Jewish concepts of Scripture
Subtitle: a comparative introduction
By: edited by Benjamin D. Sommer
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 334
ISBN-13: 9780814740620; 9780814740637; 9780814724798; 9780814724606
Subjects: Criticism, interpretation, etc., Jewish; Bible
Description: What do Jews think scripture is? How do the People of the Book conceive of the Book of Books? In what ways is it authoritative? Who has the right to interpret it? Is it divinely or humanly written? And have Jews always thought about the Bible in the same way? In seventeen cohesive and rigorously researched essays, this volume traces the way some of the most important Jewish thinkers throughout history have addressed these questions from the rabbinic era through the medieval Islamic world to modern Jewish scholarship. They address why different Jewish thinkers, writers, and communities have turned to the Bible—and what they expect to get from it. Ultimately, argues editor Benjamin D. Sommer, in understanding the ways Jews construct scripture, we begin to understand the ways Jews construct themselves.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.