Background
BARR, James was born on March 20, 1924 in Glasgow, Scotland. Son of Professor, and Mrs. Allan Barr.
(Behind the academic and innocently descriptive title of t...)
Behind the academic and innocently descriptive title of this book is to be found one of the most explosive works of biblical scholarship to be published this century. Certainly many of those who read it on its firs appearance were never the same again, and it signalled the end of what had hitherto been a flourishing literature on 'biblical theology'. 'In recent years,' Professor Bar wrote in his Preface, have come to believe that one of the greatest dangers to sound and adequate interpretation of the Bible comes from the prevailing use of procedu, which, while claiming to rest upon a knowledge of the Israelite and Greek ways of thinking, constantly mishandle and distort the linguistic evidence of the Hebrew and Greek languages as they are used in the Bible. The increasing sense of dependence upon the Bib h. the mode:a church only makes this danger more serious. The fact that these procedures have never to my knowledge been collected, analysed and criticized in detail was the chief stimulus to my undertaking of this task myself.' His conclusions were devastating and drew down on him a good deal of often hurt criticism: however, twenty years later, they still stand and the passage of time has made them more widely accepted Certainly this book, issued for the first time in a paperback edition, ' essential reading for any student of the Bible, if he is to learn from the mistakes of others.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0334023238/?tag=2022091-20
(This book applies, in a more specialist area, a similar t...)
This book applies, in a more specialist area, a similar treatment to that used by Professor Barr in The Semantics of Biblical Language, and like the earlier volume criticizes much of previous scholarship. In recent Old Testament studies, increasing reliance has been placed on the resources of languages other than Hebrew itself -Arabic, Aramaic, Accadian and Ugaritic. Scholars have used these languages as a source from which the meaning of unusual Hebrew words might be deduced. Professor Barr discusses the principles involved in this process. He considers such questions as the degree of coincidence in the vocabularies of cognate languages, the extent of homonymy in Hebrew, the history of the transmission of meanings in Hebrew and the value of the ancient translations.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0334019540/?tag=2022091-20
(The Sprunt Lectures delivered at Union Theological Semina...)
The Sprunt Lectures delivered at Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia, February 1982. The men of the Bible did not themselves have a Bible to be their supreme guide and authority. This book discusses the way in which the canon of scripture was formed and the effects that it has.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0664244777/?tag=2022091-20
(The Sprunt Lectures delivered at Union Theological Semina...)
The Sprunt Lectures delivered at Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia, February 1982. The men of the Bible did not themselves have a Bible to be their supreme guide and authority. This book discusses the way in which the canon of scripture was formed and the effects that it has.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OL7N0U/?tag=2022091-20
(This is a dense, linguistic analysis of how different spe...)
This is a dense, linguistic analysis of how different spellings can lie together on the same page, and even within the same verse, of early Hebrew texts.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0197260683/?tag=2022091-20
(In this book, Professor Barr presents a reading of the st...)
In this book, Professor Barr presents a reading of the story of the Garden of Eden, not as a tale of the origins of sin and death, but as a tale of a chance of immortality, briefly accessible to humanity but quickly lost. Old Testament scholars have long been aware that the traditional reading of the story of Adam and Eve as the 'Fall of Man', though hallowed by St Paul's use of it, cannot stand up to close examination of the text. However, they have not succeeded in formulating an alternative interpretation which rivals the force of this traditional reading or is relevant to such a wide range of biblical and theological issues. Professor Barr's new interpretation has such force, and with its challenges to many conventional views it is likely to cause a considerable stir among traditionalists and to excite those dissatisfied with aspects of traditional thought. Central to the book is its stress on the role and prevalence of the idea of immortality, commonly thought to be a later Greek and un-biblical import into Christian thinking. Reflection on immortality also leads to a reconsideration of ideas about death in the Hebrew Bible; about Sheol. the Hebrew underworld; and about the soul. Professor Barr brings out the importance of time for the Hebrew Bible and the concept of length of days, showing that the threat is not so much death as such, but the manner and time of death. His study of chronology leads to a reconsideration of the story of Noah's ark, and the book ends by seeing resurrection and immortality as complementary, rather than conflicting, ideas.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080062744X/?tag=2022091-20
(Do people know about God just by being human beings? Or d...)
Do people know about God just by being human beings? Or do they need special divine assistance, through the Bible and the church? Natural theology was long accepted as a basic ingredient in all theology, but in the twentieth century it was rejected by important theologians, especially Karl Barth. His views denied all natural theology and placed greater emphasis on the Bible. But what if the Bible itself uses, depends on, and supports natural theology? Professor Barr here pursues these questions within the Bible itself and within the history of ideas, earlier and more recent; and he looks at their implications for religion and theology in the future.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0198263767/?tag=2022091-20
BARR, James was born on March 20, 1924 in Glasgow, Scotland. Son of Professor, and Mrs. Allan Barr.
