The Bible has always been vital to Jewish religious life, and it
has been expounded in diverse ways. Perhaps the most influential
body of Jewish biblical interpretation is the Midrash that was
produced by expositors during the first five centuries CE. Many
such teachings are collected in the Babylonian Talmud, the
monumental compendium of Jewish law and lore that was accepted as
the definitive statement of Jewish oral tradition for subsequent
generations.
However, many of the Talmud's interpretations of biblical
passages appear bizarre or pointless. "From Sermon to Commentary:
Expounding the Bible in Talmudic Babylonia" tries to explain this
phenomenon by carefully examining representative passages from a
variety of methodological approaches, paying particular attention
to comparisons with Midrash composed in the Land of Israel.
Based on this investigation, Eliezer Segal argues that the
Babylonian sages were utilizing discourses that had originated in
Israel as rhetorical sermons in which biblical interpretation was
being employed in an imaginative, literary manner, usually based on
the interplay between two or more texts from different books of the
Bible. Because they did not possess their own tradition of
homiletic preaching, the Babylonian rabbis interpreted these
comments without regard for their rhetorical conventions, as if
they were exegetical commentaries, resulting in the distinctive,
puzzling character of Babylonian Midrash.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!