Читать книгу A Contemporary Introduction to the Bible - Colleen M. Conway - Страница 13

This book introduces students to the books of the Bible as shaped in the crucible of the history of Israel and the early church. A prominent theme throughout is the way the books of the Bible reflect quite different sorts of interaction with empires that dominated the ancient Near East and Mediterranean. At first some students and professors may find this approach unusual, since we do not begin with Genesis and do not proceed through biblical books in order. The group of texts introduced early on in this textbook is quite different from the Bible they now know. So why have we chosen this approach? There are many advantages. On the basis of our experience with using this approach we have seen that the picture of the Bible’s development comes into focus as the narrative of its formation unfolds. By the end, students should find meaning in aspects of the Bible that they once overlooked, even as they also understand that much of the power of the Bible has been its capability to transcend the original contexts in which it was written. Moreover, through discussion of the history of Jewish and Christian interpretation of focus texts toward the end of many chapters, students will gain a taste of how faith communities have used the Bible in creative, inspired, and sometimes death-dealing ways to guide and make sense of their lives. Given the already large scope of this Introduction, we have focused on texts included in the Old and New Testaments, with a particular emphasis – in the case of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament – on books included in the scriptures of Judaism and various forms of Christianity. This meant that we could not give sustained attention to apocryphal/deutero-canonical books of the Old Testament, or to the range of non-canonical early Christian works that did not end up being included in the Christian Bible.

The date framework given in this textbook follows that of Anson Rainey and Steven Notley’s The Sacred Bridge: Carta’s Atlas of the Biblical World (Jerusalem: Carta, 2005). In many cases specific dates are uncertain, but Rainey and Notley provide a recent, solid framework to start from on an introductory level. Unless otherwise indicated, the translations from Hebrew and Greek are our own.

As with any such textbook there is always room for improvement. We know that there are multiple ways in which virtually everything that is written here could be footnoted, qualified, and balanced with other perspectives. What this introduction provides is one general outline of a historical approach to the Bible that students can then supplement, correct, and balance in their future studies. We certainly invite all possible suggestions for correction and improvement of future editions of this textbook.

We have been helped by many people in writing this textbook. In particular, a diverse set of colleagues – Charles Carter, Thomas Dozeman, Esther Hamori, Mahri Leonard-Fleckman, Benjamin Sommer, Kent Reynolds, Robert Rezetko, Adele Reinhartz, Jerusha Rhodes, William Schniedewind, Mark Smith, and Marvin Sweeney – generously reviewed portions of chapters on the Hebrew Bible and/or offered advice on revisions and corrections for the first edition or this second edition. In addition, students at Union Theological Seminary and Seton Hall University have read chapter drafts and suggested corrections, and we received some further helpful suggestions from anonymous reviewers recruited by Wiley Blackwell. Some students and teaching assistants who have offered a particularly large volume of helpful corrections are Mary Ellen Kris, Candice Olson, Lizzie Berne-DeGear, Laurel Koepf-Taylor, Meagan Manas, and Todd Kennedy. Maia Kotrosits provided timely assistance with the glossary and web materials. Our thanks to all for their generous help in this project.

Finally, with love we dedicate this volume to our parents, James and Patricia Conway, John (now departed) and Adrienne Carr, whose love of teaching and care for their students helped inspire this book.

Colleen M. Conway and David M. Carr