Many studies of the prophetic books assume that a text's addressee and audience are one and the s... more Many studies of the prophetic books assume that a text's addressee and audience are one and the same. Sometimes this is the case, but some prophetic texts feature multiple addressees who cannot be collapsed into a single setting. In this book, Andrew R. Davis examines examples of multiple addressees within the book of Amos and argues that they force us to expand our understanding of prophetic audiences. Drawing insight from studies of poetic address in other disciplines, Davis distinguishes between the addressee within the text and the actual audience outside the text. He combines in-depth poetic analysis with historical inquiry and shows the ways that the prophetic discourse of the book of Amos is triangulated among multiple audiences.
This book examines temple renovation as a rhetorical topic within royal literature of the ancient... more This book examines temple renovation as a rhetorical topic within royal literature of the ancient Near East. Unlike newly founded temples, which were celebrated for their novelty, temple renovations were oriented toward the past. Kings took the opportunity to rehearse a selective history of the temple, evoking certain past traditions and omitting others. In this way, temple renovations were a kind of historiography. Andrew R. Davis demonstrates a pattern in the rhetoric of temple renovation texts: that kings in ancient Mesopotamia, Israel, Syria and Persia used temple renovation to correct, or at least distance themselves from, some turmoil of recent history and to associate their reigns with an earlier and more illustrious past.
Davis draws on the royal literature of the seventh and sixth centuries BCE for main evidence of this rhetoric. Furthermore, he argues for reading the story of Jeroboam I's placement of calves at Dan and Bethel (1 Kgs 12:25-33) as an eighth-century BCE account of temple renovation with a similar rhetoric. Concluding with further examples in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Reconstructing the Temple demonstrates that the rhetoric of temple renovation was a distinct and longstanding topic in the ancient Near East.
This book introduces readers to four central themes of the Old Testament: creation, covenant, pro... more This book introduces readers to four central themes of the Old Testament: creation, covenant, prophecy, and kingship. By exploring these themes in the order of their appearance in the Bible, the book traces the biblical narrative as it unfolds from the Book of Genesis through the Book of Kings. Each chapter concludes with a brief section called “Looking Ahead,” which discusses how each theme recurs in later parts of the Bible (e.g., the prophets, the wisdom books, and the New Testament). This purpose of this section is to show that these four themes are open-ended; they shaped the theological imaginations of later biblical writers, who adapted the themes to their own historical moment and their style of writing.
This work presents in detail a description of archaeological data from the Iron II temple complex... more This work presents in detail a description of archaeological data from the Iron II temple complex at Tel Dan in northern Israel. Davis analyzes the archaeological remains from the ninth and eighth centuries, paying close attention to how the temple functioned as sacred space. Correlating the archaeological data with biblical depictions of worship, especially the “textual strata” of 1 Kings 18 and the book of Amos, Davis argues that the temple was the site of “official” and family religion and that worship at the temple became increasingly centralized. Tel Dan's role in helping reconstruct ancient Israelite religion, especially distinctive religious traditions of the northern kingdom, is also considered.
This article responds to Adam Gregerman's article on covenant theology in recent Jewish-Catholic ... more This article responds to Adam Gregerman's article on covenant theology in recent Jewish-Catholic dialogue by arguing three points: (1) Scripture presents a multiplicity of covenants (rather than a singular "Old Covenant"), which coexist together in complementary ways. (2) This multiplicity produces dynamic tension among the covenants. (3) The tendency in recent theological discussion to describe the New Covenant as a fulfillment of its predecessors lacks a biblical basis.
The Oxford Handbook of Ritual and Worship in the Hebrew Bible
This essay explores the ritual times of ancient Israel. After providing a theoretical framework t... more This essay explores the ritual times of ancient Israel. After providing a theoretical framework that draws on the work of Mircea Eliade, it provides an overview of the sacred times of the year in ancient Israel, as they are presented in the ritual calendars of the Hebrew Bible (e.g. Exod 23, 34; Lev 23; Num 28-29; Deut 16). Although this section follows the calendrical order of Israel festivals, it also considers how ritual times correspond to agricultural seasons and to the human life cycle. The final section highlights three features of sacred time in ancient Israel that can be drawn from the preceding overview.
An unnoticed parallel between Ezekiel 37:7 and a line from Esarhaddon's Succession Treaty bolster... more An unnoticed parallel between Ezekiel 37:7 and a line from Esarhaddon's Succession Treaty bolsters the claim that Ezekiel's vision of dry bones was drawn from the Near Eastern treaty curse tradition.
