Table of Contents

Part 1. Temples and High Places in Israel and the Canaanite World

1. Like Deities, Like Temples (Like People), Mark S. Smith, Skirball Professor of Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, New York University
2. Massebot in the Israelite Cult: An Argument for making Implicit Cultic Criteria Explicit, Elizabeth Bloch-Smith, Senior staff member on the Tel Dor excavations (she has been adjunct professor at various American universities)
3. From Gibeon to Gibeah: High Place of the Kingdom, Simcha Shalom Brooks, Freelance scholar working in London (teaches part-time at Birkbeck College, London)

Part 2. Temple and Worship in the Old Testament

4. YHWH's Exalted House - Aspects of the Design and Symbolism of Solomon's Temple, Victor (Avigdor) Hurowitz, Professor of Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
5. The Prophets and the Cult, John Barton, Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture, University of Oxford, and Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford
6. Temple and Worship in Isaiah 6, H.G.M. Williamson, Regius Professor of Hebrew, University of Oxford, and Student of Christ Church, Oxford
7. Temple and Worship in Ezekiel 40-48, Paul Joyce, Fellow and Tutor of St Peter's College, Oxford, and Lecturer in Theology (Old Testament) in the University of Oxford
8. Divine Reversal and the Role of the Temple in Trito-Isaiah, Jill Middlemas, Liddon Research Fellow in Theology, Keble College, Oxford, and Hebrew Lector, The Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies
9. Placing (a) God: Central Place Theory in Deuteronomy 12 and Delphi, Anselm Hagedorn, wissenschaftlicher Assistent in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at the Humboldt-Universität, Berlin; previously Kennicott Hebrew Fellow, Oxford University
10. Merely a Container? The Ark in Deuteronomy, Ian Wilson, Freelance scholar working in Cambridge. Life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge
11. Whatever happened to the Ark of the Covenant? John Day, Professor of Old Testament Studies, University of Oxford, and Fellow and Tutor of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
12. Ordeals in the Psalms? Philip Johnston, Tutor in Old Testament and Hebrew, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford Wisdom Psalms, Stuart Weeks, Lecturer in Old Testament and Hebrew, University of Durham
13. The Zion Tradition and the Editing of the Hebrew Psalter, Susan Gillingham, Fellow and Tutor of Worcester College, Oxford, and Lecturer in Theology (Old Testament) in the University of Oxford
14. The Day of Atonement as a Ritual of Validation for the High Priest, Deborah Rooke, Lecturer in Old Testament Studies, King's College, University of London 15. The Temple of David in the Book of Chronicles, John Jarick, Tutor in Old Testament, St Stephen's House, Oxford

Part 3. The Temple in the Late Second Temple Period and the New Testament

16. Understandings of the Temple Service in the Septuagint Pentateuch, C.T.R. Hayward, Professor of Hebrew, University of Durham
17. The Temple in the Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Literature of the Second and First Centuries BCE, Michael Knibb, Samuel Davidson Professor Emeritus of Old Testament Studies, King's College, University of London
18. The Ten Temples in the Dead Sea Scrolls, George Brooke, Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis, University of Manchester
19. New Voices, Ancient Words: The Temple Scroll's Reuse of the Bible, Molly Zahn, Doctoral student in the department of Theology, University of Notre Dame 20. The Temple in First Century CE Judaism, Martin Goodman, Professor of Jewish Studies, University of Oxford, and Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford
21. The Temple in the New Testament, Christopher Rowland, Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture, University of Oxford, and Fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford
22. The Messianic Man of Peace as Temple Builder: Solomonic Imagery in Ephesians 2.13-22, Larry Kreitzer, Fellow and Tutor in New Testament, Regent's Park College, Oxford, and Research Lecturer in Theology in the University of Oxford

Promotional Information

This major work examines the subject of Temple and worship in biblical Israel, ranging from their ancient Near Eastern and archaeological background, through the Old Testament and Late Second Temple Judaism, and up to the New Testament.

About the Author

John Day is Professor of Old Testament Studies in the University of Oxford, and Fellow & Tutor of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. He has written or edited numerous books and articles, and in 2014 is President of the Society for Old Testament Study.

Reviews

"Each essay has been thoroughly researched and many conclude with substantial biographies which help to make this volume a very valuable resource. It represents scholarship at its highest level and between them the contributors have produced a comprehensive study of a central biblcal theme...the interplay between the essays that results from a continuous reading of this volume produces another level of insight into the significance of Temple and worship in the development of Israel's identity and self-understanding. Highly recommended." J.E. Tollington, SOTS Booklist, 2006
*J.E. Tollington *

Review in International Review of Biblical Studies, vol. 54:2007/08

"The essays, expanded versions of lectures delivered to the Oxford Old Testament Seminar between 2001 and 2003, are of exceptionally high quality. The collection is a must for theological libraries."- Richard J. Clifford, 68, 2006
*Catholic Biblical Quarterly*

'The collection as a whole...is a good example of the contemporary flourishing of the kind of rigorous and meticulous historical study that has been a central characteristic of modern Old Testament scholarship....The level of the essays is advanced, appropriate to those at home in Old Testament scholarship. Many aspects of Israel's temple, and practices and literature related to it within their ancient context, are indeed illuminated.' Walter Moberly, Expository Times, 01/10/2006
*Expository Times*

Synopsis' of Individual Reviews by Deborah Rooke / Anselm Hagedorn / HGM WIlliamson / Jill Middlemas / Susan Gillingham / Philip S. Johnston / Simcha Shalom Brooks / Elizabeth Block-Smith / Mark S Smith / Victor Avigdor Hurowitz / John Day / Martin Goodman in the International Review of Biblical Studies
*Intl. Review of Biblical Studies*

"The interweaving of the richly visionary and the precise mathematical in these chapters is striking."
*Intl. Review of Biblical Studies*