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The HarperCollins Study Bible: Fully Revised and Updated Paperback – August 14, 2006
- Print length2272 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarperOne
- Publication dateAugust 14, 2006
- Reading age18 years and up
- Dimensions6.3 x 1.57 x 9.29 inches
- ISBN-100061228400
- ISBN-13978-0061228407
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From the Back Cover
After 10 years of new archeological discoveries and changes in biblical studies, it was time for an overhaul of this classic reference work.
With the guidance of the Society of Biblical Literature, an organization of the best biblical scholars world wide, we have selected Dean of Yale Divinity School, Harold Attridge, to oversee the Study Bible's updating and revision.
Including up–to–date introductions to the Biblical books, based on the latest critical scholarship, by leading experts in the field
concise notes, clearly explaining names, dates, places, obscure terms, and other difficulties in reading the Biblical text careful analysis of the structure of Biblical books
abundant maps, tables, and charts to enable the reader to understand the context of the Bible, and to see the relationship among its parts.
In this new revised edition every introduction, essay, map, illustration and explanatory note has been reviewed and updated, and new material added. For instance,
There are newly commissioned introductory essays on
the archaeology of ancient Israel and the New Testament world,
the religion of ancient Israel,
the social and historical context of each book of the Bible, and
on Biblical interpretation.
There are completely new introductions and notes for many of the books in the Bible, plus a full revision and updating of all others.
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The HarperCollins Study Bible
Fully Revised & UpdatedBy Harold AttridgeHarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Copyright © 2006 Harold AttridgeAll right reserved.
ISBN: 0061228400
Chapter One
Genesis
The book of Genesis derives its name from the Greek translation of 2.4 and 5.1, "This is the book of the origin of (biblos geneseos)?' In Jewish tradition the book is called Bereshit, after the first word of the book, which means "in the beginning of." Both names accurately convey the content of the book—it tells of the origins of the cosmos, humankind, and the ancestors of Israel. The origins of the cosmos and humans are recounted in the primeval narratives (chs. 1-11) and the origins of Israel's ancestors in the patriarchal narratives (chs. 12-50). In the ancient world as in the modern, the era of origins has a special authority—its formative events set the rules and conditions for all subsequent developments. As a book of origins, Genesis partakes of the sacredness and authority of this era and has served as a foundation for thought, belief, and action for millennia.
The Genesis of Genesis
According to Jewish and Christian tradition, the book of Genesis was dictated by God to Moses, but this belief is not found in the Hebrew Bible. (It seems to be first attested in the book of Jubilees and in the Dead Sea Scrolls from about the second century BCE.) Commentators have long noted that several points in Genesis indicate the narrator lived well after Moses, at a time when the Canaanites had disappeared from the promised land (12.6) and when kings ruled over Israel (36.31; 49.10). Modern archaeological and historical discoveries confirm this general picture: the constellation of peoples, places, and religious practices and the language of Genesis indicate that the book was primarily composed and compiled during the centuries of monarchical rule and immediately thereafter, roughly from the tenth through the sixth centuries BCE.
Biblical scholarship has identified three major literary sources that were edited together to form the book of Genesis called the Yahwist (J), Elohist (E), and Priestly (P) sources. The first two (often called "old epic" sources) reflect the predominance in certain narratives of forms of the divine name, Yahweh (Jahweh in German, hence J) and Elohim. The P source reflects concerns of the Priestly writers most evident in the book of Leviticus. There are also a few texts that belong to none of these sources (including chs. 14, 15, 24, and 49). The literary sources drew on traditional oral lore as well as written records and were engaged in preserving and revising Israel's traditions of the past. This is the standard model of the composition of Genesis, and although various scholars have proposed modifications, it remains the most coherent explanation of the evidence.
The editor (or editors) who wove the literary sources together created a text with an abundance of meaning, combining the different theologies, philosophical perspectives, and literary styles of the sources into a work of great power and complexity. The editors were not embarrassed by the duplications of particular episodes (e.g., the different creation accounts in 1.1-2.3 and 2.4-25, the two flood stories in chs. 6-9, the three wife-sister stories in 12.10-20; 20; and 26.1-11, and the multiple accounts of Jacob's change of name to Israel and the founding of Bethel in 28.10-22; 32.22-32; and 35.9-15), but, rather, valued the preservation of different traditions. One result of this complexity is that Genesis is a layered "mosaic" of meanings that is richer than any of the sources alone. Yet its lucid and tersely evocative narrative style generally allows readers to pass untroubled over its internal compositional seams.
