Literary Guide to the Bible

Robert Alter is Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of numerous critical works, including the prize-winning The Art of Biblical Narrative. Sir (John) Frank Kermode was Julian Clarence Levi Professor of English Literature, Emeritus, at Columbia University and a Fellow of King’s College, University of Cambridge. He was instrumental in the 1979 founding of the London Review of Books and was knighted in 1991 for his service to literature.

Professor Alter is one of our foremost lay readers and expositors of the poetic and narrative genius of the Bible. He brings to his commentaries a knowledge of Hebrew and of Judaism together with an exceptionally wide literary awareness and authority of judgment. Professor Kermode has long been eminent among teachers and critics of English and European literatures from the Renaissance to Romanticism and the moderns… [The volume] contains much that is enlightening, convincing and finely argued.

• General Introduction Robert Alter and Frank Kermode The Old Testament Introduction Robert Alter Genesis J. P. Fokkelman Exodus J. P. Fokkelman Leviticus David Damrosch Numbers James S. Ackerman Deuteronomy Robert Polzin Joshua and Judges David M. Gunn 1 and 2 Samuel Joel Rosenberg 1 and 2 Kings George Savran Isaiah Luis Alonso Schokel Jeremiah and Ezekiel Joel Rosenberg The Twelve Prophets Herbert Marks Jonah James S. Ackerman Psalms Robert Alter Proverbs and Ecclesiastes James G. Williams Job Moshe Greenberg The Song of Songs Francis Landy Ruth Jack M. Sasson Lamentations Francis Landy Esther Jack M. Sasson Daniel Shemaryahu Talmon Ezra and Nehemiah Shemaryahu Talmon 1 and 2 Chronicles Shemaryahu Talmon The New Testament Introduction Frank Kermode Matthew Frank Kermode Mark John Drury Luke John Drury John Frank Kermode Acts James M. Robinson The Pauline Epistles Michael Goulder The Epistle to the Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles Gabriel Josipovici Revelation Bernard McGinn General Essays The Hebrew Bible and Canaanite Literature Jonas C. Greenfield The New Testament and Greco-Roman Writing Helen Elsom Fishing for Men on the Edge of the Wilderness Edmund Leach The Canon Frank Kermode The Characteristics of Ancient Hebrew Poetry Robert Alter Midrash and Allegory Gerald L. Bruns English Translations of the Bible Gerald Hammond Glossary Index