A brave attempt to discover more than ancient texts can reliably reveal. (11 b&w photos)
A Jewish scholar challenges the received wisdom of contemporary scripture studies by contending that fragments of a Dead Sea scroll contain evidence of a suffering messiah prior to Jesus.
Knohl (Bible/Hebrew Univ.) proposes a thesis at odds with mainstream Scripture scholarship. According to what for decades has been the prevailing view, the notion of a suffering messiah was utterly foreign to first-century Judaism, so messianic claims made by Jesus in the gospels must therefore have been ascribed to him after his death by followers who picked up their ideas from non-Jewish sources. On the basis of certain Dead Sea Scroll fragments, however, Knohl argues that the notion of a suffering, redemptive messiah was indeed current in the Qumran community of Judaism prior to the time of Jesus. The fragments come from the badly torn “Thanksgivings Scroll,” which includes two hymns central to the author’s argument. The first, the “Self-Glorification Hymn,” speaks of an exalted figure who places himself on a footing with angels, but who has also known great suffering; the author argues that this figure was himself a member of the Qumran community. The second hymn, though, describes a time in which redemption and salvation are accomplished realities, and the author maintains that this blessed time had been achieved, in the community’s opinion, through the sufferings of the exalted figure in the first hymn. This mysterious redemptive sufferer, we are told, is thus the true author of “catastrophic messianism”—a Jewish conception of which Jesus was likely aware. The author’s thesis is daring; its soundness is for specialists to determine. Unfortunately, most of his study is devoted to identifying the shadowy sufferer referred to in the Scrolls, and the strain of this exertion presses his argument toward implausibility.
A brave attempt to discover more than ancient texts can reliably reveal. (11 b&w photos)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-520-21592-3
Page Count: 171
Publisher: Univ. of California
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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