Judges 1-12

The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries

by Jack M. Sasson (Translator)

Profound changes have occurred in the study of early Israel over the past four decades. In recent years, the pendulum of scholarship has swung toward literary and theological readings that are not significantly informed by the literature of the ancient Near East. Jack M. Sasson’s commentary to the first twelve chapters of the book of Judges is a refreshing corrective to that trend. It aims to expand comprehension of the Hebrew text by explaining its meaning, exploring its contexts, and charting its effect over time. Addressed are issues about the techniques that advance the text’s objectives, the impulses behind its composition, the motivations behind its preservation, the diversity of interpretations during its transmission in several ancient languages, and the learned attention it has gathered over time in faith traditions, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim. In its pages also is a fair sampling from ancient Near Eastern documents to illumine specific biblical passages or to bolster the interpretation of contexts. The result is a Judges that more carefully reflects the culture that produced it.



In presenting this fresh translation of the Masoretic text of Judges as received in our days, Sasson does not shy away from citing variant or divergent readings in the few Judges fragments and readily calls on testimonies from diverse Greek, Aramaic, and Latin renderings. The opinions of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sages are reviewed, as are those of eminent scholars of recent times. With his Introductory Remarks, Notes, and Comments, Sasson addresses specific issues of religious, social, cultural, and historical significance and turns to ancient Near Eastern lore to illustrate how specific actions and events unfolded elsewhere under comparable circumstances. This impressive new appreciation of Judges will be of immense interest to bible specialists, theologians, cultural historians, and students of the ancient world.

 

Genres: Biblical Studies

616 pages, Hardcover

First published October 22, 2013

About the author

Jack M. Sasson currently serves as Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible at Vanderbilt Divinity School and as a Professor of Classics at Vanderbilt University. His research focuses primarily on Assyriology and Hebrew Scriptures, writing on the archives from eighteenth century BCE found at Mari, Syria, by the Euphrates, near the modern-day Syria-Iraq border as well as on biblical studies.

Reviews

[Taymaz Azimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Colossal. This is not just a linguistic or historic/archeological commentary but one that has real value for a literary approach to reading the Book of Judges. I especially enjoyed the analysis of the Song of Deborah. I learnt a great deal from this commentary… To an extent this book renders some of the older commentaries such as ones written by Boling or Soggin obsolete. (Maybe that’s not fair, and I’m overly excited with the joy of reading this book.)

The only downside is that translations are not as literarily interesting as one might like, but I assume for a scholarly work such as this the precision trumps any aesthetic choice.

[Whitney Dziurawiec · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sasson definitely has the most dynamic writing of any Anchor Yale commentary I've read so far. a lot of it was too far in the weeds for me but I did get quite a bit out of it.

[Lark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun!
I adore Sasson's voice, and his experience with Mari is such a cool lens to see through. Something that I didn't like about Soggin's work was that he almost took disagreement personally. Sasson laughs about it with those he can, and never really steps across the line that makes you think "yikes is he actually mad right now?". I am currently watching a collection of speakers presenting in his honor and they all seem to joke with him the same way. It's cute
Obviously it is THOROUGH and he doesn't skimp on the info somehow, despite also being adept at knowing when to not dive too deep into topics that he could very well follow for a while.
The ending is abrupt! I forgot it ended with Chapter 12. I'm glad he got his shot in at Samson right before the book ends.

Lol but look at me offer my little old thoughts! You'd think I was the queen of church herself!