Christopher B. Hays
Christopher Hays is D. Wilson Moore Professor of Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies and chair of biblical studies at Fuller Theological Seminary. He is a Research Associate of the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and was the U.S. State Department Educational and Cultural Affairs Annual Professor at the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem for 2022-23, and he served as President of the Pacific Coast Region of Society of Biblical Literature in 2017-18.
Hays is the author of Hidden Riches: A Textbook for the Comparative Study of the Old Testament and the Ancient Near East (Westminster John Knox, 2014), The Origins of Isaiah 24-27 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2019), and Death in the Iron Age II and in First Isaiah (Forschungen zum Alten Testament 79; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011). The latter won the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise in 2013.
Hays has written the Isaiah commentary in the New Oxford Bible Commentary, and is working on the Isaiah commentary in the Old Testament Library series, having translated the book for the Common English Bible.
Hays teaches courses in Old Testament and directs the master’s program in Ancient Near Eastern Studies in the School of Theology. He has participated in archaeological research in Israel and conducts study trips there. His languages include Hebrew, Akkadian, Ugaritic, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin.
Hays is ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Hays is interested in supervising doctoral students in all areas of Old Testament, particularly those interested in the prophets, the Ancient Near Eastern context, and literary approaches to scripture. Prospective students are strongly encouraged to contact him directly (hays@fuller.edu) to discuss the program and their areas of particular interest.
Hays is the author of Hidden Riches: A Textbook for the Comparative Study of the Old Testament and the Ancient Near East (Westminster John Knox, 2014), The Origins of Isaiah 24-27 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2019), and Death in the Iron Age II and in First Isaiah (Forschungen zum Alten Testament 79; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011). The latter won the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise in 2013.
Hays has written the Isaiah commentary in the New Oxford Bible Commentary, and is working on the Isaiah commentary in the Old Testament Library series, having translated the book for the Common English Bible.
Hays teaches courses in Old Testament and directs the master’s program in Ancient Near Eastern Studies in the School of Theology. He has participated in archaeological research in Israel and conducts study trips there. His languages include Hebrew, Akkadian, Ugaritic, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin.
Hays is ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Hays is interested in supervising doctoral students in all areas of Old Testament, particularly those interested in the prophets, the Ancient Near Eastern context, and literary approaches to scripture. Prospective students are strongly encouraged to contact him directly (hays@fuller.edu) to discuss the program and their areas of particular interest.
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Hays offers a brief introduction to comparative studies, then lays out examples from various literary genres that shed light on particular biblical texts. Texts about ANE law collections, treaties, theological histories, prophecies, ritual texts, oracles, prayers, hymns, laments, edicts, and instructions are compared to corresponding literature in the Pentateuch, Prophets, and Writings of the Hebrew Bible. The book includes summaries and reflection questions to help instructors and students identify key points for comparison. By considering the literary and historical context of other literature, students will come away with a better understanding of the historical, literary, and theological depth of the Hebrew Bible.
Hays first summarizes what is known about death in the ancient Near East during the Second Iron Age, covering beliefs and practices in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syria-Palestine, and Judah/Israel. He then shows how select passages in the first part of Isaiah employ the rhetorical imagery of death that was part of their cultural context; further, he identifies ways in which these texts break new creative ground.
What especially distinguishes Hays’s study is its holistic approach, as he brilliantly synthesizes both literary and archaeological evidence, resulting in new insights.
The book begins by concisely summarizing what is known about death in the Ancient Near East during the Iron Age II, covering beliefs and practices in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syria-Palestine, and Judah/Israel. Incorporating both textual and archeological data, Christopher B. Hays surveys and analyzes existing scholarly literature on these topics from multiple fields.
Focusing on the text’s meaning for its producers and its initial audiences, he describes the ways in which the ‘rhetoric of death’ functioned in its historical context and offers fresh interpretations of more than a dozen passages in Isa 5–38. He shows how they employ the imagery of death that was part of their cultural contexts, and also identifies ways in which they break new creative ground.
This holistic approach to questions that have attracted much scholarly attention in recent decades produces new insights not only for the interpretation of specific biblical passages, but also for the formation of the book of Isaiah and for the history of ancient Near Eastern religions.
Contributors include T. M. Lemos, David Lincicum, Shelly Matthews, Yolanda Norton, and Brent A. Strawn.
What people groups interacted with ancient Israel? Who were the Hurrians and why do they matter? What do we know about the Philistines, the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and others?
In this up-to-date volume, leading experts introduce the peoples and places of the world around the Old Testament, providing students with a fresh exploration of the ancient Near East. The contributors offer comprehensive orientations to the main cultures and people groups that surrounded ancient Israel in the wider ancient Near East, including not only Mesopotamia and the northern Levant but also Egypt, Arabia, and Greece. They also explore the contributions of each people group or culture to our understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures.
This supplementary text is organized by geographic region, making it especially suitable for the classroom and useful in a variety of Old Testament courses. Approximately eighty-five illustrative items are included throughout the book.
Contents
Introduction
Bill T. Arnold and Brent A. Strawn
1. The Amorites
Daniel E. Fleming
2. Assyria and the Assyrians
Christopher B. Hays with Peter Machinist
3. Babylonia and the Babylonians
David S. Vanderhooft
4. Ugarit and the Ugaritians
Mark S. Smith
5. Egypt and the Egyptians
Joel M. LeMon
6. The Hittites and the Hurrians
Billie Jean Collins
7. Aram and the Arameans
K. Lawson Younger Jr.
8. Phoenicia and the Phoenicians
Christopher A. Rollston
9. Transjordan: The Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites
Joel S. Burnett
10. Philistia and the Philistines
Carl S. Ehrlich
11. Persia and the Persians
Pierre Briant
12. Arabia and the Arabians
David F. Graf
13. Greece and the Greeks
Walter Burkert†
Indexes
Hays offers a brief introduction to comparative studies, then lays out examples from various literary genres that shed light on particular biblical texts. Texts about ANE law collections, treaties, theological histories, prophecies, ritual texts, oracles, prayers, hymns, laments, edicts, and instructions are compared to corresponding literature in the Pentateuch, Prophets, and Writings of the Hebrew Bible. The book includes summaries and reflection questions to help instructors and students identify key points for comparison. By considering the literary and historical context of other literature, students will come away with a better understanding of the historical, literary, and theological depth of the Hebrew Bible.
