JPS Tanakh Commentary, it is a Tanakh Commentary?

The "JPS Tanakh Commentary", claims to be that, a Tanakh Commentary. (It's what the ad said). But I'm afraid that's not what I expected. It's more a commentary on the Pentateuch and the parashot.

Is there in Logos a fuller (rabbinical) commentary on the entire Old Testament more complete? I already have Torah with Rashi. Want to explore these, unfortunately, little explored sources. Thanks in advance!

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MJ. Smith

This is a series which is still in progress. As the description says what is currently available is "the complete Torah commentaries, plus commentaries on Jonah, Esther, Ecclesiastes and the Haftarot. To the best of my knowledge there is no completed commentary on the Tanakh available in Logos. In dead tree format, the Art Scroll series may be complete but its the only other English resource that comes to mind.

EDUARDO JIMENEZ

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/317315#Comment_317315

You're right. As is tragically often, I did not read fine prints till the end!

fgh

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/317315#Comment_317315

what is currently available is "the complete Torah commentaries, plus commentaries on Jonah, Esther, Ecclesiastes and the Haftarot.

There is also a kind of stepchild, available separately: the JPS Commentary on the Haggadah.

What I really wish for is a JPS commentary on Isaiah! And Psalms, Lamentations and the Song of Songs would be nice too. (Fortunately the latter 3 are at least contracted, but I haven't seen anything about Isaiah.)

In dead tree format, the Art Scroll series may be complete but its the only other English resource that comes to mind.

My first thought was Soncino, and checking bestcommentaries.com, it does seem fairly complete. It's got several books/volume, though, so I'm guessing it's less deep than JPS or ArtScroll (I've only looked at JPS).

I am pretty sure there are Suggestion threads for both Soncino and ArtScroll, so go vote for them, please.

moshe

Hey

You can try out this Bible study app which is free and including a lot of commentaries to Old Testament.

link: https://www.thebiblecommentary.com/download

Kevin A Lewis

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/872143#Comment_872143

Worth saying that the Soncino is good but some volumes are a little dated now - but yes it is complete.

Artscroll has a number of commentary sets - but is exclusively published from an Orthodox perspective. And I don't yet know of one that is complete. The Chumash/Early Prophets/Later Prophets/Writings is nearing completion with only the Writing incomplete.

The JPS TORAH/TANACH commentary set is incomplete but is from a more regular academic stance.

The Artscroll set(s) are not yet represented in BestCommentaries - only the Tanach Classic set is (also incomplete)

Pay's your money etc!

Also only the JPS is in Logos currently.

Shalom

Kevin A Lewis

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/872160#Comment_872160

Also worth saying the Artscroll http://bestcommentaries.com/series/artscroll-art/ publishing schedule (the Classic series) seems to have stalled.

However the Artscoll "The Chumash/Early Prophets/Later Prophets/Writings" set is very active and the last volume published for Mishlei/Proverbs came out only this autumn.

Shalom

Dan Francis

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/872164#Comment_872164

While not a commentary we do have the JSB:

The Jewish Study Bible

It ends up being similar to a one volume work (sample below for Genesis 1, Proverbs 1, Daniel 1):

Genesis 1:1–2:3: Creation in seven days:

