Surpassing wonder
Subtitle: the invention of the Bible and the Talmuds
By: Donald Harman Akenson.
Publisher: Harcourt Brace
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 658
Subjects: Bible -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Talmud -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Bible -- Criticism, interpretation, etc. -- History.; Talmud -- Criticism, interpretation, etc. -- History.
Description: Surpassing Wonder illuminates the ancient Hebrew scriptures, the Christian "New Testament," and the Talmuds of the Rabbis. Donald Harman Akenson takes a radical historical look at these founding documents. Studying them and the surrounding scholarship, Akenson has arrived at a new - and galvanizing - understanding. He argues persuasively that these founding texts are best understood if they are each regarded as having been written by one author-editor.

He then brings the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds into clear focus, as no other writer has done. Using images that range from tractor mechanics to Winnie-the-Pooh, Akenson explains how Western civilization was created not by the Greeks of Athens or the patricians of Rome but by the desert worshippers of Yahweh.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.