Tuesday, June 16, 2009

More New Titles From SBL

(Man... my inbox was really jammed!)

Seconding Sinai: The Development of Mosaic Discourse in Second Temple Judaism
Hindy Najman

What is meant by attributing texts to Moses in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism? The answer depends not only on the history of texts but also on the history of concepts of textuality. This book critiques the terms “pseudepigraphy” and “rewritten Bible,” which presuppose conceptions of authentic attribution and textual fidelity foreign to ancient Judaism, and instead develops the concept of a discourse whose creativity and authority depend on repeated returns to the exemplary figure and experience of a founder. Attribution to Moses is a central example whose function is to re-present the experience of revelation at Sinai. Distinctive features of Mosaic discourse are studied in Deuteronomy, Jubilees, the Temple Scroll, and the works of Philo of Alexandria.

Paper $24.95 • 196 pages • ISBN 9781589834248 • Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 77 • Hardback edition www.brill.nl

Reading for History in the Damascus Document: A Methodological Study
Maxine L. Grossman

Scholars tend to view the Damascus Document as a historical source, but a reading of the text in light of contemporary (audience-oriented) literary criticism finds its emphasis in the ideological construction of history and communal identity, rather than in the preservation of a historical record. An introduction to contemporary literary criticism is followed by a series of thematic readings, focusing on historical narrative, priestly imagery, and gender in the covenant community. Each theme is examined in terms of its potential for multiple (sometimes contradictory) interpretations and for its place in the larger sectarian discourse. This study offers an alternative approach to the historiography of ancient Jewish sectarianism, acknowledging the presence of competing claims to shared traditions and the potential for changes in textual interpretation over time or among diverse communities.

Paper $32.95 • 276 pages • ISBN 9781589834279 • Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 45 • Hardback edition www.brill.nl

The Pauline Canon
Stanley E. Porter, editor

The Pauline letters continue to provoke scholarly discussion. This volume includes papers that raise a variety of questions regarding the canon of the Pauline writings. Some of the essays are more narrowly focused in their intent, sometimes concentrating upon a single dimension related to the Pauline canon, and sometimes upon even a single letter. Others of the essays are more broadly conceived and deal with how one assesses or accounts for the process that resulted in the letters as a collection, rather than analyzing individual letters. There are also mediating positions that attempt to overcome the disjunction between authenticity and inauthenticity by exploring the complex notion of interpolation.

Paper $32.95 • 272 pages • ISBN 9781589834286 • Pauline Studies 1 • Hardback edition www.brill.nl

Paul and His Opponents
Stanley E. Porter, editor

Who were Paul’s opponents? Were they a single group, or were they different groups found at various places that he wrote to and visited? Since the time of F. C. Baur and right up to the present, scholars have been intrigued by the figures who sometimes lurk in the shadows of Paul’s writings or who sometimes emerge in full force to confront him. This does not mean that finding scholarly consensus on the nature of Paul and his opponents has been easy or has been resolved. This volume includes essays that ask pertinent questions regarding Paul and his opponents and that address some of the major current theories.

Paper $32.95 • 272 pages • ISBN 9781589834309 • Pauline Studies 2 • Hardback edition www.brill.nl

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