The difficult phrase זה שבתה הבית מעט of Ruth 2,7 likely represents a deliberate device to depict... more The difficult phrase זה שבתה הבית מעט of Ruth 2,7 likely represents a deliberate device to depict confused and apologetic speech because of an incident of sexual harassment. This hypothesis (1) explains why Boaz noticed Ruth; 2) makes vv. 8.9 appropriate to their context; 3) explains the current form of the text and the inability of the versions to translate it; 4) is a useful hypothesis, adding significance to other parts of the book; 5) brings the passage up to the stylistic level of the rest of the book; 6) reiterates Ruth’s untenable social status; and 7) reiterates the element of providential interference guiding the fate of David’s ancestors.
In Job 1:20, Job performs four actions:
1) he rends his garment; 2) he shears his head; 3) he fal... more In Job 1:20, Job performs four actions: 1) he rends his garment; 2) he shears his head; 3) he falls to the ground; and 4) he prostrates himself. The third of these can be read either (with the first two) as an act of mourning or (with the last) as an act of worship. I suggest that this is a deliberate literary choice: the poetic technique of Janus parallelism. Since Janus parallelism has already been demonstrated to be both frequent in the book of Job and significant for its meaning, this unexpected Janus parallelism in the prose portion of the book confirms that those chapters are not an early survival but a creation of the author of the book as a whole.
I am suggesting that what Hannah asked for in the original
telling of this story was not זרע אנשי... more I am suggesting that what Hannah asked for in the original telling of this story was not זרע אנשים but זרע אלהים, a child that would be given her by God. The difficult phrase זרע אנשים is an artifact, placed in her mouth by a kind of Tiqqun Soferim, a reflexive correction of Hannah’s request by a scribe who (perhaps) misunderstood it and (certainly) found it uncomfortable.
In this paper I explain the reference to "the men of Hezekiah" in Prov 25:1 as another examp... more In this paper I explain the reference to "the men of Hezekiah" in Prov 25:1 as another example of the literary phenomenon found in the historical superscriptions to certain psalms. If this phrase is exegetical, rather than historical, the court of Hezekiah can no longer be considered the first, fixed point in the transmission of wisdom literature.
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Jan 1, 2003
Biblical texts regularly emphasize following the straight path that is marked out by God’s t... more Biblical texts regularly emphasize following the straight path that is marked out by God’s teachings. Just as in English, "straightness" is prized as "right" and "crookedness" scorned as perverse. This quality is praised both in action and in thought. By contrast, Qohelet’s search for wisdom is specifically expressed in language which gives turning, not straightness, the highest value. This study explores how Qohelet uses words and images of turning to express both what he has learned and how he has learned about the world, as well as how circularity is an element not merely of Qohelet’s thought, but of his style.
... Review of Duck-Woo Nam, Talking About God: Job 42:79 and the Nature of God in the Book of Jo... more ... Review of Duck-Woo Nam, Talking About God: Job 42:79 and the Nature of God in the Book of Job. Michael Carasik. Full Text: HTML.
... Michael Carasik. University of Pennsylvania. Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Search the... more ... Michael Carasik. University of Pennsylvania. Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Search the Selected Works of Michael Carasik. ... Review of Miller and Hayes, A History of Ancient Israel and Judah (2nd ed.). Michael Carasik, University of Pennsylvania. Suggested Citation. ...
The difficult phrase זה שבתה הבית מעט of Ruth 2,7 likely represents a deliberate device to depict... more The difficult phrase זה שבתה הבית מעט of Ruth 2,7 likely represents a deliberate device to depict confused and apologetic speech because of an incident of sexual harassment. This hypothesis (1) explains why Boaz noticed Ruth; 2) makes vv. 8.9 appropriate to their context; 3) explains the current form of the text and the inability of the versions to translate it; 4) is a useful hypothesis, adding significance to other parts of the book; 5) brings the passage up to the stylistic level of the rest of the book; 6) reiterates Ruth’s untenable social status; and 7) reiterates the element of providential interference guiding the fate of David’s ancestors.
