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Sounding Sensory Profiles in the Ancient Near East
Annette Schellenberg and Thomas Krüger, editors
For several decades sociologists and cultural anthropologists have intensively researched the role of the senses in a variety of cultures, and their studies show how diverse cultures understand and evaluate the five or more senses differently. In this collection of eighteen essays, biblical and ancient Near Eastern scholars, as well as cultural anthropologists, apply the questions and methods from anthropological and sociological studies to Israel, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. Experts offer insights into the meaning of the senses in the ancient world, examining the classical senses (seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting) as well as other senses (such as kinesthesis and the sense of balance) and sense-related issues (such as disgust, sensory imagination, and disabilities). This collection provides a stimulus and a basis for students and scholars to explore the senses in the ancient Near East. Paper • Hardcover

The Last Century in the History of Judah: The Seventh Century BCE in Archaeological, Historical, and Biblical Perspectives
Filip Capek (Editor), Oded Lipschits (Editor)
Experts from a variety of disciplines examine the history of Judah during the seventh century BCE, the last century of the kingdom’s existence. This important era is well defined historically and archaeologically beginning with the destruction layers left behind by Sennacherib’s Assyrian campaign (701 BCE) and ending with levels of destruction resulting from Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian campaign (588–586 BCE). Eleven essays develop the current ongoing discussion about Judah during this period and extend the debate to include further important insights in the fields of archaeology, history, cult, and the interpretation of Old Testament texts. Paper • Hardcover

Trauma and the Failure of History: Kings, Lamentations, and the Destruction of Jerusalem
David Janzen
David Janzen discusses the concepts of history and trauma and contrasts the ways historians and trauma survivors grapple with traumatic events, a contrast embodied in the very different ways the books of Kings and Lamentations react to the destruction of Jerusalem. Janzen’s study warns that explanations in histories will tend to silence the voices of trauma survivors, and it challenges traditional approaches that sometimes portray the explanations of traumatic events in biblical literature as therapeutic for victims. Paper • Hardcover

The Narrative Self in Early Christianity Essays in Honor of Judith Perkins
Janet E. Spittler, editor
Essays that explore early Christian texts and the broader world in which they were written This volume of twelve essays celebrates the contributions of classicist Judith Perkins to the study of early Christianity. Drawing on Perkins’s insights related to apocryphal texts, representations of pain and suffering, and the creation of meaning, contributors explore the function of Christian narratives that depict pain and suffering, the motivations of the early Christians who composed these stories, and their continuing value to contemporary people. Contributors also examine how narratives work to create meaning in a religious context. These contributions address these issues from a variety of angles through a wide range of texts. Paper • Hardcover

Plotinus on Beauty (Enneads 1.6 and 5.8-12): The Greek Text with Notes
Andrew Smith
Plotinus, the father of Neoplatonism, composed the treatise On Beauty (Ennead 1.6) as the first of a series of philosophical essays devoted to interpreting and elucidating Platonic ideas. This treatise is one of the most accessible and influential of Plotinus’s works, and it provides a stimulating entrée into the many facets of his philosophical activity. In this volume Andrew Smith first introduces readers to the Greek of Plotinus and to his philosophy in general, then provides the Greek text of and English notes on Plotinus’s systematic argument and engaging exhortation to foster the inner self. The volume ends with the text of and notes on Plotinus’s complementary statements in On Intelligible Beauty (Ennead 5.8.1–2). Paper • Hardcover

Jewish Biblical Exegesis from Islamic Lands: The Medieval Period
Meira Polliack (Editor), Athalya Brenner-Idan (Editor)
Medieval Judeo-Arabic translations of the Hebrew Bible and their commentaries provide a rich source for understanding a formative period in the intellectual, literary, and cultural history and heritage of Jews in Islamic lands. The carefully selected texts in this volume offer intriguing insight into Arabic translations and commentaries by Rabbanite and Karaite Jewish exegetes from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE, arranged according to the three divisions of the Torah, the Former and Latter Prophets, and the Writings. Each text is embedded within an essay discussing its exegetical context, reception, and contribution. Paper • Hardcover