The Greatest Poems of the Bible: A Reader's Companion with New Translations - Hardcover

Kugel, James L

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 068485774X ISBN 13: 9780684857749

Publisher: The Free Press, 1999

Synopsis

A renowned poet and biblical scholar translates the great poetry of the Bible, collecting it here in an impressively bound anthology of psalms, songs, prophecies, and proverbs that will appeal to any reader.

About this title

Review

John HollanderCo-editor of "The Best American Poetry 1998" and winner of the Bollingen Prize in PoetryThe fascinating book includes familiar texts like Psalms 23 and 137, and Ecclesiastes 12, as well as some that are less well known to modern readers. Throughout, James Kugel's linguistic and historical learning, modern literary sensibility, love of poetry in all languages, and special commitment to biblical interpretation frame this exciting examination of the power and energetic meaning of the great writing of the Hebrew Bible.

David Noel FreedmanGeneral Editor of The Anchor Bible series"The Great Poems of the Bible" amply lives up to expectations. It demonstrates clearly that, like Moses of old, James Kugel's eye is very sharp, and his natural force unabated Kugel's familiarity with and expertise in biblical Hebrew poetry are well established, and he does not disappoint in his confident, masterful handling of even the most difficult Hebrew passages. His analyses of and expansions on the text are informative and often telling, and they are gracefully woven into the commentary as a whole.

Richard Elliott FriedmanAuthor of "The Hidden Book in the Bible" and "Who Wrote the Bible?"James L. Kugel's splendid "The Great Poems of the Bible" is not about eighteen separate poems. It is a connected, scenic walk through Israelite life, history, and spirituality. And its a lively, understandable trip -- like a hike along a forest path with a guide who knows what to point out, and who makes the trip exciting. Each poem is the medium for shedding light on a crucial part of the Bible God, the soul prophecy, monarchy, wisdom, the sexes and the afterlife. If you think this book is just about the poems, think again. The poems are doors, and kugel opens them -- wide enough to see into the biblical world.

"Mr. Kugel's commentaries... are marvelous -- fresh, original, deeply thought, deeply felt. They are the responses to the Bible of a scholar who, far more than just a scholar, is above all a reader and knows that, even more than knowledge, taste, and discrimination, the most important thing to bring to a text is oneself: not a part of oneself, but the whole, entirely focused and entirely open, ready to give and take all. To be more able to read in this way is a rare gift, and Mr. Kugel, who can also write, has it." -- The Forward

"This fascinating book includes familiar texts like Psalms 23 and 137, and Ecclesiastes 12, as well as some that are less well known to modern readers. Throughout, James Kugel's linguistic and historical learning, modern literary sensibility, love of poetry in all languages, and special commitment to biblical interpretation frame this exciting examination of the power and energetic meaning of the great writing of the Hebrew Bible." -- John Hollander, coeditor of The Best American Poetry 1998 and winner of the Bollingen Prize in Poetry

"Kugel has produced both beautiful translations of beloved passages from the Hebrew Bible and inspired essays on 'the spiritual reality' those passages evoke." -- Commentary

About the Author

James L. Kugel is Starr Professor of Hebrew Literature at Harvard University, and a regular visiting Professor of Biblical Studies at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.  He is the author of a number of books of biblical scholarship, including How to Read the Bible (2007), for which he won the National Jewish Book Award for best book, The Great Poems of the Bible (1999), and The Bible As It Was (1997).  In 2001, Kugel was awarded the prestigious Grawemeyer Prize in Religion.  He lives in Jerusalem, Israel, and in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Free Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 068485774X
• ISBN 13: 9780684857749
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 350