Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament. Volume VI: yobel-yatar I (review)

Hebrew Studies 34 (1993) 103 Reviews worship. The limited data available reveals that these elite women rarely felt a bond between themselves and women of the lower classes and that in cases of "goddess identified" women, the status of the goddess provided at least some basis for the royal women's position in society. The remaining three essays examine historical texts. "Protestant Feminists and the Bible: On the Horns of a Dilemma" by Mary Ann Tolbert considers how critical feminist biblical interpretation can be applied by the Protestant tradition, with its emphasis on sola scriptura, in order that women may work out of a male-centered text without having to accept its perspective as authoritative for women's lives today. In "Human Persons as Images of the Divine," Ellen M. Ross relates the thinking of medieval theologians to the concerns of contemporary thinkers Rosemary Radford Ruether and Dorothy Soelle. The result is an ability to reclaim models from the past that affirm positive understandings of women's relationship to the divine image. Finally, Martha Reineke's study '''The Devils are Come Upon Us': Myth, History, and the Witch as Scapegoat," argues that feminist evaluation of the factors leading to the witch trials of 14501750 must incorporate analysis of the myth of the scapegoat who had expiatory powers and whose sacrifice was believed to restore order in the world. Only through awareness of the meaning of religious sacrifice will the women who were murdered in the witch hunts cease to be understood as victims. Together these essays result in provocative gender-oriented scholarship. One needs to read each contribution carefully in order to savor the richness of its insights. This will be time well-spent. Naomi Steinberg De Paul University Chicago.IL 60614-3298 THEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. VOLUME VI: YOBEL-YATAR I. Johannes G. Botterweck and Helmer Ringgren, eds. David E. Green, trans. Pp. xxi + 491. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990. Cloth, $39.95. The continued translation of the Theologisches Worterbuch zum Alten Testament (the German work now nearing completion) is resulting in a more accessible collection for English speakers of state of the art (in the case of this volume: 1980-1982) bibliographies and analyses of discrete Hebrew Studies 34 (1993) 104 Reviews lexical items from the Hebrew Bible. The German and English sets are hardly formatted as identical twins. The transliteration systems are quite distinct, and indeed, there are two systems in the English set. The one which was drastically (and fortunately) modified in vol. 5 continues, now requiring double referencing to earlier volumes (i.e., words must be given in both the later more accurate transliteration as well as the former less defensible system of vols. 1-4). The English volumes lack the German's useful indices; hopefully a final comprehensive index volume will materialize , comparable to the tenth volume of their older sibling, the Theological Dictionary ofthe New Testament (completed in 1976). There is a general "dumbing-down" of the Gennan text for the English audience, a phenomenon that even struck the German series half-way through its production. Greek words appearing in GreeJc script in the Gennan set are transliterated into Roman script for the English reader and Hebrew words are also regularly transliterated. Although there is no attempt to update bibliographical infonnation that appeared since the publication of the Gennan edition, the bibliography is made more accessible to English readers by aggressively providing English translations (as recent as 1989; cf. p. 300, n. 70) of Gennan works when available. Fortunate modifications that make the English version easier to use include insertion of rubrics and section titles facilitating rapid scansion. Furthermore, the often laconic citation of sources in the Gennan edition, where sources are integrated into the main text without the use of footnotes, is relieved in the English counterpart by a luxuriously full referencing of works, relegated to footnotes. Such features, combined with the larger type and- paragraph style (unlike the German double-columned, small type, and compressed paragraphs with minimal spacing between sections) confirm that the English series is successfully designed as a more accessible and userfriendly work than the Gennan edition. The first (recalled!) English volume of the set appeared in...