Opening Israel's Scriptures

Opening Israel's Scriptures is a collection of thirty-six essays on the Hebrew Bible, from Genesis to Chronicles, which gives powerful insight into the complexity and inexhaustibility of the Hebrew Scriptures as a theological resource. Based on more than two decades of lectures on Old Testament interpretation, Ellen F. Davis offers a selective yet comprehensive guide to the core concepts, literary patterns, storylines, and theological perspectives that are central to Israel's Scriptures. Underlying the whole study is the primary assumption that each book of the canon has literary and theological coherence, though not uniformity.

In both her close readings of individual texts and in her broad demonstrations of the coherence of whole books, Davis models the best practices of contemporary exegesis, integrating the insights of contemporary scholars with those of classical theological resources in Jewish and Christian traditions. Throughout, she keeps an eye to the experiences and concerns of contemporary readers, showing through multiple examples that the critical interpretation of texts is provisional, open-ended work--a collaboration across generations and cultures. Ultimately what she offers is an invitation into the more spacious world that the Bible discloses, which challenges ordinary conceptions of how things "really" are.

Ellen F. Davis is Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke University. She has previously held positions at Union Theological Seminary, Yale University, and Virginia Theological Seminary. She is a theological consultant within the Anglican Communion and the author of Preaching the Luminous Word, Biblical Prophecy, and Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: an Agrarian Reading of the Bible.

Introduction
Doing Justice: The Practical and Critical Interpretation of Scripture

1 Genesis
"As Our Image" - Genesis 1:1-2:3
Complementarity and Rupture - Genesis 2:4-11:32
Beginning with Blessing - Genesis 12-50

2 Exodus
Getting Out of Egypt - Exodus 1-15
Becoming God's People - Exodus 16-40

3 Leviticus
Embodying Holiness - Leviticus 1-15
At-Onement with YHWH and with Land - Leviticus 16-27

4 Numbers
Marked for Blessing, Plagued by Sin - Numbers 11-24
Slowing Down for Violence - Numbers 5 and 25

5 Deuteronomy
Learning to Love and to Fear - Deuteronomy 1-11
Torah and Life in the Land - Deuteronomy 12-34

6 Joshua
The Un-Conquest Narrative - Joshua
The Big Upheaval: Canaan in the Thirteenth Century - Excursus

7 Judges
Leadership and Its Discontents - Judges

8 Ruth
Vulnerable Protectors - Ruth

9 1-2 Samuel & 1 Kings
The United Monarchy: The Hope That (Mostly) Failed - Preface
The Tragedy of the Chosen: Saul's Kingship - 1 Samuel
David in Perspective - 2 Samuel
Wisdom, Power, Worship: Solomon's Reign - 1 Kings 1-12
The Sovereignty of the Prophetic Word - 1 Kings 13-21

10 Minor Prophets
An Eighth-Century Poetry Jam: Prophetic Performances - Preface
Questioning Prosperity - Amos
Justice and Intimacy - Micah and Hosea
Hating Our Enemies - 2 Kings, Nahum, and Jonah

11 Isaiah
Seeing the King - Isaiah 1-39
The Vision Expands - Isaiah 40-66

12 Jeremiah & Lamentations
Well Acquainted with Grief - Preface
Telling God the Truth - Jeremiah
The Love Poetry of Disaster - Lamentations

13 Ezekiel
Prophecy at the End of the World - Ezekiel and Haggai

14 The Psalms
Reality and Praise - Psalms
The Wisdom of Lament - Psalms

15 Proverbs & Ecclesiastes
The Poetry of the Ordinary - Proverbs and Ecclesiastes

16 Job & the Song of Songs
Intimacy with God: The Agony and the Ecstasy - Preface
Learning to Struggle with God - Job
The Ecstasy of Intimacy - Song of Songs

17 Esther & Daniel
Equipping Jewish Imagination in a Gentile World - Preface
Joking about Genocide - Esther
Surviving the Furnace of History - Daniel

18 Ezra-Nehemiah & 1-2 Chronicles
Negotiating Identity - Preface
Settling the Land a Second Time - Ezra-Nehemiah
Reading the Story Once More - 1-2 Chronicles

Glossary

Scripture Index

Index