The Word “Hesed” in the Hebrew Bible (Bloomsbury Academic Collections)
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
This impressive semantic study, with a useful glossary of special and technical terms, develops an original methodology, bringing new insights into the meaning of a much-discussed word. Working with an immense amount of data, obtained by examining every occurrence in the Hebrew Bible of thirty-five field elements, the author achieves a new degree of semantic refinement based on meticulous quantitative analysis of distribution, collocations, parallels, and syntagms. Sense-relations are formulated between hesed and other related terms. This study provides much material for a better understanding of this crucial term for Hebrew thought, and also makes an important theoretical contribution to Hebrew lexicography.
The Word “Hesed” in the Hebrew Bible is perfect for students, professors, or anyone wanting to learn more about the context and specific history of the Old Testament. With the Logos edition, all Scripture references are linked to the Bibles in your library, making study easy and effective.
- Contains lists of figures and tables
- Includes bibliographical references and indexes
Top Highlights
“The three studies of חֶסֶד have concentrated on the syntagmatic axis and have ignored the paradigmatic axis; but, as Nida states, the paradigmatic axis is an important dimension that cannot be neglected in a semantic study.” (Page 24)
“It has been suggested that חֶסֶד is rarely—if ever—directed by a human to God. In these rare cases it is necessary to weaken the concept so that חֶסֶד becomes something like ‘loyalty’ or ‘devotion’.” (Page 259)
“‘a freely undertaken carrying through of an existing commitment to another who is in a situation of need’” (Page 261)
“Hence, the researcher focuses attention on a single language, rather than a group of languages, and seeks to analyse that language as it existed—or exists—at a given point of time looking particularly at the network of relationships between the various elements which make up the language.” (Page 25)
“The outstanding contribution made in this section is the discovery of a more satisfactory basis for the expression of חֶסֶד, which is not to be confined to a bipartisan relationship that depends upon a formal agreement, a בְּרִית, between the two parties.” (Page 140)
- Title: The Word “Hesed” in the Hebrew Bible
- Author: Gordon R. Clark
- Publisher: Sheffield
- Publication Date: 1993
- Pages: 286
Gordon R. Clark is a former head of the department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Sheffield and Canon Emeritus of Sheffield Cathedral.
Reviews
1 rating
James T. Mace
11/5/2015
Serious misunderstandings of Scripture and theology result from ignorance of the information in this book. Its treatment of the tripartite collocation of "asah hesed 'im" alone is worth the price of the book, e.g., by resulting in reversing misinterpretation of Luke 10:37a, restoring covenant loyalty to the Samaritan's actions, and helping to recover the true meaning of the Second Great Commandment (since it is no longer misunderstood to be universalized beyond its Lev 19:17-18 scope of fellow-covenanters). A highly significant work.
