James Kugelâs essential introduction and companion to the Bible combines modern scholarship with the wisdom of ancient interpreters for the entire Hebrew Bible.
As soon as it appeared, How to Read the Bible was recognized as a masterwork, âawesome, thrillingâ (The New York Times), âwonderfully interesting, extremely well presentedâ (The Washington Post), and âa tour de force...a stunning narrativeâ (Publishers Weekly). Now, this classic remains the clearest, most inviting and readable guide to the Hebrew Bible aroundâand a profound meditation on the effect that modern biblical scholarship has had on traditional belief.
Moving chapter by chapter, Harvard professor James Kugel covers the Bibleâs most significant storiesâthe Creation of the world, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and the flood, Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and his wives, Moses and the exodus, Davidâs mighty kingdom, plus the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the other prophets, and on to the Babylonian conquest and the eventual return to Zion.
Throughout, Kugel contrasts the way modern scholars understand these events with the way Christians and Jews have traditionally understood them. The latter is not, Kugel shows, a naĂŻve reading; rather, it is the product of a school of sophisticated interpreters who flourished toward the end of the biblical period. These highly ideological readers sought to put their own spin on texts that had been around for centuries, utterly transforming them in the process. Their interpretations became what the Bible meant for centuries and centuriesâuntil modern scholarship came along. The question that this book ultimately asks is: What now? As one reviewer wrote, Kugelâs answer provides âa contemporary model of how to read Sacred Scripture amidst the oppositional pulls of modern scholarship and tradition.â