Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the TalmudsMcGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 1998 - 658 pages With biting irreverence for denominational prejudices and the pretensions of academics, Akenson renews our sense of awe before these religious works. He challenges received doctrines, arguing that the ancient Jews were indeed idol worshippers and that Saint Paul did not believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth or in the virgin birth. With wit, elegance, and clarity Surpassing Wonder makes the ancient Hebrew scriptures, the Christian New Testament, and the Talmuds of the Rabbis accessible to all and shows they can be understood only in relation to each other and against their specific historical settings. Akenson argues that each of the great texts must be considered as the product of a single author and thus as a religious invention ? that is, as a self-consciously formed unity rather than an anthology of disparate works. He also argues that the great inventor of the Hebrew scriptures should be credited with constructing the very concept of narrative history and thus the foundations of Western civilization. Using a rich and imagistic language that combines tractor mechanics, Winnie-the-Pooh, and architecture with analogies from astronomy, evolutionary biology, and economics, Akenson brings about nothing less than a radical reformation of how to think about the sacred texts. He restores their spiritual power through a just appreciation of the achievement of their authors while leaving readers to decide for themselves on the presence of a "guiding hand." Surpassing Wonder is a penetrating study of the historian's craft and a brilliant expose of how theologians and biblical scholars abuse historical reasoning and evidence in their treatment of the sacred texts. Just as a previous reformation cast out the priestly intercessors, so Akenson casts the scholars out of the temple and lets readers in to see the texts anew. In so doing he reinvests religion with meaning for a contemporary world and shows us how Western civilization was created not by the Greeks of Athens or the patricians of Rome but by the desert worshippers of Yahweh." |
Contents
Introduction Us and the Semites | 3 |
INVENTING THE COVENANT | 17 |
Apparent Woe and Great Invention | 19 |
Returning with Yahweh to Jerusalem | 64 |
Historys AllEmbracing Arms The Covenant | 91 |
THE LATER SECOND TEMPLE ERA | 107 |
Siloams Teeming Pool I | 109 |
Siloams Teeming Pool II | 133 |
The Hermetic Perfect Mishnah | 295 |
Taming the Mishnah Tractate Aboth the Tosefta Sifra and the Yerushalmi | 328 |
The Bounteous Bavli and the Invention of the Dual Torah | 366 |
Conclusion Surpassing Wonder | 399 |
Notes | 415 |
APPENDICES | 511 |
Glossary | 513 |
Biblical Chronology | 518 |
Siloams Teeming Pool III | 171 |
THE INVENTION OF CHRISTIANITY | 209 |
The ReInvention of the Species | 211 |
From Yeshua of Nazareth to Jesus the Christ | 244 |
THE INVENTION OF THE JEWISH FAITH | 271 |
Dont Stare at the Neighbours | 273 |
The Manuscript Base of the Holy Scriptures | 526 |
Modern Biblical Scholarship and the Quest for the Historical Yeshua | 538 |
The Great Rabbinic Corpus Access Dating Translation Methods and Queries | 606 |
627 | |
649 | |
Other editions - View all
Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds Donald H. Akenson Limited preview - 2001 |
Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds Donald Harman Akenson Limited preview - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
Aboth ancient apocalyptic argument author-editors Babylonian Talmud Bavli belief Bible biblical Book of Daniel canon century chapter Christian scriptures commentary Common Era concept context covenant culture Dead Sea Scrolls deal destruction discussion documents early Enoch Essene exile fragments Genesis-Kings unity Gospel of John Hebrew scriptures historians historical narrative historical Yeshua holy idea invention inventors Israel Jacob Neusner Jerusalem Talmud Jesus Jesus-faith Jesus-the-Christ Jewish faith Jews Josephus Judahist King later Second Temple literature Luke Maccabean manuscripts Mark material Matthew ment Messiah Mishnah Moses Moshiah oral Oral Torah original Palestine Paul Pharisees Press priests prophets Qumran Rabbinic Judaism reference religion religious resurrection Roman Sages scholarly scholars scholarship Second Temple Second Temple Judahism sense Sifra Sonc sources spiritual story Synoptic Tanakh term texts textual tion Torah Tosefta tractate tradition translation words writings written Yahweh Yerushalmi Yeshua Yeshua of Nazareth