Widely read with reverence, the books of the Bible have moved minds and hearts for thousands of years. The content and words of Scripture inspired the legends of the Bible. This single volume contains a selection of tales chosen from the classic The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg, acknowledged as one of the world’s outstanding talmudic scholars.
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22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I found the book incredible. Most informative,
By A Customer
This review is from: Legends of the Bible (Paperback)
I have often wondered about the completeness of the stories told in the bible. After performing considerable research and concluding that stories as set forth in the bible were not in fact complete, I stumbled across this book. I was captivated by the use of names and situations so easily correlated to those situations without names found in the bible. So many questions going unanswered for many years now suddenly came to closure as a result of reading this book. It forced me to find the seven volume set of "Legends of the Jews" which was accomplished without the knowledge of "amazon.com"...but I certainly thank God for your existence today. This book is a 10 and I use it in my religion studies at my college prep high school. The students rate it as illuminating.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Flights of Fancy and the Truth of Myth,
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This review is from: Legends of the Bible (Paperback)
The publisher's liner notes introduce this book with these words:
"Variations of the stories in scriptures as told and retold in the ancient east from the days of Abraham, in synagogues and churches and the homes of a hundred generations of men." This is a representative selection from a 7-volume series by the author. These stories give valuable insights into the eastern concept of the story, and the character of the stories in Genesis. Oral Culture Stories These legendary stories reveal a context of worldview and oral culture that shed light on the styles and forms of thought behind the Old Testament accounts that often puzzle and confuse modern, western readers. Forms of many of the stories illustrate a characteristic of oral cultures, a dynamic and immediate concept of history. Events and their meanings are the unifying focus for use of details, not an objective historical sequence preferred by recent analytical western concepts of linear history. People from different eras of history in the western linear understanding of events, all participate in the same events. Some of the characters found in stories about the Egyptian captivity are biblical characters from time of the conquest of Canaan, David's era and even the rebuilding of the Temple after the Babylonian captivity and the Roman period in Israel! Stories about the Creation involve angels and various historical personalities conferring with God about options and alternatives. Personifications One of those personalities is the personified Torah, another is the Sabbath. Stories of the Patriarchs are retold in multiple forms for various reasons, and from varied geographic and historical contexts. The details of the stories vary in each form according to the purpose of the teller -- sometimes simply to make one moral point or set up a proverb, or explain the origin of a name -- much like many of the Genesis stories. Multiple Versions There are many versions of some stories from Genesis and from folk sources which often contradict each other in details if evaluated on the basis of modern western analytical concepts of scientific history and truth as objective fact. The stories illustrate more fully the concept of testimonial truth. Details are not reported for their own sake, but to enhance the testimony being given, the covenant value to the Hebrew. Similarly this oral literature, captured in writing, clarifies the guiding principles in an oral and covenantal society as the dynamic concepts of event as truth and event as relationship. Many of the stories further reflect and illustrate the mystical concepts and concerns of eastern cultures, richly expressed in the Kaballah of European Jews. Many of the stories have fanciful, unrealistic -- even outlandish -- portrayals or claims. Moral and Relational These dynamic oral characteristics are replete in the canonical scriptures also. The Bible is primarily stories and songs, not didactic, analytical or abstract topics. The focus and purpose is moral and relational. This is also one reason why multiple versions of some ancient stories occur in the Bible, like the three different stories of how Jerusalem was conquered (Joshua 18, Amorite city conquered by Joshua; Judges 1, Canaanite city conquered after Joshua's death, but by Jacob's sons Simeon and Judah; 1 Samuel 17:54, a Jebusite city, conquered by David). This representative collection of stories Ginzberg has put together here can help provide an appreciation for this different oral-relational worldview and the dynamic way of conveying truth through stories, beyond the analytical rational demands of the modern age. The postmodern mindset will appreciate this ancient dynamic, oral worldview better than the modernist mindset.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
nelzas@pathcom.com,
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This review is from: Legends of the Bible (Paperback)
A great book that combines the stories of the old testament with jewish Aggada. Answers all your questions that are covered in the Aggada but considered too detailed for bible inclusion. For example if Adam and eve had two sons, Cain and Abel, whom did they marry?
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