Friendship in the Hebrew Bible

Friendship in the Hebrew Bible

by Saul M. Olyan
Friendship in the Hebrew Bible

Friendship in the Hebrew Bible

by Saul M. Olyan

eBook

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Overview

The first comprehensive study of friendship in the Hebrew Bible  

Friendship, though a topic of considerable humanistic and cross disciplinary interest in contemporary scholarship, has been largely ignored by scholars of the Hebrew Bible, possibly because of its complexity and elusiveness. Filling a significant gap in our knowledge and understanding of biblical texts, Saul M. Olyan provides this original, accessible analysis of a key form of social relationship. In this thorough and compelling assessment, Olyan analyzes a wide range of texts, including prose narratives, prophetic materials, psalms, pre-Hellenistic wisdom collections, and the Hellenistic-era wisdom book Ben Sira. This in-depth, contextually sensitive, and theoretically engaged study explores how the expectations of friends and family members overlap and differ, examining, among other things, characteristics that make the friend a distinct social actor; failed friendship; and friendships in narratives such as those of Ruth and Naomi, and Jonathan and David. Olyan presents a comprehensive look at what constitutes friendship in the Hebrew Bible. 

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780300184228
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publication date: 01/10/2017
Series: Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 288
File size: 1 MB

About the Author

Saul M. Olyan is the Samuel Ungerleider Jr. Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of Religious Studies at Brown University, where he has taught since 1992. His books include Social Inequality in the World of the Text: The Significance of Ritual and Social Distinctions in the Hebrew Bible, Disability in the Hebrew Bible: Interpreting Mental and Physical Differences, and Biblical Mourning: Ritual and Social Dimensions.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

List of Abbreviations xi

Introduction 1

1 Friends and Family 11

2 Failed Friendship 38

3 Friendship in Narrative 61

4 Friendship in Ben Sira 87

Conclusion 104

Notes 117

Index of Passages 171

Index of Subjects 185

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