The Making of the Modern Jewish Bible: How Scholars in Germany, Israel, and America Transformed an Ancient TextTracing its history from Moses Mendelssohn to today, Alan Levenson explores the factors that shaped what is the modern Jewish Bible and its centrality in Jewish life today. The Making of the Modern Jewish Bible explains how Jewish translators, commentators, and scholars made the Bible a keystone of Jewish life in Germany, Israel and America. Levenson argues that German Jews created a religious Bible, Israeli Jews a national Bible, and American Jews an ethnic one. In each site, scholars wrestled with the demands of the non-Jewish environment and their own indigenous traditions, trying to balance fidelity and independence from the commentaries of the rabbinic and medieval world. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Chapter 1 Spinoza as Jewish Bible Critic | 9 |
Part I THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN JEWISH BIBLE STUDIES IN GERMANY | 25 |
The Ideal of Jewish SelfSufficiency | 29 |
The Chimera of SelfExplanatory Scripture | 45 |
Chapter 4 Benno Jacob and the Call for a Jewish Bible Scholarship | 65 |
Culture or Religion? | 81 |
Part II ZIONISM AND THE CREATION OF A NATIONAL BIBLE | 95 |
Part III THE FLOWERING OF JEWISH BIBLE STUDIES IN NORTH AMERICA | 151 |
Nahum Sarna and Robert Alter | 157 |
Chapter 10 Seeking an American Jewish Bible | 181 |
Is There a Jewish School of Modern Bible Study? | 209 |
Notes | 215 |
| 233 | |
| 241 | |
| 245 | |
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The Making of the Modern Jewish Bible: How Scholars in Germany, Israel, and ... Alan T. Levenson No preview available - 2011 |
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Abraham academic Ahad Haam American Jews ancient Israel ancient Near Eastern approach Ben-Gurion Benno Jacob Berdichevsky Bible project Bible studies Bible translation Bible’s biblical text Buber and Rosenzweig Buber-Rosenzweig canon Cassuto century chapter Christian Chumash cited commentators contemporary David Deuteronomy divine early Enlightenment essays exegesis exegetical Exodus Ezra Franz Rosenzweig Geiger Genesis German Jews German-Jewish Haam’s halachah Hebrew Bible Hirsch Horeb interpretation Israeli Israelite Jerusalem Jewish Bible scholars Jewish Bible scholarship Jewish scholars Jewish tradition Jewry Judaism Kaufmann Kugel language Levenson literary Martin Buber medieval midrash modern Jewish Bible Moses Mendelssohn Nahum Sarna narrative Nehama Leibowitz non-Jewish Oral Torah original Orthodox Pentateuch philosopher polemic Prophets Protestant rabbinic literature Rashi read the Bible reader rejected religion religious role Samson Raphael Hirsch scholarly Scripture secular Shapira Sorkin source criticism Spinoza Talmud Tanakh Testament theology tion Torah commentary Tractatus traditional Jewish Understanding Genesis University Press verse words Zionist