wfn.org | Jewish scholar's view of the Bible 'as it was' earns $200,000

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religion award
5-December-2000
00433

Jewish scholar's view of the Bible 'as it was' earns $200,000 religion award

by Michelle Melton
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary Information Office

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- It might come as a shock to learn how many things the
Bible doesn't actually say. Do we suppose that the serpent in the Garden of
Eden was "Satan," or that Adam and Eve's sin marked humanity's "fall?" Then
why, when we search the pages of the Bible, can't we find a clear word on
these and other taken-for-granted interpretations?

	In The Bible As It Was, published in 1997 by Harvard University Press,
James L. Kugel turns to the earliest interpreters of the Pentateuch (Genesis
through Deuteronomy) for answers. His efforts have won for Kugel, professor
of classical, modern Jewish, and Hebrew literature at Harvard University
where he has taught since 1982, the 2001 Grawemeyer Award in Religion, a
$200,000 prize presented by Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and
the University of Louisville.

	In the book, Kugel demonstrates that certain understandings of the biblical
texts were remarkably widespread among early Jewish and Christian readers.
Some of these interpretations will strike the modern reader as whimsical or
arbitrary, but Kugel shows how they were actually borne of painstaking
attention to the texts' most minute details.

	By early in the Common Era, Kugel demonstrates, these understandings had
become so deeply rooted in Jewish and Christian cultural consciousness that
they were as well known as any words on the page. And in many cases, the
ancient interpretations live on even today.

	The Grawemeyer Award in Religion recognizes outstanding and creative works
that promote understanding of the relationship between human beings and the
divine.

	For centuries, study of the divine-human interaction in Scripture has
focused on only one set of human beings, its inspired authors.

	Kugel's provocative work suggests that greater consideration be given to
the genius of those who first wrestled with Scripture's meaning and
understanding, and who thereby generated what are today regarded as some of
the Bible's most characteristic teachings.

	The Bible As It Was presents more than ten years of investigation into
ancient Jewish and Christian sources that attempted to explain the many
stories of the Pentateuch.

 	From his research, Kugel suggests that four basic assumptions governed all
ancient biblical interpretation: that it required specially trained
interpreters, that it was deeply relevant to people's lives, that it was
harmonious in all its parts and meaningful in all its details, and that its
ultimate author was God.

	A major achievement in Kugel's work is in demonstrating that Christians and
Jews share more than just the written text of the Hebrew Bible. Kugel
writes, "What I wish to show is that... rabbinic Judaism and Christianity
emerged out of a common mentality including, prominently, a common set of
beliefs about the Bible." In other words, both groups "received the same set
of attitudes about how the Bible ought to be read and explained, what it was
meant for and how it was to be used."

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