Temple and Worship in Biblical Israel

edited by John Day

Library of Hebrew Bible. T & T Clark, Harrisburg, 2005. 559 pp. $175.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-567-04262-6.

A major work, this book comprises twenty-three essays on the ideology, architecture, and religious symbolism of temples and worship in the ancient Near East, Old Testament, Second Temple Judaism, and the New Testament. Special attention is given to the light shed on Temple worship by the Psalms; the role and fate of the Ark of the Covenant; and the Day of Atonement.

The Ten Commandments: The Reciprocity of Faithfulness

edited by William P. Brown

Library of Theological Ethics. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2005. 349 pp. $34.95 ISBN 0-664-22323-0.

This volume incorporates essays from classic works together with those by recent scholars. It includes an investigation of the history of interpretation of the Ten Commandments as well as reflections on each individual commandment and the Decalogue as a whole.

The God You Have: Politics, Religion, and the First Commandment

by Patrick Miller

Facets. Fortress, Minneapolis, 2004. 96 pp. $6.00. ISBN 0-8006-3662-7.

This brief and accessible volume confronts the appropriation of theological themes for political means, including the fusion of God and country, conflating loyalty and obedience, and the infiltration of religious language into political speech.

The Commentator's Bible: Exodus

by Michael Carasik

Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 2005. 349 pp. $75.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8276-0812-8.

This contemporary translation of the writings of Jewish scholars on the Book of Exodus over a period of nearly 1,000 years contains both annotation and explanation. Hebrew verses of the Book of Exodus are placed alongside the 1917 and 1985 JPS translations.

Smooth Words: Women, Proverbs and Performance in Biblical Wisdom

by Carole R. Fontaine

T & T Clark, Harrisburg, 2004. 296 pp. $49.95. ISBN 0-567-04270-7.

This second edition of a 2002 study of Proverbs employs folklore methodology and performance studies. Fontaine demonstrates that women served as public and cultural "performers" of wisdom traditions regarding teaching, economics, and care-giving.

Apocalypticism, Anti-Semitism and the Historical Jesus: Subtexts in Criticism

edited by John S. Kloppenborg and John W. Marshall

Journal for the Study of the New Testament. T & T Clark, Harrisburg, 2005. 141 pp. $95.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-567-08428-0.

This collection seeks to answer the question of what is at stake in the Jewishness of Jesus and whether he was an apocalypticist. Scholars address ideology, conflict, construction, and apologetics as they tackle these two aspects of the Historical Jesus.