Temple and Worship in Biblical Israel

This major work examines the subject of Temple and Worship in biblical Israel, ranging from their ancient Near Eastern and archaeological background, through the Old Testament and Late Second Temple Judaism, and up to the New Testament. It is the product of an international team of twenty-three noted scholars. Special attention is paid to such subjects as the ideology of temples and the evidence for high places in Israel and the Canaanite world; the architecture and symbolism of Solomon's Temp≤ the attitude of various parts of the Old Testament to the Temple and cult, including that of several prophets; the light shed on Temple worship by the Psalms; the role and fate of the Ark of the Covenant; and the Day of Atonement. It also examines attitudes to the Temple in the Septuagint, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, first-century Judaism, and the New Testament. This important work is the product of an impressive array of twenty-three noted scholars. The contributors include John Barton, H.G.M. Williamson, John Day, Susan Gillingham, John Jarick, C.T.R. Hayward, Michael Knibb, George Brooke, Martin Goodman, Christopher Rowland and Larry Kreitzer.

Part 1. Temples and High Places in Israel and the Canaanite World 1. Like Deities, Like Temples (Like People), Mark S. Smith, Skirball Professor of Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, New York University 2. Massebot in the Israelite Cult: An Argument for making Implicit Cultic Criteria Explicit, Elizabeth Bloch-Smith, Senior staff member on the Tel Dor excavations (she has been adjunct professor at various American universities) 3. From Gibeon to Gibeah: High Place of the Kingdom, Simcha Shalom Brooks, Freelance scholar working in London (teaches part-time at Birkbeck College, London) Part 2. Temple and Worship in the Old Testament 4. YHWH's Exalted House - Aspects of the Design and Symbolism of Solomon's Temple, Victor (Avigdor) Hurowitz, Professor of Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel 5. The Prophets and the Cult, John Barton, Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture, University of Oxford, and Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford 6. Temple and Worship in Isaiah 6, H.G.M. Williamson, Regius Professor of Hebrew, University of Oxford, and Student of Christ Church, Oxford 7. Temple and Worship in Ezekiel 40-48, Paul Joyce, Fellow and Tutor of St Peter's College, Oxford, and Lecturer in Theology (Old Testament) in the University of Oxford 8. Divine Reversal and the Role of the Temple in Trito-Isaiah, Jill Middlemas, Liddon Research Fellow in Theology, Keble College, Oxford, and Hebrew Lector, The Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies 9. Placing (a) God: Central Place Theory in Deuteronomy 12 and Delphi, Anselm Hagedorn, wissenschaftlicher Assistent in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at the Humboldt-Universität, Berlin; previously Kennicott Hebrew Fellow, Oxford University 10. Merely a Container? The Ark in Deuteronomy, Ian Wilson, Freelance scholar working in Cambridge. Life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge 11. Whatever happened to the Ark of the Covenant? John Day, Professor of Old Testament Studies, University of Oxford, and Fellow and Tutor of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford 12. Ordeals in the Psalms? Philip Johnston, Tutor in Old Testament and Hebrew, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford Wisdom Psalms, Stuart Weeks, Lecturer in Old Testament and Hebrew, University of Durham 13. The Zion Tradition and the Editing of the Hebrew Psalter, Susan Gillingham, Fellow and Tutor of Worcester College, Oxford, and Lecturer in Theology (Old Testament) in the University of Oxford 14. The Day of Atonement as a Ritual of Validation for the High Priest, Deborah Rooke, Lecturer in Old Testament Studies, King's College, University of London 15. The Temple of David in the Book of Chronicles, John Jarick, Tutor in Old Testament, St Stephen's House, Oxford Part 3. The Temple in the Late Second Temple Period and the New Testament 16. Understandings of the Temple Service in the Septuagint Pentateuch, C.T.R. Hayward, Professor of Hebrew, University of Durham 17. The Temple in the Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Literature of the Second and First Centuries BCE, Michael Knibb, Samuel Davidson Professor Emeritus of Old Testament Studies, King's College, University of London 18. The Ten Temples in the Dead Sea Scrolls, George Brooke, Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis, University of Manchester 19. New Voices, Ancient Words: The Temple Scroll's Reuse of the Bible, Molly Zahn, Doctoral student in the department of Theology, University of Notre Dame 20. The Temple in First Century CE Judaism, Martin Goodman, Professor of Jewish Studies, University of Oxford, and Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford 21. The Temple in the New Testament, Christopher Rowland, Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture, University of Oxford, and Fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford 22. The Messianic Man of Peace as Temple Builder: Solomonic Imagery in Ephesians 2.13-22, Larry Kreitzer, Fellow and Tutor in New Testament, Regent's Park College, Oxford, and Research Lecturer in Theology in the University of Oxford