David J. Shepherd

Of all the characters bequeathed to us by the Hebrew Bible, none is more compelling or complex than David. This study traces the language of 'innocent blood' and 'bloodguilt' through David's story in the books of Samuel and 1 Kings, to understand how this concept shapes the entirety of David's history.

King David, Innocent Blood, and Bloodguilt

Richard S. Briggs

In a world in which genuine forgiveness seems as rare a commodity as ever, this collection of essays offers an opportunity to explore where and in what forms forgiveness may be found in the Hebrew Bible—a text which is foundational for Western religions and the cultures they have influenced over the last two millennia. In the wake of renewed interest in forgiveness in antiquity and recent suggestions that it bears little resemblance to modern conceptions, this book investigates the ways in which the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament itself conceptualizes forgiveness. How and in what ways does God forgive? Where, if at all, do we see reconciliation between people in the Old Testament, and what does it look like?

Forgiveness and the Hebrew Bible

Remember Their Sin No More?

Nicholas E. Johnson

This volume offers an examination of Brecht's largely forgotten theatrical fragments of a life of David, written just after the Great War but prior to Brecht winning the Kleist Prize in 1922 and the acclaim that would launch his extraordinary career. David J. Shepherd and Nicholas E. Johnson take as their starting point Brecht's own diaries from the time, which offer a vivid picture of the young Brecht shuttling between Munich and the family home in Augsburg, surrounded by friends, torn between women, desperate for success, and all the while with 'David on the brain'. The analysis of Brecht's David, along with his notebooks and diaries, reveals significant connections between the reception of the Biblical David and one of Germany's most tumultuous cultural periods. Drawing on theatrical experiments conducted with an ensemble from Trinity College Dublin, this volume includes the first ever translation of the David fragments in English, an extensive discussion of the theatrical afterlife of David in the early twentieth century as well as new interdisciplinary insights into the early Brecht: a writer entranced by the biblical David and utterly committed to translating the biblical tradition into his own evolving theatrical idiom.

An Interdisciplinary Study

Bertolt Brecht and the David Fragments (1919-1921)

Christopher J. H. Wright

Two features especially distinguish the Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary series: theological exegesis and theological reflection. Both of these features are fully realized in this THOTC volume on Ezra and Nehemiah by David J. Shepherd and Christopher J. H. Wright. Following an introduction and concise, verse-by-verse commentary on both books, Shepherd and Wright highlight key ways in which these Old Testament texts continue to speak to us today. They closely examine what Ezra and Nehemiah tell us about God and the people of Israel, reflect practically on leadership, and engage critically with those portions of the text (such as Ezra's dissolution of the Judeans' marriages with foreigners) that present special problems for contemporary readers. Offering deep theological insight throughout, this volume will prove essential for students, pastors, and other Christian leaders seeking to engage in theological interpretation of Scripture.

David J. Shepherd

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