The book of Genesis—and thus the Bible itself—opens with an account of creation that is extraordinary for its austerity. Other ancient Near Eastern evocations of God’s (or the gods’) world–ordering activity, including many in the Bible itself (e.g., Ps. 104), provide high drama and graphic description of the events and their protagonists (even the Lord). Gen. 1:1–2:3, however, is utterly devoid of sensory detail. This eerie abstractness, combined with the highly schematic and formulaic structure of the narrative, conveys a sense of the awe–inspiring majesty and inviolable sovereignty of the God on whom the narrative is unswervingly focused. This narrative is structured by a pattern of seven days, six in which God accomplishes all His creative labors, and one in which He rests in regal repose, blessing and hallowing that climactic day. The correlations between things created on the various days exhibit a high degree of symmetry (diagram, below). The first three days describe the creation of generalities or domains; the next three chronicle the creation of the specifics or the inhabitants of the domains in the same order. Creation comes to its culmination, however, only in the one day that has no counterpart, the Sabbath (“Shabbát” in modern Heb, or “Shábbes” in the Eastern European pronunciation), here observed by God above and not yet enjoined upon His people Israel (who first hear of it in Exodus 16). The organization of time into seven–day units has become so familiar and so widespread that it is easy to forget that unlike the month (which in the Bible is lunar) and the year (which in the Bible never moves too far from its solar base), the biblical week corresponds to no astronomical event. The notion that seven signifies completeness and that things come to their fit conclusion on the seventh day did, however, have wide resonance in the ancient Near Eastern world in which Israel emerged, and that idea doubtless stands in the background of our passage. The role of the number seven in 1:1–2:3 extends, in fact, beyond the obvious division of the acts of creation into a seven–day sequence. For example, the expression, And God saw that [something He made] was good or very good occurs seven times, but not on every day of the primordial week. Missing on the second and seventh, it appears twice on the adjacent third and sixth days (1:10, 12, 25, 31). Similarly, the word “God” occurs exactly thirty–five times (i.e., five times seven) in our passage, and the section devoted to the seventh day (2:1–3) has exactly thirty–five words in the Heb. The organization of the process of creation into a sequence of seven days is familiar to most readers not only from the opening of the Tanakh but also from the Sabbath commandment of the Decalogue in Exod. 20:8–11. But we must not forget that this connection is far from universal in the Tanakh. In fact, most biblical descriptions of creation know nothing of a seven–day sequence (e.g., Ps. 104; Prov. 8:22–31), and most texts about the Sabbath (including the version of the Decalogue in Deut. 5:12–15) make no reference to creation. The suspicion arises that 1:1–2:3 derives from a distinct school of thought, one that dates to a relatively late period in the history of Israelite religion. On the basis of these considerations, and a multitude of others, critical scholars attribute the passage to the P (for “Priestly”) source. And God does function here in ways reminiscent of a “kohen” (priest), giving blessings, for example (1:22, 28; 2:3; cf. Lev. 9:22–23; Num. 6:22–27), and consecrating the Sabbath (2:3; cf. Ezek. 44:24). The concern shown in this story for order and clear boundaries typifies the Priestly corpus. More importantly, the creation of the world in 1:1–2:3 bears several striking resemblances to the construction of the Tabernacle mandated in Exod. chs 25-31 and executed in Exod. chs 35-40 (e.g., see Gen. 2:1–3; Exod. 39:32, 42–43)—the prototype of the Jerusalem Temple and the focus of the priestly service of the Lord. Note that other ancient Near Eastern creation stories conclude with the construction of a temple for the creation god. In the Tanakh, the world is sometimes seen as the Lord’s temple, and the Temple as a microcosm (e.g., Isa. 66:1–2).

1: A tradition over two millennia old sees 1:1 as a complete sentence: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” In the 11th century, the great Jewish commentator Rashi made a case that the verse functions as a temporal clause. This is, in fact, how some ancient Near Eastern creation stories begin—including the one that starts at 2:4b. Hence the translation, When God began to create heaven and earth.

2: This clause describes things just before the process of creation began. To modern people, the opposite of the created order is “nothing,” that is, a vacuum. To the ancients, the opposite of the created order was something much worse than “nothing.” It was an active, malevolent force we can best term “chaos.” In this verse, chaos is envisioned as a dark, undifferentiated mass of water. In 1:9, God creates the dry land (and the Seas, which can exist only when water is bounded by dry land). But in 1:1–2:3, water itself and darkness, too, are primordial (contrast Isa. 45:7). In the midrash, Bar Kappara upholds the troubling notion that the Torah shows that God created the world out of preexistent material. But other rabbis worry that acknowledging this would cause people to liken God to a king who had built his palace on a garbage dump, thus arrogantly impugning His majesty (Gen. Rab. 1:5). In the ancient Near East, however, to say that a deity had subdued chaos is to give him the highest praise.

