The Making of the Modern Jewish Bible How Scholars in Germany, Israel, and America Transformed an Ancient Text

by Levenson, Alan T.

• ISBN13: 9781442205161
• ISBN10: 1442205164
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-07-07
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

Tracing its history from Moses Mendelssohn to today, Alan Levenson explores the factors that shaped what is the modern Jewish Bible and its centrality in Jewish life today. The Making of the Modern Jewish Bible explains how Jewish translators, commentators, and scholars made the Bible a keystone of Jewish life in Germany, Israel and America. Levenson argues that German Jews created a religious Bible, Israeli Jews a national Bible, and American Jews an ethnic one. In each site, scholars wrestled with the demands of the non-Jewish environment and their own indigenous traditions, trying to balance fidelity and independence from the commentaries of the rabbinic and medieval world.

Author Biography

Alan T. Levenson is the Schusterman/Josey Professor of Jewish Intellectual and Religious History at the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of several books, including Modern Jewish Thinkers: An Introduction.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Spinoza as Jewish Bible Critic	p. 9
The Emergence of Modern Jewish Bible Studies in Germany
Introduction: Starting with Germany	p. 26
Mendelssohn's Bible: The Ideal of Jewish Self-Sufficiency	p. 29
Samson Raphael Hirsch: The Chimera of Self-Explanatory Scripture	p. 45
Benno Jacob and the Call for a ôJewishö Bible Scholarship	p. 65
The Martin Buber-Franz Rosenzweig Bible: Culture or Religion?	p. 81
Zionism and the Creation of a National Bible
Introduction: The Bible in Modern Israel	p. 96
Early Zionism and the Bible: Ahad Haam and His Opponents	p. 103
The Bible as National Linchpin: David Ben-Gurion and His Opponents	p. 115
Nehama Leibowitz's Bible: Returning Tradition to the Text	p. 133
The Flowering of Jewish Bible Studies in North America
Introduction: America and the Jewish Bible	p. 152
Finding a Jewish Voice: Nahum Sarna and Robert Alter	p. 157
Seeking an American Jewish Bible	p. 181
Conclusion: Is There a ôJewish Schoolö of Modern Bible Study?	p. 209
Notes	p. 215
Selected Bibliography	p. 233
Name Index	p. 241
Subject Index	p. 245
About the Author	p. 247
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