Nathan MacDonald Livres

Nathan MacDonald examines the meaning and significance of "monotheism" in ancient Israel, through an analysis of specific texts in Deuteronomy. He takes a different approach to the debate about monotheism that has been raging in Old Testament studies for the last twenty years, and raises important questions for that debate. Contents The Origin and Meaning of "Monotheism"; Yhwh, Our God, Yhwh is Confessing "Monotheism"; So Love Yhwh, Your "Monotheism as Devoted Love; Recite Remembering "Monotheism"; Hear O "Monotheism" and Election; Bind Them as a "Monotheism" and Idolatry; Bread not Stone.

Exploring the dietary habits of ancient Israelites, this book delves into a complex topic by analyzing biblical, archaeological, anthropological, and environmental evidence. Nathan MacDonald uncovers the specifics of what these people consumed and evaluates the health implications of their diets, providing a comprehensive understanding of food in biblical times.

MacDonald explores the complex relationships between prophetic oracles, specifically arguing that Ezekiel 44 responds to Isaiah 56, challenging traditional interpretations. This re-evaluation impacts the dating of Ezekiel 44 and its connections to Leviticus and Numbers, shedding light on the origins of the priesthood and the Levite-priest distinction.

Covenant and election are two theological concepts that dominate the landscape of the Hebrew Bible. If they became the main structuring concepts of the Hebrew Bible, they were not so from the beginning. Their centrality was the result of their utilization by exilic and post-exilic scribes and tradents to focus Israel's traditions into a coherent structure as fitted the revelation of one God. The essays in this collection examine covenant and election across the biblical literature, from the priestly document through Deuteronomy to Jeremiah and the book of Chronicles. They show how the ideas were shaped and refined under the conditions of national disaster and rebuilding.

Are the rituals in the Hebrew Bible of great antiquity, practiced unchanged from earliest times, or are they the products of later innovators? The canonical text is clear: ritual innovation is repudiated as when Jeroboam I of Israel inaugurate a novel cult at Bethel and Dan. Most rituals are traced back to Moses. From Julius Wellhausen to Jacob Milgrom, this issue has divided critical scholarship. With the rich documentation from the late Second Temple period, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, it is apparent that rituals were changed. Were such rituals practiced, or were they forms of textual imagination? How do rituals change and how are such changes authorized? Do textual innovation and ritual innovation relate? What light might ritual changes between the Hebrew Bible and late Second Temple texts shed on the history of ritual in the Hebrew Bible? The essays in this volume engage the various issues that arise when rituals are considered as practices that may be invented and subject to change. A number of essays examine how biblical texts show evidence of changing ritual practices, some use textual change to discuss related changes in ritual practice, while others discuss evidence for ritual change from material culture.

Discussion of early Jewish monotheism has focused on its origins in earlier Israelite religion, while its development in late prophetic and early apocalyptic literature has received little attention. Yet the reflections of the concept of monotheism in these works are much more diverse than is generally recognized. This literature reflects a lively debate over the implications of Yhwh's supremacy, which extend to the full range of religious and socio-political experience. The authors of this volume explore that diversity by focusing on how particular texts and themes embody and shape the emerging concept of monotheism. Tackling issues ranging from divine violence to dualism, international relations to idolatry, these studies not only emphasize the diverse ways in which Yhwh's supremacy is portrayed in late prophetic and early apocalyptic literature, but also illustrate the necessity of adopting a range of methodological approaches to the problem.

The catastrophic events at the beginning of the sixth century BCE resulted in a theological crisis for the Judean elite. The end of the only surviving Hebrew kingdom was explained by a theology of divine abandonment, a motif widely understood in the ancient Near East. Many years later Jewish exiles would return to rebuild and settle Jerusalem. During their time in Babylonia and in the Persian period this group redefined the traditional understanding of divine presence and developed various new understandings that could explain YHWH's commitment to Jerusalem as well as the cataclysmic events that they had experienced. This collection of essays from a conference held in Göttingen in May 2011 examines changing ideas of divine presence and absence in late biblical texts. The essays tackle subjects such as the understanding of divine presence in Deuteronomy, Ezekiel, the Psalms and Ezra-Nehemiah, as well as topics such as divine abandonment, aniconism, the exaltation of Torah and the spirit of God. These Judean perspectives are contextualized by essays that examine ideas of divine presence elsewhere in the ancient Levant and the Near East, and modern theological and philosophical attempts to speak about the presence or absence of God. This volume is the first publication in the context of the Sofja-Kovalevskaja Research Group under the leadership of Nathan MacDonald. This research group seeks to examine the considerable diversity in Israelite and Jewish monotheistic thought and practice during the exilic and Persian periods, particularly through an examination of the relevant biblical texts. The project consists of a small team of post-doctoral and doctoral researchers based at the Georg-August Universität Göttingen. The project has a strong contemporary resonance because of concerns expressed about the relationship between monotheism, hegemony and violence.