ritchel Ames
This book, with a foreword by Susan Niditch, explores writing and
reading war in contexts ranging from ancient Israel to early Judaism to
contemporary Christianity.
 The Quest for the Historical Israel: Debating Archaeology and the History of Early Israel
Edited by Brian B. Schmidt
This book brings together for the first time and under one cover a currently emerging “centrist” paradigm as articulated by two leading figures in the fields of early Israelite archaeology and history. The results of the respective authors’ research are featured in accessible, parallel syntheses of the historical reconstruction of early Israel that facilitate comparison and contrast of their respective interpretations.
 The Hittites and Their World
Billie Jean Collins
A concise, current, and engaging introduction to the
history, society, and religion of the Hittites. The numerous analogues
with the biblical world featured throughout the volume together
represent a comprehensive and up-to-date survey of the varied and
signicant contributions of Hittite studies to biblical interpretation.
 Approaching Yehud: New Approaches to the Study of the Persian Period
Jon L. Berquist, editor
A
new image of Yehud is emerging that has shifted the focus from viewing
the postexilic period as a staging ground for early Judaism or
Christianity to dealing with Yehud on its own terms, as a Persian
colony with a diverse population. Taken together, the thirteen chapters
in this volume represent a range of studies that touch on a variety of
textual and historical problems to advance the conversation about the
significance of the Persian period and especially its formative
influence on biblical literature.
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 The Halakhah of Jesus of Nazareth according to the Gospel of Matthew
Phillip Sigal
Sigal
argues that, from a halakhic perspective, Jesus’ teachings on Sabbath
and divorce in the Gospel of Matthew use the same methods of
interpretation as those of his proto-rabbinic contemporaries. The Jesus
of the Gospel of Matthew should thus be seen as a charismatic prophetic
first-century proto-rabbi— independent in his halakhah and frequently
anticipating later rabbinic positions—rather than as transcending
proto-rabbinic halakhah or as an adherent of a particular school.
For more information or to order, click here.
 Teaching the Bible through Popular Culture and the Arts
Mark Roncace and Patrick Gray, editors
This resource enables biblical studies instructors to facilitate engaging classroom experiences by drawing on the arts and popular culture. It offers brief overviews of hundreds of easily accessible examples of art, film, literature, music, and other media and outlines strategies for incorporating them effectively and concisely in the classroom. This compilation is an invaluable resource for anyone who teaches the Bible.
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 The Lord's Supper in the New Testament
Albert Eichhorn with an introductory essay by Hugo Gressmann
Translated by Jeffrey F. Cayzer
The first English translation of Albert Eichhorn’s influential Das Abendmahl im Neuen Testament. Eichhorn’s penetrating analysis of the Lord’s Supper traditions. The inaugural volume in a new SBL series devoted to preserving and promoting seminal biblical scholarship from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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 The Early Monarchy in Israel: The Tenth Century B.C.E.
Walter Dietrich and Joachim Vette
The Hebrew narrative art achieves its highest level in the stories of Saul, David, and Solomon. But beyond that, the description of these all-too-human characters and the dramatic events of the birth of the Israelite state depicts a change of eras that became determinative for half a millennium of Israelite history. In this volume Dietrich introduces readers to the stories of the early Israelite state from a variety of perspectives: literary-critical, historical, and theological.
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 Biographical Texts from Ramessid Egypt
Elizabeth Frood
The Ramessid period in Egypt (ca. 1290–1075 B.C.E.) corresponds to the Late Bronze Age, a time of great change both in Egypt and the Near East. Biographical Texts from Ramessid Egypt offers insights into these cultural transformations through the voices of forty-five priests, artists, civil officials, and military men who served under the kings of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties.
 Wisdom Literature in Mesopotamia and Israel
Richard J. Clifford, editor
This volume offers a rich collection of essays by distinguished Assyriologists and biblicists on the social, intellectual, and literary setting of Mesopotamian wisdom; on specific wisdom texts; and on key themes common to both Mesopotamian and biblical culture.
 Recovering Nineteenth-Century Women Interpreters of the Bible
Christiana de Groot and Marion Ann Taylor, editors
Women have been thoughtful readers and interpreters of scripture throughout the ages, yet the standard history of biblical interpretation includes few women’s voices. To introduce readers to this untapped source for the history of biblical interpretation, this volume analyzes forgotten works from the nineteenth century written by women—including Christina Rossetti, Florence Nightingale, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, among others—from various faith backgrounds, countries, and social classes engaging contemporary biblical scholarship.
