external solipsism

I recently came across "The Book of J" which is a text that biblical scholars agree to be the original strand of the Torah. The person who put out this particular book included a brief history of the bible, as well as commentary specifically on the text of the book. I found the work interesting, specifically the contrast between it and the present day King James Bible, as well as the contrast between the Christian Old Testament and the Jewish Bible that was mentioned in the brief biblical history.

For the most part, the actual text is pretty much the same between the Jewish Bible and the Christian Old Testament. The differences first are the names of the various books. What the Christains call "Genesis" the Jewish Bible calles "Beresheet." This is not an issue of translation between languages. The ancient tradition was for a Hebrew book to be named by the first word, or first phrase, or first significant word, that it contained. The other significant difference is that the order of the various works of the Jewish Bible is not maintained in the Old Testament. The first five books (the Torah) appear in the same order in both collections. However, after that the orders are different.

This is what I am wondering. First off, seeing as the bible has gone through significant revision over these 3000 years, what versions ought to be considered to be more accurate, and on what grounds? Also, what is the significance of the many (and some being rather drastic) differences between the present day bible, and previous forms. And what is the significance and purpose of the difference between the differences between the Jewish Bible and the Old Testament?

Doctor X

Welcome to the forums!

The Book of J is a "popular" book that is based on the work of a far better book: Who Wrote the Bible?. Indeed, the author of the later book takes some umbrage with Bloom's running away with a speculation--that the J author could be female--to justify the book that he produced--see his most recent edition. The author of the second produced a subsequent book that teased out the J material. It is, in my opinion, far more reliable.

Somewhere I have an critique by Robert Alter who savages Bloom so thoroughly, an admirer/student of Bloom--Camile Paglia--requested Alter as a reviewer for her Sexual Personas.

Ah! Academia. . . .

Anyways, for starts, I do not think anyone would not recommend Who Wrote the Bible?--you can find the link under Recommended Reading . . . I am too lazy to do it with the "special" Infidels-Amazon format.

--J.D.

Toto

Who Wrote the Bible?