Hays first summarizes what is known about death in the ancient Near East during the Second Iron Age, covering beliefs and practices in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syria-Palestine, and Judah/Israel. He then shows how select passages in the first part of Isaiah employ the rhetorical imagery of death that was part of their cultural context; further, he identifies ways in which these texts break new creative ground.
What especially distinguishes Hays’s study is its holistic approach, as he brilliantly synthesizes both literary and archaeological evidence, resulting in new insights.
The book begins by concisely summarizing what is known about death in the Ancient Near East during the Iron Age II, covering beliefs and practices in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syria-Palestine, and Judah/Israel. Incorporating both textual and archeological data, Christopher B. Hays surveys and analyzes existing scholarly literature on these topics from multiple fields.
Focusing on the text’s meaning for its producers and its initial audiences, he describes the ways in which the ‘rhetoric of death’ functioned in its historical context and offers fresh interpretations of more than a dozen passages in Isa 5–38. He shows how they employ the imagery of death that was part of their cultural contexts, and also identifies ways in which they break new creative ground.
This holistic approach to questions that have attracted much scholarly attention in recent decades produces new insights not only for the interpretation of specific biblical passages, but also for the formation of the book of Isaiah and for the history of ancient Near Eastern religions.
Contributors include T. M. Lemos, David Lincicum, Shelly Matthews, Yolanda Norton, and Brent A. Strawn.
What people groups interacted with ancient Israel? Who were the Hurrians and why do they matter? What do we know about the Philistines, the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and others?
In this up-to-date volume, leading experts introduce the peoples and places of the world around the Old Testament, providing students with a fresh exploration of the ancient Near East. The contributors offer comprehensive orientations to the main cultures and people groups that surrounded ancient Israel in the wider ancient Near East, including not only Mesopotamia and the northern Levant but also Egypt, Arabia, and Greece. They also explore the contributions of each people group or culture to our understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures.
This supplementary text is organized by geographic region, making it especially suitable for the classroom and useful in a variety of Old Testament courses. Approximately eighty-five illustrative items are included throughout the book.
Contents
Introduction
Bill T. Arnold and Brent A. Strawn
1. The Amorites
Daniel E. Fleming
2. Assyria and the Assyrians
Christopher B. Hays with Peter Machinist
3. Babylonia and the Babylonians
David S. Vanderhooft
4. Ugarit and the Ugaritians
Mark S. Smith
5. Egypt and the Egyptians
Joel M. LeMon
6. The Hittites and the Hurrians
Billie Jean Collins
7. Aram and the Arameans
K. Lawson Younger Jr.
8. Phoenicia and the Phoenicians
Christopher A. Rollston
9. Transjordan: The Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites
Joel S. Burnett
10. Philistia and the Philistines
Carl S. Ehrlich
11. Persia and the Persians
Pierre Briant
12. Arabia and the Arabians
David F. Graf
13. Greece and the Greeks
Walter Burkert†
Indexes
international and interdisciplinary perspective. Issues such as the hope of resurrection, apocalyptic scenarios,
and cosmic redemption have been a hotbed of religious invention, renewal, and innovation with significant
social consequences.
The questions of eternal life and a revolution of the human condition will not go away. Eschatological beliefs even fund
acts of terror. Their contemporary political significance is immense.
Before asking how to relate constructively to such phenomena, we need to attend to the historical articulation of the eschatological imagination and ask what theology can learn from it. Thus, important junctures in the multifaceted development of eschatological beliefs require careful attention in the diachronic descriptive task. In biblical studies, the roots of beliefs about supernatural afterlife in pre-Christian times have been the subject of heated debate in numerous recent books. What are the historical contexts in which such beliefs have gained new shape?
Contributions in biblical studies probe the fundamental social and political role of eschatological traditions. Such classic texts have given rise to the many different ways in which the eschatological imagination, like a powerful source of energy, erupts or works out in different forms, be it individually,
collectively, in an authoritarian or an emancipatory way. Among the eschatological breeding grounds that draw afresh on ancient traditions, How have eschatological beliefs been translated into social and political practice there?
In other contexts, eschatological traditions have also been abused for acts of terror. This stands in contrast to another function of prominent eschatological traditions, which have funded the quest for justice and care of the weak with fresh inspiration.
To some observers, such phenomena make eschatological beliefs appear simply like unfathomable,
random acts of pious souls immune to critical and constructive interaction. By contrast, there was a flurry of work in eschatology in 20th century protestant academic theology. What shape might the age-old message of eschatological hope take in this context?
This is an important task also in the dialogue between theology and the natural sciences. In particular, the theory of biological evolution has gained dramatically in public attention. It contrasts the typically eschatological imagery of sudden, dramatic change and redemption with slow and incremental processes, often under the pressure of natural selection. But with what justification has tradition singled out humanity,
among all creation, for eschatological redemption? Or does evolutionary biology by itself suggest greater modesty in our hopes for the future?
University of Zurich, Faculty of Theology
Kirchgasse 9, 8001 Zürich
Room 200
11th–12th September 2015