 Reading Other-wise: Socially Engaged Biblical Scholars Reading with their Communities
Gerald O. West, editor
How do ordinary Bible readers “other” than scholars collaborate with academics in interpretation that focuses on the various contexts and realities of their lives and local communities? This collection provides a rich array of resources and challenges, sharing insights that academics and nonacademics alike can offer to face the many struggles of our time.
 The “We” Passages in the Acts of the Apostles
William Sanger Campbell
This book explores the narrative significance of the “we” passages in Acts within the boundaries of acceptable ancient grammatical practice. It contends that the occasional first-person plural narrator represents a character whose entrance at crucial moments in Paul’s career parallels the role of Barnabas, the apostle’s earlier companion. In analyzing the function of the narrator as narrative character, the book presents narrative literary strategy as a fruitful approach to these enigmatic texts whose narrative possibilities have in the past been subordinated to their historical potential.
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 Seeking the Favor of God, Volume 2: The Development of Penitential Prayer in Second Temple Judaism
Mark J. Boda, Daniel K. Falk, and Rodney A. Werline, editors
Seeking the Favor of God includes three volumes covering the origins, development, and impact of penitential prayer in Second Temple Judaism. The essays in volume 2 investigate the development of prayers of penitence within Jewish literature of the Hellenistic and Roman periods.
 The “Belly-Myther” of Endor: Interpretations of 1 Kingdoms 28 in the Early Church
Rowan A. Greer and Margaret M. Mitchell
The story of Saul and the woman at Endor in 1 Samuel 28 (LXX 1 Kingdoms 28) lay at the center of energetic disputes among early Christian authors about the nature and fate of the soul, the source of prophetic gifts, and biblical truth. Greer and Mitchell offer an insightful introduction to and detailed analysis of the rhetorical cast and theological stakes involved in early church debates on this notoriously difficult passage.
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 Daughter Zion Talks Back to the Prophets: A Dialogic Theology of the Book of Lamentations
Carleen R. Mandolfo
A new theological reading of the book of Lamentations that puts the female voice of chapters 1–2 into dialogue with the divine voice of prophetic texts in which God represents the people Israel as his wife and indicts them/her for being unfaithful to him. Mandolfo presents a feminist challenge to biblical hegemony and patriarchy and reconstrues biblical authority to contribute to the theological concerns of a postcolonial world.
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 Ephesians: Empowerment to Walk in Love for the Unity of All in Christ
John Paul Heil
This book demonstrates that the Letter to the Ephesians’s implied audience heard its individual units as a rich and complex pattern of chiastic structures. It shows that, not only is the entire Letter arranged in fifteen units that function as a comprehensive chiastic structure, but that each of these fifteen units in turn exhibits its own chiastic structure. By attending carefully to the structure and rhetoric of Ephesians, this work demonstrates how the implied audience is persuaded and empowered by the progression of the Letter to “walk in love” and so contribute to the cosmic unity of all things in Christ.
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Philostorgius: Church History
Philip R. Amidon
Philostorgius (born 368 C.E.) was a member of the Eunomian sect of Christianity, a nonconformist faction deeply opposed to the form of Christianity adopted by the Roman government as the official religion of its empire. He wrote his twelve-book Church History, the critical edition of the surviving remnants of which is presented here in English translation, at the beginning of the fifth century as a revisionist history of the church and the empire in the fourth and early-fifth centuries. Sometimes contradicting and often supplementing what is found in other histories of the period, Christian or otherwise, it offers a rare dissenting picture of the Christian world of the time.
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 John, Jesus, and History, Volume 1: Critical Appraisals of Critical Views
Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, and Tom Thatcher
The essays in this book, reflecting the ongoing deliberations of an international group of Johannine and Jesus scholars, critically assess two primary assumptions of the prevalent view: the dehistoricization of John and the de-Johannification of Jesus. In addition to offering state-of-the-art reviews of Johannine studies and Jesus studies, this volume draws together an emerging consensus that sees the Gospel of John as an autonomous tradition with its own perspective, in dialogue with other traditions. Through this challenging of critical and traditional assumptions alike, new approaches to John’s age-old riddles emerge, and the ground is cleared for new and creative ways forward.
