In December, a volume co-edited by Izaak de Hulster, a post-doctoral researcher in CSTT’s team 1, and Joel M. LeMon, Emory University, was published by Bloomsbury T&T Clark. The volume is entitled ‘Image, Text, Exegesis: Iconographic Interpretation and the Hebrew Bible‘ (The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 588).
Here is the abstract:
Images from the ancient Near East are an important though generally underutilized source of data for interpreting the Hebrew Bible and the cultural context from which it emerged. The essays in this volume highlight the ways that ancient Near Eastern iconography can inform exegesis. This aim is accomplished through case studies in iconographic exegesis that exhibit sound methodologies for relating images and texts.
Since the 1970s, biblical scholars have been turning increasingly to iconography as a source for understanding the religion, history and literature of the ancient Near East. The essays in this volume tackle two thorny issues: 1) how images reflect the cultures that produce them and 2) the nature of the relationship between images and texts, both within discrete cultures and among different cultures. Until now, there have been relatively few methodologically self-conscious treatments of ancient iconography and its relationship to the biblical text. So this volume addresses a clear need for demonstrating transparent and consistent methods for iconographic work among biblical scholars.
And here is the table of contents:
Izaak J. de Hulster and Joel M. LeMon — “Introduction: The Interpretive Nexus of Image and Text”
Elizabeth Bloch-Smith — “Acculturating Gender Roles: Goddess Images as Conveyors of Culture in Ancient Israel”
Rüdiger Schmitt — “Mixed Creatures and the Assyrian Influence on the West Semitic Glyptic Repertoire”
Meir Lubetski — “The Function and Meaning of myʾmn on Hebrew Seals in Light of Accompanying Iconography”
Amy Gansell — “The Iconography of Ideal Feminine Beauty Represented in the Hebrew Bible and Iron Age Levantine Ivory Sculpture”
Jackie Wyse-Rhodes — “Finding Asherah: The Goddesses in Text and Image”
Brent A. Strawn — “The Iconography of Fear: yir’at yhwh (יראת יהוה) in Artistic Perspective”
Martin Klingbeil — “Children I have raised and brought up” (Isaiah 1:2): Female Metaphors for God in Isaiah and the iconography of the Syro-Palestinian Goddess Asherah”
Thomas Staubli — “Images of Justification”
Meindert Dijkstra — “The Ivory Beds and Houses of Samaria in Amos”
Maria Metzler and Michael Chan — “Lions and Leopards and Bears, O My: Re-Reading Isaiah 11:6-9 in Light of Comparative Iconographic and Literary Evidence”
Izaak J. de Hulster — “A God of the Mountains? An Iconographic Perspective on 1 Kings 20:23”
Hans Ulrich Steymans — “The Egyptian Deity Menkeret and Psalm 89 as a Royal Funeral Song”
Izaak J. de Hulster — “Practical Resources for Iconographic Exegesis”
The hardback version costs $120 and the e-book version $33,99. For more information see the website of Bloomsbury.