Levenson (Univ. of Oklahoma) provides an important work of cultural history, biblical scholarship, and modern Jewish history in his analysis of how Jewish scholars and communities constructed the modern Jewish Bible. He begins his story with Spinoza, whose Jewish sensibilities foreshadowed the development of the Jewish Bible. The real story, however, begins with Mendelssohn in the late 18th century. The Bible became the touchstone for a Jewish German community, in which one could be both fully Jewish and German. In the 20th century, the Jewish Bible became central to the formation and life of the modern state of Israel. It formed the cultural basis for the new nation and the center of its continuing national intellectual and educational life. Finally, in the United States, a fully Jewish biblical scholarship emerged in the 1960s. Within the synagogue, the Jewish Chumash stands as a common source within various Jewish denominations. As a significant cultural achievement, the formation of the modern Jewish Bible is, Levenson argues, "on par with the Jewish Enlightenment, the scientific study of Judaism, the revival of Hebrew, or the Zionist ideology." This volume will be useful in libraries with collections in biblical and Jewish studies. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and above; general readers.

Choice Reviews

This book traces how ten Jewish thinkers brought the Bible to the center of Jewish identity over the past four centuries. With a light touch, the author insightfully describes how they and other scholars in Europe, America, and Israel responded to the needs of Western culture and Jewish nationalism.

Andreas Spahn, Florida Atlantic University, Frederick E. Greenspahn, Florida Atlantic University

This is an original, creative, and thoughtful guide to a topic and an era (or rather, several topics and several eras) that are crucial to understanding today's Judaism-but they are not usually brought together with the insightful and informative methodology that Levenson has managed to construct. He has a fine eye for both detail and context as he spins out a tale that covers over three centuries and takes place in three continents. Agree with him or disagree with him or come down somewhere in the middle, the engaged reader of this book will be greatly illuminated and moved to think about things, both old and new, in meaningful and fruitful ways.

Leonard Greenspoon, Creighton University

Alan Levenson has restored the Bible to its rightfully central place in modern Jewish thought. He has done so with considerable sensitivity and consistent lucidity. This is a book that scholars and laypeople alike will read with profit.

David J. Sorkin, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Alan Levenson explains clearly and directly how the meaning of the Bible is socially constructed. He explores how makers of meaning from Spinoza, Jewish Enlightenment thinkers, and modern Jewish thinkers, constructed our ever-changing understanding of the Bible. From his survey of how modern Zionists and Israelis recovered the Bible as a centerpiece of national life, how the challenge of reading the Bible meaningfully has been addressed in an era of doubt, to the celebration of the Bible as an ethnic touchstone in America, he helps explain how the Bible became the connective tissue of Jewish life even as it served as a vehicle for expressing contemporary values. This book is a valuable guide to anyone interested in understanding the Hebrew Bible today.

David Ariel, President of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies

With refreshing breadth and accessible prose, Alan T. Levenson illuminates the political, social, and religious tensions that shape modern Jewish approaches to the Bible. This wide-ranging and engaging study blends scholarly acumen with a gifted teacher's knack for clarity. Levenson guides the reader to see what is at stake, for some of the most important figures in modern Jewish intellectual history, in how Jews read their sacred text.

Mara Benjamin, St. Olaf College