This article analyzes the apparent misquotation and dramatic irony in Gen I8:12-13and argues that... more This article analyzes the apparent misquotation and dramatic irony in Gen I8:12-13and argues that the verses allude to the story ofthe Garden of Eden. Although interpreters often regard the pimishment at the end of Genesis 3 as final and immu-table, the biblical authors did not share this sense of finality but instead revisited the story in later narratives and subtly moderated its concluding punishments. Genesis 18:12-13 is such an allusion, which echoes the woman's punishment in Gen 3:16 and also modifies it. The birth announcement to Sarah redefines childbirth under a rubric of God's wondrous deeds. The article concludes with some remarks on the way that attention to literary style can complement theological readings of the Hebrew Bible. Key Words: childbirth ٠ birth announcement ٠ Eden ٠ Leitwort ٠ allusion I In the prose narrative of the Hebrew Bible, it is not uncommon to find discrepancies between a bit of dialogue and a later report of that dialogue. In Gen 2:16-17, for example, Yhwh commands the man, "Of every tree in the garden you may freely eat but of the tree of knowledge of good and bad you may not eat. For on the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. " But later, when the snake asks the woman about the divine command, she reports, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said. I would like to thank Richard j. Clifford, Christopher R. Matthews, and an anonymous reviewerofthis journal for their comments on an earlierversionofthis article.Any errors that remain are mine alone.
Many studies of the prophetic books assume that a text's addressee and audience are one and the s... more Many studies of the prophetic books assume that a text's addressee and audience are one and the same. Sometimes this is the case, but some prophetic texts feature multiple addressees who cannot be collapsed into a single setting. In this book, Andrew R. Davis examines examples of multiple addressees within the book of Amos and argues that they force us to expand our understanding of prophetic audiences. Drawing insight from studies of poetic address in other disciplines, Davis distinguishes between the addressee within the text and the actual audience outside the text. He combines in-depth poetic analysis with historical inquiry and shows the ways that the prophetic discourse of the book of Amos is triangulated among multiple audiences.
This book examines temple renovation as a rhetorical topic within royal literature of the ancient... more This book examines temple renovation as a rhetorical topic within royal literature of the ancient Near East. Unlike newly founded temples, which were celebrated for their novelty, temple renovations were oriented toward the past. Kings took the opportunity to rehearse a selective history of the temple, evoking certain past traditions and omitting others. In this way, temple renovations were a kind of historiography. Andrew R. Davis demonstrates a pattern in the rhetoric of temple renovation texts: that kings in ancient Mesopotamia, Israel, Syria and Persia used temple renovation to correct, or at least distance themselves from, some turmoil of recent history and to associate their reigns with an earlier and more illustrious past.
Davis draws on the royal literature of the seventh and sixth centuries BCE for main evidence of this rhetoric. Furthermore, he argues for reading the story of Jeroboam I's placement of calves at Dan and Bethel (1 Kgs 12:25-33) as an eighth-century BCE account of temple renovation with a similar rhetoric. Concluding with further examples in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Reconstructing the Temple demonstrates that the rhetoric of temple renovation was a distinct and longstanding topic in the ancient Near East.
This book introduces readers to four central themes of the Old Testament: creation, covenant, pro... more This book introduces readers to four central themes of the Old Testament: creation, covenant, prophecy, and kingship. By exploring these themes in the order of their appearance in the Bible, the book traces the biblical narrative as it unfolds from the Book of Genesis through the Book of Kings. Each chapter concludes with a brief section called “Looking Ahead,” which discusses how each theme recurs in later parts of the Bible (e.g., the prophets, the wisdom books, and the New Testament). This purpose of this section is to show that these four themes are open-ended; they shaped the theological imaginations of later biblical writers, who adapted the themes to their own historical moment and their style of writing.
This work presents in detail a description of archaeological data from the Iron II temple complex... more This work presents in detail a description of archaeological data from the Iron II temple complex at Tel Dan in northern Israel. Davis analyzes the archaeological remains from the ninth and eighth centuries, paying close attention to how the temple functioned as sacred space. Correlating the archaeological data with biblical depictions of worship, especially the “textual strata” of 1 Kings 18 and the book of Amos, Davis argues that the temple was the site of “official” and family religion and that worship at the temple became increasingly centralized. Tel Dan's role in helping reconstruct ancient Israelite religion, especially distinctive religious traditions of the northern kingdom, is also considered.
