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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Non-Christian sacred works & liturgy > Sacred texts > General
Ritual and Rhetoric in Leviticus uses rhetorical analysis to expose
the motives behind the writing of the central book of the
Torah/Pentateuch and its persuasive function in ancient Judaism.
The answer to the question, 'who was trying to persuade whom of
what by writing these texts?' proves to be quite consistent
throughout Leviticus 1-16: Aaronide high priests and their
supporters used this book to legitimize their monopoly over the
ritual offerings of Jews and Samaritans. With this priestly
rhetoric at its center, the Torah supported the rise to power of
two priestly dynasties in Second Temple Judaism. Their ascendancy
in turn elevated the prestige and rhetorical power to the book,
making it the first real scripture in Near Eastern and Western
religious traditions.
Preface; Hinduism: The Vedas; The Upanishads; The Bhagavad;
Buddhism: The Pali Cannon; Confucianism: Lun-yu (The Analects);
Taoism: Tao te Ching; Judaism: The Torah, Nev'im, Ketuvim, Talmud;
Christianity: The New Testament (Gospels, Acts of the Apostles and
the Epistles); Islam: Qur'an, Hadith; Zoroastrianism: Gathas,
Yashts, Vendidad; Jainism: Tattvartha Sutra (Moksha Sutra);
Sikhism: Guru Granth Sahib (Adi Granth); Shinto: Kojiki,
Rokkokushi, Shoku Nikhaigi, Jinno Shotoki; Latter Day Saints: The
Book of Mormon; Index.
Jewish Bible Translations is the first book to examine Jewish Bible
translations from the third century BCE to our day. It is an
overdue corrective of an important story that has been regularly
omitted or downgraded in other histories of Bible translation.
Examining a wide range of translations over twenty-four centuries,
Leonard Greenspoon delves into the historical, cultural,
linguistic, and religious contexts of versions in eleven languages:
Arabic, Aramaic, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian,
Italian, Russian, Spanish, and Yiddish. He profiles many Jewish
translators, among them Buber, Hirsch, Kaplan, Leeser, Luzzatto,
Mendelssohn, Orlinsky, and Saadiah Gaon, framing their aspirations
within the Jewish and larger milieus in which they worked.
Greenspoon differentiates their principles, styles, and
techniques-for example, their choice to emphasize either literal
reflections of the Hebrew or distinctive elements of the vernacular
language-and their underlying rationales. As he highlights
distinctive features of Jewish Bible translations, he offers new
insights regarding their shared characteristics and their limits.
Additionally, Greenspoon shows how profoundly Jewish translators
and interpreters influenced the style and diction of the King James
Bible. Accessible and authoritative for all from beginners to
scholars, Jewish Bible Translations enables readers to make their
own informed evaluations of individual translations and to
holistically assess Bible translation within Judaism.
Making the rich narrative world of Talmud tales fully accessible to
modern readers, renowned Talmud scholar Jeffrey L. Rubenstein turns
his spotlight on both famous and little-known stories, analyzing
the tales in their original contexts, exploring their cultural
meanings and literary artistry, and illuminating their relevance.
Delving into both rabbinic life (the academy, master-disciple
relationships) and Jewish life under Roman and Persian rule
(persecution, taxation, marketplaces), Rubenstein explains how
storytellers used irony, wordplay, figurative language, and other
art forms to communicate their intended messages. Each close
reading demonstrates the story's continuing relevance through the
generations into modernity. For example, the story "Showdown in
Court," a confrontation between King Yannai and the Rabbinic
judges, provides insights into controversial struggles in U.S.
history to balance governmental power; the story of Honi's
seventy-year sleep becomes a window into the indignities of aging.
Through the prism of Talmud tales, Rubenstein also offers timeless
insights into suffering, beauty, disgust, heroism, humor, love,
sex, truth, and falsehood. By connecting twenty-first-century
readers to past generations, The Land of Truth helps to bridge the
divide between modern Jews and the traditional narrative worlds of
their ancestors.
There is no question that the Torah is one of the most influential
documents in Western civilization. It is the source of widely known
characters like Joseph, Moses, and Noah, and timeless stories such
as the Garden of Eden and the Exodus. Jointly authored by
professors of Judaism and Christianity, The Torah: A Beginner's
Guide takes a unique approach, exploring the interplay and dynamics
of how these two religions share this common scripture. Drawing on
both scholarly and popular sources, Kaminsky and Lohr examine the
key debates, while simultaneously illustrating the importance of
the Torah in western jurisprudence, ethics, and contemporary
conceptions of the family, morality, and even politics.
Since its appearance in China in the third century, "The Lotus
Sutra" has been regarded as one of the most illustrious scriptures
in the Mahayana Buddhist canon. The object of intense veneration
among generations of Buddhists in China, Korea, Japan, and other
parts of the world, it has had a profound impact on the great works
of Japanese and Chinese literature, attracting more commentary than
any other Buddhist scripture.
As Watson notes in the introduction to his remarkable
translation, " "The Lotus Sutra" is not so much an integral work as
a collection of religious texts, an anthology of sermons, stories,
and devotional manuals, some speaking with particular force to
persons of one type or in one set of circumstances, some to those
of another type or in other circumstances. This is no doubt why it
has had such broad and lasting appeal over the ages and has
permeated so deeply into the cultures that have been exposed to
it."
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