Scriptural Tales Retold

The Inventiveness of Second Temple Jews

Erich S. Gruen

• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN:
  9780567715173
• eBook ISBN:
  9780567715180
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

Erich S. Gruen investigates a remarkable phenomenon in religious and literary history: the freedom with which Jewish writers in antiquity retold and recast, sometimes distorted or bypassed, biblical narratives that ostensibly had the status of sacred texts. Gruen asks the question of what prompted such tampering with tales that carried divine authority, and what implications this widespread practice of liberal revising had for attitudes toward the sacrality of the scriptures in general.

Gruen focuses upon writings of the Second Temple period, an era of the deep integration of Jewish history and the Greco-Roman world. Gruen brings to the task the training of a classicist and ancient historian rather than that of a biblical textual critic or a rabbinics scholar, not pursuing the commentaries of the later rabbis with their very different approaches, methods, and goals. As such, Gruen's emphasis rests upon narrative rather than legal matters, the haggadic rather than the halakhic. The former lends itself most readily to the creative instincts of the re-tellers.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle page
• Mosaic of Samson carrying the gate of Gaza from the Huqoq synagogue. Reproduced with permission of Jodi Magness; photo by Jim Haberman
• Title page
• Copyright page
• FOR ANN, NOW AND FOREVER
• CONTENTS
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• Chapter 1 THE TOWER OF BABEL
• Chapter 2 ABRAHAM IN EGYPT
• Chapter 3 SARAH AND HAGAR
• Chapter 4 THE AQEDAH
• Chapter 5 THE TESTAMENT OF ABRAHAM
• Chapter 6 THE RAPE OF DINAH
• Chapter 7 THE CONFLICTING CHARACTER OF JOSEPH
• Chapter 8 TAMAR AND JUDAH
• Chapter 9 MOSES AND GOD
• Chapter 10 MOSES IN ETHIOPIA
• Chapter 11 MOSES AS UNIVERSAL FIGURE
• Chapter 12 BALAAM AND WAYWARD PROPHECY
• Chapter 13 YAEL AND THE DEATH OF SISERA
• Chapter 14 JEPHTHAH AND HIS DAUGHTER
• Chapter 15 SAMSON AS SUPERHERO
• Chapter 16 THE JUDEAN MONARCHY AND SAUL
• Chapter 17 SOLOMON AND THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE
• Chapter 18 THE TRAVAILS OF JOB
• Chapter 19 THE ADDITIONS TO ESTHER
• CONCLUSION
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• PRIMARY SOURCES INDEX
• AUTHOR INDEX
• SUBJECT INDEX