Babel's Tower translated : Genesis 11 and ancient Jewish interpretation / / by Phillip Michael Sherman.

• Superior document: Biblical interpretation series ; vol. 117
• Author: Sherman, Phillip Michael.
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Language: English
• Series: Biblical interpretation series ; vol. 117.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (377 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

In Babel's Tower Translated , Phillip Sherman explores the narrative of Genesis 11 and its reception and interpretation in several Second Temple and Early Rabbinic texts (e.g., Jubilees, Philo, Genesis Rabbah). The account of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) is famously ambiguous. The meaning of the narrative and the actions of both the human characters and the Israelite deity defy any easy explanation. This work explores how changing historical and hermeneutical realities altered and shifted the meaning of the text in Jewish antiquity.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Interpretation as Translation or Exegesis and Historical Hermeneutics -- Introduction to Part I -- Return to Babel: Reading without the Canon -- Reading Babel Backwards. Canonical Foundations for Exegetical Expansion -- Introduction to Part II -- The Holy Language in the Book of Jubilees: The Tower of Babel and the Eclipse of Sacred Tradition -- Pseudo-Philo’s Biblical Antiquities: Echoes of the Tower -- Josephus and the Influence of Anxiety: Colonizing the Tower and the Politics of Dispersion -- Translated to Heaven: The Tower of Babel and Third (Greek) Baruch -- The Inner Tower: Philo and the Translation of Cultures -- Introduction to Part III -- A Just Translation: Reading the Rabbinic Babel in Genesis Rabbah -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Indexes.