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Item Deuteronomy, the Deuteronomistic history, and the books of Joshua through Kings(Oxford University Press, 2025-01-31) Thelle, Rannfrid I.; Thelle, Rannfrid I.Abstract for chapter: Martin Noth’s Deuteronomistic History hypothesis built on earlier source criticism that saw some form of Deuteronomy as one of the sources of the Pentateuch or Hexateuch. Source critics had argued for the presence of the D-source also in other biblical books. According to Noth the Deuteronomistic historian wrote a unified history in the exilic period comprising Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. Following Noth, this hypothesis was developed in two main directions: the double redaction hypothesis and the concept of successive redactions. This chapter charts these developments and ends by exploring ways of reading Deuteronomy in relation to the books of Joshua through Kings using a literary approach, independently of the Deuteronomistic History hypothesis.Item Jehu's Tribute: What can Biblical studies offer Assyriology?(The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2025-06) Cooley, Jeffrey L.; Thelle, Rannfrid I.; Thelle, Rannfrid I."The findings of Assyriology have been applied to biblical studies ever since the former emerged as a scholarly discipline in the mid-nineteenth century. Today, the scholarly flow from Assyriology to biblical studies continues, yet rarely are the fruits of biblical scholarship brought to bear on the study of ancient Assyria and Babylon. The present volume aims to reverse this unidirectional trend. Considering that the literature preserved in the Hebrew Bible is the product of a people who had significant contact with both Assyria and Babylonia, then surely the study of the Hebrew Bible has something to offer Assyriology. But what? The contributors approach this question from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including intellectual history, museology, and religious and political history. The authors also offer broad methodological considerations and more focused, text-based case studies. Written by leading scholars in the fields of Assyriology and Hebrew Bible, Jehu's Tribute presents a fresh approach to the multifaceted relationship between Assyriology and biblical studies. In addition to the volume editors, the contributors include Céline Debourse, Jessie DeGrado, Eckart Frahm, Shalom E. Holtz, Gina Konstantopoulos, Alan Lenzi, Alice Mandell, Dustin Nash, Beate Pongratz-Leisten, Seth Sanders, Anthony P. SooHoo, SJ, and Abraham Winitzer." (Provided by publisher)Item The minor prophets’ relation to the Torah and former prophets(Oxford University Press, 2021-02) Thelle, Rannfrid I.This essay tracks references to Israel’s past in the Minor Prophets as one avenue into exploring their connections to the Torah and Former Prophets, while also observing ways in which shared or similar traditions shape prophetic rhetoric. Key themes emerge, such as God’s character, apostasy and idolatry, covenant and judgment, and critique of power and leadership. Specific remarks, particularly in the last of the Twelve, indicate complex and innovative processes of the reinterpretation of Torah and prophecy. These derive canonical meaning when the Book of the Twelve is read in relation to the Torah and Former Prophets as authoritative collections.Item Matrices of motherhood in Judges 5(SAGE, 2019-05-07) Thelle, Rannfrid I.In Judges 5, patterns of motherhood weave throughout the poem, forming an intrinsic component of the fabric of the text. In pursuing these threads, I focus on the construction of Deborah as ‘mother in Israel’, both through this plain attribution and through the intriguing ordering of the Israelite tribes. A focus on Deborah as Israelite matriarch—a counterpart to Jacob—brings into sharp relief the counterpoint between the tribes of Deborah and the Canaanites. The imagined anxieties of the mother of Sisera serve to implicate mothers in a justification of violence against women. The poem thus prods readers/audiences to consider Israelite and their own perceptions of their enemies. The striking climax of the poem comes with the blessing for Jael and her killing of Sisera, the captain of Israel’s enemy, with the figure of Jael forming a point of triangulation in the intriguing interplay between these pivotal mothers.Item Discovering Babylon (Preface)(Taylor & Francis, 2019) Thelle, Rannfrid I.This volume presents Babylon as it has been passed down through Western culture: through the Bible, classical texts, in Medieval travel accounts, and through depictions of the Tower motif in art. It then details the discovery of the material culture remains of Babylon from the middle of the 19th century and through the great excavation of 1899-1917, and focuses on the encounter between the Babylon of tradition and the Babylon unearthed by the archaeologists. This book is unique in its multi-disciplinary approach, combining expertise in biblical studies and Assyriology with perspectives on history, art history, intellectual history, reception studies and contemporary issues.