In Job 1:20, Job performs four actions:
1) he rends his garment; 2) he shears his head; 3) he fal... more In Job 1:20, Job performs four actions: 1) he rends his garment; 2) he shears his head; 3) he falls to the ground; and 4) he prostrates himself. The third of these can be read either (with the first two) as an act of mourning or (with the last) as an act of worship. I suggest that this is a deliberate literary choice: the poetic technique of Janus parallelism. Since Janus parallelism has already been demonstrated to be both frequent in the book of Job and significant for its meaning, this unexpected Janus parallelism in the prose portion of the book confirms that those chapters are not an early survival but a creation of the author of the book as a whole.
I am suggesting that what Hannah asked for in the original
telling of this story was not זרע אנשי... more I am suggesting that what Hannah asked for in the original telling of this story was not זרע אנשים but זרע אלהים, a child that would be given her by God. The difficult phrase זרע אנשים is an artifact, placed in her mouth by a kind of Tiqqun Soferim, a reflexive correction of Hannah’s request by a scribe who (perhaps) misunderstood it and (certainly) found it uncomfortable.
In this paper I explain the reference to "the men of Hezekiah" in Prov 25:1 as another examp... more In this paper I explain the reference to "the men of Hezekiah" in Prov 25:1 as another example of the literary phenomenon found in the historical superscriptions to certain psalms. If this phrase is exegetical, rather than historical, the court of Hezekiah can no longer be considered the first, fixed point in the transmission of wisdom literature.
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Jan 1, 2003
Biblical texts regularly emphasize following the straight path that is marked out by God’s t... more Biblical texts regularly emphasize following the straight path that is marked out by God’s teachings. Just as in English, "straightness" is prized as "right" and "crookedness" scorned as perverse. This quality is praised both in action and in thought. By contrast, Qohelet’s search for wisdom is specifically expressed in language which gives turning, not straightness, the highest value. This study explores how Qohelet uses words and images of turning to express both what he has learned and how he has learned about the world, as well as how circularity is an element not merely of Qohelet’s thought, but of his style.
... Review of Duck-Woo Nam, Talking About God: Job 42:79 and the Nature of God in the Book of Jo... more ... Review of Duck-Woo Nam, Talking About God: Job 42:79 and the Nature of God in the Book of Job. Michael Carasik. Full Text: HTML.
... Michael Carasik. University of Pennsylvania. Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Search the... more ... Michael Carasik. University of Pennsylvania. Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Search the Selected Works of Michael Carasik. ... Review of Miller and Hayes, A History of Ancient Israel and Judah (2nd ed.). Michael Carasik, University of Pennsylvania. Suggested Citation. ...
The biblical commentaries known as Miqra’ot Gedolot have inspired and educated generations of Heb... more The biblical commentaries known as Miqra’ot Gedolot have inspired and educated generations of Hebrew readers. With the publication of this edition—the final volume of the acclaimed JPS English edition of Miqra’ot Gedolot—the voices of Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Nachmanides, Rashbam, Abarbanel, Kimhi, and other medieval Bible commentators come alive once more, speaking in a contemporary English translation annotated for lay readers.
Each page in The Commentators’ Bible: Genesis: The Rubin JPS Miqra’ot Gedolot contains several verses from the book of Genesis, surrounded by both the 1917 and the 1985 JPS translations and by new contemporary English translations of the major commentators. The book also includes a glossary of terms, a list of names used in the text, notes on source texts, a special topics list, and resources for further study. This large-format volume is beautifully designed for easy navigation among the many elements on each page, including explanatory notes and selected additional comments from the works of Bekhor Shor, Sforno, Gersonides, and Hizkuni, among others.
The most common English translations of the Bible often sound like a single, somewhat archaic vo... more The most common English translations of the Bible often sound like a single, somewhat archaic voice. In fact, the Bible is made up of many separate books composed by multiple writers in a wide range of styles and perspectives. It is, as Michael Carasik demonstrates, not a remote text reserved for churches and synagogues but rather a human document full of history, poetry, politics, theology, and spirituality.
Using historic, linguistic, anthropological, and theological sources, Carasik helps us distinguish between the Jewish Bible’s voices—the mythic, the historical, the prophetic, the theological, and the legal. By articulating the differences among these voices, he shows us not just their messages and meanings but also what mattered to the authors. In these contrasts we encounter the Bible anew as a living work whose many voices tell us about the world out of which the Bible grew—and the world that it created.