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 Peter in the Gospel of John: The Making of an Authentic Disciple
Bradford B. Blaine Jr.
In this narrative-critical study the author argues, against conventional scholarship, that John’s Gospel presents Peter and the Beloved Disciple not as competitors but as colleagues who together serve as composite halves of the ideal Johannine Christian, with Peter representing praxis and John representing faith.
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 Studia Philonica Annual XIX, 2007
David T. Runia and Gregory E. Sterling, editors
The Studia Philonica Annual is a scholarly journal devoted to furthering the study of Hellenistic Judaism, and in particular the writings and thought of the Hellenistic-Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria (circa 15 B.C.E. to circa 50 C.E.).
 Bakhtin and Genre Theory in Biblical Studies
Roland Boer, editor
This
volume offers a meeting between genre theory in biblical studies and
the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, who continues to be immensely influential
in literary criticism. Here Bakhtin comes face to face with a central
area of biblical studies: the question of genre. The essays range from
general discussions of genre through the reading of specific biblical
texts to an engagement with Toni Morrison and the Bible.
 This Abled Body: Rethinking Disabilities in Biblical Studies
Hector Avalos, Sarah J. Melcher, and Jeremy Schipper, editors
This
volume explores the use of the conceptual category “disability” in
biblical and Near Eastern texts and examines how conceptions of
disability become a means of narrating, interpreting, and organizing
human life.
An Introduction to Aramaic: Corrected Second Edition
Frederick E. Greenspahn
This
newly corrected second edition clarifies certain points in the first
edition, updates the contents, and provides an answer key.
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 Available on DVD!
Joyful Noise
This film introduces a
number of congregations and secular choral communities that are deeply
engaged with psalmody in a variety of styles, from shape-note to Taizé,
and relates directly to the many subjects treated in the Psalms in Community volume.
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Brown Judaic Studies
 On the Scales of Righteousness: Neo-Babylonian Trial Law and the Book of Job
F. Rachel Magdalene
Many commentators have argued that the book of Job contains a trial between God and Job, the nature of which is the subject of lively scholarly debate. In On the Scales of Righteousness, the author brings together her training in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, biblical interpretation, and law to examine the book’s legal language. She maintains that comparative study of the biblical text and the Neo-Babylonian trial system that was in existence at the time the text was most likely written reveals a wealth of information about the trial, and allows the reader to solve several of the literary and theological puzzles in Job. Approximately 340 Neo-Babylonian litigation records were used in this research.
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 The Commentary of Rabbi David Kimhi to Chronicles: A Translation with Introduction and Supercommentary
Yitzhak Berger
Rabbi David Kimhi is among the most important medieval Jewish exegetes on the Prophets and Writings, and this volume provides a translation of his commentary to the biblical book of Chronicles, widely considered to be among his earliest works. In his introduction, the author traces the development of Kimhi’s exegetical methods, and discusses his contribution to the interpretation of Chronicles as well as his attitude toward text-critical methods that had already begun to develop in response to this problematic biblical book. Extensive notes provide elucidation of Kimhi’s comments, comparison to those of his predecessors, and references.
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Brill Reprints
 The Book of Haggai: Prophecy and Society in Early Persian Yehud
John Kessler
This monograph is a study of the perceptions reflected in the book of Haggai regarding the primary social, political, and religious institutions in early Persian Yehud. Special attention is given to the form and function of prophecy, and to the role of the prophet in society. The study includes a history of the criticism of Haggai, a study of the book’s redactional history and socio-political context, and an exegesis and literary analysis of the text. It concludes with an examination of the distinctive perspectives found in the book and the sociological and religious milieu that produced them. The work is particularly useful for its detailed analysis of the biblical text, its attention to recent literature on the early Persian period, and its multidisciplinary and integrative approach.
For more information or to order, click here.
 The Concept of the Covenant in the Second Temple Period
Edited by Stanley E. Porter and Jacqueline C. R. de Roo
During the reign of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Empire, the Jews returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. This Second Temple period is characterized by a changing mode of thinking. This volume traces the development of the concept of the covenant during this important era, by discussing relevant texts among the Apocrypha, such as Wisdom of Solomon; the Pseudepigrapha, especially the Dead Sea Scrolls and Jubilees; and the New Testament, such as the Pauline Letters. The authors deal with interesting concepts related to the idea of the covenant, such as law, wisdom, election, grace, the kingdom of God, and even the role of food. This is an important piece of work for understanding the notion of the covenant in Judaism and Christianity, useful for theologians and historians, as well as students of the respective disciplines.
