The Divine Symphony: The Bible's Many Voices

by Israel Knohl

In this fascinating book, Knohl shares his understanding of how the Torah was edited into its final form. He bridges the gap between ancient Israel (c.1400-586 B.C.E.) and Second Temple times (c.536 B.C.E.-70 C.E.) by showing the continuity between these eras and the gradual evolution of the biblical worldview, which formed the foundation of later rabbinic Judaism. The book focuses on the editing of the Torah, interpreting the textual evidence, most notably contradictions and redundancies, to show that the idea of a pluralistic understanding of Revelation can be traced back to the editing of the Torah itself. Knohl’s interpretation of biblical composition challenges a popular trend in contemporary biblical the idea that ancient Israel never existed as a historical reality, but was invented and “retrojected” back in time by later Israelite priests as part of their national myth.

Genres: Jewish, Biblical Studies, Old Testament

200 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2003

Reviews

[Philip Fernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent guide on on one' faith journey

The symphonic aspect to our faith journey from the has been the main learning from the book. Highly recommend this author engaging style of connecting the Sacred authors from different periods of the community and respecting their world views.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a popularization of the content from Knohl's magnum opus on the Priestly tradition in Israel and his model for the redaction of the Torah in "The Sanctuary of Silence." The details are all stuffed into endnotes. The overriding theological message is that a reader of the Hebrew Bible must come to terms with the theological diversity of the Hebrew Bible and understand that it is all God's message expressed within a historical context. There is no other way to come to terms with the divergences and contradictions (such as between P, D, and H, the Holiness School that the author identifies as separate from the Priestly source in Leviticus, or between Deutero-Isaiah and Ezekiel). He does an excellent job of demonstrating how the contradictions led to theological disputes and the schisms of the Intertestamental and Christian eras: Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, Christians, et al.