Religious scholars: help me find commentaries on Bible stories
March 31, 2017 11:09 AM Subscribe
I am looking for scholarly commentaries on Bible stories, particularly the Old Testament. These can be Christian, Jewish, or Muslim (since there's a lot of overlap between the Bible and the Koran).
I've seen Isaac Asimov's Guide to the Bible suggested a lot, but I'm not sure if that's what I'm looking for. I want to read commentaries by careful scholars who have a lot of background knowledge and have really engaged with the material, preferably considering what it means if the stories are literal rather than just symbolic, and thinking about issues like where Seth's wife came from. I have a background in literary scholarship (though not religious), and I'm looking for high-quality work. If you have a source to recommend, I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd specify why rather than just naming it. Thank you!
I've seen Isaac Asimov's Guide to the Bible suggested a lot, but I'm not sure if that's what I'm looking for. I want to read commentaries by careful scholars who have a lot of background knowledge and have really engaged with the material, preferably considering what it means if the stories are literal rather than just symbolic, and thinking about issues like where Seth's wife came from. I have a background in literary scholarship (though not religious), and I'm looking for high-quality work. If you have a source to recommend, I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd specify why rather than just naming it. Thank you!
Best answer: For early stories in the Bible (Genesis 1-11, especially) are considered to be something like epic myths by most well-regarded scholars. That's the bad news. The good news is that there is a slew of scholars with fundamentalist and evangelical theological commitments that are determined to treat it all as historical fact, and therefore do care about figuring out where Seth's wife came from, or who was around to threaten Cain's life, or how Noah packed two or seven of every animal into the ark. You can go into any conservative Christian bookstore (Family Christian Stores or Lifeway Stores) and find tons of this stuff.
One you might start with is Victor Hamilton's Handbook on the Pentateuch. I read it in graduate school and didn't like it much, primarily because I thought it tried too hard to make the most conservative case possible for reading these texts as non-contradictory history. But that might be great for you! Hamilton certainly knows his stuff, and he will present and engage with points of view more liberal than his own, so that's a plus. He's smart and you can trust his data, it's just that he and I come out with different conclusions.
Another one that you might consider is Gleason Archer's New International Encyclopedia
of Bible Difficulties. It's more of a Q&A format, but is specifically intended to answer those kinds of questions (I know for a fact it deals with where Adam and Eve's kids found spouses.) Archer was a Harvard PhD and a careful reader of the scriptures. Again, his stuff isn't interesting to me, because I don't care about defending the historicity of those stories, so I don't normally recommend him, but in this case he may be just what you want.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 12:13 PM on March 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
One you might start with is Victor Hamilton's Handbook on the Pentateuch. I read it in graduate school and didn't like it much, primarily because I thought it tried too hard to make the most conservative case possible for reading these texts as non-contradictory history. But that might be great for you! Hamilton certainly knows his stuff, and he will present and engage with points of view more liberal than his own, so that's a plus. He's smart and you can trust his data, it's just that he and I come out with different conclusions.
Another one that you might consider is Gleason Archer's New International Encyclopedia
of Bible Difficulties. It's more of a Q&A format, but is specifically intended to answer those kinds of questions (I know for a fact it deals with where Adam and Eve's kids found spouses.) Archer was a Harvard PhD and a careful reader of the scriptures. Again, his stuff isn't interesting to me, because I don't care about defending the historicity of those stories, so I don't normally recommend him, but in this case he may be just what you want.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 12:13 PM on March 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks. Also, I don't think I was clear enough. I'm not only interested in literal interpretations. I'm very interested in those, but I'm also interested in general scholarly commentary on the stories. I would really like to broaden my understanding in all sorts of ways.
posted by FencingGal at 12:21 PM on March 31, 2017
posted by FencingGal at 12:21 PM on March 31, 2017
You might get something out of Jung's Answer to Job. Also Donald Knuth's 3:16 is a really unusual and interesting take on biblical scholarship
posted by crocomancer at 12:31 PM on March 31, 2017
posted by crocomancer at 12:31 PM on March 31, 2017
Best answer: Don't bother with Asimov. I recommend James L. Kugel's How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now (which gives you both ancient interpretations and modern takes on them).
