John W. Hilber

A Relevance Theory Approach

Old Testament Cosmology and Divine Accommodation

John H. Walton

Jonathan S. Greer

This authoritative volume brings together a team of world-class scholars to cover the full range of Old Testament backgrounds studies in a concise, up-to-date, and comprehensive manner. With expertise in various subdisciplines of Old Testament backgrounds, the authors illuminate the cultural, social, and historical contexts of the world behind the Old Testament. They introduce readers to a wide range of background materials, covering history, geography, archaeology, and ancient Near Eastern textual and iconographic studies. Meant to be used alongside traditional literature-based canonical surveys, this one-stop introduction to Old Testament backgrounds fills a gap in typical introduction to the Bible courses. It contains over 100 illustrations, including photographs, line drawings, maps, charts, and tables, which will facilitate its use in the classroom.

Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts

Behind the Scenes of the Old Testament

Doubts about the contribution of cult-prophetic speech to psalmody remain in debate. Psalms containing first-person divine speech exhibit numerous features and suggest life settings that conform to actual prophetic speech. Alternative explanations lack comparable examples external to psalms. On the other hand, Assyrian cultic prophecies parallel the characteristics of prophetic speech found in psalms. The Assyrian sources support possible composition and performance scenarios that overcome objections raised against the compatibility of genuine prophecy with psalmody. A model of cultic prophecy remains the best explanation for the origin of psalms containing first-person divine speech.

Cultic Prophecy in the Psalms

In order to reconcile the discrepancies between ancient and modern cosmology, confessional scholars from every viewpoint on the interpretation of the early chapters of Genesis agree that God accommodated language to finite human understanding. But in the history of interpretation, no consensus has emerged regarding what accommodation entails at the linguistic level. More precise consideration of how the ancient cognitive environment functions in the informative intention of the divine and human authors is necessary. Not only does relevance theory validate interpretative options that are inherently most probable within the primary communication situation, but the application of relevance theory can also help disentangle the complexities of dual authorship inherent in any model of accommodation. The results also make a salutary contribution to the theological reading of Scripture.

Der Beitrag kultprophetischer Rede zur Entstehung der Psalmen wird stets diskutiert. Viele Erklärungsmodelle lassen außerbiblische Parallelen außer Acht. Dagegen zeigen assyrische Kultorakel Charakteristika prophetischer Rede, die auch in den Psalmen vorkommen, sowie Kompositions- und Aufführungsszenarien, die für eine Vereinbarkeit von Prophetie und Psalmgesang sprechen. Die beste Erklärung für die Entstehung von Psalmen, die eine Gottesrede enthalten, ist weiterhin ein kultprophetisches Modell.

The primary goal of this commentary is to focus attention on what mattered most to Ezekiel and to craft a direction and scope of application that the prophet himself would recognize were he to preach to God’s people today. In addition to focusing on the most urgent interpretive issues of the text, another goal of this commentary is to explain in simple terms the reasons behind significant translation differences. Embedded in some verses in Ezekiel are particularly complicated or troubling biblical-theological issues. Special topical discussions address these at appropriate locations throughout the commentary.

John W. Hilber

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