Jewish Interpretation of the Bible: Ancient and Contemporary

by Karin Hedner Zetterholm

Publisher:

Fortress Press

, 2012

Overview

Although Jewish tradition gives tremendous importance to the Hebrew Bible, from the beginning Jewish interpretation of those Scriptures has been practiced with remarkable freedom. Karin Hedner Zetterholm introduces the legal, theological, and historical presuppositions that shaped the dominant stream of rabbinic interpretation, including Mishnah, Talmud, and Midrashim, discussing examples of different interpretive methods, and explores the contours of Jewish biblical interpretation evident in the New Testament and the legacy of ancient traditions in the way different Jewish movements read the Bible today. Students of the history of biblical interpretation and of Judaism will find this an important and engaging resource.

With Logos Bible Software the entire volume is fully searchable and easily accessible. Scripture references are linked to your favorite Bible translation and to the original language texts, and important theological concepts are linked to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and the wealth of resources in your digital library.

Key Features

• Provides an introduction to Jewish biblical interpretation
• Analyzes the origins of rabbinic tradition
• Examines how Jewish and Christian traditions interpret Scripture differently

Contents

• Continuity and Change in Rabbinic Judaism
• Tradition in the Making—The Mishnah and the Talmuds
• Rabbinic Biblical Interpretation—Midrash
• The Jewish Character of the Early Jesus Movement
• Continuity and Change in Contemporary Judaism

Top Highlights

“At present, virtually all scholars view Jesus as firmly rooted in Judaism, and his message as part of the multifaceted Second Temple Judaism. Jesus’ critique of the Pharisees as related in the Gospels is no longer viewed as a condemnation of fundamental tenets of Judaism but rather as disapproval of the religious leadership of the time and its interpretation of the Torah. It is seen in the context of Second Temple Judaism, when various Jewish factions with different views of Torah interpretation and the temple were competing against each other.” (Page 113)

“Once the Torah was given to Israel at Sinai, God renounced his influence over its interpretation, as it were, and entrusted it to the rabbis who were convinced that they were given divine authority to develop and interpret it. ‘It [the Torah] is not in heaven’ (Deut. 30:12), as they famously assert in a story from the Babylonian Talmud.⁶ The essence of Jewish tradition, then, can be characterized as an ongoing dialectical process between divine revelation and human creative interpretation.” (Pages 6–7)

“Judaism, Christianity, and Islam share a common concern, namely how to preserve a connection and commitment to ancient Holy Scriptures and their traditional interpretations while at the same time adapting them to the present reality.” (Page 1)

“Eventually, ‘Torah’ came to be used also to designate the explanations, interpretations, and applications that according to the rabbis accompanied the Bible, and the idea arose of a dual Torah, one written (the Hebrew Bible) and one oral (interpretations of the Written Torah), both originating at the moment of revelation. Thus, Torah in its most expanded sense refers to the entire revelation in both its written and oral forms. Accordingly, ‘instruction’ would be a better rendering of ‘Torah’ than the rather common translation ‘law,’ since the word ‘law’ normally refers to obligations and requirements only.” (Page 21)

Praise for the Print Edition

This is a remarkable book, not only because it is thorough, clearly written, and focused, but because it speaks to the heart of what Jews and Christians need to understand about each other's tradition—namely, how each tradition interpreted and applied their common roots in different ways. Zetterholm shows how the Rabbinic tradition of nuanced and open interpretation of the Bible persists in different ways among Judaism's modern movements. I wish that every Jew and Christian would read this book!

—Elliot Dorff, professor of Jewish theology, American Jewish University

In this masterful and nuanced survey, Karin Zetterholm argues that Judaism's ability to adapt to ever-changing circumstances can be traced to unique concepts and interpretative strategies developed in the period of the Talmudic rabbis—concepts and strategies that afforded a central place to human agency in the articulation of the divine law. Illustrating her arguments with numerous primary sources and drawing on the most recent scholarship, Zetterholm shows how this tradition of transformative scriptural interpretation informed the early Jesus movement and—in a final chapter that vividly reminds us that much is at stake—how it continues to inform contemporary Jewish denominations struggling to balance fidelity to the past with adaptation to the present.

—Christine Hayes, Robert F. and Patricia Ross Weis Professor of Religious Studies, Yale University

Zetterholm's book not only serves as an introduction to Jewish biblical interpretation, but to the origins of the rabbinic tradition, the core of Judaism today. Beautifully and clearly written, it is just the book I've been looking for my students.

—Pamela Eisenbaum, associate professor of biblical studies and Christian origins, Iliff School of Theology

Product Details

• Title: Jewish Interpretation of the Bible: Ancient and Contemporary
• Author: Karin Hedner Zetterholm
• Publisher: Augsburg Fortress
• Publication Date: 2012
• Pages: 224

About Karin Hedner Zetterholm

Karin Hedner Zetterholm is research fellow at the Swedish Research Council and active at the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies at Lund University. She is the author of numerous articles on Judaism and Jewish biblical interpretation and of Portrait of a Villain: Laban the Aramean in Rabbinic Literature.