How To Read the Bible: A Guide to the Scripture, Then and Now.
Language: English
Published by Free Press, New York, 2007
- First Edition
- Hardcover
- Used

Seller: Henry Hollander, Bookseller, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.Henry Hollander, Bookseller
AbeBooks seller since December 27, 2019
Condition: Used - Very good
£ 19.45
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Add to basketItem description from seller
Octavo in dust jacket, xxiv, 819 pp., maps, b/w photos, notes, indexes "In How to Read the Bible, Harvard professor James Kugel leads the reader chapter by chapter through the "quiet revolution" of recent biblical scholarship, showing time and again how radically the interpretations of today's researchers differ from what people have always thought. The story of Adam and Eve, it turns out, was not originally about the "Fall of Man," but about the move from a primitive, hunter-gatherer society to a settled, agricultural one. As for the stories of Cain and Abel, Abraham and Sarah, and Jacob and Esau, these narratives were not, at their origin, about individual people at all but, rather, explanations of some feature of Israelite society as it existed centuries after these figures were said to have lived. Dinah was never raped -- her story was created by an editor to solve a certain problem in Genesis. In the earliest version of the Exodus story, Moses probably did not divide the Red Sea in half; instead, the Egyptians perished in a storm at sea. Whatever the original Ten Commandments might have been, scholars are quite sure they were different from the ones we have today. What's more, the people long supposed to have written various books of the Bible were not, in the current consensus, their real authors: David did not write the Psalms, Solomon did not write Proverbs or Ecclesiastes; indeed, there is scarcely a book in the Bible that is not the product of different, anonymous authors and editors working in different periods.Such findings pose a serious problem for adherents of traditional, Bible-based faiths. Hiding from the discoveries of modern scholars seems dishonest, but accepting them means undermining much of the Bible's reliability and authority as the word of God. What to do? In his search for a solution, Kugel leads the reader back to a group of ancient biblical interpreters who flourished at the end of the biblical period. Far from naïve, these interpreters consciously set out to depart from the original meaning of the Bible's various stories, laws, and prophecies -- and they, Kugel argues, hold the key to solving the dilemma of reading the Bible today. " from flap copy.…
Seller Inventory # 103780
- Title
- How To Read the Bible: A Guide to the Scripture, Then and Now.
- Author
- Kugel, James L.
- Publisher
- Free Press, New York
- Publication year
- 2007
- Condition
- Very Good
- Dust jacket
- Dust Jacket Included
- Binding
- Hardbound
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 074323586X
- ISBN 13
- 9780743235860
- Edition
- First Edition.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review
"Who should we believe about the Bible--our Sunday-school teachers or our university professors? James Kugel cuts through this dilemma with a breathtaking new look at the world's most popular book...No writer on the Bible has wrestled so profoundly with the most basic, important questions raised by our conflicting knowledge and desires." --"The Best Books We Read in 2007," The A.V. Club
"To say that this would be the college course you never got to take about the Bible would be damning with faint praise; it would be the college course, the graduate seminar, and reading for comprehensive exams you never got around to, all in one. It may be the most popular book about these modern critics ever written; it's certainly one of the best popular books on the Bible in many years." --Haaretz
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Henry Hollander, Bookseller
Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
AbeBooks seller since December 27, 2019
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Hollander Books carries over 40,000 titles in English, Hebrew, Yiddish, German and other languages. Our sole specialty is Judaica. Our total stock numbers over 80,000 books. Our shop is located high above Downtown Los Angeles. We welcome visitors anytime except on Shabbat and Jewish holidays, but please contact me in advance to make certain we will be there when you arrive. The best way to reach me is either through email or text. Thank you for your understanding.
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Henry Hollander, Bookseller
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