Reading Other Peoples' Texts - (Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies) by Ken S Brown & Alison L Joseph & Brennan Breed (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This volume draws together eleven essays by scholars of the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, Greco-Roman religion and early Judaism, to address the ways that conceptions of identity and otherness shape the interpretation of biblical and other religiously authoritative texts.

The contributions explore how interpreters of scriptural texts regularly assume or assert an identification between their own communities and those described in the text, while ignoring the cultural, social, and religious differences between themselves and the text's earliest audiences. Comparing a range of examples, these essays address varying ways in which social identity has shaped the historical contexts, implied audiences, rhetorical shaping, redactional development, literary appropriation, and reception history of particular texts over time. Together, they open up new avenues for studying the relations between social identity, scriptural interpretation, and religious authority.

Review Quotes

"This stimulating volume of essays draws attention to the fact that, in some sense, all acts of reading are reading other people's texts and that scholars should be attentive to the range of actual and potential meanings these readings produce. The collection genuinely points to new directions in the conversations around interpretation and identity creation of ancient texts. As such, it makes a valuable contribution to reception history and does precisely what an edited collection of this sort ought to do." --Review of Biblical Literature

About the Author

Ken Brown is Lecturer at Whitworth University, USA.

Alison L. Joseph is Senior Editor of The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary, USA.

Brennan Breed is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary, USA.