Wednesday 5 March 2014

Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament 2, 2 (2013)


The latest issue of the Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament is freely available online. Although it’s worth checking out for its book reviews as much as anything else, the articles (listed below with their abstracts) are available from here, with a pdf of the entire issue available here.

Daniel J. Estes
Job 28 in its Literary Context
In order to discern the relationship of Job 28 to the book in which it is located in the biblical text, several questions must be answered. What is the theme of Job 28? Who is the likely speaker in this chapter? How does Job 28 function within the flow of the book of Job? Does Job 28 play an integrative role within the book? By a close reading of the text, this paper endeavors to answer these four interpretive questions, and thus draw some conclusions about Job 28 in its literary context.

Sung Jin Park
The Text and Translations of Job: A Comparative Study on 11QtgJob with Other  Versions in Light of Translation Techniques
The present article discusses the text of 11QtgJob from column 34 to 38 with the corresponding verses in other versions (the Masoretic Text, the Targum Job, the Septuagint, and the Peshitta) in light of translation techniques such as addition, semantic change, omission, and transposition. This research demonstrates that omission and transposition are the most salient features of 11QtgJob and of the Peshitta, respectively. 11QtgJob favors a far-looser translation than the Targum Job but is stricter than LXX. Several verses of 11QtgJob are closely connected with the LXX. This, however, does not support that they employed a shared Vorlage. The Septuagint shows the greatest latitude in translation among the versions. The degree of freedom in the translation process can be shown as follows: Targum Job < Peshitta < 11QtgJob < Septuagint. Contrary to the conventional thought, the translator of 11QtgJob within the early Judeo-Christian community tended to deliver freer renderings than Targum Job within the later Jewish rabbinic community.

George Athas
“A Man after God’s Own Heart”: David and the Rhetoric of Election to Kingship
The anticipation of David as a “man after Yahweh’s own heart” in 1 Sam 13:14 is to be understood as a statement about Yahweh’s election of David to kingship, rather than about David’s own moral qualities. Comparison of similar phrases in Akkadian texts shows that the phrase is part of the rhetoric of divine election to kingship. The focus on divine election does not mean David has no positive attributes. On the contrary, he is depicted as a man with clear leadership qualities. The phrase serves the Davidic apologia in distinguishing David from Saul as Yahweh’s personal choice for king.

William R. Osborne
A Biblical Reconstruction of the Prophetess Deborah in Judges 4
By analyzing Judges 4 in its historical and literary setting, this article presents a biblical reconstruction of the prophetic identity and message of the prophetess Deborah. The study concludes that 1) Deborah, as a prophetess, seems to show great similarity to the āpiltum observed in early Mari, 2) Deborah is not portrayed as a primitive necromancer, and 3) in the narrative she opposes Barak’s desire for personal honor and presents Yahweh as Israel’s sole deliverer from oppression.

Book Reviews

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