posted by languagehat at 1:03 PM on March 31, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by languagehat at 1:03 PM on March 31, 2017 [4 favorites]
Best answer: Having read your follow-up, I would give a strong endorsement to language hat's recommendation of James Kugel and add in:
Mark S. Smith--The Memoirs of God: History, Memory, and the Experience of the Divine in Ancient Israel
Robert Alter-- The Art of Biblical Narrative
Most of the Bible is narrative of some sort, and those narratives cover diverse genres and contexts, so if there are specific stories you want to look deeply at, a more focused book would be helpful, but for the general question of "how do I make sense of biblical narratives?" I think these are a good start.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 1:28 PM on March 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
Mark S. Smith--The Memoirs of God: History, Memory, and the Experience of the Divine in Ancient Israel
Robert Alter-- The Art of Biblical Narrative
Most of the Bible is narrative of some sort, and those narratives cover diverse genres and contexts, so if there are specific stories you want to look deeply at, a more focused book would be helpful, but for the general question of "how do I make sense of biblical narratives?" I think these are a good start.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 1:28 PM on March 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Literal interpretations are, in general, not scholarly. Understanding the Bible by Stephen Harris is a popular survey text for undergrad students in rigorous programs.
Most scholarly works focus in on particular parts of the Bible -- testaments, collections, individual books, sections within books. It's sort-of easier to suggest much more narrow collections like that. If you live near a university library, it will probably have the Anchor Bible Commentaries, which are a rolling collection of current scholarship for each book, basically line by line. The oldest books date to about 1964 and there are about 80 so far. The oldest are already in revision (before they've quite finished the whole Bible). So it's kind-of a rolling scholarly summary. Galatians is four pages printed; its Anchor Bible Commentary is 608 pages. So that's your baseline survey/summary of current scholarship on an individual book. But they're pretty readable, if you decide there's an individual book you're interested in.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 1:35 PM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
Most scholarly works focus in on particular parts of the Bible -- testaments, collections, individual books, sections within books. It's sort-of easier to suggest much more narrow collections like that. If you live near a university library, it will probably have the Anchor Bible Commentaries, which are a rolling collection of current scholarship for each book, basically line by line. The oldest books date to about 1964 and there are about 80 so far. The oldest are already in revision (before they've quite finished the whole Bible). So it's kind-of a rolling scholarly summary. Galatians is four pages printed; its Anchor Bible Commentary is 608 pages. So that's your baseline survey/summary of current scholarship on an individual book. But they're pretty readable, if you decide there's an individual book you're interested in.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 1:35 PM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
Best answer: For the Old Testament, I like Rabbi Plaut's commentary. The Jewish bibles I have seen tend to have the page divided in thirds: the top is the original Hebrew, middle direct English translation, bottom running commentary. (As well as between section commentary). I like this one because it's more modern and reform than traditional rabbinical commentary
posted by Valancy Rachel at 2:24 PM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Valancy Rachel at 2:24 PM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Kierkegaard's "Fear and Trembling" is all about the story of Abraham and Isaac and what that means for faith. And a huge part of it is about what the story means if it's literal and not symbolic. But it's definitely a different approach from how modern scholarship would approach it — much of that is bound up in hermeneutics, and there's a pretty stark divide between reputable, academic scholarship and what might be termed "faith-based" scholarship. Honestly engaging with the bible on a scholarly level is often a pretty inexorable path to atheism. Modern standards of epistemology and translation are far different from the standards of apologists, especially fundamentalists.
posted by klangklangston at 2:45 PM on March 31, 2017
posted by klangklangston at 2:45 PM on March 31, 2017
Graves/Patai's _Hebrew Myths_ is a fascinating read, if occasionally somewhat bonkers.
posted by cgs06 at 3:50 PM on March 31, 2017
posted by cgs06 at 3:50 PM on March 31, 2017
People of the Covenant: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible
posted by 4ster at 5:51 PM on March 31, 2017
posted by 4ster at 5:51 PM on March 31, 2017
Wait, I have an even better suggestion than my last one: The Women's Bible Commentary
It is compact and very useful. Highly recommended.
posted by 4ster at 5:56 PM on March 31, 2017
It is compact and very useful. Highly recommended.
posted by 4ster at 5:56 PM on March 31, 2017
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posted by Mchelly at 11:31 AM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]