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The Bible As It Was - Review
Cross Currents, Winter, 1998 by Walter E. Rast
James L. Kugel. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997. $35.00 (cloth).
A book browser might think from the title of this volume that its author is concerned with the compositional and editorial problems of the Bible, those very problems on which modern biblical criticism has expended so much effort, and regarding which so many studies are already available. The opposite is the case. Kugel is not concerned with getting back to original texts in the critical mode. Rather, he sees the Bible as a collection of sacred texts to which a large number of creative readers - rabbis, Jewish commentators, Christian theologians, and others - devoted themselves in the hope of extracting meaning from these often impenetrable texts. Only with the Reformation and Renaissance, and then finally Enlightenment criticism, did the task turn away from traditional ways of interpreting to a historically and critically based reading (552-57).
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Kugel is straightforward in asserting that he is interested in restoring the value of the earlier imaginative reading. He is drawn to the insights of those readers of scripture of the last centuries of the previous era and the first of our own, who allowed themselves to linger on the texts until they perceived meanings and solutions, who fixed on a word or even a letter, awaiting an illumination that would satisfy.
This particular volume deals only with the Torah or Pentateuch (the first five books); the author suggests that another might follow on other texts, such as the prophets. Kugel proceeds through the different parts of the Pentateuch, gathering his data under specific "exegetical motifs" (33) as these were passed from one century to the next in the works of biblical interpreters. The material he uses is found among other places in the Targums, Midrashim, Mishneh, the Talmud, Philo's writings, and the Dead Sea scrolls. The influences of this kind of interpretation in Christianity are evident in the patristic writings and commentaries, and indeed in the New Testament itself.
Take two examples from those discussed in this book. One is "Moses' Face Beamed Light" (435-36). Exodus 34:29 deals with Moses' descent from having seen God, which left an extraordinary mark on his face. Kugel points out that the Hebrew word for "skin" used in v. 29 and the word for "light" not found here sound the same, although each has a different first letter. For the early interpreters the similar sounds suggested that Moses' skin beamed like light because of the divine glory that shone upon it. This meaning is followed in 2 Cor. 3:7. The result was to present a solution to a question every serious person might ask: What would you look like if you really had a chance to spend time with God?
The other example is the discussion of the motif, "Love As You Would Be Loved." This is the famous verse in Lev. 19:18, often quoted as "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The interpreters questioned just what degree of love was implied in this commandment. Did the assertion mean that one was to love the neighbor in regard to everything one would perform toward oneself? That is, would the intention of the commandment be to give all of one's resources to the neighbor in the same measure as one would to oneself; in time of danger would it mean "not giving one's life precedence over that of one's neighbor (455-56)? Or, in a different manner would this commandment suggest "likeness," so that one is summoned to love one's neighbor as one would oneself wish to be loved. Clearly this is a level of discussion with provocative implications.
Other motifs that intrigued the interpreters focused on such questions as: Why was Abel favored over Cain? What was the sin of Sodom? Why was Melchizedek important? Was Jacob a deceiver? Why did Potiphar's wife desire Joseph? Why did the bush at Horeb not burn? Why did the Egyptians give their valuables to the escaping Hebrews? Who sang the famous song of deliverance at the Red Sea? What gave Yom Kippur its importance? Is the "star" in Num. 24 the Messiah? Who buried Moses? It seems safe to say that these are questions that ordinary Bible readers might have. That these early scholars of the Bible should have had similar questions as they came to the texts should be encouraging for modern readers. Kugel's book consequently will be worthwhile for nonprofessional readers of the Bible as well as scholars.
One group of potential readers whom Kugel targets are students in Religious Studies departments of colleges and universities. Kugel does not reject the historical-critical study of the Bible that dominates most courses in the university. What he scores is the failure of many of these courses "to take into account the crucial role played by ancient interpreters in the emergence of the Bible" (558). The result for college students is that they often leave with a fragmented perspective on biblical texts. Kugel would like to see critical study supplemented with some of the richness of interpretation of the type discussed in this volume.
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