An Intertextual Study of the Psalms of Solomon (2001 Atkinson), book
An Intertextual Study of the Psalms of Solomon: Pseudepigrapha (2001) is a book by Kenneth Atkinson.
Abstract
"This is the first English study of the Psalms of Solomon in over a century. They were composed between 63-37 BCE as a series of reflections on the violence that accompanied the Roman dominance of Palestine. Faced with overwhelming foreign aggression, this unknown Jerusalem synagogue community used poetry as a vehicle to oppose the Romans and their Jewish allies. With the emergence of Herod the Great, this sect changed its theology, and used scripture to fashion a militant Davidic messiah, who was envisaged as a righteous counterpart to the Jewish and Roman rulers he was to destroy ... Atkinson (philosophy and religion, U. of Northern Iowa) examines the Psalms of Solomon, taking into account the many scholarly advances that have been made over the past century in biblical interpretation and intertextuality (the midrashic method of writing in which later readers of the Hebrew Scriptures entered into a conversation with the Scriptures). His aim is to expose contemporary readers to an important and interesting early Jewish text that illuminates the historical development of both Judaism and Christianity. Each chapter begins with the Greek text and an English translation; intertextual parallels are placed in adjacent columns. The commentary section of each examines the text in light of the intertextual parallels. A concluding section of each chapter comments on the individual psalm's date of composition, theological importance, and historical background. Includes a synopsis of each section of the text and a "cast of characters". Of likely interest to biblical scholars and preachers."--Publisher description.
Editions
Published in Lewiston, NY: E. Mellen Press, 2001 (Studies in the Bible and Early Christianity, 49).