Need...Neusner...Now

I decided to see if the search function for the forums was working as Bradley claimed in a post about that subject, so I plugged in a search value I have not been able to get adequate responses for over the last few years, and with the help of the "quotes", my NEUSNER post popped up. Hey!!

David Paul said:

Jacob Neusner has written like a 1000 books.

No, seriously. He is considered to be the most prolific writer in human history...he's getting close to four digits. Logos has some of his stuff already, but it would be nice to have a few Neusner collections in PrePub.

Some suggestions are:

• A Life of Yohanan ben Zakkai (Zakkai is THE major figure is the transition from pre 70 to post 70 Judaism)
• Development of a Legend. Studies on the Traditions Concerning Yohanan ben Zakkai
• The Rabbinic Traditions about the Pharisees before 70
• The Tosefta. Translated from the Hebrew. Six Divisions
• Judaism in the Beginning of Christianity
• Judaism in the Matrix of Christianity
• Writing with Scripture: The Authority and Uses of the Hebrew Bible in the Torah of Formative Judaism
• Rabbinic Literature and the New Testament. What We Cannot Show, We Do Not Know
• The Judaism the Rabbis Take for Granted
• The Theology of the Oral Torah. Revealing the Justice of God
• Handbook of Rabbinic Theology: Language, System, Structure
• The Perfect Torah
• How Important Was the Destruction of the Second Temple in the Formation of Rabbinic Judaism?
• Torah Revealed, Torah Fulfilled: Scriptural Laws in Formative Judaism and Earliest Christianity
• Judaeo-Christian Debates. God, Kingdom, Messiah
• Children of the Flesh, Children of the Promise. An Argument with Paul about Judaism as an Ethnic Religion
• Comparing Spiritualities: Formative Christianity and Judaism on Finding Life and Meeting Death
• Editor: The Missing Jesus: Rabbinic Judaism and the New Testament
• Editor: The Brother of Jesus. James the Just and his Mission
• Classical Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism: Comparing Theologies
• Judaic Law from Jesus to the Mishnah. A Systematic Reply to Professor E. P. Sanders
• Are There Really Tannaitic Parallels to the Gospels? A Refutation of Morton Smith
• Jewish Law from Moses to the Mishnah
• Judaism in the New Testament: Practice and Belief
• Formative Judaism: History, Hermeneutics, Law and Religion. Ten Recent Essays
• Edited: Religious Writings and Religious Systems. Systemic Analysis of Holy Books in Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Greco-Roman Religions, Ancient Israel, and Judaism (Atlanta, 1989: Scholars Press for Brown Studies in Religion). Volume I.Islam, Buddhism, Greco-Roman Religions, Ancient Israel, and Judaism
• Edited: Religious Writings and Religious Systems. Systemic Analysis of Holy Books in Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Greco-Roman Religions, Ancient Israel, and Judaism (Atlanta, 1989: Scholars Press for Brown Studies in Religion). Volume II. Christianity

Last but probably not least...

• Editor: The Origins of Judaism. Religion, History, and Literature in Late Antiquity. With William Scott Green. New York, 1991: Garland Press. Twenty volumes of reprinted scholarly essays, with introductions.

• • i Normative Judaism
  • ii Normative Judaism
  • iii Normative Judaism
  • iv The Pharisees and Other Sects
  • v The Pharisees and Other Sects
  • vi Judaism and Christianity in the First Century
  • vii Judaism and Christianity in the First Century
  • viii Controversies in the Study of Judaic Religion and Theology
  • ix History of the Jews in the Second and First Centuries B.C.
  • x History of the Jews in the Second and First Centuries B.C.
  • xi History of the Jews in the First Century of the Common Era
  • xii History of the Jews in the Second Century of the Common Era
  • xiii History of the Jews in the Second through Seventh Centuries of the Common Era
  • xiv History of the Jews in the Second through Seventh Centuries of the Common Era
  • xv The Literature of Formative Judaism: The Mishnah and the Tosefta
  • xvi The Literature of Formative Judaism: The Talmuds
  • xvii The Literature of Formative Judaism: The Midrash-Compilations
  • xviii The Literature of Formative Judaism: The Midrash-Compilations
  • xix The Literature of Formative Judaism: The Targumim and Other Jewish Writings in Late Antiquity
  • xx The Literature of Formative Judaism: Controversies on the Literature of Formative Judaism

I think this post was the first to request Jacob Neusner resources in Logos...according to my search, it was. About a year or two later (approx.), Logos offered a Neusner collection (Yay!!!)...and I don't think a single one of my requests was in it (BOOO!!!). Maybe one or two, but I scanned and didn't see any. I even posted about this at the time.

