One of my most valued resources when it comes to first Testament texts is the Jewish Study Bible, Tanakh translation, put out by Oxford University Press. I find the notes so useful and I have a bias towards Jewish scholarship where OT texts are concerned. I cannot tell you how dismayed I was, for example, to read the Christocentric analysis of the prophet Joel in the New Interpreter's Bible-- otherwise a really stellar resource. It felt, well, disrespectful, among other things. I think scripture analysis and sermons are two different things, and that particular author confused them, to her discredit. End of sermon.
Here's a quickie from the introduction to chapters 49-57:
The second of three sections within chs 40-66 seems to have been written in Jerusalem after the first wave of exiles returned there from Babylonia. Like chapters 40-48, it consists of several long speeches, each of which attempts to convince the city of Jerusalem (usually referred to as Zion) or the returned exiles that their current wretched state will be transformed into a glorious one...
... one finds stronger emphasis on Zion and the servant of the Lord, and one can sense disappointment at the reality of conditions in the restored Zion...
p. 882
More later...
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1 comment:
I totally agree. I read the OT as a Jew and I love it.
I'm struck by the image of Jerusalem here. I'm not sure what it is. But, isn't this meditation on Jerusalem interesting after the lamentation Jesus offered in our lections this past Sunday?
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