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Title: The Bible As It Was (Belknap) by James L. Kugel ISBN: 0-674-06941-2 Publisher: Belknap Pr Pub. Date: November, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: What did the Bible say before other people's interpretations
Comment: "The Bible as it was" is a wonderful and exhaustive work regarding scriptural interpretation and the first five books of the Bible. Early Jewish tradition was to fill in interpretive information when necessary to resolve items that were ambiguous or unclear. In addition, notes and commentary were often passed along with the texts and over time tended to become a part of the text. As a result, the Bible of today includes a lot of commentary as well as the original texts.
Kugel's purpose is to try to reconstruct the Bible as it was in its original form as closely as possible. While we all know that no copies of the original Bible exist today, the King James version was based on the Textus Receptus which was a Greek translation of the Bible and considered the oldest reliable source at the time. Since then there have been many archaeological finds of manuscripts from earlier points in time and in the original Hebrew language. Many of these passages differ somewhat from current translations. In theory, the older versions should be closer to the original version. Working from the oldest texts he examines some of the differences in the way passages were interpreted and what that could mean. This gets us closer to an original version without all the intervening thoughts and interpretations that earlier writers had added in an attempt to make it more understandable and applicable to the people of their time.
Dr. Kugel thoroughly documents his work complete with quotes, sources and annotations as appropriate.
A fascinating book that sheds new light onto many passages it should be read by anyone attempting a serious and scholarly study of the Bible.
Rating: 5
Summary: A chapter-by-chapter analysis
Comment: This informtive study of the Hebrew Bible provides a chapter-by-chapter analysis of some of the most important stories of the Bible, describing how these stories were interpreted by various peoples, how its message was understood at the time, and the origins of modern explanations. An outstanding contrast between past and present interpretative methods.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Sigh of Relief
Comment: As one who has waded through Genesis Rabbah all the way to Deuteronomy, scratching my head, making marginal notes like Rashi, and looking up almost every word, this book came like a 500 BTU central unit, to a cottage deep in the rain forest.
Dr. Kugel has gathered thousands of lines of commentary from unnumbered sources, but all from a 300 year time period, about 200bce to 100ce-- the same time the gospels and epistles were written, the Mishnah was codified and most of the rabbis of the Pirkei Avot were active.
Kugel quotes standard Jewish commentary, but he also quotes from Christian scriptures, treating them (as Christian scholar Rosemary Reuther suggested many years ago) as midrash upon the Jewish texts. He also uses standard histories of the time, such as Josephus' Antiquities, the works of Philo, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
What makes this extensive work such a relief and a delight are the extensive annotations of the author: accurate citations are always given (I checked); end notes are given, describing all sources, and giving dates, or approximate dates. There is a bibliography of modern sources as well. Most importantly, each time a midrash or other commentary is inserted into the text of the Torah, Kugel gives us a most essential bit of information: he tells us what the problem is with that text that the commentator feels needs explaining.
It is not always obvious to a reader 2,000 years later what a certain rabbi's problem was with a text that prompted him to write the several lines of commentary he left us. The work Kugel has done-- his gift to us, is to climb into the minds of these people in a different place, discover what their concerns were, and deduce what parts of the texts would have caught their attention and for what reason. Since none of his interpretations (at least none I have looked-- and I've looked at most of them) seem forced or overly creative, I believe this is the work of a great scholar. I cherish it, and I thank him much.
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Title: On Being a Jew by James L. Kugel ISBN: 0801859433 Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr Pub. Date: May, 1998 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard E. Friedman ISBN: 0060630353 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 07 May, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Traditions of the Bible: A Guide to the Bible As It Was at the Start of the Common Era by James L. Kugel ISBN: 0674791517 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: January, 1999 List Price(USD): $86.00 |
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Title: Introduction to the Old Testament by James King West ISBN: 0024259209 Publisher: Pearson Education POD Pub. Date: 17 December, 1996 List Price(USD): $67.00 |
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Title: Sinai and Zion : An Entry into the Jewish Bible by Jon D. Levenson ISBN: 006254828X Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 07 October, 1987 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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