“Who is like Yahweh?”
A Study of Divine Metaphors in the Book of Micah
By (author) Juan Cruz
Hardback (Published)
(February 2016)
ISBN: 9783525540473
6.34 x 9.33 inches
Price: $163.00
In stock
Recent theology has seen a renewed vigour in debates about the nature and character of God. Juan Cruz turns to one of the prophetic books in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Micah, to consider the metaphors it uses to portray the God of Israel and what they reveal about the deity. The two sets of metaphors respectively present Yahweh in a positive and a negative light. Drawing on insights from philosophy and literary studies, and making particular use of the theories of Benjamin Harshav, Juan Cruz explores the divine metaphors by analysing the arguments they make within their respective literary units and in the context of the whole book, as well as the significant tensions that develop between the metaphors.
Recent theology has seen a renewed vigour in debates about the nature and character of God. Juan Cruz turns to one of the prophetic books in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Micah, to consider the metaphors it uses to portray the God of Israel and what they reveal about the deity. The book of Micah contains two dominant types of metaphor for Yahweh, namely the legal metaphors in 1:2-16 and 6:1-16 and the pastoral metaphors in 2:12-13, 4:6-7, 5:1-4a and 7:14-20. The former type of metaphors presents Yahweh in a courtroom setting, where he accuses his people of their sins, brings a lawsuit against them, and pronounces their judgement. The pastoral metaphors, on the other hand, describe Yahweh as the shepherd of his people, primarily concerned with the restoration and well-being of Israel. The two sets of metaphors therefore respectively present Yahweh in a positive and a negative light. Drawing on insights from philosophy and literary studies, and making particular use of the theories of Benjamin Harshav, Juan Cruz explores the divine metaphors by analysing the arguments they make within their respective literary units and in the context of the whole book, as well as the significant tensions that develop between the metaphors. The volume provides helpful tools to analyse metaphors for God, which may be also used for analysis of non-divine metaphors, and should contribute to our theological understanding of God in the Hebrew Bible, most especially in the book of Micah, a book whose title bears the meaning, “Who is like Yahweh?”.
Juan Cruz, PhD, is former lecturer of Old Testament and Biblical Hebrew in PTS College & Advanced Studies, Philippines, from 2004-2010.
- By (author) Juan Cruz
Other Titles in this Series
Paulus und die antike Welt
Beiträge zur zeit- und religionsgeschichtlichen Erforschung des paulinischen Christentums
How Prophecy Works
A Study of the Semantic Field of נביא and a Close Reading of Jeremiah 1:4–19, 23:9–40 and 27:1–28:17
Jakob, der ambivalente Ahnherr Israels
Die Jakoberzählung auf dem Weg von der Volks- zur Völkergeschichte
Die „Ich-Sphäre“ des Beters
Eine anthropologische Untersuchung zur Selbstreflexion des Beters am Beispiel von Ps 42/43
Die Geschichte des Motivkomplexes Theophanie
Seine Elemente, Einbindung in Geschehensabläufe und Verwendungsweisen in altisraelitischer, frühjüdischer und frühchristlicher Literatur
Christologie und Ethik im Philipperbrief
Studien zur Handlungsorientierung einer frühchristlichen Gemeinde in paganer Umwelt
Macht und Weisheit
Untersuchungen zur politischen Anthropologie in den Erzählungen vom Absalomaufstand
Expanding Ezekiel
The Hermeneutics of Scribal Addition in the Ancient Text Witnesses of the Book of Ezekiel
From Qumran to Aleppo
A Discussion with Emanuel Tov about the Textual History of Jewish Scriptures in Honor of his 65th Birthday
Similar Books
Apocrypha, Magic, Liturgy
The Multiple Identities of Coptic Prayers in Late Antique and Early Islamic Egypt
Athanasius of Alexandria, Epistula ad episcopos Aegypti et Libyae
Old Slavonic Version and English Translation
Volume 261
Contesting Labeled Identities
The Sociology of Gentilics in Biblical and Northwest Semitic Literature
Cyril of Alexandria’s Christological Exegesis
Explorations of Partitive Exegesis in the Dialogues on the Trinity
Volume 70
Epiphanies of the Divine in the Septuagint and the New Testament
Fifth International Symposium of the Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti (CJHNT), 14-17 May 2015, Nottingham
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
From Joseph to Jesus
The Joseph Narrative as a Compositional Template from Old Greek Esther to the Gospel of Luke
Volume 125
Nicholas of Lyra’s Commentaries on the Gospels of Matthew and Luke
Franciscan Exegesis in a Time of Crisis
Paradise Lost in Transmission
The Return to Eden in the Apocalypse of Peter within Its Ethiopic and Early Christian Contexts
Punning in Odd or Elegant Constructions in Jeremiah
The Convergence of Linguistics, Rhetoric, and Textuality in the Hebrew Text of Jeremiah
Reformed Covenantal Eudaimonism
Wilhelmus à Brakel (1635–1711) on Highest Good, Virtue, and Law
Volume 87