First published five hundred years ago as the “Rabbinic Bible,” the biblical commentaries known a... more First published five hundred years ago as the “Rabbinic Bible,” the biblical commentaries known as Miqra’ot Gedolot have inspired and educated generations of Hebrew readers. With this fourth volume of the acclaimed English edition, the voices of Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Nachmanides, Rashbam, and other medieval Bible commentators come alive once more, speaking in a contemporary English translation annotated and explicated for lay readers. Each page of this volume contains several verses from the book of Deuteronomy, surrounded by both the 1917 and the 1985 JPS translations and by new contemporary English translations of the major commentators. This edition also includes introductory material, a glossary of terms, a list of names used in the text, notes on source texts, essays on special topics, and resources for further study.
First published 500 years ago as the “Rabbinic Bible,” the biblical commentaries known as Miqra’o... more First published 500 years ago as the “Rabbinic Bible,” the biblical commentaries known as Miqra’ot Gedolot have inspired and educated generations of Hebrew readers. With this edition, the voices of Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Nachmanides, Rashbam, and other medieval Bible commentators come alive once more, speaking in a contemporary English translation annotated and explicated for lay readers.
Each page of this third volume in The Commentators’ Bible series contains several verses from the Book of Numbers, surrounded by both the 1917 and 1985 JPS translations, and by new contemporary English translations of the major commentators. The book also includes an introduction, a glossary of terms, a list of names used in the text, notes on source texts, a special topics list, and resources for further study.
This large-format volume is beautifully designed for easy navigation among the many elements on each page, including explanatory notes and selected additional comments from the works of Bekhor Shor, Hizkuni, Abarbanel, Sforno, Gersonides, and others.
The biblical commentaries known as Miqra’ot Gedolot have inspired and educated generations of Heb... more The biblical commentaries known as Miqra’ot Gedolot have inspired and educated generations of Hebrew readers. With this edition, the voices of Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Nachmanides, Rashbam, and other medieval Bible commentators come alive once more, speaking in a contemporary English translation annotated and explicated for lay readers.
Each page of this second volume in The Commentators’ Bible series contains several verses from the Book of Leviticus, surrounded by both the 1917 and 1985 JPS translations, and by new contemporary English translations of the major commentators. The book also includes an introduction, a glossary of terms, a list of names used in the text, notes on source texts, a special topics list, and resources for further study. This large-format volume is beautifully designed for easy navigation among the many elements on each page, including explanatory notes and selected additional comments from the works of Bekhor Shor, Hizkuni, Abarbanel, Sforno, Gersonides, and others.
First published 500 years ago as the “Rabbinic Bible,” the biblical commentaries known as the Miq... more First published 500 years ago as the “Rabbinic Bible,” the biblical commentaries known as the Miqra’ot Gedolot have inspired and educated generations of Hebrew readers. With this edition, the voices of Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Nachmanides, Rashbam, and other medieval commentators come alive once more, speaking in a contemporary English translation annotated and explicated for lay readers.
Each page of The Commentators’ Bible contains several Hebrew verses from the book of Exodus, surrounded by both the 1917 and 1985 JPS translations and new English translations of the major commentators. This large-format volume is beautifully designed for ease of navigation among the many elements on each page, including explanatory notes and selected additional comments from the works of Bekhor Shor, Hizkuni, Abarbanel, Sforno, Gersonides, and others
Did the Hebrew mind work differently from those of people in the Western tradition of civilizatio... more Did the Hebrew mind work differently from those of people in the Western tradition of civilization? This long-discredited question still lingers in biblical studies. Theologies of the Mind in Biblical Israel approaches the topic of the Israelite mind from a new direction, exploring how the biblical texts themselves, especially Proverbs and Deuteronomy, describe the working of the mind. It demonstrates that the much-discussed role of memory in the Bible is just one part of a general understanding that in the realm of ‘knowledge’ God and humanity are rivals.
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1) he rends his garment; 2) he shears his head; 3) he falls to the ground; and 4) he prostrates himself.
