Biblical Usages of Euphemism and Dysphemism - Essay Example

Marvin Pope’s article on Euphemism elaborates on the degree to which this played a role in both the New and the Old Testament. The article espouses the biblical usages of euphemism and dysphemism in a detailed manner, concluding with a note on the way the languages have grown from the biblical days. Kiyoshi K Sacon writes about the Japanese scholarship of the Old Testament with specific information on the early growth of Christianity in the Far East. Any reader would certainly know about the dedication of the early day post-apostolate period and how tough it had been to spread the religion in a land that was not particularly conducive for it. Though there are two articles on Sorcery and magic, the one by Joanne Kuemmerlin-McLean on Magic: Old Testament talks about the details of punishments and crimes of magic. Numerous articles address specific interest areas and common topics such as Jesus and the spread of Christianity.

The book is a good reference for any scholar studying the bible and would continue to provide inspiring articles for the person.

Bible Commentary Series

The Anchor Bible Commentary Series has been taken for the current work. This book is a study of various books on the bible and bible classics; the commentaries of various scholars are included in the book. Edited by and guided by W F Albright and edited later by Freedman. This comprises three basic units and every unit has a large number of volumes specifically addressing the books of interest. The first of the series comprises volumes that cover the Hebrew Bible. The second set of books covers the New Testament and finally, the third set covers the Intertestamental Books. Though there are a huge number of books on every one of these classifications, a number of authors have contributed to covering all the major topics in these books. In the Old Testament, I chose the two-volume commentary on the Book of Proverbs, author: Michael V Fox. The first volume covers Proverbs 1-9, in this new translation and commentary.

Proverb 3:13-14: Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields a better return than gold.

On page 79, the author talks of the Proverbs have, having stemmed from sociohistorical locations. The author further stresses that the entire work in the ancient cultures seems to be towards creating a common understanding that would stay so for centuries. Proverbs are themselves divided into four: one, a commentary, two, excursuses, three, philological and technical notes and finally, textual information. All these together make up the Proverbs. However, the commentary stresses that Proverbs 1-9 are more about blessings while chapters 10 – 29 are more of shorter sayings and admonitions.