General

Abstract

General William J. Urbrock, Christopher T. Begg, Eric J. Wagner, CR, Bernhard Lang, and David A. Bosworth 1. Joel S. Baden and Candida R. Moss, "Reevaluating Biblical Infertility," BARev 43 (5, 2017) 20, 66. While the Bible generally portrays fertility and childbearing as something good and blessed, the command to be fruitful and multiply (Gen 1:28) was never meant to be universal. Women like Dinah, Miriam, and Deborah, who are not said to have offspring, are simply barren—and blameless. Indeed, for Jews and Christians in antiquity, the common vision of the world to come was one in which sex and procreation no longer functioned.—W.J.U. 2. Françoise Briqüel Catonnet and Robert Hawley, "Pierre Bordreuil (*August 28, 1937–†November 13, 2017)," UF 44 (2013) vii-x. The authors provide a brief necrology of Bordreuil, a leading contemporary Semitic epigraphist and philologian, that reviews his life, career and scholarly contributions and pays tribute to the generosity with which he made his knowledge available to colleagues, students and the wider public prior to his unexpected death in November 2013.—C.T.B. 3. Telmo José Amaral de Figueiredo, "Por que falar de sacrifíco? [Why speak of sacrifice?]," EBíb 33 (2016) 13-27. This article is intended to introduce the above issue of EBíb that is devoted to the theme of "sacrifice" in the Bible with special attention to the question of what kind of sacrifices are pleasing to God and which are not. Pursuant to this aim, the article explores anthropological/philosophical conceptions of sacrifice, that of R. Girard in particular, which it presents in some detail. It further briefly reviews the various kinds of sacrifices mentioned in the OT, and concludes with considerations on the sacrifice of Jesus as the "true and unique victim." [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 4. Irmtraud Fischer, "The Views of the Old Testament on Female Sexuality," Ein pralles Leben, 205-14 [see #716]. Sexuality is a central sphere of human life, which is regulated by law, ethics and custom in every society. These rules are, however, only in very few cases—and indeed not at all in historical cultures—set by the individual as a matter of self-determination, but rather by whoever holds power at the time. Ancient women only rarely, and if then only in small numbers, were members of the class of power-holders. The patriarchal society that finds its expression in the OT is no exception in this regard. The relevant OT texts are, however, not to be read as reflections of lived reality, since the legal texts or narratives concerning female sexuality often have, not a descriptive, but rather a prescriptive character. F.'s article begins with considerations concerning the sexual conceptions found in the OT's creation texts and then seeks to situate OT statements about motherhood, female sexual pleasure, and the restrictions placed on female sexuality within the social structures of ancient Israel. In this connection, F. also addresses the specific vulnerability of women's sexuality and the problem of sexualized violence in biblical metaphorical discourse. She ends by advocating [End Page 1] the development of a "gender-fair" sexual ethic for contemporary church praxis. [Translated from published abstract—C.T.B.] 5. M. J. Geller, "Debunking Ancient Jewish Science," JAOS 137 (2017) 393-400. A recently published collection of articles, entitled Ancient Jewish Science and the History of Knowledge in Second Temple Literature (ed. J. Ben-Dov and S. Sanders, 2014), focuses upon a relatively small group of ancient Jewish texts dealing mainly with astronomical calculations and omens as well as physiognomic omens, and attempts to use these as a basis for reconstructing ancient Jewish science in the Persian and Hellenistic periods. G.'s review essay raises questions regarding the collection's aims and methods and proposes an alternative suggestion for the transfer of technical knowledge from Babylonia to ancient Palestine. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 6. Jaco Gericke, "The Meaning of Moses' Life: An Analytic and Comparative-Philosophical Perspective," OTE 30 (2017) 315-36. Against the backdrop...