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 Genesis 49 in Its Literary and Historical Context
Raymond de Hoop
This book deals with the so-called "Blessing of Jacob" (Genesis 49) in all its aspects, discussing philological, literary, and historical problems. After an introductory chapter a thoroughly discussed translation of Genesis 49 and an analysis of its poetical structure are presented, followed by the discussion of the genre-definition "tribal saying" (Stammesspruch), and a synchronic and diachronic analysis of Genesis 49 in its literary context (Gen. 47:29-49:33). The remarkable results of this analysis are finally discussed in relation to Israel's history. It is suggested that only part of the "Blessing" functioned within the (originally much shorter) deathbed account (Gen. 47:29-49:33), reflecting the historical situation of the time of origin. Afterwards it was thoroughly worked up into its present shape to meet the conditions of later political development.
For more information or to order, click here.
 Social Scientific Models for Interpreting the Bible: Essays by the Context Group in Honor of Bruce J. Malina
John J. Pilch
Fourteen members of The Context Group honor Bruce J. Malina and his scholarship in this volume by following his consistent example of developing or using explicit social scientific models to interpret documents from the ancient Mediterranean world. Ordinary features of that cultural world such as gossip, reciprocity, a pervasive military presence, the power of women, and becoming a follower of Jesus stand out with greater clarity in the Bible when a reader understands the cultural matrix in which such social dynamics function. These essays reflect The Context Group’s more than twenty years of collaborative experience in researching the cultural context of the Bible. New insights are built on the solidly established foundations of their earlier cross-cultural studies. Readers will find the individual essays enlightening and challenging. Taken as a whole they form a valuable resource and a stimulating and helpful aid to further study.
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 The Fate of the Dead: Studies on the Jewish and Christian Apocalypses
Richard Bauckham
These studies focus on personal eschatology in the Jewish and early Christian apocalypses. The apocalyptic tradition from its Jewish origins until the early middle ages is studied as a continuous literary tradition, in which both continuity of motifs and important changes in understanding of life after death can be charted. As well as better known apocalypses, major and often pioneering attention is given to those neglected apocalypses that portray human destiny after death in detail, such as the Apocalypse of Peter, the Apocalypse of the Seven Heavens, the later apocalypses of Ezra, and the four apocalypses of the Virgin Mary. Relationships with Greco-Roman eschatology are explored. Several chapters show how specific New Testament texts are illuminated by close knowledge of this tradition of ideas and images of the hereafter.
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 The Self as Symbolic Space: Constructing Identity and Community at Qumran
Carol A. Newsom
This volume investigates critical practices by which the Qumran community constituted itself as a sectarian society. Key to the formation of the community was the reconstruction of the identity of individual members. In this way the “self” became an important symbolic space for the development of the ideology of the sect. Persons who came to experience themselves in light of the narratives and symbolic structures embedded in the community practices would have developed the dispositions of affinity and estrangement necessary for the constitution of a sectarian society. Drawing on various theories of discourse and practice in rhetoric, philosophy, and anthropology, the book examines the construction of the self in two central documents: the Serek ha-Yahad and the Hodayot.
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We also invite reprint recommendations from members and especially from authors of out-of-print works (even titles not originally published by the SBL) and promise to expedite, as much as is possible, the reprinting of any special requests. For further information or to recommend a title for reprinting, please contact Billie Jean Collins.
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Download the SBL Catalog
James L. Crenshaw
James L. Crenshaw
(originally published as volume 124 in de Gruyter's Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche
Wissenschaft series)
John Jarick
Elliott C. Maloney
Patrick D. Miller and J. J. M. Roberts
(originally published in the Johns Hopkins Near Eastern Studies series by Johns Hopkins University Press)
Michael A. Morgan
Stephen M. Pogoloff
BROWN JUDAIC STUDIES REPRINTS
Jack Martin Balcer
Lawrence H. Schiffman
Edgar W. Conrad
Tzvi Abusch
Stephen G. Wald
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