The topic of "covenant" remains central to the study of ancient Near Eastern religions, early Judaism, New Testament literature, and the early Christian church and rabbinic Judaism. This volume contains a comprehensive and scholarly exploration of the spectrum of covenantal concepts.

The topic of covenant is as important to the study of ancient Near Eastern religions, Second Temple Judaism, early Christian literature, and the early Christian Church and Rabbinic Judaism as it is complex and disputed among ancient and modern scholars. It permeates much of biblical and cognate literature throughout many centuries. The essays in this collection explore the diverse spectrum of covenant concepts that emerged during this time period in different parts of the ancient Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean. They also discuss theological implications and later applications in mostly religious texts from different scholarly perspectives. The result is a detailed, comprehensive, and thorough presentation of the tremendous range of covenantal concepts and their complexities in biblical and cognate literature throughout the ages, together with a keen look at the history of pertinent scholarly research.

Autorentext
Born 1961; 2001 Dr. theol. University of Notre Dame; Professor of Humanities, St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas. Born 1965; 1997 PhD Harvard University; Isla Carroll & Percy E. Turner Professor of Biblical Studies at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Born 1961; 1993 doctorate; 1999 habilitation; Professor at the University of Rostock. Born 1964; 2000 doctorate; 2011 Habilitation; Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Religious Studies Program at the University of Houston, Texas. Born 1955; 1990 doctorate; 1994 Habilitation; Professor emeritus for New Testament Studies at the University of the Saarland, Saarbruecken.

Inhalt
Christian A. Eberhart/Wolfgang Kraus: Introduction

History of Research and Questions of Origin
Siegfried Kreuzer: Background and Origin of Covenant Theology in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament

Ancient Near East
Poppy Tushingham: The adê covenants of the Assyrian Empire: imposed by humans, enforced by the gods

Hebrew and Greek Bible
Thomas Hieke: Abram/Abraham as Prefiguration of the Covenant in the Torah - Richard Bautch: Priestly Polemics in the Covenant of Levi - Karin Finsterbusch: The New Covenant for Israel in Jeremiah. Notes on the Different Textual Versions of the Pericope and their Meaning - Karin Finsterbusch: Concepts of Covenant in the Variant Literary Editions of Ezekiel - Eberhard Bons: Das Thema des Bundes in den Psalmen - Manfred Oeming: Bundeskonzeptionen in der Achämenidenzeit unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Neh 8-10 - Bonifatia Gesche: Covenant and Holiness in the Book of Ben Sira - Francis Macatangay: Covenant in the Old Testament Apocryphal Writings - Martin Rösel: Is an Appropriate Translation for ? Covenant, Contract, and Testament in the Septuagint

Second Temple Judaism
Brent A. Strawn: in the "Sectarian" Texts from Qumran - Heinz-Josef Fabry: in den "non-sectarian" Schriften in Qumran - Gert Steyn: Covenant in the Writings of Philo and Josephus - Matthias Henze: Covenant in the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha

New Testament
Christian A. Eberhart: Between "My Blood of the Covenant" and the "New Covenant in My Blood": Origins, Meanings, Ramifications - Florian Wilk: Bundesterminologie und Bundeskonzeption in den Korintherbriefen - Jens Herzer: The Significance of Covenant Theology in Galatians and Romans - Wolfgang Kraus: in the Letter to the Hebrews - Martin Karrer: The Ark of the Covenant in Revelation (11:19)

Early Church
Martin Meiser: Covenant in the Early Church - Tobias Nicklas: The Covenant in Christian Apocrypha. Fragmentary Evidence of a Spectrum of Ideas

Late Antiquity
Jörg Ulrich: Diskurse über den Gottesbund im Dialog Justins mit dem Juden Trypho - Heinrich Schlange-Schöningen: Der Alte und der Neue Bund bei Hieronymus - Sara Ronis: Sons of the Covenant? The Rabbinic Body and the Covenant with God

Covenant in the Arts and in Systematic Discourse
Martin Karrer: The Mosaic of the Ark of the Covenant at Germigny-des-Prés - Margit Ernst-Habib: Covenant as Convivence. The Relevance of Covenantal Theology in Contemporary Theological Discourses