Science, History, and Genesis
Genesis is not a scientific or historical textbook in the modern sense. Rather, it is a narration of ancient Israel's traditions and concepts of the past—a mixture of myths and legends, cultural memories, revisions of tradition, and literary brilliance. It is a complex portrait of the past that encodes the values of biblical religion and creates a rich array of perspectives on the world.
There are authentic historical memories in the book, but most of the historical details reflect the period when Israel was an established nation. The older memories include the rise of urban civilization in the land of Sumer (10.8-12; 11.1-9), the region of Haran as an ancient tribal homeland (12.4; 24; 27.43), Semitic rulers and officials in Egypt (ch. 41), and the worship of the high god named El in pre-Israelite times (17.1). These and other old memories are mingled with more recent memories, such as relations with Israel's neighbors, including Aram, Philistia, Edom, Ammon, and Moab, which arose at roughly the same time as Israel. The portrayal of the natural world in Genesis also belongs to the worldview of its time—a geocentric universe with light and the earth created before the sun, and with the stars, sun, and moon attached to the surface of the dome of heaven (ch. 1); the first woman fashioned from the first man's rib (2.21-22); the rainbow as God's huge weapon set in the clouds (9.13); and the desolate landscape of the Dead Sea (including the pillar that was once Lot's wife) as the result of ancient transgressions (ch. 19). These and other details reflect ancient lore about life, the earth, and the universe.
It is somewhat unfair to note the scientific inadequacies of Genesis, since it was not written to be a work of modern science. We need to learn to read Genesis as a book that speaks strongly to modern readers, but we need to read it on its terms, recognize its ancient voice, and not superimpose on it our own. It is a book of memories—of marvels and miracles, imperfect saints and holy sinners, a beneficent and often inscrutable God, and promises that bind the past to the present and the future. It tells us where we came from, not in the sense that the book is historically accurate, but in the sense that the book itself is our historical root. [Ronald Hendel]
Continues...
Excerpted from The HarperCollins Study Bibleby Harold Attridge Copyright © 2006 by Harold Attridge. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Product details
- Publisher : HarperOne; Updated edition (August 14, 2006)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 2272 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0061228400
- ISBN-13 : 978-0061228407
- Reading age : 18 years and up
- Item Weight : 2.92 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.3 x 1.57 x 9.29 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #372,578 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,188 in Christian Commentaries (Books)
- #4,508 in Christian Bibles (Books)
- #5,798 in Christian Bible Study (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Harold W. Attridge, Ph.D., is Dean of Yale University Divinity School and Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament. He has published many scholarly contributions to New Testament exegesis and to the study of Hellenistic Judaism and the history of the early Church. He also has served as the president of the Society of Biblical Literature.
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This lands it squarely in the middle of the study of social anthropology for me, a comfortable but curious non-believer.
And just as Western culture has its roots in the Christian Bible, this book digs even deeper to grasp the roots of that Bible itself.
We've learned quite a bit since the inception of the King James version in 1611. We've unearthed scrolls that are much older than the copies we were working with before, writings that add context to the books we read now, and we have a much better understanding of the ancient languages that the original scriptures were written in.
The NRSV is a great translation for both reading and study and was my personal favorite even before I found the Harper Collins. To my knowledge, it's the only translation that encompasses books from multiple traditions (i.e. the Protestant, Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox bibles), which is great for continuity and keeping book clutter to a minimum.
It does NOT include books found only in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo canon such as Jubilees and Enoch. Though you can easily find those elsewhere if you need to.
I've attached a picture of the books included in this volume for reference.
I'd recommend the Harper Collins to believers who'd like to learn a little about the genesis of their holy book, students looking to get into the weeds, and everyday people who maybe had trouble understanding the King James as a kid but want to revisit the Bible. I've found that the footnotes kind of act as a person in the room who can explain things when the text gets a bit confusing.
Fundamentalist literalists who hold every verse as unquestionable historical fact may want to skip this one and get a devotional instead.
Content-wise, it's a textbook for the price of a bible.
Physically, it is pushing the limits of its binding, but I'm not worried about it holding up.
