Customer Reviews

Jewish Literature Between The Bible And The Mishnah: A Historical and Literary Introduction

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In this book, Nickelsburg places a number of non-canonical books into their historical setting. He begins with a brief history of the Return and the Dispersion then goes on to explain how nu-merous books came about as a response to the Dispersion, the wake of Alexander the Great, the Romans and Herod the Great, and on through the Second Revolt. Consider that the Book of Judith may tell the story of the time of Nebuchanezzar but its many parallels describe the times of Judas Maccabeus. Or the DSS commentary on Habakkuk probably shows that when the Mac-cabeans tampered with the priesthood not all of Israel was solidly behind them.

For many readers Nickelsburg's _Jewish Literature_ will open up new ways to read and understand ancient Jewish writings.

I got this book because Nickelsburg is one of the leading scholars in intertestimental literature. In scholarly works, I expect a very exacting respect for the difference between fact and surmise. Nickelsburg knows his topic, but I found myself frustrated by his dedication to literary analysis, such as his division of Isaiah into three different Isaiahs from different time periods. This is an opinion shared by other scholars, but it is still not a fact in the sense of "we dug this up and dated it thus for these reasons." This makes it harder to assess the accuracy of his other statements, especially if one is not completely sold on literary analysis as a tool. The argument might be made that he was trying to write a general book for the common man, but the common man does not read books about intertestimental Jewish literature. With that caution, it is about the only book I have found that has an orderly presentation of this literature. His notes and bibliography are excellent, so one is certainly empowered to do further digging and make up ones own mind.

Very useful for the class I took on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Very informative and was a good tool in my studies. Easy to read well orgainized. Very coherent.