By David Rosenberg
Random House Value Publishing (1998)
ISBN-10: 0517288788
ISBN-13: 978-0517288788
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The Book of David By David Rosenberg Random House Value Publishing (1998) ISBN-10: 0517288788 ISBN-13: 978-0517288788 |
Reviewed by Israel Drazin - February 9, 2010
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 fifteen books, including a series of five volumes on the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible, which he co-authors with Rabbi Dr. Stanley M. Wagner, and a series of four books on the twelfth century philosopher Moses Maimonides, the latest being Maimonides: Reason Above All, published by Gefen Publishing House, www.gefenpublishing.com. The Orthodox Union (OU) publishes daily samples of the Targum books on www.ouradio.org.
