David Rosenberg, co-author of The Book of J, offers his own translation of the parts of the Bible that he considers the original story of the rise and reign of David as the king of all of Israel. Because Rosenberg omits much of the biblical material, his story, told in easily readable and engaging English in only 28 pages long. For example, the death of David is told by Rosenberg in only eleven lines, while the Hebrew original relates a tale in 65 sentences. He also devotes a chapter to David's Psalms. He states that "a great Hebraic writer at the Solomonic court whom scholars call the Court Historian, or S," was the author of the David tales. The letter S was chosen since the David narrative begins in the biblical book Samuel. This writer was a friend of J. Rosenberg offers his readers an interesting speculation about the identity of S and many of his own and other scholars' ideas about what is considered the authentic David.
Dr. Israel Drazin is the author of seventeen books, including a series of five volumes on the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible, which he co-authors with Dr. Stanley M. Wagner, and a series of four books on the twelfth century philosopher Moses Maimonides. The Orthodox Union (OU) and Yeshiva University publish weekly chapters of Drazin and Wagner's book Let's Study Onkelos on www.ou.org/torah and on www.yutorah@yutorah.org. His website is http://booksnthoughts.com.
The views expressed in this review/article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Jewish Eye.
Related Reviews:
The Book of J, by David Rosenberg and Harold Bloom. J is the title that scholars ascribe to the nameless writer they believe is responsible for the text, written between 950 and 900 BCE, on which Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers is based. In The Book of J, accompanying Rosenberg's translation, is Bloom's persuasive argument that J was a woman.
Abraham: The First Historical Biography, by David Rosenberg. The world's three largest faiths all find a common root in one man: Abraham. Breaking new ground, David Rosenberg portrays Abraham as a man whose whole life, and therefore his legacy, is informed by the Sumerian culture that produced him.
