Question for David Knoll or scholars with expertise in rabbinical interpretation
Do you know of any list of books on Jewish scriptural interpretation that interested Christians should read? or do you have any personal recommendations?
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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I wouldn't call myself an expert in rabbinical interpretation, but here's what I would suggest: a good place to start is R. Longenecker's Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period, now in its second edition. Then look at some of the stuff E. E. Ellis has written. If you're really up to it, J. Neusner has written some fine pieces on rabbinical exegesis. A particularly good piece (in my opinion) is “Paradigmatic
Thinking Versus Historical Thinking: The Case of Rabbinic Judaism” in J.
Neusner, ed., Approaches to Ancient
Judaism Vol 11. Atlanta: Scholars Press 1997; 163-92.0 -
That's a difficult question MJ.
Do you mean primary sources i.e the exegetes themselves? Or secondary sources on Jewish interpretation.
There are also different schools:
Literal and "linguistic", theological, allegorical, literary, ancient, medieval, modern...
For instance those interested in Thomas Aquinas would find interest in Maimonides (his picture is my Avatar BTW)
Those interested in Augustine would probably want to read Philo.
Those who are interested in ancient Jewish interpretation would need to read Midrash anthologies or Rashi.
My favourite is Ibn Ezra (12th century) his linguistic interpretation is very perceptive and in between the lines you can see the incipience of the questions that will later engage Spinoza and the critical commentators of the 19th century. And he can be very brutal towards earlier commentators especially Rashi which is always fun to read.
The problem is that if you supply the original Hebrew it would be of little help to those who studied Biblical Hebrew. The syntax and vocabulary changed a lot over the years so I guess one needs to find an English translation.
The greatest Midrashic anthologies are:
Midrash Rabbah, Midrash Tankhuma, Mekhilta of Rabbi Yishmael, Mekhilta of Rabbi Simon bar Yokhay, Sifre Numbers and Sifre Deuteronomy.
Most of these were translated into English. The Mekhilta of Rabbi Yishmael by someone called Lauterbach. I like this edition and it is actually available in Logos as well as a translation of the Mekhilta of Simon Bar Yokhay. Neusner translated the Sifre anthologies. I don't know of any translation to Midtash Rabbah (which is the most popular).
As for secondary literature, Heinneman's "Aggadah and its development" and Michael Fishbane's "Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel" are a must. Neusner wrote some books about Aggadah as well.
As for medieval commentators, Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Qimhi, Nachmanides, and Maimonides' "Guide to the perplexed" are a good start. I am afraid I can't think of any good scholarly work in English on medieval Jewish exegesis.
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David Knoll said:
That's a difficult question MJ.
Do you mean primary sources i.e the exegetes themselves? Or secondary sources on Jewish interpretation.
Thank you for the answer. I deliberately left the question open - perhaps a bit too open. What I was thinking was that when the Talmud first appeared in pre-pub, many forum users had little idea of what it was. At the other end of the spectrum were users wanting Rashi. In America, the most likely Jewish books to be seen on the bookshelves of a general bookstore are by Neuser, Kugel, Buber, Heschel and Kushner. And in much of the country, even they would be in short supply. What I wanted was much of what you supplied - starting points for people with widely varying background should they find diving directly into the Talmud too great a mental shift.
An aside: I was led into this literature through history of philosophy (Maimonides, Buber ...), a writing coach and my cousin's spouse - chair of the synagogue board. Somehow, I don't think that's everyones' experience.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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David Knoll said:
I don't know of any translation to Midtash Rabbah (which is the most popular).
Neusner seems to have translated Genesis, Lamentations, Esther, Ruth and Song of Songs Rabbah (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Neusner_bibliography).
And Soncino seems to have published a complete set: http://www.amazon.com/Midrash-Rabbah-10-Vol-Set/dp/0900689382/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305240480&sr=8-1
Also found a translation of Genesis Rabbah vol 1 online. Looks like it comes from that set.
Mac Pro (late 2013) OS 12.6.2
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fgh said:
Neusner seems to have translated Genesis, Lamentations, Esther, Ruth and Song of Songs Rabbah
I wonder if this guy ever sleeps.
Thanks for the references. They could come of use.
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MJ I will use this opportunity to add Rashbam as well. He was Rashi's grandson. A literal exegete who did not refrain from fiercely attacking Rashi when the latter departed from the literal meaning as he saw it.
MJ. Smith said:An aside: I was led into this literature through history of philosophy (Maimonides, Buber ...), a writing coach and my cousin's spouse - chair of the synagogue board. Somehow, I don't think that's everyones' experience.
I too got to know Maimonides through his philosophy. He was a very interesting figure. In Hebrew Maimonides and Nachmanides are called after their acronyms as Rambam and Ramban (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon and Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman) this posed difficulties when municipalities in Israel needed to name streets after them. The fear was that in oral communication (if one is giving directions to a destination) people would get mixed up. In Tel Aviv this was solved by naming one street Rambam and the other Nachmani. Jerusalem always has to be different so they named one street Nachmani and the other Ben Maimon avenue.
[:)]
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MJ. Smith said:
Do you know of any list of books on Jewish scriptural interpretation that interested Christians should read? or do you have any personal recommendations?
I am not a scholar, but I'd recommend the following:
The Jewish Study Bible: featuring The Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation (link)
Back To The Sources: Reading the Classic Jewish Texts (link)
חַפְּשׂוּ בַּתּוֹרָה הֵיטֵב וְאַל תִּסְתַּמְּכוּ עַל דְּבָרַי
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I'd not seen the latter book - on Amazon it looks interesting.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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David Knoll said:
I wonder if this guy ever sleeps.
Indeed! Some months ago I started to work on a Suggestion about a Neusner Collection, but I never got the job finished: there were so incredibly many books to choose from.
David Knoll said:I will use this opportunity to add Rashbam as well. He was Rashi's grandson.
Rather off topic, but your reference jogged my memory: has anyone read those novels about Rashi's daughters? Are they worth reading? The Amazon reviews are mostly great, but there's some really negative ones as well. (I couldn't get them from any library here, so I'd have to buy them, unfortunately.)
MJ,
You should make a Suggestion about these books. For now I'm adding a link to this thread in one of my earlier ones.
Mac Pro (late 2013) OS 12.6.2
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fgh said:
has anyone read those novels about Rashi's daughters?
No and I doubt whether they contain anything historical. We know almost nothing about Rashi's daughters. Unfortunately that is the case with almost all Jewish women of the middle ages. The exception being the documentary material in the Genizah.
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David Knoll said:
No and I doubt whether they contain anything historical. We know almost nothing about Rashi's daughters.
I never expected them to be historical in that sense. Novels about times that far back seldom are. I was thinking more about the "bigger picture". Has she gotten the things we can know something about right? Does she understand Talmud and how it was taught? And so on.
Mac Pro (late 2013) OS 12.6.2
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For those of you who haven't yet found out, there is now a Jewish suggestion at Logos' new Uservoice site for prepubs: Add more Jewish works. Please go add your votes. And then add the remainder of your votes to other suggestions -- preferably mine.
(There is also a new Uservoice site for CP's, with another ten new votes for you to spend: http://communitypricing.uservoice.com/forums/183260-general/filters/top. That too has a Jewish suggestion: Add more Jewish works to CP.)
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