Old Testament

Dangerous Sisters of the Hebrew Bible, by Amy Kalmanofsky. Scripture’s dearth of accounts of interfemale relationships is one of its oft-lamented lacunae. Inter­preters interested in ancient women’s lives must extract all they can from a handful of passages. Kalmanofsky ex­plores the roles and choices of several sister pairs and concludes with the book of Ruth, the Bible’s lengthiest story of female bonding.

Wisdom’s Wonder: Character, Creation, and Crisis in the Bible’s Wisdom Literature, by William P. Brown. Although promoted as an update of Brown’s earlier Character in Crisis, this book demonstrates the power of ongoing inquiry for an adept and creative scholar and its fruitfulness for readers. Both sophisticated and intelligible, Brown’s new work incorporates the crucial categories of creation and wonder into descriptions of what Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes say it means to be Homo sapiens, or “wise” humans.

Consider Leviathan: Narratives of Nature and the Self in Job, by Brian R. Doak. Drawing especially on Carol Newsom’s work, this volume interprets the book of Job’s message about the human self by exploring its plentiful appeals to the plant and animal world not only in God’s speeches but throughout Job’s many dialogues. These images, Doak argues, construct a symbolic universe that mirrors Judah’s geographical and political concerns about land and covenant under Persian rule.