This article responds to Adam Gregerman's article on covenant theology in recent Jewish-Catholic ... more This article responds to Adam Gregerman's article on covenant theology in recent Jewish-Catholic dialogue by arguing three points: (1) Scripture presents a multiplicity of covenants (rather than a singular "Old Covenant"), which coexist together in complementary ways. (2) This multiplicity produces dynamic tension among the covenants. (3) The tendency in recent theological discussion to describe the New Covenant as a fulfillment of its predecessors lacks a biblical basis.
The Oxford Handbook of Ritual and Worship in the Hebrew Bible
This essay explores the ritual times of ancient Israel. After providing a theoretical framework t... more This essay explores the ritual times of ancient Israel. After providing a theoretical framework that draws on the work of Mircea Eliade, it provides an overview of the sacred times of the year in ancient Israel, as they are presented in the ritual calendars of the Hebrew Bible (e.g. Exod 23, 34; Lev 23; Num 28-29; Deut 16). Although this section follows the calendrical order of Israel festivals, it also considers how ritual times correspond to agricultural seasons and to the human life cycle. The final section highlights three features of sacred time in ancient Israel that can be drawn from the preceding overview.
An unnoticed parallel between Ezekiel 37:7 and a line from Esarhaddon's Succession Treaty bolster... more An unnoticed parallel between Ezekiel 37:7 and a line from Esarhaddon's Succession Treaty bolsters the claim that Ezekiel's vision of dry bones was drawn from the Near Eastern treaty curse tradition.
This article analyzes the apparent misquotation and dramatic irony in Gen I8:12-13and argues that... more This article analyzes the apparent misquotation and dramatic irony in Gen I8:12-13and argues that the verses allude to the story ofthe Garden of Eden. Although interpreters often regard the pimishment at the end of Genesis 3 as final and immu-table, the biblical authors did not share this sense of finality but instead revisited the story in later narratives and subtly moderated its concluding punishments. Genesis 18:12-13 is such an allusion, which echoes the woman's punishment in Gen 3:16 and also modifies it. The birth announcement to Sarah redefines childbirth under a rubric of God's wondrous deeds. The article concludes with some remarks on the way that attention to literary style can complement theological readings of the Hebrew Bible. Key Words: childbirth ٠ birth announcement ٠ Eden ٠ Leitwort ٠ allusion I In the prose narrative of the Hebrew Bible, it is not uncommon to find discrepancies between a bit of dialogue and a later report of that dialogue. In Gen 2:16-17, for example, Yhwh commands the man, "Of every tree in the garden you may freely eat but of the tree of knowledge of good and bad you may not eat. For on the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. " But later, when the snake asks the woman about the divine command, she reports, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said. I would like to thank Richard j. Clifford, Christopher R. Matthews, and an anonymous reviewerofthis journal for their comments on an earlierversionofthis article.Any errors that remain are mine alone.
Uploads
Books by Andrew R Davis
Davis draws on the royal literature of the seventh and sixth centuries BCE for main evidence of this rhetoric. Furthermore, he argues for reading the story of Jeroboam I's placement of calves at Dan and Bethel (1 Kgs 12:25-33) as an eighth-century BCE account of temple renovation with a similar rhetoric. Concluding with further examples in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Reconstructing the Temple demonstrates that the rhetoric of temple renovation was a distinct and longstanding topic in the ancient Near East.
parts of the Bible (e.g., the prophets, the wisdom books, and the
New Testament). This purpose of this section is to show that
these four themes are open-ended; they shaped the theological
imaginations of later biblical writers, who adapted the themes to
their own historical moment and their style of writing.
Papers by Andrew R Davis
Davis draws on the royal literature of the seventh and sixth centuries BCE for main evidence of this rhetoric. Furthermore, he argues for reading the story of Jeroboam I's placement of calves at Dan and Bethel (1 Kgs 12:25-33) as an eighth-century BCE account of temple renovation with a similar rhetoric. Concluding with further examples in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Reconstructing the Temple demonstrates that the rhetoric of temple renovation was a distinct and longstanding topic in the ancient Near East.
parts of the Bible (e.g., the prophets, the wisdom books, and the
New Testament). This purpose of this section is to show that
these four themes are open-ended; they shaped the theological
imaginations of later biblical writers, who adapted the themes to
their own historical moment and their style of writing.