Review
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Title: The Jewish Study Bible: Second Edition
Editors: Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, editors.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Genre: Study Bible
Year Published: 2004, 2014
Number of Pages: 2309 + Maps
Binding: Hardback
ISBN10: 0199978465
ISBN13: 978-0-19-997846-5
Price: $45.00 (list)
Reviewed by Greg Seppi for the Association for Mormon Letters
I cannot more strongly recommend this text for a non-expert in western religion. While I’m certain that a Hebrew or Greek-speaking bible scholar might be able to detail reasons to choose another text for reading the Torah, Nevi’im, and Kethuvim (or what the Latter-day Saints might call “the Old Testament”), I find it difficult to believe that any contemporary translation would be able to match this text’s readability or scholarly apparatus. While the title obviously presumes an audience with a Jewish background, I suspect that most LDS readers would be quite comfortable with the text and the supporting commentary. While Jewish practices and history are elaborated throughout, the supporting text seems designed for a general readership.
The text opens with an extremely lengthy table of contents, an introduction, two prefaces, and a guide for abbreviations and terms, all quite useful for understanding the purpose of this study Bible. The introduction notes that “the love for Torah (teaching) and dedication to the study of it—have characterized Jewish reading and interpretation of the Bible… The tradition of biblical interpretation has been a constant conversation, at times an argument, among its participants” (p. ix). Its purpose set forth, the introduction goes on to explain the many issues inherent in Bible scholarship, including doubtfully assigned dates, confused and multiple authorship, the identity of the editors and redactors who shaped and molded the books into the forms we know them today, and even the ultimate meaning of the texts (p. 1-6).
Readers interested in better understanding the controversies surrounding the Bible may wish to read the T&T Clark Handbook of the Old Testament, or a similar text oriented towards a scholarly audience. The breadth and history of biblical controversy simply goes beyond what even a 2309 page book can handle. That being said, each book is introduced by a scholar in Jewish scripture who explains traditional readings of the book, the history of any controversies within the text, and what contemporary scholarship can add to how the book can be understood.
Getting into the books themselves, an LDS reader might initially be surprised by some concurrences between Jewish and Mormon readings of the Book of Genesis—one sidebar comment related to Genesis 1:2, which in the King James version reads: “And the earth was without form, and void,” and in the Jewish Study Bible: “the earth being unformed and void,” notes that:
“To modern people, the opposite of the created order is nothing… to the ancients, the opposite of the created order was something much worse than ‘nothing…’ In the midrash [the mass of commentary related to the Torah that emerged after the destruction of Jerusalem], Bar Kappara upholds the troubling notion that the Torah shows that God created the world out of preexistent material (p. 11)…”
…to which the LDS reader chuckles and pats him or herself on the back, as the idea that the earth was created out of pre-existent matter is one of the central ideas within LDS temple ritual and, indeed, LDS theology in general.
Perhaps more interesting than such theological correspondence between Mormon and Jewish beliefs (which can cause us to mistake Jewish concepts for Mormon ones, to the detriment of both) is what midrash commentary can add to a Mormon reading of a text. For example, I found it interesting (if not necessarily significant) that one traditional midrash suggests that:
“Since the sun is not created until the fourth day (1.14-19), the light of the first three days is of a different order from what we know. A midrash teaches that when God saw the corruption of the generations of the flood and of the tower of Babel, He hid that primordial light away for the benefit of the righteous in the world-to-come (p. 11).”
Perhaps more problematic for LDS readers will be the introduction to the Book of Isaiah, which is centered around a two-Isaiah reading that would necessarily preclude Nephi from having had access to some of the chapters of Isaiah he includes in 2nd Nephi, since current authorities generally believe that 1-39 (with the exception of 34-35) were written by an “original” Isaiah during the 8th century B.C., while 34-35 and 40-66 were by at least one later writer or prophet after the destruction of Jerusalem and return of the Babylonian refugees, no earlier than 538 B.C. (p. 763-766). Nephi draws from Isaiah 48, 49, 50, 51, and 52, so a contemporary scholarly reading of the Book of Isaiah would preclude the insertion of those passages into the Brass Plates, from which Nephi and Jacob supposedly draw their Isaiah quotes.
Mormon apologists have devised solutions to this issue, probably the most simple of which is that those specific chapters found in the Book of Mormon date from prior to the Babylonian exile, or that scholars have simply made some error in their theories about Isaiah. FAIR, the Mormon apologist hub site, has a pretty strong article on potential explanations for “Deutero-Isaiah’s” appearance in the Book of Mormon, and other Mormon scholars have suggested alternative explanations as well. Rather than sink any deeper into this line of discussion, I’ll just suggest that the problem is an interesting one that should not be discarded too quickly by Mormons or their critics.
In addition to sidebar commentary and two sets of footnotes on each page, the Jewish Study Bible also contains a large number of concluding essays on biblical interpretation, Jewish tradition, the cultures illuminated by the Bible, a number of background essays, and two short essays on the Hebrew Bible, Christianity, and Islam. Finally, an extensive glossary, index, and set of maps close out the book.
This book can only be described as an incredible accomplishment. The number of translators and commentators alone must have necessitated an incredible editorial effort, and as a reader, I felt extremely well-served by the text. The translators’ efforts strike a perfect balance between the King James’ archaic English and the occasionally weak contemporary translations found elsewhere in the marketplace. I can heartily recommend this study Bible to anyone interested in the Old Testament (or Tanakh, as it is known in the Jewish tradition).
Even used only as a reference text in support of the King James version of the Bible, I can’t imagine a better book for adding color to an LDS Old Testament course or a more general class on Judaism and the Bible. Certainly religious scholars interested in the Jewish tradition will find this text to be interesting, especially if their area of expertise lies mainly elsewhere. I do wonder if a reader familiar with the Greek and Hebrew texts would find much value in adding this text to their bookshelf, but I suspect that such a reader would still find the supporting commentary, footnotes, glossaries, and essays to be intriguing.
I have two criticisms regarding the text. The first might be rather shallow, but I wonder if artistic renderings of various significant scenes and passages might have added to the power of the text. Second, the paper used is akin to that found in the LDS scriptures—meaning thin and easily torn, wrinkled, creased and curled. Certainly using slightly thicker paper would have added substantially to the book’s width and density, possibly rendering it less tasteful and portable, but I would have strongly preferred the use of slightly thicker sheets, regardless. These criticisms are, of course, almost entirely unimportant for my final evaluation of this book. Ultimately, this publication will only add to Oxford University Press’s reputation for publishing high-quality texts, and will prove useful and interesting to anyone who will actually read it. The Jewish Publication Society, the organizing body behind the text, is to be applauded for its work, and the editors have my entire admiration for what must have been an incredible effort.