Review of The Bible at Qumran: Text, Shape, and Interpretation, edited by Peter W. Flint

Review of The Bible at Qumran: Text, Shape, and Interpretation, edited by Peter W. Flint. Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001. Pp. xv + 266. Price: $22.00. ISBN 0-8028-4630-0. This volume is another contribution to the Eerdmans series Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature. The essays are loosely gathered around the topic "The Bible at Qumran," and the editor has divided the articles into two groups. Part 1, "The Scriptures, the Canon, and the Scrolls," includes articles by J.A. Sanders, B.W. Waltke, E. Ulrich, C.A. Evans, and the editor, P.W. Flint. The contributors to Part 2, "Biblical Interpretation and the Dead Sea Scrolls," are J.C. VanderKam, C.A. Evans, J.E. Bowley, J.M. Scott, M.G. Abegg, and R.W. Wall. Unlike other volumes of collected essays in this series, which have highlighted the work of a single author or published the proceedings of a particular conference, this collection has a more disparate origin. Some contributions were given as papers at the Dead Sea Scrolls Institute of Trinity Western University (Bowley, Ulrich, VanderKam and Wall), one (Waltke) is reprinted from The New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997), and the rest (Abegg, Evans, Flint, Sanders and Scott) were invited for the volume.

Review of: Solving the Mysteries of the Dead Sea Scrolls: New Light on the Bible, by Edward M. Cook

Edward M. Cook's new book makes an excellent addition to the growing list of "introductions" to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Aimed primarily at a Christian lay and clerical audience, it succeeds admirably in leading its readers through the labyrinthine world of Scroll scholarship and controversy. The book divides itself into two uneven parts. In the first part, chapters 1-4, Cook deals with the discovery of the Scrolls in 1947 and the subsequent history of their decipherment and (often delayed) publication. Cook's treatment of this controversial topic is the most fair and evenhanded I have ever read; he has done meticulous research, reading many accounts of the Scrolls, from Edmund Wilson's in the 1950's to the latest journal articles from 1993. The result is a highly readable account of the finding and purchase of the Scrolls, the appointment of an international team of scholars to decipher and publish them, the delays in publication (including the results of the Six Day War in 1967, when most of the Scroll fragments fell into Israeli hands), and the controversy surrounding then editor-in-chief John Strugnell and the release of the photographs in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Cook is objective and fair throughout, but particularly striking is his sympathetic portrayal of the original seven member editorial team.

Marx and the Bible: José Miranda’s Critique of the Philosophy of Oppression

This paper critically examines the liberation theology of José Porfirio Miranda, as expressed in his Marx and the Bible (1971), with a focus on the central idea (and subtitle) of this work: the “Critique of the Philosophy of Oppression.” Miranda’s critique is examined via certain key tropes such as “power,” “justice,” and “freedom,” both in the context of late twentieth-century Latin American society, and in the state of the “post-Christian” and “post-Marxist” world more generally, vis-à-vis contemporary liberal justice theory. Close examination of the potentialities, paradoxes and subtle evasions in Miranda’s critique leads not to the conclusion that Miranda does not go far enough in his application of Christian principles to justice theory.

The Function of Norms and Values in the Construction of Social Identity in Groups who experienced intergroup Conflicts

I present my explorative research about conflict and social identity. The Social Identity Approach of Henri Tajfel and John Turner is used as theoretical frame in the study. The main question is how the construction of social identity of group members is influenced by an inter-group conflict. The research project consists of two parts: 1. An empirical study conducted with qualitative research methods to investigate a today’s congregation of the Swiss reformed Church who experienced a conflict about twenty years ago. This conflict ended by the separation of a sub-group from the congregations. This group forms an independent community today. Members of both congregations where interviewed about the meaning which membership has for them and about their interpretation of the conflict. 2. An analysis of the Gospel of Matthew with questions who where developed out of the empirical study and the Social Identity Approach to better understand the separation conflict between the Matthean community and the synagogue.

The philosophy of the Bible

by David Newmark

The exhaustive concordance of the Bible : showing every word of the text of the common English version : together with a comparative concordance of the Authorized and Revised versions : also brief dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek words of the original, with references to the English words /

Mode of access: Internet.

Torah in the messianic age and/or the age to come.

Mode of access: Internet.