Traditions of the Bible : : A Guide to the Bible As It Was at the Start of the Common Era / / James L. Kugel.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter HUP eBook Package Archive 1893-1999
• VerfasserIn: Kugel, James L.,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2022]; ©1998
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (1077 p.)

James Kugel's The Bible As It Was (1997) has been welcomed with universal praise. Here now is the full scholarly edition of this wonderfully rich and illuminating work, expanding the author's findings into an incomparable reference work. Focusing on two dozen core stories in the Pentateuch--from the Creation and Tree of Knowledge through the Exodus from Egypt and journey to the Promised Land--James Kugel shows us how the earliest interpreters of the scriptures radically transformed the Bible and made it into the book that has come down to us today. Kugel explains how and why the writers of this formative age of interpretation--roughly 200 B.C.E. to 150 C.E.--assumed such a significant role. Mining their writings--including the Dead Sea Scrolls, works of Philo and Josephus and letters of the Apostle Paul, and writings of the Apostolic Fathers and the rabbinic Sages--he "es for us the seminal passages that uncover this crucial interpretive process. For this full-scale reference work Kugel has added a substantial treasury of sources and passages for each of the 24 Bible stories. It will serve as a unique guide and sourcebook for biblical interpretation.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- 1 The World of Ancient Biblical Interpreters -- 2 The Creation of the World -- 3 Adam and Eve -- 4 Cain and Abel -- 5 Noah and the Flood -- 6 The Tower of Babel -- 7 Abraham Journeys from Chaldea -- 8 Melchizedek -- 9 The Trials of Abraham -- 10 Lot and Lot's Wife -- 11 Jacob and Esau -- 12 Jacob and the Angel -- 13 Dinah -- 14 Joseph's Ups and Downs -- 15 Jacob's Sons in Egypt -- 16 Growing Up in Pharaoh's Court -- 17 The Exodus from Egypt -- 18 The Red Sea -- 19 Into the Wilderness -- 20 At Mt. Sinai -- 21 The Golden Calf -- 22 Worship in the Wilderness -- 23 Trouble along the Way -- 24 The Bronze Serpent, Balaam, and Phinehas -- 25 The Life of Torah -- 26 Afterword -- Abbreviations -- Terms and Sources -- Bibliography of Works Cited -- Illustration Credits -- Index