3–5: Since the sun is not created until the fourth day (1:14-19), the light of the first three days is of a different order from what we know. A midrash teaches that when God saw the corruption of the generations of the flood and of the tower of Babel, He hid that primordial light away for the benefit of the righteous in the world–to–come (b. Ḥag. 12a). Other ancient Near Eastern myths similarly assume the existence of light before the creation of the luminaries.

6–8: The word translated expanse refers to a piece of metal that has been hammered flat. Here, the function of the sky is to separate the waters above (which fall as rain) from the subterranean waters (which rise as springs; see 7:11).

16: The sun and moon are created only on the fourth day and are not named, but referred to only as the greater light and the lesser light. This may be an implicit polemic against the worship of astral bodies (see 2 Kings 23:5).

21: A similar point can be made about the creation of the great sea monsters on the fifth day. In some ancient myths—and biblical texts as well (see Ps. 74:12–17; Job 26:5–14)—creation results from the slaying of a sea monster. Isa. 27:1 uses the same word to describe the frightening sea monster that the Lord will kill at the end of time.

26–28: The plural construction (Let us . . . ) most likely reflects a setting in the divine council (cf. 1 Kings 22:19–22; Isa. ch 6; Job chs 1–2): God the King announces the proposed course of action to His cabinet of subordinate deities, though He alone retains the power of decision. The midrash manifests considerable uneasiness with God’s proposal to create something so capable of evil as human beings are. Playing on Ps. 1:6, one midrash reports that God told his ministering angels only of “the way of the righteous” and hid from them “the way of the wicked” (Gen. Rab. 8:4). Another one reports that while the angels were debating the proposal among themselves, God took the matter in hand. “Why are you debating?” he asked them. “Man has already been created!” (Gen. Rab. 8:5). Whereas the earth and the waters (at God’s command) bring forth the plants, fish, birds, and other animals (1:12, 20, 24), humankind has a different origin and a different character. In the ancient Near East, the king was often said to be the “image” of the god and thus to act with divine authority. So here, the creation of humanity in God’s image and likeness carries with it a commission to rule over the animal kingdom (1:26b, 28b; cf. Ps. 8:4–9). Some have seen in that commission a license for ecological irresponsibility. The fact is, however, that the Tanakh presents humanity not as the owner of nature but as its steward, strictly accountable to its true Owner (see Lev. 25:23–24). This theology is one source of the important institutions of the sabbatical and jubilee years (see Exod. 23:10–11; Lev. ch 25). Whereas the next account of human origins (Gen. 2:4b–24) speaks of God’s creation of one male from whom one female subsequently emerges, Gen. ch 1 seems to speak of groups of men and women created simultaneously. The division of humankind into two sexes is closely associated with the divine mandate to Be fertile and increase. In Jewish law, this is a positive commandment, although it is obligatory only on Jewish men, not women (b. Yebam. 65b).

29–30: Humankind, animals, and birds all seem originally meant to be neither vegetarians nor carnivores, but frugivores, eating the seeds of plants and trees.

Adele Berlin, Marc Zvi Brettler, and Michael A. Fishbane, eds. The Jewish Study Bible. Accordance electronic ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), paragraph 344.

