100 Quotes About Old-testament

The most remarkable observation one can make about this interface of exilic circumstance and scriptural resource is this: Exile did not lead Jews in the Old Testament to abandon faith or to settle for abdicating despair, nor to retreat to privatistic religion. On the contrary, exile evoked the most brilliant literature and the most daring theological articulation in the Old Testament.

The experience of this demoralizing crisis [of the Babylonian exile], which appeared to negate all the central elements that Yahweh had ordained for Israel's well-being, could easily have meant the end of Israel's religion. Remarkably, it provoked instead an almost explosive flowering of theological literature during the exilic period. (p. 139)

The experience of this demoralizing crisis [of the Babylonian exile], which appeared to negate all the central elements that Yahweh had ordained for Israel's well-being, could easily have meant the end of Israel's religion. Remarkably, it provoked instead an almost explosive flowering of theological literature during the exilic period.

The assessment of the impact of the Babylonian exile must make far more use of nonbiblical documents, archaeological reports, and a far more imaginative use of biblical texts read in the light of what we know about refugee studies, disaster studies, postcolonialist reflections, and sociologies of trauma. (p. 33)

The over-extended domain of Yahweh should not be regarded as the consequence of a rapid diffusion of the Israelite religion during the First Temple period. It is rather the expression of a very ancient homology (if not identity) existing between the gods of metallurgy during the Bronze Age. (p. 403)(from 'Yahweh, the Canaanite God of Metallurgy?', JSOT 33.4 (2009): 387-404)

Rather than Jethro's conversion to Yahwism, therefore, [in Exod. 18] we are witnessing 'the first incorporation of the Israelite leaders into the worship of Yahweh'.(p. 135)(from 'The Midianite-Kenite Hypothesis Revisited and the Origins of Judah', JSOT 33.2 (2008): 131-153)

There has been and is much disagreement among theologians about the god honored among the Hebrews.(De mensibus 4.53, sixth century C.E.)

By analysis of biblical texts, some scholars have assumed for a long time that Yahweh was formerly worshipped in the south of Canaan (especially Edom and/or by the Kenites). The claim that 'Yahweh comes from Seir' [Judges 5.4] has been strengthened by the discovery of Canaanite inscriptions evoking 'Yahweh of Teman', but also Egyptian writings mentioning Negeb and northern Sinai as 'the land of Ywh [sic]'. (p. 389)from 'Yahweh, the Canaanite God of Metallurgy?', JSOT 33.4 (2009): 387-404

The idea of an Edomite origin for Yahweh may be of crucial importance for discovering his former identity, because the south-eastern part of Canaan was known from the earliest times as a very important place for copper metallurgy. (p. 389)from 'Yahweh, the Canaanite God of Metallurgy?', JSOT 33.4 (2009): 387-404