An extraordinary, pathbreaking scholarly achievement: an annotated
anthology of interpretations of ancient (mostly 100 B.C.-300 A.D.)
interpretations of the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew
Bible) culled from hundreds of sources. "Interpretation" here often
refers to the homiletical expansion of a biblical narrative - known
in the Jewish tradition as midrash - particularly to fill in
narrative gaps and vague allusions, or to resolve morally
problematic passages. Kugel, a professor of Hebrew literature and
the Bible at Harvard and Israel's Bar-Ilan University, notes in a
penetrating opening essay that his focus is on "exegetical motifs."
He notes basic principles that underlie ancient biblical
interpretation, including a view of the Scriptures as
"omnisignificant," that is, containing meaning in even the smallest
details. Jewish and Christian exegetes also expanded the prosaic to
lend greater resonance to seemingly minor matters. For example,
Rabbi Simeon Bar Yochai interpreted Deuteronomy 27:17, "Cursed be
he who displaces his neighbor's boundary-mark," and Proverbs 22:28,
"Do not displace that boundary mark of old set by your father," by
adding, "If you see a custom of your forefathers observed, do not
reject it." Thus, a law whose literal focus was on property was
homiletically expanded to emphasize the "boundary" of religious
tradition. Kugel's great achievement is to demonstrate again and
again, with hundreds of fascinating examples, how the integrity of
the text was both respected and reinterpreted by authors as varied
as those of the apocrypha, the earliest midrashim, and the Dead Sea
Scrolls, as well as the early Church fathers. His own interpretive
comments are consistently clear and engaging. This volume, which
will be savored by both Jewish and Christian lovers of Scripture,
richly illustrates Kugel's point that what we know as "the Bible"
is really a series of texts filtered through the imaginative
perceptions of its ancient exegetes. (Kirkus Reviews)
This is a guide to the Hebrew Bible. Leading the reader chapter by
chapter through its most important stories from the "Creation" and
the "Tree of Knowledge" through the "Exodus from Egypt" and the
"Journey to the Promised Land", James Kugel shows how a group of
anonymous, ancient interpreters radically transformed the Bible and
made it into the book that has come down to us today. Was the snake
in the Garden of Eden the devil, or the garden itself "paradise"?
Did Abraham discover monotheism, and was his son Isaac a willing
martyr? Not until the ancient interpreters set to work. Poring over
every detail in the Bible's stories, prophecies, and laws, they let
their own theological and imaginative inclinations transform the
Bible's very nature. Their sometimes surprising interpretations
soon became the generally accepted meaning. These interpretations,
and not the mere words of the text, became the Bible in the time of
Jesus and Paul or the rabbis of the Talmud. Drawing on such sources
as the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient Jewish apocrypha, Hellenistic
writings, longlost retellings of Bible stories, and prayers and
sermons of the early church and synagogue, Kugel reconstructs the
theory and methods of interpretation at the time when the Bible was
becoming the bedrock of Judaism and Christianity. Here the reader
is shown all the major transformations of the text and the
development of the Bible is recreated as it was at the start of the
Common era, the Bible as we know it.
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!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
