Opening Israel's Scriptures: Collected Essays

Opening Israel's Scriptures is a collection of thirty-six essays on the Hebrew Bible, from Genesis to Chronicles, which gives powerful insight into the complexity and inexhaustibility of the Hebrew Scriptures as a theological resource. Based on more than two decades of lectures on Old Testament interpretation, Ellen F. Davis offers a selective yet comprehensive guide to the core concepts, literary patterns, storylines, and theological perspectives that are central to Israel's Scriptures. Underlying the whole study is the primary assumption that each book of the canon has literary and theological coherence, though not uniformity.In both her close readings of individual texts and in her broad demonstrations of the coherence of whole books, Davis models the best practices of contemporary exegesis, integrating the insights of contemporary scholars with those of classical theological resources in Jewish and Christian traditions. Throughout, she keeps an eye to the experiences and concerns of contemporary readers, showing through multiple examples that the critical interpretation of texts is provisional, open-ended work--a collaboration across generations and cultures. Ultimately what she offers is an invitation into the more spacious world that the Bible discloses, which challenges ordinary conceptions of how things "really" are.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Doing Justice: The Practical and Critical Interpretation of Scripture 1 Genesis "As Our Image" - Genesis 1:1-2:3 Complementarity and Rupture - Genesis 2:4-11:32 Beginning with Blessing - Genesis 12-50 2 Exodus Getting Out of Egypt - Exodus 1-15 Becoming God's People - Exodus 16-40 3 Leviticus Embodying Holiness - Leviticus 1-15 At-Onement with YHWH and with Land - Leviticus 16-27 4 Numbers Marked for Blessing, Plagued by Sin - Numbers 11-24 Slowing Down for Violence - Numbers 5 and 25 5 Deuteronomy Learning to Love and to Fear - Deuteronomy 1-11 Torah and Life in the Land - Deuteronomy 12-34 6 Joshua The Un-Conquest Narrative - Joshua The Big Upheaval: Canaan in the Thirteenth Century - Excursus 7 Judges Leadership and Its Discontents - Judges 8 Ruth Vulnerable Protectors - Ruth 9 1-2 Samuel & 1 Kings The United Monarchy: The Hope That (Mostly) Failed - Preface The Tragedy of the Chosen: Saul's Kingship - 1 Samuel David in Perspective - 2 Samuel Wisdom, Power, Worship: Solomon's Reign - 1 Kings 1-12 The Sovereignty of the Prophetic Word - 1 Kings 13-21 10 Minor Prophets An Eighth-Century Poetry Jam: Prophetic Performances - Preface Questioning Prosperity - Amos Justice and Intimacy - Micah and Hosea Hating Our Enemies - 2 Kings, Nahum, and Jonah 11 Isaiah Seeing the King - Isaiah 1-39 The Vision Expands - Isaiah 40-66 12 Jeremiah & Lamentations Well Acquainted with Grief - Preface Telling God the Truth - Jeremiah The Love Poetry of Disaster - Lamentations 13 Ezekiel Prophecy at the End of the World - Ezekiel and Haggai 14 The Psalms Reality and Praise - Psalms The Wisdom of Lament - Psalms 15 Proverbs & Ecclesiastes The Poetry of the Ordinary - Proverbs and Ecclesiastes 16 Job & the Song of Songs Intimacy with God: The Agony and the Ecstasy - Preface Learning to Struggle with God - Job The Ecstasy of Intimacy - Song of Songs 17 Esther & Daniel Equipping Jewish Imagination in a Gentile World - Preface Joking about Genocide - Esther Surviving the Furnace of History - Daniel 18 Ezra-Nehemiah & 1-2 Chronicles Negotiating Identity - Preface Settling the Land a Second Time - Ezra-Nehemiah Reading the Story Once More - 1-2 Chronicles Glossary Scripture Index Index

About the Author :
Ellen F. Davis is Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke University. She has previously held positions at Union Theological Seminary, Yale University, and Virginia Theological Seminary. She is a theological consultant within the Anglican Communion and the author of Preaching the Luminous Word, Biblical Prophecy, and Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: an Agrarian Reading of the Bible.

Review :
"Opening Israel's Scriptures offers a readable, engaging and canonically rangy collection of theological close readings. I suspect that they would spark enthusiasm for Israel's scriptures as a textbook for a first-year seminary course, in complement to the usual more workmanlike, historical introduction." -- Collin Cornell, Scottish Journal of Theology "Davis's collection of essays is a theologically, philologically, historically, and culturally informed reading of Scripture that demonstrates a useful hermeneutic for both Jewish and Christian readers of the HB/OT." -- Amy N. Allan, Presbyterion "Those of us who put Scripture to use in the context of contemporary faith communities will find much to emulate in this volume, and it should find a place on every faithful reader of Scripture's bookshelf." -- Heath D. Dewrell, Princeton Theological Seminary, Review of Biblical Literature "This book is recommended to those who are beginning more advanced study of the OT for the first time, especially if they have done little text work before." -- Francis Loftus, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament "In all this is a rich suggestive offering of a daringly fresh kind. Davis moves beyond conventions of scholarship that have domesticated the text. Her discussion permits Jews and Christians to read together through the prisms of our different traditions. This reading is indeed "provisional, open-ended, collaborative" -- Walter Brueggemann, Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology "There is much in Opening Israel's Scripture to ponder and much to help with navigating this sometimes very distant and strange world of the Old Testament/Hebrew Scriptures. Davis is a worthy guide and a patient teacher. She writes with a generosity and love for her subject that inspires confidence and bids the reader to continue delving into these texts." -- Anthony J. Petrotta, The Living Church "The entirety of the Hebrew Bible presented compellingly, edifyingly, with hermeneutical brilliance -- what an achievement! My seminarians and I have pined for this sort of sweeping illumination of the artistry, joy, tears, and formative power of Israel's Scriptures. We are eager to emulate Davis's attunement to the inner dialogs of Scripture, her habits of relentless rumination on troubling texts, and her engagement with fascinating and diverse reading partners, ranging from premodern rabbis to modern African church leaders." -- Stephen L. Cook, author of Ezekiel 38-48 "Over the course of her distinguished career, Ellen Davis has consistently shown us how to read the Bible as it deserves and demands to be read -- slowly, carefully, lovingly, with openness of both heart and mind. Opening Israel's Scriptures is a treasure, at once literarily astute, theologically profound, and spiritually uplifting. It is positively studded with arresting insights, enabling us to see old texts with new eyes. Davis writes in a distinctively Christian yet wholeheartedly inclusive voice, eager to learn with and from others. A beautiful book to be read, re-read, and cherished." -- Rabbi Shai Held, author of The Heart of Torah: Essays on the Weekly Torah Portion "Ellen Davis gives us rich food for stimulating reflection on every page. She combines her profound understanding of the Hebrew text and its world with the illuminating experience of teaching it in other cultural communities such as women in South Sudan, and brings the Scriptures into sharp engagement with contemporary social realities and personal faith. Even points of disagreement will leave a reader enriched with challenging fresh insights." -- Christopher J. H. Wright, author of Old Testament Ethics for the People of God