Study Books

The Jewish Study Bible: featuring The Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 54 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Jewish Study Bible presents the center of gravity of the Scriptures where Jews experience it--in Torah. It offers readers the fruits of various schools of Jewish traditions of biblical exegesis (rabbinic, medieval, mystical, etc.) and provides them with a wealth of ancillary materials that aid in bringing the ancient text to life. The nearly forty contributors to the work represent the cream of Jewish biblical scholarship from the world over. No knowledge of Hebrew is required for one to make use of this unique volume.
The JSB uses The Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation, whose name is an acronym formed from the Hebrew initials of the three sections into which the Hebrew Bible is traditionally divided (Torah, Instruction; Nevi'im, Prophets; and Kethubim, Writings). A committee of esteemed biblical scholars and rabbis from the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Judaism movements produced this modern translation, which dates from 1985.
Anyone interested in acquiring a fuller understanding of the riches of the Bible will profit from reading The Jewish Study Bible.

Who Wrote the Bible?

Richard E. Friedman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 84 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Important For Those Who Like Postmortem 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Most of this book concentrates on a hypothesis for how the Torah, not the bible as a whole was written (regardless of what the book's name or some of the reviewers say)- it is the origin of Torah that is attributed to Moses, not the bible as a whole.

Torah in its own right, if this hypothesis is correct, is a) an omelet and b) has a history. I don't know why for Christians it is important that the written Torah was revealed to Moses all at once, for the Orthodox Jews, this is important because Torah is the covenant between the Suzerain - God and a King - the people Israel. This relationship between God and Israel is at the core of Judaism. Also, it is important for the Orthodox that Torah is attributed to Moses because of the position that the Orthodox hold that the ancient state of Israel had to find its justification in the Torah - not the other way around. Israel only has one ruler and law giver - God.

I will leave it to the reader of this review to look at the other reviews to see what the book is talking about. In my review, I would like to raise a few questions about the validity of some of what the author of "Understanding The Bible" wrote.

Firstly. The author Richard Friedman, wrote in Chapter 14 about how the various pieces that sometimes contradicted and were totally unrelated were put together and that they created something that the originators could never have imagined. I argue that this is not correct. There are major themes in the Torah that are constants that are seen throughout and have been preserved all throughout the "merges".

1) The theme that leads from the creation story to the Tabernacle and the first temple. The idea is that the first temple represented Eden.
2) The moral growth of humans as well as the moral changes in the conceptions by God. This leads us from Cain who killed his brother, but was tolerated by God to the dictum made by God that all those who shed the blood of man will die by man's hand. As well as that God will demand a reckoning from every beast for killing men. This was a legal principle that Israelites used from the earliest time (even if the writing down of this principle is attributed to a later age). Additionally, we go from Adam and Eve who are children, to Noah who is the most righteous of his generation, but doesn't attempt to change God's mind about killing all people and animals, to Abraham who tells God not to dare to destroy an entire city.
3) The covenental formulary is preserved throughout all the so called modifications, "arbitrary additions", political feuds, etc. To learn what covenental formulary is and why it is important, please read the book Sinai and Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible by Jon Levenson.

Here is another thing that one has to watch out for. The so called contradictions. On page 229, the author lists two "contradictory" passages.

(1) "Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it...because in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day. Therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it."

(2) "Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it...and you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God brought you out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore Yahweh your God commanded you to observe the Sabbath day"

The author claims that (1) and (2) above are somehow contradictory and yet people who read them seem to be able to reconcile them. Let me suggest that (1) states why the Sabbath day is sanctified while (2) states why you should keep it sanctified. Had the author understood that the story of the bringing out of the land of Egypt is the reason for why we as Jews obey God's commandments, he would have understood the reason for (2). (1) simply states that given that you will obey God and keep Sabbath holy, here is an explanation for why it is holy. Contradictory? Perhaps in the author's imagination.

In any case, the bible is a living book. It is the way in which one communicates with a living God. Perhaps the reason that so many people object to the kind of study that leads to the documentary hypothesis is the notion that it is like cutting up a dead frog in order to do a postmortem. Instead, you can use the book to create a relationship with God that has been described by many as a relationship between lovers.

