Scholars from different fields have joined forces to reexamine
every aspect of the Hebrew Bible. Their research, carried out in
universities and seminaries in Europe and America, has
revolutionized our understanding of almost every chapter and verse.
But have they killed the Bible in the process?
In "How to Read the Bible, " Harvard professor James Kugel leads
the reader chapter by chapter through the "quiet revolution" of
recent biblical scholarship, showing time and again how radically
the interpretations of today's researchers differ from what people
have always thought. The story of Adam and Eve, it turns out, was
not originally about the "Fall of Man," but about the move from a
primitive, hunter-gatherer society to a settled, agricultural one.
As for the stories of Cain and Abel, Abraham and Sarah, and Jacob
and Esau, these narratives were not, at their origin, about
individual people at all but, rather, explanations of some feature
of Israelite society as it existed centuries after these figures
were said to have lived. Dinah was never raped -- her story was
created by an editor to solve a certain problem in Genesis. In the
earliest version of the Exodus story, Moses probably did not divide
the Red Sea in half; instead, the Egyptians perished in a storm at
sea. Whatever the original Ten Commandments might have been,
scholars are quite sure they were different from the ones we have
today. What's more, the people long supposed to have written
various books of the Bible were not, in the current consensus,
their real authors: David did not write the Psalms, Solomon did not
write Proverbs or Ecclesiastes; indeed, there is scarcely a book in
the Bible that is not the product of different, anonymous authors
and editors working in different periods.
Such findings pose a serious problem for adherents of
traditional, Bible-based faiths. Hiding from the discoveries of
modern scholars seems dishonest, but accepting them means
undermining much of the Bible's reliability and authority as the
word of God. What to do? In his search for a solution, Kugel leads
the reader back to a group of ancient biblical interpreters who
flourished at the end of the biblical period. Far from naive, these
interpreters consciously set out to depart from the original
meaning of the Bible's various stories, laws, and prophecies -- and
they, Kugel argues, hold the key to solving the dilemma of reading
the Bible today.
"How to Read the Bible is, " quite simply, the best, most
original book about the Bible in decades. It offers an unflinching,
insider's look at the work of today's scholars, together with a
sustained consideration of what the Bible was for most of its
history -- before the rise of modern scholarship. Readable, clear,
often funny but deeply serious in its purpose, this is a book for
Christians and Jews, believers and secularists alike. It offers
nothing less than a whole new way of thinking about sacred
Scripture.
General
Imprint: |
Simon & Schuster
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
October 2008 |
First published: |
October 2008 |
Authors: |
James L Kugel
|
Dimensions: |
230 x 155 x 40mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
819 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-7432-3587-7 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-7432-3587-8 |
Barcode: |
9780743235877 |
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