New from JPS
We have so many good resources from Jewish Publication Society, this looks like a good one:
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It's a great resource here is a sample from the familiar Tobit (start of: Intro/translation/commentary):
Tobit George W. E. Nickelsburg Tobit is a piece of historical fiction set in the Assyrian captivity that recounts the sufferings of a pious Israelite and his family and God’s alleviation of these troubles. From a literary point of view Tobit is a rich and complex text that eludes simple analysis. Taken as a whole, however, the work is a sophisticated and carefully crafted narrative. In spite of his faithfulness to God and his many deeds of mercy to others, Tobit suffers greatly. When he can no longer believe that God will deliver him, he prays for death. In another city, his relative Sarah also sees death as the only likely solution to her suffering. But when all appears hopeless, God sends healing by means of the angel Raphael. Parallel to the story of Tobit is the uncompleted story of Israel. Tobit’s situation is paradigmatic for the exiled nation. As God has chastised Tobit, so Israel, suffering in exile, is being chastised. But God’s mercy on Tobit and his family guarantees that this mercy will bring the Israelites back to their land. Since this event, described only in predictions, awaits fulfillment, one level of the double story is incomplete. --Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture, ed. Louis H. Feldman, James L. Kugel, and Lawrence H. Schiffman, Accordance electronic ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013), 2631.
TRANSLATION 1:1 This book tells the story of Tobit* son of Tobiel son of Hananiel son of Aduel son of Gabael son of Raphael son of Raguel of the descendants of Asiel, of the tribe of Naphtali, 2who in the days of King Shalmaneser of the Assyrians was taken into captivity from Thisbe, which is to the south of Kedesh Naphtali in Upper Galilee, above Asher toward the west, and north of Phogor. 3I, Tobit,* walked in the ways of truth and righteousness all the days of my life.* I performed many acts of charity for my kindred and my people who had gone with me in exile to Nineveh in the land of the Assyrians. 4When I was in my own country, in the land of Israel,* while I was still a young man, the whole tribe of my ancestor Naphtali deserted the house of David and Jerusalem. This city had been chosen from among all the tribes of Israel, where all the tribes of Israel should offer sacrifice and where the temple, the dwelling of God, had been consecrated and established for all generations forever. 5All my kindred and our ancestral house of Naphtali sacrificed to the calf that King Jeroboam of Israel had erected in Dan* and on all the mountains of Galilee. --Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture, ed. Louis H. Feldman, James L. Kugel, and Lawrence H. Schiffman, Accordance electronic ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013), 2634.
COMMENTARY *1:1–2 The superscription describes the work as “the book of the words of Tobit”; it was written at the command of the angel Raphael (12:20), praising God’s intervention in the lives of the protagonists. The name Tobit is a Greek form of the Hebrew name Tobi, probably short for Tobiah (“Yahweh is my good”), which in the present work is the name of Tobit’s son (in Gk., Tobias). Tobit’s home in Thisbe is the first of a number of parallels with 1 Enoch which describes certain mythic events as taking place in the same general area (1 En. 13:4–10). *1:3–2:10 The narrative begins as Tobit recounts his piety and its anomalous consequences. Although he did not participate in Israel’s apostasy, he and his family were taken into exile, where his pious concern cost him his job and his physical well-being. *1:3 The first-person singular narrative begun here continues until 3:7, when the story of Sarah is introduced by an anonymous third-person narrator who recounts the rest of the story. Using the idiom of the two ways (1:3; see commentary below on 4:3–19), Tobit describes himself as a righteous Israelite who devotes himself to acts of kindness for his exiled compatriots in Assyrian Nineveh. *1:4 Tobit’s acts of righteousness are traced back to his days in Israel, where he was an exception among the apostates in the Northern Kingdom. *1:5 Tobit describes the prevailing situation—Jeroboam’s schism and his establishment of a rival sanctuary at Dan (1 Kings 12:25–33; Job 2:6, the quotation of Amos’s oracle against Bethel). The divine establishment of the Jerusalem Temple will be emphasized in chap. 14. --Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture, ed. Louis H. Feldman, James L. Kugel, and Lawrence H. Schiffman, Accordance electronic ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013), 2661.
This would be a great resource for FL to get!!!!
-Dan
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Disclaimer: I hate using messaging, texting, and email for real communication. If anything that I type to you seems like anything other than humble and respectful, then I have not done a good job typing my thoughts.
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I'm interested.
“The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara
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I would love to see this in Logos!
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Outside the Bible has been added to the Book Suggestions UserVoice. [:)]
“The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara
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