Traditions of the Bible

James L. Kugel is a Professor at Bar-Ilan University.

Traditions of the Bible is a literary masterpiece. Nuanced presentations of multiple versions allow the reader to enter into the eddying flow of interpretation that, between the third century BC and the first century AD, eventually produced the Jewish Bible. We are there, in the Temple, in heightened conversation. Kugel is there to remind us of particular reasons, often fascinating in themselves (for example, the ambiguities of the Hebrew language) why a given story--say the story of Jacob and Esau--can have so many interpretations. Kugel suggests that the Bible, in all its echoing complexity, is the final result of a great effort of remembrance: a millennial attempt to remember what happened, and why, and what it was like, before IT happened, before that time. Could the Bible be a response to a devastating loss of cultural identity and memory as embodied in the Temple? Is that why this great book overflows with conflicting points of view?

• Contents Preface 1. The World of Ancient Biblical Interpreters 2. The Creation of the World 3. Adam and Eve 4. Cain and Abel 5. Noah and the Flood 6. The Tower of Babel 7. Abraham Journeys from Chaldea 8. Melchizedek 9. The Trials of Abraham 10. Lot and Lot's Wife 11. Jacob and Esau 12. Jacob and the Angel 13. Dinah 14. Joseph's Ups and Downs 15. Jacob's Sons in Egypt 16. Growing Up in Pharaoh's Court 17. The Exodus from Egypt 18. The Red Sea 19. Into the Wilderness 20. At Mt. Sinai 21. The Golden Calf 22. Worship in the Wilderness 23. Trouble along the Way 24. The Bronze Serpent, Balaam, and Phinehas 25. The Life of Torah 26. Afterword