Student, Daniel Stewart's College, Edinburgh. Master of Arts, Edinburgh University, 1948. Bachelor's Degree, Edinburgh University, 1951.
Doctor of Divinity (honorary), Knox College, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1964. Doctor of Divinity (honorary), University Dubuque, 1974. Doctor of Divinity (honorary), University St. Andrews, 1974.
Doctor of Divinity (honorary), University Edinburgh, 1983. Doctor of Divinity (honorary), University South Africa, 1986. Doctor of Divinity (honorary), Victoria University, Toronto, 1988.
Doctor of Divinity (honorary), Faculte Theologie Protestante, Paris, 1988. Doctor of Divinity (honorary), University Oslo, 1991. Doctor of Divinity (honorary), University Helsinki, 1997.
Master of Arts (honorary), University Manchester, England, 1969. Master of Arts, Oxford University, England, 1976. Doctor of Divinity, Oxford University, England, 1981.
Minister Church of Scotland, Tiberias, Israel, 1951—1953. Professor New Testament Literature and Exegesis Presbyterian College, Montreal, Canada, 1953—1955, Old Testament Literature and Theology Edinburgh University, 1955—1961, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1961—1965, Semitic Languages and Lits. Manchester University, 1965—1976.
Oriel professor, interpretation Holy Scripture. Fellow Oriel College, Oxford University, 1976—1978, honorary fellow, 1980. Religious professor, Hebrew Oxford University.
Fellow Christ Church, 1978—1989. Professor, Hebrew bible Vanderbilt University, Nashville, 1989—1994. Distinguished professor, 1994—1998.
Retired, 1998
Visiting professor Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1973, University Chicago, 1975, 81, Strasbourg University, 1975—1976, Brown University, Providence, 1985, 94, University Otago, New Zealand, 1986, University South Africa, 1986, Vanderbilt University, 1987—1988. Lecturer Princeton University, 1962—1963, Union Theological Seminary, 1963. Currie lecturer Austin Theological Seminary, 1964.
Guggenheim Memorial fellow, study Biblical semantics, 65. Cadbury lecturer Birmingham University, 1969. Croall lecturer Edinburgh University, 1970, Gifford lecturer, 91.
Grinfield lecturer, Septuagint Oxford University, 1974—1978, Sarum lecturer, 1989, Hensley Henson lecturer, 97. Firth lecturer Nottingham University, 1978. Sprunt lecturer Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia, 1982.
Schweich lecturer British Academy, 1986. Cole lecturer Vanderbilt University, 1988. Read-Tuckwell lecturer Bristol University, England, 1990.
Pilot RNVR (Fleet Air Arm), 1942-1945.
(Do people know about God just by being human beings? Or d...)
(Do people know about God just by being human beings? Or d...)
(In this book, Professor Barr presents a reading of the st...)
(This book applies, in a more specialist area, a similar t...)
(Behind the academic and innocently descriptive title of t...)
(This is a dense, linguistic analysis of how different spe...)
(The Sprunt Lectures delivered at Union Theological Semina...)
(The Sprunt Lectures delivered at Union Theological Semina...)
(1966, American hardcover edition, Harper & Row, NY, 215 p...)
(Book by Barr, James)
(Book by James Barr)
Author: The Semantics of Biblical Language, 1961, Biblical Words for Time, 1962, Old and New in Interpretation, 1966, Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testament, 1968, The Bible in the Modern World, 1973, Fundamentalism, 1977, The Typology of Literalism, 1979, Explorations in Theology 7: The Scope and Authority of the Bible, 1980, Holy Scripture, Canon, Authority, Criticism, 1983, Beyond Fundamentalism, 1984, Variable Spellings of the Hebrew Bible, 1989, The Garden of Eden and the Hope of Immortality, 1992, Biblical Faith and Natural Theology, 1993. Editor: Journal Semitic Studies, 1965-1976, Oxford Hebrew Dictionary, 1974-1980. Contributor articles to professional journals.
Fellow: American Philosophical Society, American Academy Arts and Sciences, British Academy, SOAS (honorary). Member: Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences Uppsala, Gottingen Academy of Sciences (correspondent), Society Biblical Literature United States of America (honorary), Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters, British Association Jewish Studies (president 1978), Society O.T. Studies 1973.
Married Jane J. S. Hepburn, 1950. 3 children.