Crisis and story: Introduction to the Old Testament

by W. Lee Humphreys

Book Overview

This relatively brief, nontechnical introduction to the Old Testament captures the dramatic development of the ancient Israelite and early Jewish religious traditions, emphasizing the importance of narrative and memory. By focusing on the Moses-Sinai and David-Zion stories and on three major crises in the history of Jerusalem--the capture of the city by David in the 10th century BCE, its destruction by Babylon in 587 BCE, and its destruction by Rome...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0874844371
• ISBN13: 9780874844375
• Release Date: January 1979
• Publisher: Mayfield Pub. Co
• Length: 313 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A Fascinating And Compelling Read For Student or Scholar

W. Lee Humphreys presents a documented reading of the Old Testament with a focus on history and meaning. He makes a very compelling argument about how these written words gave/give meaning to the people who understand themselves through this sacred literature. The introduction explains Redaction Critisism as a process of examining a text in order to understand the people who wrote it and, in this case, continue to identify and understand themselves according to it. "Myth" DOES record truth in Humphreys' reading--albeit moral and ethnological truth rather than dry (and dead) factual truth. By identifying three main crises in the history of Judaism, Humphreys (an exciting, gifted writer) tells the story of Judaism, its focus on how Jews (from Abraham and Moses to Marx and Freud) understand history itself as Yahweh's message to them, and how the interpretation and re-interpreation, telling and ritual re-telling defines a people, therefore "made of words." (There was good reason for the Ten Commandments to be WRITTEN in stone, rather than kept in the oral tradition). He attributes much of European logocentrism to this primarily Jewish reading of history. I first used the book in a university-level course, but currently use it in an honors high school religious literture course I teach. A truly fascinating and compelling read for anyone interested in the religious history of our planet.