CONTENTS Sara Japhet-Preface Nili Wazana-Professor Moshe Weinfeld Moshe Bar-Asher-Professor Moshe Weinfeld Biblical Studies Tova Ganzel-The Status of Functionaries in the Future Temple of Ezekiel Jacob Milgrom-The Unique Features of Ezekiel’s Temple (Ezekiel 40–48) Noam Mizrahi-Linguistic Analysis and Textual Criticism:The Syntax of Obadiah 19–20 in the Masoretic Text and the Ancient Versions Amos Frisch-The Concept of Kingship in Psalms Yael Shemesh-I find woman more bitter than death’ (Ecclesiastes 7:26): Is there Misogyny in the Bible? The Bible in Relation to the Ancient Near East Shawn-Zelig Aster-What Sennacherib Said, and What the Prophet Heard: On the Use of Assyrian Sources in the Prophetic Narrative of the Campaign of 701 BCE Dead Sea Scrolls and Apocryphal Literature Vered Noam-'You Shall Pass Through Fire’ (Numbers 31:23) – An Early Exegetic Tradition Michal Bar-Asher Siegal-The Problem of Evil in the Syriac Translation of the Book of Ben Sira: the Differences between the Hebrew and the Syriac Texts Reconsidered History of Exegesis Yeshayahu Maori-‘Aggadot Hallukot’ in Rashi’s Commentary on Scripture Gila Prebor-The Use of Midrash in Rashi’s Commentary on Ecclesiastes Sara Japhet-Rashbam’s Introduction to his Commentary on Lamentations Aharon Mondschein-‘The Masoretes fabricated explanations for full and deficient spellings’: On Abraham ibn Ezra’s Struggle against the(Ab)use of Biblical Spelling as an Exegetical Tool Book Reviews Eran Viezel-On: Joseph Cohen, Uriel Simon (eds.), R. Abraham IbnEzra: Yesod Mora Ve-Sod Torah – The Foundation of Reverence and the Secret of the Torah, an annotated critical edition, second revised and enlarged version (Sources and Studies, XI, The Institute for Jewish Bible Interpretation, Bar-Ilan University), Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 2007, 272 pp. (in Hebrew) Ronie Goldstein-On: Mariano Gómez Aranda, El comentario de Abraham Ibn Ezra al libro de Job: Edición crítica, traducción y estudio introductorio (Serie A: Literatura Hispanohebrea, 6) Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto de Filología, Madrid 2004, cxl, 342, 94 pp.; Mariano Gómez Aranda, Dos Comentarios de Abraham Ibn Ezra Al Libro de Ester: Edición crítica, traducción y estudio introductorio (Serie A: Literatura Hispanohebrea, 9) Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto de Filología, Madrid 2007, cxxviii, 193, 70 pp. 339

SHNATON - An Annual for Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies – is the most important Hebrew Journal for the research of Biblical Verse and the world in which it existed. It includes article from all areas of research of Biblical Studies in which are included Biblical Verse, Ancient Near East and its History, Languages and Literature all of which are inter linked with Biblical Verse, External Literature, the Judean Desert Scrolls, Ancient translations and the History of Commentary through the generations. The Annual also includes a special critical section for comprehensive criticism of recently published books in these issues.

The twenty-five new studies in this volume present the reader with an up-to-date picture of some of the issues and the methodologies that engage scholars of the Ancient Near East. These essays reflect the broad span of the field, both geographically and chronologically, from Sumerian texts of the third millennium BCE, to the town of Nuzi in Iraqi Kurdistan in the mid-second millennium, from there to inquiries into Assyrian and Babylonian documents and inscriptions, as well as into recently recovered Aramaic ostraca from Idumea in southern Israel dating to the fourth century BCE. Rounding off this varied and rich collection are several investigations concerning Ancient Israel and biblical matters. Specialists from Israel, Europe, the United States, Canada and Japan have joined together in this volume to honor Israel Eph'al, professor emeritus of Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, whose many scholarly achievements are hereby noted.

SHNATON - An Annual for Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies – is the most important Hebrew Journal for the research of Biblical Verse and the world in which it existed. It includes article from all areas of research of Biblical Studies in which are included Biblical Verse, Ancient Near East and its History, Languages and Literature all of which are inter linked with Biblical Verse, External Literature, the Judean Desert Scrolls, Ancient translations and the History of Commentary through the generations. The Annual also includes a special critical section for comprehensive criticism of recently published books in these issues.

