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Introduction: Harold Bloom's The Book of J
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18914 |
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BOOK WORLD
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2 / 1991 |
257 Words |
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A fresh translation of a vital storyteller's work that gives the author's voice an immediacy never before expressed is the charm of The Book of J. Acclaimed literary critic Harold Bloom illumines the literary power of this strain of the Old Testament.
Religious tradition ascribes authorship of the Pentateuch--the first five books of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament--to Moses, but scholars agree that it is a composite of texts by several authors, woven together around 400 B.C. by a master editor known as the Redactor, or R. The oldest of these texts--running through Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers--was written by an author whom scholars call J, probably in the tenth century B.C.
The Book of J, translated from the Hebrew by David Rosenberg and with commentary by Harold Bloom, lifts J's text out of its surrounding material for the first time, revealing new beauty, humor, and power. Bloom argues, on aesthetic grounds, that J was a writer of the stature of Shakespeare and Tolstoy, and on literary and psychological grounds that J was a woman, very likely a woman of the royal house living at the court of Solomon's son and successor, Rehoboam.
Our excerpt from The Book of J includes Bloom's introduction, as well as translation and commentary on Jacob and Tamar, two of the most driven and colorful figures of the Old Testament.
Commentators David Damrosch and James Ackerman discuss the merits and limitations of Rosenberg's and Bloom's work, and offer insights into biblical and literary criticism.
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