Editorial Review:

"It is a strange fact that we have never known with certainty who produced the book that has played such a central role in our civilization," writes Friedman, a foremost Bible scholar. From this point he begins an investigation and analysis that reads as compellingly as a good detective story. Focusing on the central books of the Old Testament--Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy--he draws upon biblical and archaeological evidence to make a convincing argument for the identities of their authors. In the process he paints a vivid picture of the world of the Bible--its politics, history, and personalities. The result is a marvel of scholarship that sheds a new and enriching light on our understanding of the Bible as literature, history, and sacred text.

Hebrew-English Tanakh Student Edition

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 56 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Hebrew-English tanakh 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

As a rare user of Amazon I have been hesitant to order items since I cannot SEE or FEEL the product. However, I took a(nother) chance and was very pleased with the speed of delivery and the quality of the book. I now am a proud owner-finally- of an English0 Hebrew tanakh/Hebrew Bible! This experience will encourage to puchase more items from Amazon.com.

Excellent Tanakh 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I'm learning hebrew and the roots of judaism. This Tanakh is superb for that objective.

Beautiful book for any Christian seeking the truth of our Lord 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is a must have for anyone seeking Yeshua. I'm not a scholar by any means. I'm just a new babe in Christ looking for true scripture from the Jewish Bible. This Bible has been with me for every Bible Study I have done since I bought it, and I wouldn't give it up for anything. It's a wonderful addition to my other Bible. Make this purchase! You will never regret it!

Editorial Review:

The classic J.P.S translation is married to a clear Hebrew text. Already gaining acceptance as the definitive Bible for scholars and laymen alike. Standard text for 99per cent of last year's Melton students, the easiest to read Tanakh on the market.

The Torah: A Women's Commentary

Edited by Dr. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Rabbi Andrea Weiss

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"The five daughters of Zelophehad in the Book of Numbers approach Moses, the leaders of the people, and the entire community. They draw near because they see a problem that needs a solution: they have not been given an inheritance that they believe is due to them. They refuse to be left out and demand their rightful share. And so they dare speak to Moses, the priest Eleazar, all the other leaders, and the entire edah (congregation or formally constituted assembly). They say: 'Give us a holding among our father's kin. Give us a share of our heritage, why should we be left out?' They get what they want a share, a large share I should add. Moreover, as a result of their courage, a new Torah law is created, one that intends to benefit future generations long after them. Their story is the story of the WRJ's The Torah: A Women's Commentary. The Women of Reform Judaism said: 'Give us a share among our brothers. We are no longer willing to be left out.' Instead of land, WRJ asks for something even more enduring - 'Give us a share of our Torah.' The result is a Torah commentary that we trust will benefit all of us. With this commentary we will continue as sisters to empower the women - and men - who come after us for generations to come." Dr. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi Professor of Bible, HUC-JIR/LA The Torah: A Women's Commentary will incorporate these perspectives:

A Reader's Hebrew Bible

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A great resource 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I've got both the first and second editions of the Reader's GNT companion volume. Either is a great value for the money, but neither comes close to the quality and usefulness of the Reader's GNT published by UBS -- the real deal. So I was a bit hesitant to purchase Zondervan's Reader's Hebrew Bible.

My hesitation was overcome by the fact that I use my UBS RGNT on a daily basis for devotional use, but don't read the Hebrew text in the same way as frequently because of the need for a lexicon nearby. A reader's lexicon helps, but it's still a clunky way to read, and because Hebrew vocabulary is so much larger than NT Greek, there are few of us who will ever be able to simply read with no lexicon around. So seeing what a reader's GNT did for me, I ordered this.

I'm very pleased. It hast the same cheap binding and paper as the companion RGNT, but the fact that it's duo-tone (basically PVC plastic) does mean that despite being flimsy, it should hold up for a long time. They seem to have overcome the typeface problems present in both editions of the RGNT. This font is very easy to read. I have not found the proper names being in gray instead of black to be a problem -- they're not that light and the purpose is to make proper names used less than 100 times stand out so that the newbie doesn't waste time trying to parse them. That's the whole point: to gloss the words so the reader doesn't have to. The more you read, the more you learn, and the more often you read and learn the more Hebrew sticks in your mind.

The fact that this text is that of the Westminster edition of Leningradensis is great. They essentially cut and pasted from Bibleworks 4. There are minor variants between this and BHS/BHQ, but nothing significant and all differences are listed in the appendix. I also like the way they've dealt with Kethib-Qere readings -- something that should serve good training for the student just learning his way around the Hebrew Old Testament.

If Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft ever prints a readers edition of BHS or BHQ it will probably leave this in the dust just as the UBS RGNT leaves the Zondervan RGNT in the dust, but until then this is a great tool.

Editorial Review:

Following in the footsteps of the popular A Reader’s Greek New Testament, A Reader’s Hebrew Bible includes features that make this a time-saver for studying the Hebrew and Aramaic Old Testament. It comes in Italian Duo-Tone™ binding—attractive, durable, and affordable.

The SCIENCE OF GOD

Gerald L. Schroeder

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 113 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A Kabalistic Hugh Ross? 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I finished reading The Science of God last night (Alister McGrath has a book by the same title, but it reads altogether differently). I like the way the book is organized and how it does a fairly good job of explaining some scientific concepts, such as the two-slit experiment. But I can't help but feel like he fudges both science and the Bible to come up with interpretations that he feels result in harmonization of interpretations of both. In this way he reminds me of a kabalistic Hugh Ross, [...]

Some of his science is just plain wrong. There are several facts he mentions that as far as I know have no scientific basis, like the idea that algae have more information in their DNA (a latent library) than any other life forms. On page 188 he says `Only 3 percent of the human genome appears to actively code for genes'. The genome does not code for genes, the genes code for proteins. He goes on to say that even if the entire genome was active, there would not be enough coded information to make a human or any other mammal. What is the scientific basis for this argument? The fact is that the whole process of building a body is driven by genetic information.

Schroeder's equating of the collapse of the quantum mechanical wave function with providing the basis for our decision making process (on page 173) has no basis in fact. Although the evidence for QM clearly shows that the old Laplacian ideas of determinism are dead, using QM as a mechanism for our choices is unfounded. Free will rules, but not because QM is scientifically factual.

His idea of using Einstein's relativistic framework to explain the difference in time duration is a mathematical sleight of hand. For his time model to work, light would actually have to slow down as the universe expands. What slows down is the frequency of the wave lengths of the cosmic background radiation, not the speed. Schroeder is also guilty of conflating the Anthropic Principle with fine-tuning, a common misconception. His use of statistics to prove that the eye could not evolve convergently is also misplaced. He does not take into account that the same genetic architecture subject to similar environmental pressures in different phyla would respond in similar ways. There were several other opinions that I questioned, and in some cases they may have been just opinions with little basis in science.

Schroeder's theology also stretches conventional interpretation. Being Jewish, he clearly does not believe in a triune God. When God says `Let us make man in our image', Schroeder on page 140 says `us' refers to the spiritual and material composition of man - a fair stretch of hermeneutics. His reliance on the medieval writing of Nahmanides to interpret the Bible results in an interpretation of an interpretation. For example, he uses the Talmudic idea that other females morphologically similar to humans but without souls existed at the time of Adam. These potential spouses for Adam represented a threat to Eve after she had sinned, causing her to induce Adam to also sin so that he too would be mortal. Such speculation contributes nothing to either science or theology.

Schroeder's strongest contribution to the debate however is his philosophical acceptance of the truth of empirical science and his willingness and effort to integrate this into his faith-based worldview.

Editorial Review:

Distinguished physicist Gerald Schroeder offers a brilliant discussion of such topics as free will, the development of the universe, the origin of life, and the origin of man, arguing that the Bible and science are compatible and interdependent.

Torah/Pocket Edition

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Easy reading for the lay person 5 out of 5 stars.
23 of 25 people found this review helpful.

I'm not a Bible scholar, so I'm basing my review on ease of use for the lay person.

This Torah was written to be very easy to read. The font is easy on the eyes, and there are plenty of footnotes.

I liked how the Preface explained the history of how this version came to be, and also the guide to using the footnotes.

This review is based on the paperback version. That version is very thick (1.5" - my pockets are not quite that big for this pocketbook version!), so I later bought the hardcover edition for easy reading while doing something with my hands, like eating.

Just Right 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This translation is one of the best. I like the size of the Pocket Edition because it is convenient for travelling.

Paperback Torah 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a great little book when you need just an English translation of the Torah.

A way to learn of others befiefs 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I was raised a Presbyterian and studied Buddhism for most of my adult life. I have always been interested in others beliefs and I was not disappointed. The book is a modern translation without losing its meaning. Easily readable for today.

