How to Read the Bible
eBook - PDF

How to Read the Bible

  1. 400 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

How to Read the Bible

About this book

Master Bible scholar and teacher Marc Brettler argues that today’s contemporary readers can only understand the ancient Hebrew Scripture by knowing more about the culture that produced it. And so Brettler unpacks the literary conventions, ideological assumptions, and historical conditions that inform the biblical text and demonstrates how modern critical scholarship and archaeological discoveries shed light on this fascinating and complex literature.

Brettler surveys representative biblical texts from different genres to illustrate how modern scholars have taught us to “read” these texts. Using the “historical-critical method” long popular in academia, he guides us in reading the Bible as it was read in the biblical period, independent of later religious norms and interpretive traditions. Understanding the Bible this way lets us appreciate it as an interesting text that speaks in multiple voices on profound issues.

This book is the first “Jewishly sensitive” introduction to the historical-critical method. Unlike other introductory texts, the Bible that this book speaks about is the Jewish one—with the three-part TANAKH arrangement, the sequence of books found in modern printed Hebrew editions, and the chapter and verse enumerations used in most modern Jewish versions of the Bible. In an afterword, the author discusses how the historical-critical method can help contemporary Jews relate to the Bible as a religious text in a more meaningful way.

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Yes, you can access How to Read the Bible by Marc Zvi Brettler in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Jewish Literary Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Contents
  5. Preface
  6. Abbreviations
  7. 1. Reading as a Jew and as a Scholar
  8. 2. What Is the Bible, Anyway?
  9. 3. The Art of Reading the Bible
  10. 4. A Brief History of Israel
  11. 5. With Scissors and Paste: The Sources of Genesis
  12. 6. Creation vs. Creationism: Genesis 1–3 as Myth
  13. 7. The Ancestors as Heroes
  14. 8. Biblical Law: Codes and Collections
  15. 9. Incense Is Offensive to Me: The Cult in Ancient Israel
  16. 10. “In the Fortieth Year . . . Moses Addressed the Israelites”: Deuteronomy
  17. 11. “The Walls Came Tumbling Down”: Reading Joshua
  18. 12. “May My Lord King David Live Forever”: Royal Ideologyin Samuel and Judges
  19. 13. “For Israel Tore Away from the House of David”: Reading Kings
  20. 14. Revisionist History: Reading Chronicles
  21. 15. Introduction to Prophecy
  22. 16. “Let Justice Well Up like Water”: Reading Amos
  23. 17. “They Shall Beat Their Swords into Plowshares”:Reading (First) Isaiah
  24. 18. “I Will Make This House like Shiloh”: Reading Jeremiah
  25. 19. “I Will Be for Them a Mini-Temple”: Reading Ezekiel
  26. 20. “Comfort, Oh Comfort My People”: The Exile and Beyond
  27. 21. “Those That Sleep in the Dust . . . Will Awake”:Zechariah, Apocalyptic Literature, and Daniel
  28. 22. Prayer of Many Hearts: Reading Psalms
  29. 23. “Acquire Wisdom”: Reading Proverbs and Ecclesiastes
  30. 24. “Being But Dust and Ashes”: Reading Job
  31. 25. “Drink Deep of Love!”: Reading Song of Songs
  32. 26. “Why Are You So Kind . . . When I Am a Foreigner?”: Reading Ruth vs. Esther
  33. 27. The Creation of the Bible
  34. Afterword: Reading the Bible as a Committed Jew
  35. Notes
  36. Sources Cited
  37. Index of Subjects
  38. Index of Biblical Passages and Other References