accord://read/JSB#344

Proverbs 1:1–9:18: Collection I. Though chs 1–9 serve as an introduction to the book, the section was probably written later as a guide to interpreting the old sayings in chs 10–29. After the prologue (1:1–7), there are two distinct series of poems, the ten “Lectures” (I–X) and the five “Interludes” (A–E). The Lectures are formulated as father–to–son instruction, and each develops a single topic in a three–part structure: (1) A Call to Attention, in which the speaker exhorts his son to hear his wisdom and remember it, because thus he will receive great rewards; e.g., 1:8–9. (2) A Lesson, which is the main body of the teaching; e.g., 1:10–18. (3) A Conclusion, which is a statement of the general principle underlying the Lesson; e.g., 1:19. Sometimes the conclusion is missing. Of the five Interludes, C is a collection of four epigrams that stands apart from the rest of the unit, while A, B, D, and E are interpretive additions in praise of wisdom, which portray wisdom as a nearly divine woman who represents a power transcending the individual teachings (see 1:20–33 n.).

1:1–7: The prologue, added at a late stage in the book’s growth, explains the use of the book and commends it to readers.

1:The title ascribes the book to King Solomon, the archetypal wise man. See 1 Kings 3:4–28; 5:10–14. On the historical veracity of this inscription, see intro.

2-6: The statement of purpose defines the twofold purpose of the book: to inculcate the basic virtues of wisdom and ethical behavior in the young, and to enable the mature wise man to increase his wisdom and hone his skills in interpreting literary wisdom. In both cases, the assumed audience is male.

7: Fear of the LORD is the ground for wisdom to grow in; it is essentially conscience. In its most basic form, in the untutored child, it is unreflective fear of consequences. As wisdom develops, fear of God becomes a cognitive awareness of what God wants and does, and this type of fear is equivalent to knowledge of the LORD (2:5). Fear of God is effective in keeping one from evil even in secret deeds and even in spheres of behavior where the law does not apply. Beginning of knowledge: The commentators debated whether “reʾshit” (here translated “beginning”) means first in time or first in quality, that is, the best part. The variant of this verse in 9:10 uses a word that definitely means “beginning.”

1:8–19: Lecture I: Avoid gangs. In vv. 8–9, the father, who speaks throughout the Lectures in chs 1–9, identifies the instruction he is about to deliver as both his own and his wife’s (similarly 6:20), even though the specific words are his. Elsewhere in wisdom literature there is occasional allusion to mothers as teachers. For example, the Egyptian Duachety concludes his instruction with the words, “Praise God for your father and your mother, who set you on the way of life!” (AEL 2:191). Also, 31:1–9 is spoken by a woman.

10-14: My son, many scholars understand the “son” to be a student in a school and “father” to be a schoolteacher, but there is no evidence for this. Egyptian instructions are consistently presented as a father’s words to his actual son, and the mention of the mother in 1:8; 4:3; 6:20 points to a family context, at least as the fictional setting of wisdom instruction. The texts could secondarily be used in schools, as they were in Egypt. In the following annotations, “pupil” means the youth to whom the teaching is directed, without presumption of a school setting. Come with us, the invitation a gang of thugs might use to entice a young man to join them in plotting a murderous mugging. They have grandiose notions of their power. They think that they are as powerful as Sheol, the netherworld. They hold out promises of comradeship and a share of the wealth.

15-18: Even a bird has enough sense to avoid a trap laid out in plain sight, but the criminals are too stupid for that. They hurry to shed blood, not realizing that it is their own.

19: Conclusion: Evildoers destroy themselves by means of the evil that they themselves create. Cf. 5:21–23.

1:20–33: Interlude A: Lady Wisdom chastises the foolish. In Interludes A, D, and E, wisdom is described as if she were a woman. (In Heb, the word for wisdom, “ḥokhmah,” is a feminine abstract noun.) Such personification is briefly suggested in 2:3; 3:13–20; 4:8–9; 7:4. There are various theories to account for the origins of the wisdom personification. Some commentators believe that it derives from a goddess, such as a Canaanite wisdom goddess (though no such deity is known) or the Egyptian Ma’at, goddess of truth and justice, or the Egyptian Isis, goddess of wisdom. Lady Wisdom does bear some similarities to ancient Near Eastern goddesses, but in Proverbs she is a literary figure created as a vivid and memorable way of speaking about human wisdom.

