New from Ancient Israel and Its Literature
Dismembering the Whole: Composition and Purpose of Judges 19–21
Cynthia Edenburg

The book of Judges ends with a bizarre narrative of sex and violence that starts with a domestic tiff and ends with the decimation of a tribe that is restored by means of abduction and rape. Cynthia Edenburg applies a fresh literary analysis, recent understandings of historical linguistics, and historical geography in her exploration of the origin of the anti-Benjamin polemic found in Judges 19–21, the growth and provenance of the book of Judges, and the shape of the Deuteronomistic History. Her study exposes how Judges 19–21 functions as political polemic reflecting not the premonarchic period but instead the historical realities of the settlement of Benjamin during the Babylonian and Persian period.
Paper $51.95, ISBN 9781628371246
Hardcover $71.95, ISBN 9781628371260
Kindle, ASIN B01EMHBA28
Google Play, ISBN 9781628371253
440 pages • May • Ancient Israel and Its Literature 24

New from Ancient Near East Monographs
Priests and Cults in the Book of the Twelve
Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer, editor

This book discusses the depictions of the cult and its personnel in the twelve prophetic books commonly referred to as “the Book of the Twelve” or “the Minor Prophets.”  The articles in the volume explore the following questions: How did these prophetic writers envision the priests and the Levites? What did they think about the ritual aspects of ancient Israelite faith, including not only the official temple cult in Jerusalem but also cultic expressions outside the capital? What, in their views, characterized a faithful priest and what should the relationship be between his cultic performance and the ways in which he lived his life? How does the message of each individual author fit in with the wider Israelite traditions? Finally, who were these prophetic authors, in which historical contexts did they live and work, and what stylistic tools did they use to communicate their message?
Paper $39.95, ISBN 9781628371345
Hardcover $54.95, ISBN 9780884141549
Open Access, ISBN 9780884141532
268 pages • April • Ancient Near East Monographs 14

Forthcoming from Ancient Israel and Its Literature
Empirical Models Challenging Biblical Criticism
Raymond F. Person Jr. and Robert Rezetko, editors

Empirical models based on ancient Near Eastern literature and variations between different textual traditions have been used to lend credibility to the identification of the sources behind biblical literature and the different editorial layers. In this volume, empirical models are used to critique the exaggerated results of identifying sources and editorial layers by demonstrating that, even though much of ancient literature had such complex literary histories, our methods are often inadequate for the task of precisely identifying sources and editorial layers.
Paper $51.95, ISBN 9781628371321
Hardcover $71.95, ISBN 9780884141501
Google Play, ISBN 9780884141495
390 pages •  June • Ancient Israel and Its Literature 25

Negotiating Power in Ezra-Nehemiah
Donna Laird
Donna Laird examines Ezra and Nehemiah in the light of modern sociological theorist Pierre Bourdieu. How did this context of hardship, exile, and return change what Ezra and Nehemiah viewed as important? How did they define who was a part of their community and who was an outsider? Laird goes on to explore how the books engaged readers at the time: how they addressed their changing circumstances, and how different groups gained and used “social power,” or the ability to influence society.
Paper $55.95, ISBN 9781628371390
Hardcover $75.95, ISBN 9780884141648
Google Play, ISBN 9780884141631
420 pages • July • Ancient Israel and Its Literature 26

The Vision of the Priestly Narrative: Its Genre and Hermeneutics of Time
Suzanne Boorer
Boorer explores the theology of an originally independent Priestly narrative (Pg), extending through Genesis–Numbers, as a whole. In this book she describes the structure of the Priestly narrative, in particular its coherent sequential and parallel patterns. Boorer argues that at every point in the narrative’s sequential and parallel structure, it reshapes past traditions, synthesizing these with contemporary and unique elements into future visions, in a way that is akin to the timelessness of liturgical texts. The book sheds new light on what this material might have sought to accomplish as a whole and how it might have functioned for its original audience. 
Paper $89.95, ISBN 9780884140627
Hardcover $109.95, ISBN 9780884140641
Google Play, ISBN 9780884140634
664 pages •  September • Ancient Israel and Its Literature 27

Allusive Soundplay in the Hebrew Bible
Jonathan G. Kline

This book focuses on the way the biblical writers used allusive soundplay to construct theological discourse, that is, in service of their efforts to describe the nature of God and God’s relationship to humanity. By showing that a variety of biblical books contain examples of allusive soundplay employed for this purpose, Kline demonstrates that this literary device played an important role in the growth of the biblical text as a whole and in the development of ancient Israelite and early Jewish theological traditions.
Paper $27.95, ISBN 9781628371444
Hardcover $42.95, ISBN 9780884141716
Google Play, ISBN 9780884141709
166 pages • August • Ancient Israel and Its Literature 28