Bible Review, February 1989

The scholarship of biblical poetry might be thought the most benign of worlds. In fact, it has recently been rocked by a dispute that resembles a courtroom drama. The antagonists are both experts. Their dispute is personal, as well as scholarly. Both are the authors of recent books on biblical poetry. James L. Kugel, […]

James Kugel writes as a historian of scholarship and as one who practices historical criticism. Robert Alter writes as a literary critic and an analyst of individual biblical poems. Kugel’s book is a trailblazer, clearing the brush of centuries of scholarship in order to move more readily into an analysis of the poetry of […]

Buried within Scripture are bits and pieces of a story awaiting discovery. It highlights the woman Miriam. To unearth the fragments, assemble them, ponder the gaps and then construct a text requires the play of many methods but the dogmatism of none.1 This enterprise welcomes all lovers of Scripture who seek to redeem life […]