In the Ba‘al Cycle’s description of the threshold separating the realms of the dead from that of the living, the key reference point is described as “the two tells (at) the boundary of the netherworld” (CAT 1.4 viii, 4). The specific word used to describe both topographical features is tl, the tell, an object well known in the archaeology of the…[Read more]

The poetry of Micah’s oracle of doom (Mic 1:8-16) combines two undeniable motifs, the motif of the lament and that of geography. The latter motif is not well understood due to the obscurity of the place names found in vv. 10a-12b. A careful study of the oracle’s geographical con-text, however, will lead to a more precise understanding of the top…[Read more]

The Hebrew Bible often portrays Sheol in a manner evocative of the tomb. In texts such as Psalm 88 the tomb is a dreary and isolating symbol. Yet this contrasts with the positive role of the family tomb where the dead are reunited with their ancestors. The ritual analysis of Judahite bench tombs, however, reveals a dynamic concept of death. This…[Read more]

The Johannine group formulates for itself specific characteristics that differentiate it from three major Johannine opponents. The language of Social Identity Theory makes it evident that the Johannine group acts as an ingroup, according to its own text(s). As an ingroup with an emphasis on true knowledge, loyalty to Christ, and lived experience…[Read more]

This study reexamines the form and character of the Gezer ‘calendar’ inscription, examines the text’s structural affinities to the list of times in Ecc 3 and demonstrates how the Gezer inscription is, itself, a combination of two incompatible ways of giving an ordered structure to time.

The present study comprises a philological examination of the Biblical Hebrew term šninɔ. The contextual semantics, the ancient translations, and the re-identification of the verbal root ŠNN as a by-form of ŠNY ‘to recount’ demonstrate that šninɔ may be realigned as related to this root and translated as a ‘cautionary tale’.

The following study examines the history of the translation of a Biblical Hebrew phrase in Greek, Aramaic, and Latin—a phrase which shaped the English idiom “to take up a parable, proverb, or song.” As early as Greek and Aramaic Bible translations, the phrase NŚʾ mɔšɔl was translated word-for-word in the target language, even though the verb u…[Read more]