David Penchansky
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Understanding Wisdom Literature
$23.99Add to cartIsraelite wisdom, literature, David Penchansky argues, records the disputes of ancient sages over basic human questions: What is the purpose of life? Is God just? Why do we suffer? Does God even exist? Penchansky sees confl icting answers to these questions in Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, Ben Sira, and the Wisdom of Solomon — and does not try to harmonize them. Instead, he fi nds meaning in the very dissonance and contradiction within these texts.
Employing the latest scholarship yet remaining accessible to nonspecialists and students, Penchansky strikingly focuses on the “big picture” behind wisdom literature — making it easy for readers to follow and appreciate these challenging texts — without undermining each book’s distinctive features. In the process, Penchansky opens up this rich and fertile vein of Israelite thought and demonstrates the renewed relevance of ancient Hebrew wisdom for today.
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Twilight Of The Gods
$22.00Add to cartSince the middle of the twentieth century, one of biblical scholarship’s chief assumptions has been that ancient Israel evolved out of the polytheism of surrounding cultures into an ethical monotheism. However, this consensus has fallen apart in recent years. Scholars now know that early Israel was surrounded by a very polytheistic culture and that many Israelites thought of Yahweh as the chief God among many gods. Furthermore, archaeology has shown that Yahweh was worshiped along with other gods throughout the period after the exile, when many shrines were in honor of “Yahweh and his Asherah.” David Penchansky’s Twilight of the Gods is the first accessible book that shows a historical Israel where polytheism and monotheism existed simultaneously in great conflict. He provides a historical introduction, followed by close readings of key Old Testament passages, where he demonstrates how to interpret difficult biblical texts that depict other gods or claim Yahweh is the only God within this new understanding of Israelite religion.
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What Rough Beast
$30.00Add to cartA number of texts in the Hebrew Bible consistantly command attention and yet defy easy explanation: Why did God try to kill Moses? Why did God kill the man who touched the ark to keep it from falling? Why did God put a tree in the middle of the Garden? David Penchansky tackles these tough questions and in so doing opens up for readers a new understanding of how the Hebrew Bible portrays God.