For contents please press Sample pages on the right of the cover photo. SHNATON - An Annual for Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies – is the most important Hebrew Journal for the research of Biblical Verse and the world in which it existed. It includes article from all areas of research of Biblical Studies in which are included Biblical Verse, Ancient Near East and its History, Languages and Literature all of which are inter linked with Biblical Verse, External Literature, the Judean Desert Scrolls, Ancient translations and the History of Commentary through the generations. The Annual also includes a special critical section for comprehensive criticism of recently published books in these issues.

More than fifty years ago the discovery of scrolls in eleven caves beside the Dead Sea ignited the imagination of the world. Expectations abounded that the scrolls would reveal actual contemporaneous accounts of the birth of Christianity, perhaps even of the life of Jesus. The research that followed—its inner logic, and what its impassioned highly controversial theories reveal about the framing of facts and the interpreting of texts—is what interests philosopher Edna Ullmann-Margalit in this thoroughly absorbing book. Since the inception of Dead Sea Scrolls research, a central theory has emerged. Known as the Qumran-Essene Hypothesis, it asserts that the scrolls belonged to the Essenes, a sect whose center was at the nearby site of Qumran. In Out of the Cave , Ullmann-Margalit focuses on this theory and the vicissitudes of its career. Looking at the Essene connection, the archaeology of Qumran, and the sectarian nature of the scrolls community, she explores the different arenas in which contesting theories of the scrolls do battle. In this context she finds fascinating examples of issues that exercise philosophers of science as well as the general public issues that only amplify the already intrinsic interest of the Dead Sea scrolls.

What was the balance of power in the battles of Judas Maccabaeus and in Israel's War of Independence? Were they, as is commonly assumed, wars of the few against the many? These questions were discussed in a conference organized by the School of History of the Hebrew University in December 1999. The participants were in general agreement that the discussion of the balance of power must not be confined to the number of troops and that other variables must be taken into account. Nevertheless the numbers of troops is important. Conflicting views were presented on the battles of Judas Maccabaues whereas on the number of troops in Israel's War of Independence there was general agreement. Published in this collection, for the first time, are a General Staff document from 1952 and a research paper by Yehosuha Ben Arie for the IDF History Branch from 1955. Both conclude that in the matter of the number of troops the War of Independence on the whole was not an instance of the few against the many. Other articles, based on lectures delivered at the conference include Bezalel Bar Kochva and Israel Shatzman on the battles of Judas Maccabaeus; Beni Morris and Amitzur Ilan on the balance of forces in the War of Independence, Eyal Nave and Mordechai Bar-On on the evolution of Israeli collective memory of the balance of power and on possible ways of representing the facts of the case in school books; Shmaryahu Ben-Pazi, Moshe Erenwald and Nimrod Hagiladi on three case studies: Safad, The Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem, and Rechovot; and Joseph Heller's essay on the centrality of the 'few against many' theme in David Ben Gurion's thought which widens the scope of the discussion in the conference.

This book contains articles written by Moshe Weinfeld about Early Jewish Liturgy and examines the development of Jewish prayer throughout time.

SHNATON - An Annual for Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies – is the most important Hebrew Journal for the research of Biblical Verse and the world in which it existed. It includes article from all areas of research of Biblical Studies in which are included Biblical Verse, Ancient Near East and its History, Languages and Literature all of which are inter linked with Biblical Verse, External Literature, the Judean Desert Scrolls, Ancient translations and the History of Commentary through the generations. The Annual also includes a special critical section for comprehensive criticism of recently published books in these issues.

This book is a new Edition, amended and expanded, of the essay JEWS AND CHRISTIANS INTERPRET THE BIBLE originally published in 1992. The book is a collection of articles dealing with biblical commentary through the ages which centers mainly on the reciprocal relationship between the Jewish and Christian biblical commentary. These relationships are exposed as a rich and complex system of influence and controversy, which is manifested both explicitly and implicitly. The essays of the Jewish commentators, including Rashi, Rashbam, and R. Yosef Bechor Shor, are studied in light of the cultural world and reality of life at their time and as a response to that era, and the Christian commentary is examined through its complex and multi faceted relationship with the Jewish tradition and the Jewish Biblical Commentary.

The nuclear family in the Ancient Near East and in Israel generally included a father, a mother and children. The whole family was subject to the authority of the father. The father had extensive legal capacities - despite certain restrictions - that had a decisive impact on the fate and economic situation of the whole family. This book investigates the nature of the legal relationship between parents and children and the nature of the patriarchal regime in the Bible and the Ancient Near East. The main questions discussed in the book are: What gives a child legal status? What was the infrastructure and the nature of the legal relationship between parents and children? Did parents have to provide for their children? What was the legal authority of parents to punish their children in respect of unlawful conduct towards them? The book makes an important contribution to understanding the basic issues of character and personality of society in ancient times.