Customer Reviews

How to Read the Jewish Bible

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have many intros to the Miqra' (Tanak, Bible, Hebrew Bible), and a fair number include the Christian 'Bible'. In fact, there are not enough accessible introductions to our Bible and by Jewish scholars. But here's one, definitely. After seeing it many times at the bookstore, I finally broke down and ordered it (but not at retail!!) from Amazon.

The book is from a modern scholarship point of view considering documentary source theory, etc. (contra, see Umberto Cassuto, Documentary Hypothesis). But it looks at many aspects of each of the books of the Scriptures and I think it gives clear examples to back up his view rather than listing vague notices of instances concerning source theories. Another thing I like is that he refers regularly to the Hebrew text giving both transliteration and pointed Hebrew. (This is important because transliterations are not done well typically and are ambiguous toward the actual Hebrew spelling.)

This would make an excellent introduction to Bible for an individual or college text in a secular or perhaps religious school (yeshiva) class. A note to staff: Don't use books that throw the Christian scripture in with the Bible (Miqra') for intro courses. This is intellectual dishonesty and bias. You would not use a text treating the Hebrew Scriptures and Frank Herbert's Dune books as an intro to Bible; why use one that includes Christian scripture? Judaism and Christianity are not in continuum; they are mutually exclusive. There is nothing in the 'NT' needed to understand Jewish Scripture.

I highly recommend this short introduction to understand Jewish Scripture in its own right. (JPS also has a good intro.)

This is an excellent book without doubt.
However, it must be noted that this book is identical with "How to read the bible" except for the presence of "preface to the paperback edition".

Some good introductory material in the beginning. The rest is filled with fringe theories that are presented as the mainstream thoughts on the origins and meanings of the text.

The author comes into the text with presumptions that he does not attempt to prove out. That made this an extremely irritable read for me. I would not recommend this book to anyone who is a serious student of the Scriptures.