I don't quite understand why some reviewers are upset about the paper unless they expected an actual textbook. It's the same as any bible paper I've ever touched and about twice as thick as the thinnest paper I've encountered.
You can definitely tell there's text on the other side of the page, but the ink itself does not bleed through.
In all, a very important and valuable tome packed full of answers for Christians and worldly academics alike. I think it's a pretty fun read too :)
Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2021
This lands it squarely in the middle of the study of social anthropology for me, a comfortable but curious non-believer.
And just as Western culture has its roots in the Christian Bible, this book digs even deeper to grasp the roots of that Bible itself.
We've learned quite a bit since the inception of the King James version in 1611. We've unearthed scrolls that are much older than the copies we were working with before, writings that add context to the books we read now, and we have a much better understanding of the ancient languages that the original scriptures were written in.
The NRSV is a great translation for both reading and study and was my personal favorite even before I found the Harper Collins. To my knowledge, it's the only translation that encompasses books from multiple traditions (i.e. the Protestant, Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox bibles), which is great for continuity and keeping book clutter to a minimum.
It does NOT include books found only in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo canon such as Jubilees and Enoch. Though you can easily find those elsewhere if you need to.
I've attached a picture of the books included in this volume for reference.
I'd recommend the Harper Collins to believers who'd like to learn a little about the genesis of their holy book, students looking to get into the weeds, and everyday people who maybe had trouble understanding the King James as a kid but want to revisit the Bible. I've found that the footnotes kind of act as a person in the room who can explain things when the text gets a bit confusing.
Fundamentalist literalists who hold every verse as unquestionable historical fact may want to skip this one and get a devotional instead.
Content-wise, it's a textbook for the price of a bible.
Physically, it is pushing the limits of its binding, but I'm not worried about it holding up.
I don't quite understand why some reviewers are upset about the paper unless they expected an actual textbook. It's the same as any bible paper I've ever touched and about twice as thick as the thinnest paper I've encountered.
You can definitely tell there's text on the other side of the page, but the ink itself does not bleed through.
In all, a very important and valuable tome packed full of answers for Christians and worldly academics alike. I think it's a pretty fun read too :)
I have always preferred the NRSV, but that's really a tomato/to-mah-to choice. Some churches do tend to use different translations over others. What really elevates this bible are the footnotes. They cover a wide variety of subject matter and often reference other passages and verses for comparison and context. The authors were very thorough in providing historical background where necessary to help flesh out the different stories and provide a better understanding. These little nuggets of information have shed a lot of light on stories that I thought I understood, and they have really contributed a lot to group discussion at my church's bible study! Generally, the footnotes are more of an objective nature, but the authors will throw in an interpretation every once in a while.
Each book is prefaced with an introduction that sets the stage for the following text. It provides any relevant historical information, a summary of the way the book is written, and any other pertinent information (particularly about the author or the recipient/audience of the book).
I've read a few complaints about the quality of the maps in comparison with previous editions. Never having seen the previous editions, I can't really comment on a comparison. However, I think the quality of the maps in this edition is fine.
My one complaint is the lack of space on the actual pages for notes. There are several pages included in the back of the book designated for notes. However, the margins on the pages themselves are very narrow. You will either need to be very concise or write microscopically in order to get all of your thoughts next to the corresponding verse. As a study bible, I'm surprised the publishers were not more cognizant of the need for this space.
Overall, I really like this bible. However, if you're a note-taker, be aware that space is limited.
Top reviews from other countries
There are plenty of updated notes here and the pages, over 2000 of them, are of that nice crisp “Bible paper”. The NRSV is, so I have read, one of the most accurate translations of the Bible, though some do disagree, saying that the KJV 1611 is the most accurate. I do like the KJV but due to it’s old style language used it can be a vary “wordy” translation to read. This NRSV version is clear and easy to read. My only negative point about this Bible is that it has no ribbon as so many Bibles do. However, it’s not hard to use a piece of paper for a book marker. Oh, and though the paper it is printed on is nice, it does have a bit of a shine on it that can reflect the light a little, which can be distracting. So, all in all, this is a vary nice study Bible, and a nice easy translation to read. Recommended.
die Dake Bibel ist auch sehr gut, ebenso die Genfer Studienbibel und verschiedene andere Bibeln im Markt