Earlham School of Religion & Bethany Theological Seminary: Commentaries

The Women's Bible Commentary is a trusted, classic resource for biblical scholarship, written by some of the best feminist scholars in the field today. This twentieth anniversary edition features brand new or thoroughly revised essays to reflect newer thinking in feminist interpretation and hermeneutics. It comprises commentaries on every book of the Bible, including the apocryphal books; essays on the reception history of women in the Bible; and essays on feminist critical method. The contributors raise important questions and explore the implications of how women and other marginalized people are portrayed in biblical texts, looking specifically at gender roles, sexuality, political power, and family life, while challenging long-held assumptions. This commentary brings modern critical methods to bear on the history, sociology, anthropology, and literature of the relevant time periods to illuminate the context of these biblical portrayals and challenges readers to new understandings.

This commentary contains articles on all the books of the Bible, including the Apocrypha, as well as numerous general articles on biblical interpretation, geographical and historical setting, religion, text, canon, translation, Bible and preaching/teaching, with bibliographies for each article.

This is the first one-volume commentary to emphasize theological questions: what does each biblical book say about God? how does the book describe God and portray God's actions? and who is God in these biblical books? This volume meets the need for a resource that puts the best of scholarship in conversation with the theological claims of the biblical text.

The Queer Bible Commentary brings together the work of several scholars and pastors known for their interest in the areas of gender, sexuality and Biblical studies. Rather than a verse-by-verse analysis, typical of more traditional commentaries, contributors to this volume focus specifically upon those portions of the book that have particular relevance for readers interested in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues such as the construction of gender and sexuality, the reification of heterosexuality, the question of lesbian and gay ancestry within the Bible, the transgendered voices of the prophets, the use of the Bible in contemporary political, socio-economic and religious spheres and the impact upon lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.

It opens a critical window onto the world of interpretation on the African continent and in the multiple diasporas of African peoples, including the African-American experience, with attention to Africana histories, literatures, cultures, and backgrounds for understanding biblical literature. The Africana Bible features a critical commentary on every book of the Hebrew Bible, the Apocrypha, and Pseudepigrapha that are authoritative for many in African and African-diasporan communities worldwide.

This pioneering commentary sets biblical interpretation firmly in the context of African American experience and concern. Cutting-edge scholarship that is in tune with African American churches calls into question many of the canons of traditional biblical research and highlights the role of the Bible in African American history, accenting themes of ethnicity, class, slavery, and African heritage as these play a role in Christian scripture and the Christian odyssey of an emancipated people.

A one-volume commentary, written and edited by South Asian Biblical scholars on all the books of the Bible.