The Book of J - Softcover

Bloom, Harold

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802141919 ISBN 13: 9780802141910

Publisher: Grove Press, 2004

Synopsis

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, Bloom and Rosenberg draw the J text out of the surrounding material and present it as the seminal classic that it is.
In addition to Rosenberg's original translations, Bloom argues in several essays that "J" was not a religious writer but a fierce ironist and a woman living in the court of King Solomon. He also argues that J is a writer on par with Homer, Shakespeare and Tolstoy.
Bloom also offers historical context, a discussion of the theory of how the different texts came together to create the Bible, and translation notes. Rosenberg's translations from the Hebrew bring J's stories to life and reveal her towering originality and grasp of humanity.

About this title

From the Publisher:

"[Rosenberg's] version is exhilarating: it evokes the power of the poetry and the force of the human predicament....Eloquent....Bloom's vision...is startling but convincing."--Grace Schulman

From the Inside Flap:

ee that the first strand in Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers was written by an author whom they call J, who lived in the tenth century before Christ.

In The Book of J, accompanying David Rosenberg's startling new translation, America's greatest literary critic, Harold Bloom, asserts that J was a writer of the stature of Homer, Shakespeare, and Tolstoy and puts forth the revolutionary idea that J was very likely a woman.

J was a genius with unmatched powers of irony and characterization, as shown in her unforgettable and very human portraits of Abram and Sarai, Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel, Joseph, Tamar, and Moses -- and, above all, God, or Yahweh. The Book of F reclaims the Bible's first and greatest author and presents us with the full grandeur of her creation.

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0802141919
• ISBN 13: 9780802141910
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352