O
otrrl
Guest
A thousand page book might put people off, not to mention the price, which I don’t recall (from Ignatius Press).
This thread is a “first look” as I’m just starting into the book. It is intended for a one-semester graduate school course, but it’s also supposedly written for the rest of us – I think it is.
Chapter Two is a thorough explanation of how we got the Catholic Bible that we have now. I was familiar with most of the material which I had to glean from at least six other sources, and here it is all packaged up in one chapter.
Those other sources that I consulted were Jewish commentaries on the the Torah, in particular.They take great pride in the development of a monotheistic religion, different from nearly all of the surrounding “pagan” neighbors. It turns out, one of the Egyptian pharaohs was a monotheist, who bucked the trend of Egyptian polytheism, only later to be cast into disrepute by later, traditional leaders.
And, less than 100 pages in, I developed some cognitive dissonance with their assessment that the highlight of the Torah was the development of a liturgy at Sinai. The Jewish version is slightly but significantly and decidedly focused rather on the establishment of a covenant at Sinai. I will leave it to your judgment whether the covenant or the liturgy which sprang from it is the climax of the Torah.
I looked closely and the text is 970 pages, with other added materials. And, the books has pictures ! I am on the verge of getting into the Torah documents themselves, but I think it’s worth mentioning this great Chapter Two about the formation of the canon of Catholic Scripture, with the emphasis on its intimate relation to Catholic liturgy. I am looking forward to 1) the rest of the book, which takes each book by itself, and 2) the Catholic perspective on the Old Testament.
Spoiler: they hint or suggest that perhaps the final “canon” of Judaism ended up being 22 books, because there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet.
This thread is a “first look” as I’m just starting into the book. It is intended for a one-semester graduate school course, but it’s also supposedly written for the rest of us – I think it is.
Chapter Two is a thorough explanation of how we got the Catholic Bible that we have now. I was familiar with most of the material which I had to glean from at least six other sources, and here it is all packaged up in one chapter.
Those other sources that I consulted were Jewish commentaries on the the Torah, in particular.They take great pride in the development of a monotheistic religion, different from nearly all of the surrounding “pagan” neighbors. It turns out, one of the Egyptian pharaohs was a monotheist, who bucked the trend of Egyptian polytheism, only later to be cast into disrepute by later, traditional leaders.
And, less than 100 pages in, I developed some cognitive dissonance with their assessment that the highlight of the Torah was the development of a liturgy at Sinai. The Jewish version is slightly but significantly and decidedly focused rather on the establishment of a covenant at Sinai. I will leave it to your judgment whether the covenant or the liturgy which sprang from it is the climax of the Torah.
I looked closely and the text is 970 pages, with other added materials. And, the books has pictures ! I am on the verge of getting into the Torah documents themselves, but I think it’s worth mentioning this great Chapter Two about the formation of the canon of Catholic Scripture, with the emphasis on its intimate relation to Catholic liturgy. I am looking forward to 1) the rest of the book, which takes each book by itself, and 2) the Catholic perspective on the Old Testament.
Spoiler: they hint or suggest that perhaps the final “canon” of Judaism ended up being 22 books, because there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet.