In this detailed study on the meaning of the biblical term k?r?t , 'cutting off', Donald J. Wold concludes that the penalty is a conditional divine curse denying eternal life to the defiant, 'high-handed' sinner (Num 15:30). He is the first scholar to examine k?r?t in the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and rabbinic sources. Ancient Near Eastern literature furnishes analogues to k?r?t in Akkadian, West Semitic, Hittite, and Egyptian. Previous explanations have not accounted for its full semantic range, prompting the author to employ semantic-field analysis. He shows that k?r?t is never enacted by humans. It is executed only by God for violations against sacred time, sacred substance, illicit sex and worship, idolatry, blasphemy, and failure to perform certain purification rituals - crimes against God alone.

Born 1945; 1967 BMus, University of Wisconsin, Madison; 1971 MDiv, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; 1973 MA Comparative Semitics, UC Berkeley; 1978 PhD, UC Berkeley; 1978-80 Assoc. Prof. Simpson College; 1975-77 Instructor, World Religions University of Redlands; Independent Researcher.