The material culture of the Southern Levant from the late 5th century to the early 3rd century BCE is marked by evolving local and regional traditions enriched by the adoption and adaptation of features reflecting Persian and Greek culture. Processes of influence and interaction – often referred to as Persianization and Hellenization – alongside expressions of persisting local and regional cultural identities, were central themes of the conference titled “Images in Transition: The Southern Levant and its Imagery between Near Eastern and Greek Pictorial Traditions.”

For a long time, Old Testament exegesis, ancient Near Eastern studies, philosophy, and history have been dealing with the question of whether thinking in the cultural area of the ancient Near East, Egypt, Syria/Canaan, and Israel/Palestine differs from that in the western Mediterranean region. The inclusion of neurobiology, psychology, brain research, and evolutionary research enables new approaches. The contributions in this volume provide insight into this archaeology of thought.

The beginning of the biblical canon is often associated with the Book of Jesus Sirach in the early 2nd century BC. Alma Brodersen undertakes a systematic analysis of the ancient textual evidence and shows that the Book of Jesus Sirach rather attests to the diversity of oral and written traditions at that time.

Death befalls us in our physicality, which bears a gendered signature. Did you know that not a single woman commits suicide in the Bible, but that today more women than men actively seek euthanasia? Have you ever wondered whether gender-specific statements can be made about the death of Jesus and whether the ability (or inability) to mourn has anything to do with one's own gender identity? Questions such as these and many others concerning the connection between death and gender in history and the present day are explored in the contributions to this volume, which come from all theological disciplines as well as from philosophy, religious studies, and cultural studies. They aim to promote a new perception of gender diversity in dealing with dying and death and, at the same time, liberation from normative images of men and women within the horizon of a realistic anthropology.

In recent decades, psalm research has undergone a transdenominational and international reorientation: psalm exegesis is being supplemented by psalter exegesis. This emphasizes the connection between intertextuality and the origin of the psalter, but also takes a critical look at the relationship between the Masoretic text and the psalms in Qumran and in the Septuagint.
This volume contains the revised papers from an international conference held at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich in April 2018. All of the essays offer insights into current questions about the composition and intention of the Psalter. In addition to fundamental methodological reflections, the volume presents new perspectives from the history of theology to shed light on the origin of the Psalter.

Psalm 145 is one of the psalter's most important texts in terms of content and composition. God's מלכות/βασιλεια is spelled out in it as a central concept for reflection and takes on new contours in various contextualizations. This volume explores Psalm 145 as part of the history of the theme of the Kingdom of God and thus contributes to further exploration of the biblical-theological significance of the discourse on the “Kingship of God.”

Perfectibility, which from the 18th century onwards was applied conceptually in philosophy and pedagogy and not only to individuals, already shaped pre-modern thinking about man and God. The questions and problems of perfection and perfectibility raise issues of traditional and religious history, as well as fundamental theological questions about the distinction between the capabilities of God and those of humans, about integrity and guilt, and about the created world and the perfect world beyond. This volume explores a selection of questions in various areas of Old Testament literature.