What do you think?
Rate this book
Early Biblical Interpretation
This highly accessible book discusses how the early Jewish and Christian communities went about interpreting Scripture. The Library of Early Christianity is a series of eight outstanding books exploring the Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts in which the New Testament developed.
220 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
77 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 8, 2019
Book 3 in the Library of Early Christianity, this one focuses on how Bible readers interpreted the scripture up through about the third century CE. The main thing that I got out of the book was something very obvious, something I just hadn't given much thought to: namely, even the later Old Testament scriptures are even interpretations of the earlier ones. Thus, Chronicles, written after Kings and the Torah, in many ways reads the events recounted in those books in a new way, "making past events bear on present reality" (38).
Much of the book--though not as much as I feared, since that wasn't something I was particularly interested in reading about at present--is given over to the rise of and cannonization of scripture. Much is also given over to different genres of the scripture, at least in the Old Testament, and of interpretation--wisdom writing, apocalyptic writing, interpretations among the Qumran sect, interpretations among the rabbis, the hellenistic allegorical approach.
While the first half of the book focuses on the Old Testament, the second half focuses on the New. The author of this half is particularly interested in Iraneaus's view of the scripture, as he is the first to reference most of the books in the New Testament in his own work. The author delves into the various ways early Christian writers put Old Testament scripture to work within the new Christian framework (Jesus in the Old Testament, the church as the new Israel, etc.). He also looks at the differences between the Alexandrian allegorical school and the Antiochan typological school, showing that actually the two schools are not perhaps as different as one might initially claim, as their main interest was in making theological points.
The book's final line is perhaps most telling of the two religious traditions that come out of interpreting Old Testament scripture: "It is instructive that the figure of Wisdom, portrayed in Prov. 8:22ff, as God's agent of creation and revelation, was equated in Ecclesiasticus (Ben Sira) with the Torah but was identified by Christians as early as Paul with Christ. From the same point of departure we thus find two paths, strikingly similar in many of their presuppositions and methods, but finally divergent" (203).
Much of the book--though not as much as I feared, since that wasn't something I was particularly interested in reading about at present--is given over to the rise of and cannonization of scripture. Much is also given over to different genres of the scripture, at least in the Old Testament, and of interpretation--wisdom writing, apocalyptic writing, interpretations among the Qumran sect, interpretations among the rabbis, the hellenistic allegorical approach.
While the first half of the book focuses on the Old Testament, the second half focuses on the New. The author of this half is particularly interested in Iraneaus's view of the scripture, as he is the first to reference most of the books in the New Testament in his own work. The author delves into the various ways early Christian writers put Old Testament scripture to work within the new Christian framework (Jesus in the Old Testament, the church as the new Israel, etc.). He also looks at the differences between the Alexandrian allegorical school and the Antiochan typological school, showing that actually the two schools are not perhaps as different as one might initially claim, as their main interest was in making theological points.
The book's final line is perhaps most telling of the two religious traditions that come out of interpreting Old Testament scripture: "It is instructive that the figure of Wisdom, portrayed in Prov. 8:22ff, as God's agent of creation and revelation, was equated in Ecclesiasticus (Ben Sira) with the Torah but was identified by Christians as early as Paul with Christ. From the same point of departure we thus find two paths, strikingly similar in many of their presuppositions and methods, but finally divergent" (203).
May 5, 2017
(sigh) How do you rate a book that's made in two parts, by two different authors, covering separate (though related) topics?
The first half was great. Kugel is a phenomenal writer; able to make history come alive, communicate clearly, and offer well thought out arguments that follow a clear stream of rationale.
The second half... well, let's just say that I felt like I was knee deep in the mud, slogging it out, but never really enjoying it or feeling like there was any clarity to be had. Everything in the second half was flawed - the structure, subject, arguments, writing. I never really even got the point to the second half. Oh well.
The first half was great. Kugel is a phenomenal writer; able to make history come alive, communicate clearly, and offer well thought out arguments that follow a clear stream of rationale.
The second half... well, let's just say that I felt like I was knee deep in the mud, slogging it out, but never really enjoying it or feeling like there was any clarity to be had. Everything in the second half was flawed - the structure, subject, arguments, writing. I never really even got the point to the second half. Oh well.
August 24, 2017
It took me awhile to read this relatively short book. It was amazing, but be ready with your biblical dictionary. a truly fascinating read if you are interested in the development and interpretation of New Testament Scripture from roughly 30 CE to 180 CE and the early 3rd and 4th centuries. In addition, it went about discussing the way the Jewish community went about the processing the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible.
January 22, 2018
A good balance of respect for the text with which Kugel is working and clear explanation. A memorable read!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews