CWRU Faculty Authors

A book for families to share, Moses' Ark is an engaging collection of thirteen stories--some well known, some lesser known--based on the new translations from the Hebrew and written especially for young people. The retellings and explantory notes that follow each story capture the wit and humor of the original language and show daily life in vivid detail. This collection includes tales of Adam and Eve, Noah's Ark, and how Miriam saved her baby brother, Moses. Readers also will discover Jotham's Fable and Saul's meeting with the medium at Endor, among others, paired with stunning full-page illustrations by two-time Caldecott-winning artists, Leo and Diane Dillon.

These essays in honor of Professor Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza come from international feminist scholars indebted to her ground-breaking achievements in the areas of biblical studies, feminist thought and social justice. The contributors represent a wide variety of backgrounds, commitments, methodologies, talents and interests. They are united here by their appreciation for Schussler Fiorenza as a scholar, teacher, mentor, colleague and friend. The spectrum is full of vitality, with important convergences and intersections. It exemplifies what Schussler Fiorenza has called 'critical collaboration': women thinking together and creating together. This Festschrift is unique in that it celebrates the work of women in the field. On the Cutting Edge is indexed in H.W. Wilson's Essay and General Literature Index.

This accessible, readable book looks at the cultural study of the Bible, challenging the traditional mode of reading the women in the Bible. Alice Bach applies literary theory, cultural representations of biblical figures, films, and paintings to a close reading of a group of biblical texts revolving around the 'wicked' literary figures in the Bible. She compares the biblical character of the wife of Potiphar with the Second Temple Period narratives and rabbinic midrashim that expand her story. She then reads Bathsheba against a Yiddish novel by David Pinski, and finally looks at the Biblical Salome against a very different Salome created by Oscar Wilde, and the selection of Salomes created by Hollywood. Bach argues that biblical characters have a life in the mind of the reader independent of the stories in which they were created, thus making the reader the site at which the texts and the cultures that produced them come together.

Could you trust a woman named Delilah with pair of scissors? Would you eat food offered by a curious Eve? This text presents a broad overview covering the place of women in the writings in the Old Testament. The essays examine attitudes toward women and their status in ancient Near Eastern societies, focusing on the Israelite society portrayed by the Hebrew Bible. This collection offers a selection of writings about the social, cultural and gender codes reflected in Biblical texts.