Strong As Death Is Love: The Song of Songs, Ruth, Esther, Jonah, and Daniel pdf

Robert Bernard Alter is an American professor of Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1967.He published his translation of the Hebrew Bible in 2018. Robert Alter earned his bachelor's degree in English (Columbia University, 1957), and his master's degree (1958) and doctorate (1962) from Harvard University in comparative literature. He started his career as a writer at Commentary, where he was for many years a contributing editor. He has written twenty-three books, and is noted most recently for his translation of the entire Hebrew Bible. He lectures on topics varying from Biblical episodes to Kafka's modernism and Hebrew literature. One of Alter's important contributions is the introduction of the type scene into contemporary scholarly Hebrew Bible studies.

Strong As Death Is Love: The Song of Songs, Ruth, Esther, Jonah, and Daniel pdf by Robert Alter

" Alter has given fresh life to some of the most beloved . . . books in our heritage."—Philadelphia Inquirer

The Song of Songs; Ruth; Esther; Jonah; and Daniel offer readers a range of pleasures not usually associated with the Bible. As distant in time from the Five Books of Moses as Updike is from Shakespeare, these Late Biblical books are innovative, entertaining literary works. Women often stand center stage. The Song of Songs is a celebration of young love, frankly sensuous, with no reference to God or covenant. It offers some of the most beautiful love poems of the ancient world. The story of Queen Esther's shrewd triumph is also a secular entertainment, with clear traces of farce and sly sexual comedy. The character of Ruth embodies the virtues of loyalty, love, and charity in a harmonious world. Enigma replaces harmony in Daniel's feverish night dreams. The apocalyptic strangeness of Daniel echoes in works from the New Testament's Book...