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    The Meaning of the Bible: What the Jewish Scriptures and Christian Old Testament Can Teach Us

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    by Douglas A. Knight, Amy-Jill Levine

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    • ISBN-13: 9780062067739
    • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
    • Publication date: 08/21/2012
    • Pages: 496
    • Sales rank: 302,245
    • Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 8.82(h) x 1.26(d)

    Douglas A. Knight is Drucilla Moore Buffington Professor of Hebrew Bible and professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University. Knight is the author of Law, Power, and Justice in Ancient Israel and Rediscovering the Traditions of Israel.

    Amy-Jill Levine is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University and affiliate faculty at the Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations in Cambridge, UK. Levine is the author of The Misunderstood Jew and served as co-editor of The Jewish Annotated New Testament.

    Amy-Jill Levine is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies, and Professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School and College of Arts and Science in Nashville, Tennessee; Affiliated Professor at the Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations at Cambridge; and a self-described "Yankee Jewish feminist who teaches in a predominantly Christian divinity school in the buckle of the Bible Belt." She is the author of The Misunderstood Jew, The Meaning of the Bible (coauthored with Douglas Knight), and the editor of The Jewish Annotated New Testament.

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    Table of Contents

    List of Abbreviations xi

    Introduction xiii

    Part 1

    1 The History of Ancient Israel 3

    Reconstructing History 5

    Historical Synopsis 7

    The Ancestors 10

    The Exodus 13

    Settlement of the Land 17

    The Founding of the Monarchy 22

    From the Divided Kingdom to the Fall of Jerusalem 25

    Exile and Return 32

    The Persian and Hellenistic Periods 34

    The Historical Time Frame 40

    2 The Literary Heritage of Ancient Israel 43

    Tanakh or Old Testament or Hebrew Bible? 45

    Every Translator, a Traitor 48

    Literary Conventions 53

    Characterization 58

    Different Stories, Different Authors 64

    Canonization 73

    3 Land and Settlement 75

    Israel's Environs 77

    Topography 81

    Climate and Water Resources 91

    Settlement of the Land 94

    A Land of Milk and Honey 96

    Part 2

    4 Law and Justice 101

    The Written and the Unwritten 104

    Ancient Southwest Asia 108

    Rhetorical Forms 111

    Administering Justice 115

    5 The Divine 133

    Four Stumbling Blocks to Talking About the Biblical God 135

    The Names of God 139

    Religious Competition and Co-optation 147

    The Divine Feminine 150

    Father God, Children of God, Angels 152

    Polytheism, Henotheism, and Monotheism 157

    Seeing the Portraits Again 159

    6 The Cultus 165

    The "Domestic Cult" 166

    Tabernacles and Temples 169

    Priests 176

    Purity 181

    Dietary Concerns 186

    Sacrifice 188

    Child Sacrifice 191

    7 Chaos and Creation 195

    Creation Today 195

    Cosmic Architecture 198

    Hands-on Artisanship 207

    Disorder and Estrangement 213

    From Cain and Abel to Noah and Babel 216

    Other Biblical Creations 224

    8 Continuation and Completion 231

    Abrahams Search for a Home 232

    From Slavery to Liberation 239

    New Exodus: From Prophecy to Apocalyptic 249

    Part 3

    9 Self and Other 261

    Hebrews 262

    Circumcision 264

    Endogamy 269

    The Tribes of Israel 280

    The Samaritans 282

    Judeans and Jews 284

    From Affiliation to Conversion 285

    Resident Aliens and Foreigners 288

    Chosen People 292

    10 Sexuality 293

    Revisiting Eden 296

    Sexual Seduction, Response, and Potency 304

    Legislating Sexuality 306

    Marriage, Divorce, and Adultery 314

    Abortion 320

    Sexual Abuse 322

    Innuendo 323

    11 Politics and the Economy 329

    The Nation-State 330

    The Cities 340

    The Empire and the Colony 343

    The Household 345

    The Clan 350

    The Tribe 334

    12 Diaspora 361

    Initial Scattering and Return 361

    The Ten Lost Tribes 365

    The Babylonian Diaspora 367

    Postexilic Diaspora Communities 375

    Esther 376

    Daniel 383

    Tobit 389

    Part 4

    13 Critique and Reform 395

    Historians as Critics 396

    Moses, Flawed but Unassailable 398

    As His Father David Did 403

    Prophets as Critics 415

    Politics 419

    Economy 421

    Religion 423

    14 Wisdom and Theodicy 427

    Who Is Wise? 428

    Sages and Their Literature 431

    Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon 434

    Woman Wisdom 436

    Job and Theodicy 439

    Qohelet (Ecclesiastes) and Realism 452

    Conclusion 457

    Acknowledgments 459

    Bibliography 461

    Index 465

    What People are Saying About This

    Dianne Bergant

    “If anyone thinks the fruit of biblical scholarship is esoteric and heavy reading, direct that person to this book. In it, Knight and Levine demonstrate both their scholarly proficiency and their expertise as seasoned educators. This book should appeal to a broad audience.”

    William Brosend

    “A book we have needed for years - learned and accessible, clearly organized by the topics readers care about, and fully engaged with current discussions of deep and broad significance.”

