The Book of Job in Medieval Jewish Philosophy
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: August 18, 2004
Language: eng
Number of pages: 337
ISBN-13: 9780195171532
First sentence: Few texts have elicited as large and diverse a body of interpretation throughout the ages as the Book of Job.
Description: "Medieval Jewish philosophers have been studied extensively by modern scholars, but even though their philosophical thinking was often shaped by their interpretation of the Bible, relatively little attention has been paid to them as biblical interpreters. In this study, Robert Eisen breaks new ground by analyzing how six medieval Jewish philosophers approached the Book of Job. The thinkers covered are Saadiah Gaon, Moses Maimonides, Samuel ibn Tibbon, Zerahiah Hen, Gersonides, and Simon ben Zemah Duran. Eisen explores each philosopher's reading of Job on three levels: its relationship to interpretations of Job by previous Jewish philosophers, the way in which it grapples with the major difficulties in the text, and its interaction with the author's systematic philosophical thought. Eisen also examines the resonance between the Job readings of medieval Jewish philosophers and those of modern biblical scholars."--BOOK JACKET.