This book is a methodologically oriented case study. It focuses on the relationship between a text's explicit statement and the inexplicit conceptual presuppositions beneath its surface, which are operative in it and govern it. The methodological focus has programmatic implications for the theory of exegesis and, hence, for the understanding

Through an exegetical examination of the disparate materials of the book of Numbers 10:11-36:13, dealing with Israel's failure to conquer the Promised Land, Lee (Old Testament studies, Calvin College) finds a structural integrity and conceptual coherence to the work that rests on understanding of Go

Ritual and Rhetoric in Leviticus uses rhetorical analysis to expose the motives behind the writing of the central book of the Torah/Pentateuch and its persuasive function in ancient Judaism. The answer to the question, 'who was trying to persuade whom of what by writing these texts?' proves to be quite

New directions and fresh insight for scholars and students The single greatest catalyst and contributor to our developing understanding of priestly literature has been Jacob Milgrom (1923-2010), whose seminal articles, provocative hypotheses, and comprehensively probing books vastly expanded and significantly altered scholarship regarding priestly and related literature. Nineteen articles build

The first five books of the Hebrew Bible contain a significant number of texts describing ritual practices. Yet it is often unclear how these sources would have been understood or used by ancient audiences in the actual performance of cult. This volume explores the processes of ritual textualization (the creation