    John Shelby Spong

    “Amy-Jill Levine and Douglas A. Knight have combined to write a book on the Bible that is as academically brilliant as it is marvelously entertaining. By placing our scriptures into their original Jewish context they have opened up startling and profound new insights. This is a terrific book.”

    Peter J. Paris

    “Provides new knowledge on the Bible’s rich diversity of teaching on sexuality, familial and ethnic discord, political corruption, religious infidelity, economic exploitation as well as the nature of God, faith, love, and social justice. It is both enlightening and inspiring.”

    Richard Elliott Friedman

    “From its superb introduction to its perfectly worded conclusion, this book does it all. Whether your interest in the Bible is historical or literary, specific texts or broad themes, this book has it—and conveys its relevance for today. ”

    Walter Brueggemann

    “A winsome, accessible introduction to the theological thought of the Hebrew Bible. This sort of irenic, thoughtful linkage of criticism and interpretation within a confessing tradition is exactly what we most need in Scripture reading.”

    Carol J. Dempsey

    “Knight and Levine have done a marvelous job of taking very sophisticated material and presenting it in an illuminating and thoroughly engaging way that bespeaks of excellent scholarship by two distinguished teachers.”

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    In The Meaning of the Bible: What the Jewish Scriptures and Christian Old Testament Can Teach Us, preeminent biblical scholars Douglas A. Knight and Amy-Jill Levine deliver a broad and engaging introduction to the Old Testament—also known as the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible—offering a wealth of compelling historical background and context for the sacred literature that is at the heart of Judaism and Christianity. John Shelby Spong, author of Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World writes, "Levine and Knight have combined to write a book on the Bible that is as academically brilliant as it is marvelously entertaining. By placing our scriptures into their original Jewish context they have opened up startling and profound new insights. This is a terrific book."

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    John Shelby Spong
    Amy-Jill Levine and Douglas A. Knight have combined to write a book on the Bible that is as academically brilliant as it is marvelously entertaining. By placing our scriptures into their original Jewish context they have opened up startling and profound new insights. This is a terrific book.
    Walter Brueggemann
    A winsome, accessible introduction to the theological thought of the Hebrew Bible. This sort of irenic, thoughtful linkage of criticism and interpretation within a confessing tradition is exactly what we most need in Scripture reading.
    Richard Elliott Friedman
    From its superb introduction to its perfectly worded conclusion, this book does it all. Whether your interest in the Bible is historical or literary, specific texts or broad themes, this book has it—and conveys its relevance for today.
    Peter J. Paris
    Provides new knowledge on the Bible’s rich diversity of teaching on sexuality, familial and ethnic discord, political corruption, religious infidelity, economic exploitation as well as the nature of God, faith, love, and social justice. It is both enlightening and inspiring.
    William Brosend
    A book we have needed for years - learned and accessible, clearly organized by the topics readers care about, and fully engaged with current discussions of deep and broad significance.
    Dianne Bergant
    If anyone thinks the fruit of biblical scholarship is esoteric and heavy reading, direct that person to this book. In it, Knight and Levine demonstrate both their scholarly proficiency and their expertise as seasoned educators. This book should appeal to a broad audience.
    Carol J. Dempsey
    Knight and Levine have done a marvelous job of taking very sophisticated material and presenting it in an illuminating and thoroughly engaging way that bespeaks of excellent scholarship by two distinguished teachers.
    Booklist
    More than random facts about the Hebrew Bible . . . more than a historical overview . . . [t]hey are aiming for true understanding of the life, culture, and practices of the ancient Israelites.
    Publishers Weekly
    This is a smart book by two seasoned professors of Jewish studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School. Knight, also a professor of Hebrew Bible, is the author of many books and articles, and Levine (The Misunderstood Jew), also a professor of New Testament, do not follow the tired model of trying to retell the Bible for modern application. Instead, they organize the book to cover background information (history, literary styles and development); themes such as “law and justice”; society, including politics and sexuality; and the roles and writings of biblical prophets and sages. Readers looking for a single interpretation or explanation of individual books may be confused by the authors’ integration of biblical characters, texts, and ancient history into a single section—Ruth’s story, a quote from Micah, and discussion of biblical laws, for example—but this structure addresses such broader questions as the administration of justice in the Bible. Without telling believers how to use their sacred texts, subtitle notwithstanding, the authors help readers think about the Bible in new ways. (Nov.)
    Library Journal
    Knight (Jewish studies, Vanderbilt Divinity; Law, Power, and Justice in Ancient Israel) and Levine (New Testament & Jewish studies, Vanderbilt Divinity; The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus) here present a topical survey of the Old Testament. In fact, one of the approximately 90 topics the authors cover concerns just what to call this collection of scripture. Other topics include the Exodus, the topography of Southwest Asia (the authors' preferred term for the Middle East), the names of God, the Creation story, and the Diaspora. VERDICT Although often engaging, this relatively short book may have difficulty finding an audience, given its breadth. It spends too little time on any one topic for it to work in an undergraduate introductory course or to appeal to interested lay readers. It provides a taste of various forms of biblical criticism and related disciplines without giving the reader a chance to evaluate these tools. But it presents an entrée into approaching the Old Testament from a critical point of view without necessarily diminishing its text. A highly accessible if overly ambitious survey that is in tune with current scholarship.—James M. Wetherbee, Wingate Univ. Lib., NC

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