Editorial Review:

An easy to carry pocket edition of the acclaimed JPS translation of the Torah.

JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh: Pocket Edition

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Beautiful little book 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This is a lovely book... beuatifully put together, a pleasure to hold and read, and with a limpid English translation. I had never seen a Jewish version of the scriptures before and this is a revelation.
Also, coming from Europe and buying this while on vacation in the US, I found the price amazingly low

JPS Tanakh 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

All I suggest is this: If you have a difficult time reading very small text, DO NOT BUY THIS.
Also, I was a bit put off by the bar-code printed in the inner cover.
Other than that, this is a fine translation, the book is well made.

Pocket tanaka 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Type much too small for mature eyes. If you are price conscious and have good eyes--great deal

Editorial Review:

Now, for the first time, a pocket version of The Hebrew-English "Tanakh" is available, with the exact same text and number of pages as our standard edition. The type, though small, is clearly readable, and the letters, Hebrew vowels, and cantillation marks are crisp and clear. The sturdy, coated paperback cover embossed in black with gold lettering is made to endure heavy, constant use.

The Prophets

Abraham Joshua Heschel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Standard Reference in the Field 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

A wonderful, two-volume set that has become a standard reference in the field of the "classical," literary, Hebrew prophets, their prophecies, and their personalities. Amos, Hosea, Isaiah (Isa. 1-39), Micah, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and Second Isaiah (Isa. 40-66) are analyzed with particular care given to their humanity as they encounter God and men in assuming their respective missions.

Heschel describes his focus in writing: "What I have aimed at is an understanding of what it means to think, feel, respond, and act as a prophet (Introduction). For this Jewish rabbi and seminary professor, "the prophet is a person, not a mircrophone. He is endowed with a mission, with the power of a word not his own that accounts for his greatness--but also with temperament, concern, character, and individuality. As there was no resisting the impact of divine inspiration, so at times there was no resisting the vortex of his own temperament. The word of God reverberated in the voice of man" (Introduction). This examination of the prophets' humanity is most compelling throughout the work with the first chapter, "What Manner of Man is the Prophet?," being worth the price of the set to me.

The second volume addresses at least sixteen different aspects of the prophetic experience, among them: "theology and philosophy of pathos," "meaning and mystery of wrath," "sympathy," "ecstasy," "poetry," and "inspiration." An examination of prophets from other cultural contexts is also included.

Highly recommended to all theologically- and philosophically-minded readers who are interested in gaining a comprehensive understanding of the Hebrew prophets from a Jewish perspective.

Editorial Review:

Abraham Heschel is a seminal name in religious studies and the author of Man Is Not Alone and God in Search of Man. When The Prophets was first published in 1962, it was immediately recognized as a masterpiece of biblical scholarship.

The Prophets provides a unique opportunity for readers of the Old Testament, both Christian and Jewish, to gain fresh and deep knowledge of Israel's prophetic movement. The author's profound understanding of the prophets also opens the door to new insight into the philosophy of religion.

FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES, THE: The Schocken Bible: Volume I / Deluxe Edition (Schocken Bible)

Everett Dr Fox

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Excellent 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I used to say that it was pointless to try to study the Bible without Hebrew - that it was impossible to "feel" the text, to get the humor, the irony, the poetry. Not anymore. This is a must for any student of the Bible, as it captures the liveliness and strangeness of the original and expose it as the allusive, alliterative, jabberwocky text that it is.

Hebrew is best, but this is, finally, a good second choice. It would be perfect if it had Hebrew written alongside - a great way to learn for students.

Not your grandfather's translation--but essential 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This is not the only edition with English translation of the Pentateuch/Chumash that I own, and I don't think it's the only one anyone should own, but it is an essential part of my collection. Fox has combined precision in translation with interpretation and poetry, and the combination makes me run to it very often to see his version, which often makes a challenging and provocative comparison to more traditional translations. The type is large and well-spaced. My only criticism is that the Hebrew is not included; at times I'd like to be able to compare the original words to Fox's renderings, to see how they compare.

Editorial Review:

This monumentally important new translation of the Hebrew Scriptures is a stunning achievement which reveals the full force of the Bible's original rhetoric and poetry--the rhythm, nuances, and stylistic devices that are particular to Hebrew and essential to the Bible's true message and to the spiritual and aesthetic power of its art.