The World of Biblical Literature

by Robert Alter

Book Overview

The Bible is one of the world's great literary masterpieces and, increasingly, literary scholars as well as general readers have enthusiastically joined the ranks of the religious orthodox in reading it. Robert Alter, who has long been in the vanguard of this movement, reflects on the paradoxes inherent in considering this great religious work as literature. This book builds on, and in some cases takes issues with, the new wave of literary and bibilical...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465092551
• ISBN13: 9780465092550
• Release Date: March 1992
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A Meticulous Scholar

Robert Alter is a scholar of Hebrew, in all its historical manifestations, with many unique and insightful things to say on whatever topic he decides to cover. In this collection of essays, The World of Biblical Literature, Alter shows his preoccupation with a "literary" reading of the Bible. He views the bible as a unique literary production; an anthology of sorts without a discernible author or authors, this does not preclude the possibility to use the same tools of literary analysis employed in other areas of literary scholarship. Alter reads the bible as literature while at the same time keeping in mind the documentary hypothesis of the bible, the historical environment of its composition, redaction, and transmission. Alter truly has an encyclopedic grasp of the bible, and these essays are vital to anyone serious for any in depth study this, the most important book in the western tradition.

When Charity is Misguided

George Gilder has had an interesting and controversial career, including a famous book on economics (`Wealth and Poverty', highly praised by Ronald Reagan among others), several books on the high tech industry (a field in which he has long served as an investment advisor), a book entitled `Sexual Suicide' (later renamed `Men and Marriage', that challenged many of the tenets of the feminist movement - N.O.W. once named him `Pig of the Year'), and his recent defense of the Intelligent Design belief that life might be something more than just an accident wrought by the fluke movements of dead bits of matter. There is also this lesser known work, `Visible Man', published in 1978, and re-released with a new Introduction in 1995. The title, Gilder tells us, is both "a tribute to Ralph Ellison's classic ['Invisible Man'] and an assertion that whatever the problems of young black men, invisibility was no longer among them." The book reads like a good novel, as Gilder tells the story - based on hundreds of interviews over two years -- of a young black man from Albany, NY, raised by a welfare mother and her female relatives, who fought in Vietnam, spends his time chasing women who frequent the bars of his neighborhood, fathers several children, works briefly for a government agency, and gets into various scrapes with the law - including a charge of rape, for which he is eventually acquitted. It was during these years spent with `Sam', his family, and his friends, that the author's unconventional views on the causes of poverty in America were forged and confirmed: specifically, his convictions regarding the civilizing and maturing power of marriage, family, and work, and the cruelty and degradation that is concealed within the welfare system. When someone speaks out against welfare, it is easy to become indignant and to charge such a person with an appalling lack of decency, a lack of caring, a lack of charity and humanity. But shallow sentimentality has to give way to a deeper and more intelligent form of `loving one's neighbor', and I find Gilder's earnest assertions to be exceedingly compassionate and wise. In 1978, he warned us against treating blacks as if they were children -- unable to be told the truth, unable to understand the basic facts of a market economy, unable to rise above a system of fantastic expectations, indulgences, and entitlements. "This is the worst kind of racism in America," he said, "the respectable kind." The kind that unmans black men, that belittles them with pity and charity. Problems inevitably arise "whenever and wherever the worth of welfare payments and related benefits - crucially including leisure time and related medical care - rises above the value of earnings. Under these conditions, regardless of reforms and regulations, welfare will be a government machine that fosters illegitimacy and turns dads into deadbeats." Unwed mothers are particularly eligible for these generous benefits, which means that the need for

A convocation and a castigation

There are few voices in the arena of biblical studies who command the respect due Robert Alter. After a long career in biblical scholarship, he recently issued a new translation of the Hebrew Bible to wide acclaim. This little book is, in several ways, a precursor to that momentous effort. Viewing the Hebrew Bible as a literary effort, instead of a legal or evangelical one, was gaining wide acceptance when this book was published. "The World" here is the collection of academic views expressed over the previous two decades. Alter reviews the efforts of previous scholars in addressing literary forms present in the bible and what those might indicate about the ancient authors. Essentially an extended bibliographic essay, this book is an excellent starting point for understanding the secular view of the Bible. Reading any of the multitude of bibles as literature isn't a common approach. Yet, the ongoing success of the Bible must lie in part to its authors' narrative talents. Alter opens his survey with a mild chastisement of critics who have viewed the biblical tales in piecemeal. He voices regret that literary "reductionism" has obscured the larger picture. While he acknowledges the religious import of biblical narratives, he wants more recognition of the literary aspects than these stories have been given. The "Literary Play" in the second chapter's title conveys the tone admirably. As his concluding chapter notes, failure to understand the literary structures and illustrations of biblical stories reflects failure to understand much of Western European literature in general. In one sense, this book is a challenge to other scholars, both past and future. Alters poses questions he feels need addressing, and when material is available, explains how others have responded. He gives the interpretations and conclusions of other scholars clearly and succinctly. Nothing appears out of context nor adjusted to an improbable world view. Alter is keen to show where literary analysis of the Hebrew Bible stands, where gains have been made and where greater attention should be given. His view is balanced and his analyses thorough. Although he makes his preferences clear without engaging in summary judgments, Alter's devastating dismemberment of Harold Bloom's infamous analysis is worthy of a close look. When text analysts - the "document" school - revealed that the Hebrew Bible was penned by no fewer than four authors plus a "Redactor", some scholars struggled to give an identity to them. Harold Bloom, leaping on the postmodernist bandwagon, came to the conclusion that one of major biblical authors, of "The Book Of J" was actually a woman. That this thesis was lustily applauded by his American feminist audience obscured the poor translations Bloom had done. Alter gently, but firmly, examines Bloom's thesis and effectively bins much of it. In some ways, it's the highlight of the book, although Alter never loses his academic detachment in

Interesting Reading

In 'The World of Biblibcal Literature', Robert Alter fills some gaps he felt he left in his Biblical narrative and poetry volumes. As such, the book is more of a collection of related articles rather than a sustained argument. Two of the chapters are essentially extended reviews of other works: one on the JPS Torah Commentary, another on 'The Book of J'. Others give hints on how to read the books of Samuel as literature, on Biblical poetry, on the necessity of the literal in translating the bible (although this makes me wonder why Alter chose to use the non-literal, anachronistic title LORD for YHWH in his translations), as well as general considerations of the range of biblical literary forms, their meanings and uses. Good reading.

A unique, very deserving book

Though the book is non-fiction, it at time reads like a quirky novel, with memorable charactors like Buddy the overweight lesbian. Now that the nation's welfare system is in its final years, its interesting to see the effects of New York State's extreamly generous welfare benefits had on a low-income neighborhood and its residents in the first few years, which is the background of the story, which concerns a black man falsly accused of raping a white woman.The books is very well-written and engrossing. I read it in only two sittings.