The third of these can be read either (with the first two) as an act of mourning or (with the last) as an act of worship. I suggest that this is a deliberate literary choice: the poetic technique of Janus parallelism. Since Janus parallelism has already been demonstrated to be both frequent in the book of Job and significant for its meaning, this unexpected Janus parallelism in the prose portion of the book confirms that those chapters are not an early survival but a creation of the author of the book as a whole.
telling of this story was not זרע אנשים but זרע אלהים, a child that would be given her by God. The difficult phrase זרע אנשים is an artifact, placed in her mouth by a kind of Tiqqun Soferim, a reflexive correction of Hannah’s request by a scribe who (perhaps) misunderstood it and (certainly) found it uncomfortable.
1) he rends his garment; 2) he shears his head; 3) he falls to the ground; and 4) he prostrates himself.
The third of these can be read either (with the first two) as an act of mourning or (with the last) as an act of worship. I suggest that this is a deliberate literary choice: the poetic technique of Janus parallelism. Since Janus parallelism has already been demonstrated to be both frequent in the book of Job and significant for its meaning, this unexpected Janus parallelism in the prose portion of the book confirms that those chapters are not an early survival but a creation of the author of the book as a whole.
telling of this story was not זרע אנשים but זרע אלהים, a child that would be given her by God. The difficult phrase זרע אנשים is an artifact, placed in her mouth by a kind of Tiqqun Soferim, a reflexive correction of Hannah’s request by a scribe who (perhaps) misunderstood it and (certainly) found it uncomfortable.
Each page in The Commentators’ Bible: Genesis: The Rubin JPS Miqra’ot Gedolot contains several verses from the book of Genesis, surrounded by both the 1917 and the 1985 JPS translations and by new contemporary English translations of the major commentators. The book also includes a glossary of terms, a list of names used in the text, notes on source texts, a special topics list, and resources for further study. This large-format volume is beautifully designed for easy navigation among the many elements on each page, including explanatory notes and selected additional comments from the works of Bekhor Shor, Sforno, Gersonides, and Hizkuni, among others.
Using historic, linguistic, anthropological, and theological sources, Carasik helps us distinguish between the Jewish Bible’s voices—the mythic, the historical, the prophetic, the theological, and the legal. By articulating the differences among these voices, he shows us not just their messages and meanings but also what mattered to the authors. In these contrasts we encounter the Bible anew as a living work whose many voices tell us about the world out of which the Bible grew—and the world that it created.
Each page of this volume contains several verses from the book of Deuteronomy, surrounded by both the 1917 and the 1985 JPS translations and by new contemporary English translations of the major commentators. This edition also includes introductory material, a glossary of terms, a list of names used in the text, notes on source texts, essays on special topics, and resources for further study.
Each page of this third volume in The Commentators’ Bible series contains several verses from the Book of Numbers, surrounded by both the 1917 and 1985 JPS translations, and by new contemporary English translations of the major commentators. The book also includes an introduction, a glossary of terms, a list of names used in the text, notes on source texts, a special topics list, and resources for further study.
This large-format volume is beautifully designed for easy navigation among the many elements on each page, including explanatory notes and selected additional comments from the works of Bekhor Shor, Hizkuni, Abarbanel, Sforno, Gersonides, and others.
Each page of this second volume in The Commentators’ Bible series contains several verses from the Book of Leviticus, surrounded by both the 1917 and 1985 JPS translations, and by new contemporary English translations of the major commentators. The book also includes an introduction, a glossary of terms, a list of names used in the text, notes on source texts, a special topics list, and resources for further study. This large-format volume is beautifully designed for easy navigation among the many elements on each page, including explanatory notes and selected additional comments from the works of Bekhor Shor, Hizkuni, Abarbanel, Sforno, Gersonides, and others.
Each page of The Commentators’ Bible contains several Hebrew verses from the book of Exodus, surrounded by both the 1917 and 1985 JPS translations and new English translations of the major commentators. This large-format volume is beautifully designed for ease of navigation among the many elements on each page, including explanatory notes and selected additional comments from the works of Bekhor Shor, Hizkuni, Abarbanel, Sforno, Gersonides, and others