David Paul said:

As one who advocated for Neusner over the years, I always knew his stuff would add up to a pretty penny because of the sheer volume. I would also like to see a combined collection of collections at discount.

That said, I don't think any of the things I advocated for are in this batch, except maybe for the last one. I hope more stuff in coming.

I still don't know how FL managed to completely whiff on the titles I asked for. Given the large number of suggestions, failing to include any is akin to dropping an egg and missing the floor. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I specifically chose titles that have some connection to Christianity and the period of separation...you know, since most of us here are Christian. But for some inexplicable reason, the FL choosers decided to go for titles that are mostly focused on Judaism and Rabbinism. Not that such stuff is of zero interest, it's just that there's so much that is MUCH MORE FOCUSED ON THE SUBJECT-MATTER CONCERNS OF NEARLY 100% OF LOGOS CUSTOMERS.

The result is that I didn't purchase this collection, since very little in it interests me. I am still desirous of seeing all or most of what I requested end up in Logos, but FL never added any additional Neusner titles after offering this quite large and wholly unappealing collection (and I lamented the possibility that this would transpire at the time). My guess: because there isn't a huge swathe of Logos customers anxious to acquire titles covering the minutia of Judaism, the collection didn't sell well, and as a result, FL concluded "Oh, our customers don't really want Neusner titles after all", and just quit while they were behind. But noooo...it's just that Logos customers not so surprisingly want titles related to OUR interests. Offering Judaica is fine--I have no problems with it--but Jews are quite like Catholics (ergo Verbum) in the respect of preferring to buy from a Kosher market. Neusner has plenty of Christian-interest titles, but FL, for who knows what reason, cherry-picked a decidedly Jewish-interest selection of Neusner titles. Go figure.

What we have here is another of the dozens of cases where FL has found a way to rebuff my desire and propensity to send them money.

Well, at least the forum search function seems to be working. We'll see how that pans out.

SineNomine said:

David Paul said:

I still don't know how FL managed to completely whiff on the titles I asked for.

Different publishers?

Well, Neusner became "the most prolific author in history" by often publishing books having the same title through different publishers. Wipf and Stock, for instance, which seems to dabble in republishing, offers many of his titles, and Logos has a long ongoing relationship with them. Point is...there are many more publishing house options where Neusner is concerned than is the case for most authors.

SineNomine said:Right. I believe the entire 99 volume Neusner collection is Wipf & Stock. But if none of the books by Neusner that you want were published by Wipf & Stock, then...

I see your point. Well, if I had even the slightest inkling of confidence that spending the hour or two it would take to track down the publishers of the titles I posted above would help in any way...but I don't. I have no idea how they (FL and W&S) came up with such a tepid collection, but it seems like it had to be partially through laziness; there seems to have been no deliberate conscious effort put into it. It almost feels like they asked Wipf & Stock to "throw us together a Neusner collection" and gave them zero indication of what sort of subject matter should be included. Neusner was Jewish--a significant portion of his output (20-30%) covered the period of overlap with and separation from Christianity, but the rest is pure Judaica. About 85-90% of this FL Neusner collection is pure Judaica. In other words, it is proportionally more tilted toward Judaica than his entire ouevre is. [8-)] [^o)]

So, if FL has the gumption, I suggest three things:
1) Split up this collection and make it more palatable (I did finally notice one title within it that I'd recommended)
2) Make the effort to chase down the titles I suggested, which are focused primarily on FIRST CENTURY (ergo Christian-related) subject matter.

...and the biggest bite, if they have the stomach for it...
3) Create a new website solely devoted to Judaica resources, similar to Verbum. Those of us in the Logos and Verbum orbits would benefit from such an endeavor. I would recommend testing the waters first for potential interest. 

Ah, okay. That's good. I took the fact that previews are not available for individual titles listed on the Neusner Collection page to mean that they couldn't be purchased individually.

Well, since I seriously doubt FL will build a discrete Judaism site, that just leaves number 2. Hopefully adding some Christian interest titles by Neusner won't remain just an unfulfilled wish.