Benjamin Edidin Scolnic - Böcker

Known mainly because of the holiday of Hanukkah, the Maccabean era is a fascinating and significant period of history that is vital to our understanding of the formation of Judaism. Yet even to those well versed in the history of the Jewish people, the name Alcimus, High Priest of Judaea in the years after Hanukkah, is basically unknown. Alcimus' enemy Judas Maccabaeus and his Hasmonean descendants considered Alcimus to be an evil man, and since the victors write history, the ancient sources express that prejudice. Most modern scholars, in attempting to reconstruct the history of that period, reflect that same attitude. Contrary to most moderns, this study evaluates Alcimus' heritage and loyalty to traditions in a much more positive manner. Alcimus, an ignored or denigrated figure in Jewish history, is restored as a leader who attempted to perpetuate his religion and his people.

Is the Bible true? Was the Garden of Eden a real place that can be found on a map? Was there a Flood? Did a Hebrew man rise to great power in Egypt? Were the Israelites slaves in Egypt? Did they escape from bondage and were they saved from the pursuing Egyptians? Did the prophets correctly predict many of the major events in Israelite history? Were Elijah and Elisha agents in a great assassination plot? Did Amos become famous because of an accurate forecast?In thinking about the questions of biblical factuality, some embrace a rigid skepticism and are quick to dismiss the accuracy of the biblical narratives without weighing the evidence. They are content to read the Bible for its metaphorical and literary truths, forgetting that the Bible is based on the history of an ancient people. Fundamentalists, on the other hand, have the strong desire to find hard proof that the biblical facts are facts, only to be disappointed and frustrated. But is it reasonable to expect such proof? Archaeology and comparative texts must be examined for what they realistically can be asked to provide. In a series of readable essays written in an engaging manner and a positive mode, author Benjamin Edidin Scolnic evaluates the biblical texts in the light of all the information we possess at this time. Scolnic asks the reader to join the ongoing dialogue between faith and history by carefully reviewing the textual and material evidence with an open mind. He does not so much seek to prove or disprove the Bible, but rather attempts to find middle ground through the exploration of its historical dimension.

While countless millions of people today sincerely claim that the Bible is their main source of inspiration, most of them do not really read it. Instead, they tell what this sacred text should say, rather than allow its words to speak to them. The Bible becomes a monolithic idol hewn out of the stone of their particular ideologies.In a series of pointed and concise essays, Benjamin Edidin Scolnic, rabbi and scholar, interprets the Bible not as "The Word" but as "God's Words." The open-minded reader will find contradictions at every turn and be forced to wrestle with difficult passages fraught with moral and spiritual complexity.Conservative Judaism embraces a pluralistic approach to the Bible that assumes that complexity. The intellectual foundation of Conservative Judaism is the understanding that growth through interpretation has been its hallmark from the time of its origins.Scolnic discusses how pluralistic religious interpretation of the Bible should affect Judaism's perspective on current issues such as spirituality and feminism. Rather than avoid the "hard parts,' he advocates educational and homiletical approaches that confront the most difficult Biblical texts, enabling a new generation to rediscover the flexibility and power of sacred words.

Through exploring the particular importance of the fraternal relationship among the dynasties of the Hellenistic world in Thy Brother's Blood, Dr. Benjamin Scolnic demonstrates how adherence to or rejection of the "morality of kinship" literally changed the world. This in-depth book reviews fraternal relationships in the Bible and Greek and Roman mythology to create models for the falls of the Attalids of Pergamon and the Antigonids of Macedonia. The ancient writers from Rome to Jerusalem valued fraternal bonds and used fratricide as the symbol for internal dissension within nations. Using a focalized approach, Dr. Scolnic cautions that historians sometimes were so consumed with the metaphor of fraternity that they ignored the historical realities. He demonstrates this by providing a historical and moral context for the fall of one Judean dynasty, the Zadokite high priests, and for the rise and fall of the Hasmonaean dynasty, known to the world as the Maccabees.

Scholars have questioned every aspect of the story of Mattathias in 1 Maccabees; the revisionist narrative turns Mattathias and his Maccabees from the heroes of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah and idealistic fighters for religious freedom, into merely ambitious men who ruthlessly strove for power and usurped the high priesthood of Judaea.Dr. Benjamin Edidin Scolnic takes a fresh, unbiased approach to every element of the story: the incident at Modeïn, Mattathias's priestly credentials and their implications for his beliefs, the meaning of personal ambition and the greater ambition to create the Jewish kingdom promised by the sacred biblical texts, the meaning of circumcision in his time, and the decision to fight on the Sabbath. Mattathias's actions of zealous violence, as controversial as they were in both his day and as they often are seen today, were primarily for the preservation of his religion and people. Dr. Scolnic asserts that it was Mattathias who defined Judaism and Jewishness for his time.