Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God of Life

By Jon D. Levenson

This provocative volume explores the origins of the Jewish doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. Jon D. Levenson argues that, contrary to a very widespread misconception, the ancient rabbis were... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300117353
• ISBN13: 9780300117356
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 274 Pages
• Weight: 1.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Excellent, engaging book by a spectacular scholar...

Fair disclosure: I know Professor Levenson, i.e., as one of his students. But honestly, this is a very, very good book; if you are even remotely interested in the topic of resurrection in ancient Israelite literature and Judaism, then you should buy this volume immediately. This book is highly readable, relatively jargon-free, and is written as much for educated non-scholarly readers as much as for the academic community. Rarely does a book serve both communities so well.

Rethinking Resurrection

Levenson challenges the standard opinion of scholarship, which holds that the notion of bodily resurrection is a late development within Judaism supported only briefly by the early rabbis who employed methods of biblical interpretation at odds with modern scientific criticisms. By examining concepts such as ancestral lineage, family name, Sheol, and key biblical texts, Levenson convincingly demonstrates that the concept of resurrection developed over a long course of time from Judaism's roots,and by neglecting the concept in recent centuries Judaism has missed out on one of it's own treasured tenets of hope. Rarely does a book turn scholarship on its head as this one does -- a must read for Jewish and Christian scriptural, historical, and theological scholars.