Non­fic­tion

Jew­ish Bib­li­cal Inter­pre­ta­tion and Cul­tur­al Exchange: Com­par­a­tive Exe­ge­sis in Context

Natal­ie B. Dohrmann and David Stern, ed.
  • Review
By – January 11, 2012
These twelve learned essays are the result of the col­lab­o­ra­tion of schol­ars at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Pennsylvania’s Cen­ter for Advanced Juda­ic Stud­ies seek­ing to under­stand the cul­tur­al exchanges that take place in the his­to­ry of scrip­tur­al inter­pre­ta­tion (exe­ge­sis). They trace ancient and medieval exe­ge­sis by com­par­ing the con­texts of Jew­ish, Chris­t­ian, and Islam­ic scrip­tur­al inter­pre­ta­tions in order to under­stand the inter­pre­ta­tions that devel­op in each of them. Each essay relates its sub­ject to oth­er con­tem­po­rary tra­di­tions of inter­pre­ta­tion with­in the larg­er cul­tur­al con­text. The inter­ac­tion includes polem­i­cal devel­op­ments, but also appro­pri­a­tion of the tools and meth­ods of their rivals. Top­ics include late bib­li­cal and ear­ly post­bib­li­cal com­po­si­tions, rab­binic legal and homilet­i­cal inter­pre­ta­tions, Jerome and oth­er ear­ly Chris­t­ian exegetes, Islam­ic exe­ge­sis in both the Qur’an and ear­ly Mus­lim tra­di­tion, and bib­li­cal inter­pre­ta­tion in ear­ly mod­ern illus­tra­tions of bib­li­cal scenes. Indexes.
Mark D. Nanos, Ph.D., Uni­ver­si­ty of Kansas, is the author of Mys­tery­of Romans, win­ner of the 1996 Nation­al Jew­ish Book Award, Charles H. Revson­Award in Jew­ish-Chris­t­ian Relations.

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