JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis (Hardcover)

by Nahum M. Sarna (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes
Text: English, Hebrew

Product Details

• Hardcover: 414 pages
• Publisher: Jewish Publication Society of America; 1st edition (May 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0827603266
• ISBN-13: 978-0827603264
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #486,989 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Torah commentary of the modern era, January 24, 1999

By A Customer

This is simply a magnificant work! This contains the complete Hebrew text of Genesis, the JPS's new English translation, and an extensive original commentary that illuminates the text like a 1000 watt searchlight. On average, each four or five lines of text gets a full page of explanation and commentary, so every subject gets covered in detail.

Sarna, like all the JPS Torah commentators, makes use of traditional rabbinic commentaries, and the Mishna, Midrash and Talmud. But it doesn't end here: The commentary goes on to make good use of literary analysis and comparative Semitics; intertextual commentary relating each book to other biblical books, and evidence from modern archaeological, discoveries.

It manages to be respectful, religious, and authentic to the Jewish tradition, while at the same time rigorously adhering to the highest standards of biblical criticism and intellectual honesty.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Favorite Commentary, December 26, 2001

By	alan goldstein (Lincolnwood, IL United States) - See all my reviews

I'm just a layperson but have read through several commentaries, The Stone Chumash, The Plaut Commentary, and parts of others, and the J.P.S. Nahum Sarna Genesis Commentary is my favorite. All the commentaries are wonderful to read, but I personally find Mr. Sarna's approach a nice balance of reverence and scholarhip. I find it a fascinating mix of historical information, interpretive possibilities, and theologic implications. (And I overspent for my copy, buying it in a bookstore).

27 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not very different from non-Jewish alternatives, July 15, 2000

By A Customer

This book is okay, a competent commentary on Genesis. My only two reservations concern the non-availability of a paperback version (a reasonable consideration if one wanted to buy the whole JPS series on a limited budget), and, perhaps more importantly, the relative lack of specifically Jewish perspective. I couldn't distinguish a lot of the comments from what you might find in more rigorous detail in the Anchor or Word commentaries (two scholarly Christian series with a tendancy to higherish criticism). This is particularly noticeable in the pre-Abrahamic section of the book where the commentary is influenced more by modern views on the relation of Genesis to Canaanite myth than by traditional reverence for the text. This is obviously a question of personal preference but I find myself making more use of, and getting more from, Hertz's Pentateuch and Haftorahs. There is not much here in Sarna's Genesis that is not also found in Ephraim Speiser's (Anchor) or George Wenham's (Word).