Erich S. Gruen investigates a remarkable phenomenon in religious and literary history: the freedom with which Jewish writers in antiquity retold and recast, sometimes distorted or bypassed, biblical narratives that ostensibly had the status of sacred texts. Gruen asks the question of what prompted such tampering with tales that carried divine authority, and what implications this widespread practice of liberal revising had for attitudes toward the sacrality of the scriptures in general. Gruen focuses upon writings of the Second Temple period, an era of the deep integration of Jewish history and the Greco-Roman world. Gruen brings to the task the training of a classicist and ancient historian rather than that of a biblical textual critic or a rabbinics scholar, not pursuing the commentaries of the later rabbis with their very different approaches, methods, and goals. As such, Gruen's emphasis rests upon narrative rather than legal matters, the haggadic rather than the halakhic. The former lends itself most readily to the creative instincts of the re-tellers.

lgrsnf/erich gruen Full 2024 scriptural.pdf

Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

T&T Clark; Bloomsbury

Bloomsbury Academic

Cassell

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

Jewish and Christian Texts

Cover
Halftitle page
Mosaic of Samson carrying the gate of Gaza from the Huqoq synagogue. Reproduced with permission of Jodi Magness; photo by Jim Haberman
Title page
Copyright page
FOR ANN, NOW AND FOREVER
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1 THE TOWER OF BABEL
Chapter 2 ABRAHAM IN EGYPT
Chapter 3 SARAH AND HAGAR
Chapter 4 THE AQEDAH
Chapter 5 THE TESTAMENT OF ABRAHAM
Chapter 6 THE RAPE OF DINAH
Chapter 7 THE CONFLICTING CHARACTER OF JOSEPH
Chapter 8 TAMAR AND JUDAH
Chapter 9 MOSES AND GOD
Chapter 10 MOSES IN ETHIOPIA
Chapter 11 MOSES AS UNIVERSAL FIGURE
Chapter 12 BALAAM AND WAYWARD PROPHECY
Chapter 13 YAEL AND THE DEATH OF SISERA
Chapter 14 JEPHTHAH AND HIS DAUGHTER
Chapter 15 SAMSON AS SUPERHERO
Chapter 16 THE JUDEAN MONARCHY AND SAUL
Chapter 17 SOLOMON AND THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE
Chapter 18 THE TRAVAILS OF JOB
Chapter 19 THE ADDITIONS TO ESTHER
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PRIMARY SOURCES INDEX
AUTHOR INDEX
SUBJECT INDEX

2024-07-25