Friendship in the Hebrew Bible
Author | : Saul M. Olyan |
Publisher | : Yale University Press |
Total Pages | : 206 |
Release | : 2017-01-10 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780300184228 |
ISBN-13 | : 0300184220 |
Rating | : 4/5 (220 Downloads) |
Download or read book Friendship in the Hebrew Bible written by Saul M. Olyan and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-10 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive study of friendship in the Hebrew Bible Friendship, though a topic of considerable humanistic and cross disciplinary interest in contemporary scholarship, has been largely ignored by scholars of the Hebrew Bible, possibly because of its complexity and elusiveness. Filling a significant gap in our knowledge and understanding of biblical texts, Saul M. Olyan provides this original, accessible analysis of a key form of social relationship. In this thorough and compelling assessment, Olyan analyzes a wide range of texts, including prose narratives, prophetic materials, psalms, pre-Hellenistic wisdom collections, and the Hellenistic-era wisdom book Ben Sira. This in-depth, contextually sensitive, and theoretically engaged study explores how the expectations of friends and family members overlap and differ, examining, among other things, characteristics that make the friend a distinct social actor; failed friendship; and friendships in narratives such as those of Ruth and Naomi, and Jonathan and David. Olyan presents a comprehensive look at what constitutes friendship in the Hebrew Bible.