20-21: Wisdom is by no means secret or esoteric. She is public, frequenting the busiest parts of the town (the gates of a city were the location of much public and private business) and calling to all to accept her. Cf. 8:1.

1:22–30: Wisdom castigates fools. They spurned her warning, in other words, ignored the teachings and warnings of their elders. In return, Wisdom will scorn the fools when they most need her, when they find themselves in trouble and are in desperate need of clear and effective thinking.

31-33: The punishment threatened here, as so often in Proverbs, is the natural consequence of the evil action.

Adele Berlin, Marc Zvi Brettler, and Michael A. Fishbane, eds. The Jewish Study Bible. Accordance electronic ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), paragraph 9403.

accord://read/JSB#9403

Daniel 1:1–6:29: Collection of court legends. Chs 1–6 probably circulated as independent stories before being collected and edited together (see introduction). Chs 2, 4, and 5 demonstrate that Daniel is superior to the king’s other courtiers, while chs 3 and 6 dramatically depict the persecution and vindication of the Jewish protagonists at the hands of the other courtiers. Ch 1 serves as an introduction to this collection. The positive resolution of the narrative in chs 1–6 and the sometimes humorous tone indicate that the tension did not result from the national crisis of the Maccabean revolt, but rather from the more general conflict of loyalties that existed for Jews living in the Diaspora in the centuries preceding that.

1:1–21: Daniel and his three companions are introduced and tested. This chapter introduces the main Jewish characters Daniel and his three friends as well as Nebuchadnezzar and also the Temple vessels, which will figure in ch 5. In addition, though God’s great power is emphasized, it is power that is exercised at a distance and through intermediaries, a theme that will be developed in terms of God’s role in the court of the great foreign kings in chs 1–6 and in world history in chs 7–12.

1-2: The fall of Judah and the beginnings of exile are introduced quickly. To establish the pedigree of the hero, the book of Daniel does not dwell here on Nebuchadnezzar as the archvillain of ancient Jewish history, or on the exile as tragedy. The Lord still controls human events, even the successes of foreign kings over Judah. The dating of events is not accurate: The third year of King Jehoiakim was 606 BCE, but Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem in 597 BCE. Vessels, Ezra 1:7–8. Shinar, Babylonia.

3: The “history” of the exile quickly turns to the fortunes of the four Jewish protagonists at the court of Nebuchadnezzar. They are heroic and aristocratic in bearing. Compare the treatment of the fallen king Jehoiachin in 2 Kings 25:27–30, Jer. 52:31–34.

4: Chaldeans: A name for a region and language of Babylonia, it was also associated with the wisdom and learning of Eastern courtiers. In some passages in Daniel it refers to the ethnic group, in others it means courtiers. The language of the Chaldeans was Akkadian.

5: The training of courtiers in languages, court protocol, and international relations was common in the ancient world.

7-8: Belteshazzar, see 4:5 n. Prominent Jews sometimes took Babylonian names, and at Gen. 41:45 Joseph is given an Egyptian name. Although Daniel and his friends refuse the king’s food, presumably because it violated the food laws in Lev. ch 11 and Deut. ch 14, there appears to be no objection to receiving Babylonian court names. The names Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed–nego have not been satisfactorily explained. This v. also offers the only biblical indication of the later rabbinic law that Jews should not drink pagan wine.

8: In the Diaspora there arose a stronger emphasis on dietary laws as a way of living a pious life without (or away from) the Temple, reflected here and in many works in the Apocrypha (Tobit 1:10–11; Judith 10:5; 1 Macc. 1:62–63, 2 Macc. 5:27).

Adele Berlin, Marc Zvi Brettler, and Michael A. Fishbane, eds. The Jewish Study Bible. Accordance electronic ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), paragraph 10707.

accord://read/JSB#10707

So nothing super in depth but gives you some good information and better than nothing.

-Dan