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Five Festal Garments: Christian Reflections on the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther is unavailable, but you can change that!

These five Old Testament books, traditionally known simply as “the Scrolls,” are among the most neglected parts of the Christian Bible. In Judaism, the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther were eventually adopted as lectionary readings for five of the major festivals. In Christian tradition, however, no consensus has emerged about their proper use. Each book presents...

of the debates about these books in the first two centuries AD lay elsewhere, namely, the congruence of the Scrolls with other canonical books, and the manner in which they should be understood and used as Holy Scripture. In other words, the key issue was how the Scrolls were to be ‘worn’. The solution that eventually emerged in Judaism was their adoption as lectionary readings for five of the major festivals: Passover (Song of Songs), the Feast of Weeks (Ruth), the Ninth of Ab (Lamentations), the
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