Jerusalem/Zion's metaphoric investiture/divestiture of dress is a central force to create new perspectives on reality and of a nation's selfhood in contexts of suffering and destruction, making dress in prophetic metaphors a crucial means of communication and perception management.

Jerusalem/Zion's metaphoric investiture/divestiture of dress is a central force to create new perspectives on reality and of a nation's selfhood in contexts of suffering and destruction, making dress in prophetic metaphors a crucial means of communication and perception management.

The analysis of metaphors constitutes an ideal point of entry into the exegesis of Biblical Hebrew poetic texts because it forces the exegete to examine the said text from a variety of perspectives. How can one discern the presence of metaphorical speech? What are the various types of metaphorical speech available to and employed by the biblical poet? How does the structure of a piece of Hebrew poetry carry its metaphorical dimensions? How did the biblical poet make use of the various types of metaphor and to what end? Can we ultimately gain access to the poet's meaning? The present study endeavours to provide at least a partial answer to these questions. In maintaining focus on the biblical text, moreover, the author hopes to anchor some of the abstractions of metaphorical theory with chosen examples taken from the so-called 'Apocalypse of Isaiah'. The Hebrew prophets constitute fertile ground in their use of metaphorical language for speaking the unspeakable, especially concerning the relationship between the people and God.

According to a longstanding interpretation, book religions are agents of textuality and logocentrism. This volume inverts the traditional perspective: its focus is on the strong dependency between scripture and aesthetics, holy books and material artworks, sacred texts and ritual performances. The contributions, written by a group of international specialists in Western, Byzantine, Islamic and Jewish Art, are committed to a comparative and transcultural approach. The authors reflect upon the different strategies of »clothing« sacred texts with precious materials and elaborate forms. They show how the pretypographic cultures of the Middle Ages used book ornaments as media for building a close relation between the divine words and their human audience. By exploring how art shapes the religious practice of books, and how the religious use of books shapes the evolution of artistic practices this book contributes to a new understanding of the deep nexus between sacred scripture and art.

The Japanese Translations of the Hebrew Bible: History, Inventory and Analysis tells the story of the translation of the Bible into Japanese against the background of the transplanting of Christianity in Japan. It includes a detailed inventory of Old Testament translations, with linguistic and theological analyses of choice verses.

Annotation A study of the phenomenon of prophecy as documented in ancient Near Eastern texts and the Hebrew Bible as well as Greek sources, from the twenty-first century BCE to the second century CE.