Traditions of the Bible: A Guide to the Bible As It Was at the Start of the Common Era

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Harvard University Press, Jun 30, 2009 - Religion - 1077 pages
James Kugel's The Bible As It Was (1997) has been welcomed with universal praise. Here now is the full scholarly edition of this wonderfully rich and illuminating work, expanding the author's findings into an incomparable reference work. Focusing on two dozen core stories in the Pentateuch--from the Creation and Tree of Knowledge through the Exodus from Egypt and journey to the Promised Land--James Kugel shows us how the earliest interpreters of the scriptures radically transformed the Bible and made it into the book that has come down to us today. Kugel explains how and why the writers of this formative age of interpretation--roughly 200 B.C.E. to 150 C.E.--assumed such a significant role. Mining their writings--including the Dead Sea Scrolls, works of Philo and Josephus and letters of the Apostle Paul, and writings of the Apostolic Fathers and the rabbinic Sages--he quotes for us the seminal passages that uncover this crucial interpretive process. For this full-scale reference work Kugel has added a substantial treasury of sources and passages for each of the 24 Bible stories. It will serve as a unique guide and sourcebook for biblical interpretation.
 

Contents

1 The World of Ancient Biblical Interpreters
1
2 The Creation of the World
43
3 Adam and Eve
93
4 Cain and Abel
145
5 Noah and the Flood
171
6 The Tower of Babel
227
7 Abraham Journeys from Chaldea
243
8 Melchizedek
275
15 Jacobs Sons in Egypt
459
16 Growing Up in Pharaohs Court
501
17 The Exodus from Egypt
543
18 The Red Sea
581
19 Into the Wilderness
613
20 At Mt Sinai
633
21 The Golden Calf
711
22 Worship in the Wilderness
743

9 The Trials of Abraham
295
10 Lot and Lots Wife
327
11 Jacob and Esau
351
12 Jacob and the Angel
377
13 Dinah
403
14 Josephs Ups and Downs
437
23 Trouble along the Way
775
24 The Bronze Serpent Balaam and Phinehas
795
25 The Life of Torah
827
26 Afterword
889
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