An entirely original translation of the Holy Scriptures, made directly from the traditional Hebrew text into the language of contemporary English speakers.

From celebrated translator of the Hebrew Bible Robert Alter, the classic study of the Bible as literature, a winner of the National Jewish Book Award. Renowned critic and translator Robert Alter's The Art of Biblical Narrative has radically expanded our view of the Bible by recasting it as a work of literary art deserving studied criticism. In this seminal work, Alter describes how the Hebrew Bible's many authors used innovative literary styles and...

As he did so brilliantly in his bestselling book, jewish literacy, Joseph Teluslikin once again mines a subject of, Jewish history and religion so richly that his book becomes an inspiring companion and a fundamental reference. In Biblical Lileracy, Telushkin turns his attention to the Hebrew Bible (also known as the Old Testament), the most influential series of books in human history. Along with the Ten Commandments, the Bible's most famous document,...

"For generations, the book of Genesis has been treated by scholars as a collection of documents by various hands, expressing different factional interests, with borrowings from other ancient literatures that mark the text as derivative. In other words, academic interpretation of Genesis has centered on the question of its basic coherency, just as fundamentalist interpretation has centered on the question of the appropriateness of reading it as literally...

"Toba Spitzer's God Is Here is a thoughtful exploration of the idea of God and how we can reconsider the deity through metaphors and daily practices."--

Retells ten books from the Old Testament with illustrations created with LEGO toys.

A portrait of Esther, a shy orphan girl, who becomes a queen and is willing to risk the wrath of a king in order to save her people.

Continuing his exploration of the art of the Bible, Robert Alter provides a fresh interpretation of the poetry of the Old Testament and a lucid, original account of how biblical poetry works.

In this powerful book, Walter Brueggemann moves the discussion of Old Testament theology beyond the dominant models of previous generations. Brueggemann focuses on the metaphor and imagery of the courtroom trial in order to regard the theological substance of the Old Testament, as a series of claims asserted for Yahweh, the God of Israel. This provides a context that attends to pluralism in every dimension of the interpretive process and suggests...

In this 1939 novel based on the familiar story of the Exodus, Zora Neale Hurston blends the Moses of the Old Testament with the Moses of black folklore and song to create a compelling allegory of power, redemption, and faith. Narrated in a mixture of biblical rhetoric, black dialect, and colloquial English, Hurston traces Moses's life from the day he is launched into the Nile river in a reed basket, to his development as a great magician, to his transformation...