Adele Berlin

When I purchased this Tanakh I was mostly interested in the translation it contains, and curious about the commentary, but I was very pleased to discover the numerous lengthy essays included in the back of the book, all of which are interesting and many invaluable to a better understanding of the text.

The running commentary along the text of the Tanakh is refreshing because it contains both rabbinic and scholarly, even critical, information. When placed along side a fairly conservative show more translation like the NJPS, the result is a well balanced book that "debates with itself" to allow the reader a full range of opinions to choose from. The short (typically one or two page) introductions at the beginning of each book provide useful historical context for the books, pulling them out from the "traditional understanding" and allowing them to be properly framed in the environment and circumstances under which they were written, or as close as we can get to uncovering that. I want to read the books to understand why they were written and what the original author, or authors, meant by their text, and this Tanakh allows me to do that better than any other Bible I have seen. show less

I love this book, but I deducted a half-star because I think Robert Alter's translations are better; in some cases, WAY better. But everything else about this volume -- notes, essays, maps -- is wonderful, and I really cherish it

Interesting commentary. Ms.Berlin connects Esther to Abishag, who warms King David, and to Joseph in Egypt. She convincingly shows that the story is a farce with extreme exaggeration; we are supposed to laugh at the comedy, not take it so seriously. She also compares various parts of the story with relevant Greek and Persian stories. There is a lot of commentary on each page with a little bit of Hebrew and its translation at the top of each two-page spread.

In 2017 my wife read this book. We are studying the Old Testament in church in 2022, so I started to read it also. By the time I got through the introductory material, there were so many things that I wanted to highlight that I bought my own Kindle edition of it.

Why The Jewish Study Bible instead of Christian resources?
Each Christian translation has biases. For example, the King James, which is the one most used in our church, is biased toward Kingship. The Jewish Study Bible I expect to show more have only one principal bias, and I am fine with that. Instead of it having an axe to grind, I find in it a deeper study of what the text means.

This book uses the proposal that the books of the Hebrew Bible are composed as a composite of four sources:
J — Yahveh, Jahwe (German)
E — Elohim God
P — Priestly
D — Duteronomist

The essays make it clear that Jewish interpretation of the Bible changed dramatically over the centuries and describes the competing schools with their attempts to harmonize discrepancies. There are nearly essays at the back of the book. I did not find them as interesting as the Biblical text and notes.

- “The first set of essays, “Jewish Interpretation of the Bible,” surveys, in chronological order, Jewish biblical interpretation in various periods, from earliest times to the present.
- The second set of essays, “Biblical Ideas and Institutions,” surveys various concepts that stand behind the biblical text.
- The third set of essays, “The Bible in Jewish Life,” gives some intimation of the importance of the Bible for Judaism and the Jewish community, an importance that cannot be overstated.
- The fourth set of essays, “Backgrounds for Reading the Bible,” provides contemporary scholarly background material for understanding the Bible.
- The fifth and last set of essays, “The Hebrew Bible in Other Scriptures” recognizes that the authors of both the New Testament and the Qur’an knew and were influenced by the Hebrew Bible, in different ways and to different extents. The two essays juxtapose the uses of Hebrew Scriptures in emerging Christianity and early Islam.”

I did not care for some of the essays
- The Bible in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Seemed to dodge their meaning and instead talked a lot about their classification.
- Classical Rabinic Interpretation: Lots of fussing about fine points, disputations and justifications.

Essays I liked:
- Medieval Jewish Interpretation
- The Bible in the Jewish Philosophical Tradition
- Jewish interpretation of the bible
- Many philosophers and their interpretation of the Bible

“On the other hand, prophecy as a living phenomenon was discouraged. Future prophets had to prove they were “true” and not “false” by producing prophecies that came true before their messages would be heeded (Deut. 18.21), a tautologous condition that effectively abolished prophecy as a living institution after the 5th c. bce, at least in “official” religion. No future revelation could compete with Moses or amend what he had said.” (86%)

Although I have not finished all of the roughly 50 essays at the end of the book, it is time to mark this book as read and move on to New Testament study. show less