The Bible Now

239 Pages·2011·0.83 MB·English

by  Richard Elliott Friedman

THE BIBLE NOW
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THE
B I B L E
N O W
RICHARD ELLIOTT FRIEDMAN
& SHAWNA DOLANSKY
1
1
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Copyright © 2011 by Richard Elliott Friedman and Shawna Dolansky
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Friedman, Richard Elliott.
The Bible now / Richard Elliott Friedman and Shawna Dolansky.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN978-0-19-531163-1
1. Ethics in the Bible. 2. Bible. O.T.—Criticism, interpretation,
etc.3. Ethical problems. I. Dolansky, Shawna. II. Title.
BS1199.E8F752011
241—dc22 2010035681
Bible translations from COMMENTARY ON THE TORAH by Richard Elliott Friedman.
CopyrightÓ20oo by Richard Elliott Friedman. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
DEDICATION
DAVID NOEL FREEDMAN 1922–2008
We dedicate this book to David Noel Freedman, our senior colleague,
friend, and teacher.
Noel had the second-largest entry in Who’s Who in the World.
Noel was the greatest biblical editor since Ezra. As everyone whom he
edited knows, for every page of manuscript you sent him, he sent back one
double-spaced page of comments, typed on an IBM Selectric typewriter.
He once said, “Give me any book, and in fi ve minutes I’ll fi nd a typo.” In
one of our books, it took him less than one minute.
Noel was the greatest conscious sleeper since Jacob at Beth El. He was
famous for falling asleep at every lecture he ever attended, but he could still
make an incisive comment. He once complained to us at a conference that
all he was doing was attending meetings. He had attended no papers, and
he had gotten no sleep. We said, “Forget the papers. Get some sleep.” He
said, “No, the papers are where I sleep.”
Noel said we saved his life when we brought him from the cold of the
University of Michigan to warm San Diego, California. That’s funny; we
thought we were doing it out of self-interest. At the University of California,
San Diego, Noel was the highest-ranking member of the faculty of arts and
humanities and social sciences, and his nephew Michael Freedman was the
highest-ranking member of the faculty of mathematics and natural sciences,
having won the Fields Medal and MacArthur awards. Noel came from a good
family. His father was known on Broadway as the king of the gag writers,
writing for Fanny Brice and Smith and Dale and Eddie Cantor. The family
lived in Manhattan in the Beresford, a building where now reside the likes of
Jerry Seinfeld and John McEnroe, who got Noel’s family’s old apartment.
Where the likes of Ira Gershwin came to play poker with his father. Where
vi Dedication
Herman Wouk was his father’s apprentice—and later wrote a novel in which
Noel and his father are characters. With his father’s untimely death, Noel’s
older brother, Benedict, put his career in mathematics on hold and wrote for
Al Jolson and Red Skelton. So the family moved to California, and Noel
went to the University of California, Los Angeles—at the age of sixteen by the
way. And Noel’s younger brother, Toby, became the team doctor of the Los
Angeles Rams.
With much of his father’s skill at humor, Noel could keep an audience
in stitches while making a signifi cant scholarly presentation.
With much of his brother’s skill at mathematics, he raised the level of
calculation in our fi eld. He used to say, “If you count anything, you’ll fi nd
something interesting.” When he and Frank Moore Cross did a retrospec-
tive session together at a national conference, Cross said about their work
in syllable counting in Hebrew poetry, “We both do it, and we both think
it doesn’t mean anything.” That received an appreciative laugh, but the
truth is that Noel actually did think that it means something. And if you
read him, you’ll see that he showed it.
With a real scholar’s ability to transcend simple answers, he noted in
textual criticism that haplography (dropping words out by accident) is the
most common scribal error, yet insensitive scholars still apply the principle
of lectio brevior praeferenda est (the shorter reading is preferable) as if it
were a law from Sinai. Noel said, “We don’t get the truth of a biblical text
from a Latin proverb.”
For his eightieth birthday, Noel asked us to have all of his books in the
room. It was done. And there were over three hundred books—the ones he
edited and the ones he wrote.
Some need to derive their status from being at a particular institution,
but not Noel. If there were two epicenters to our fi eld in North America
during the lives of Freedman and Cross, those centers were wherever those
two men happened to be. Where Noel was, that was the center of the
Anchor Bible, his baby, the most successful commentary series in the
history of the Bible, with over three million copies bought. Where Noel
was, that was where well-trained students came out. Where Noel was, that
was where scholars from all over the world came to meet, consult, and talk
and learn. Where Noel was, that was where colleagues were inspired and
improved. Where Noel was, one was reminded of the pure joy of the life of
scholars. And, above all, where Noel was, that was where the most learned
Dedication vii
man on the Bible in this world was. He simply knew more about the Bible
than anyone else on earth. Name a verse, and he rattled off the range of
views on it, and then he showed you why they were all wrong and why a
view that only he had thought of was right. Often his idea sounded far-
fetched at fi rst hearing, but if you had the courtesy and the sense to listen
or read on, you might well be persuaded that it was the most likely
answer.
And knowing the most about the Bible did not make him a one-trick
pony. He could analyze the intricacies of current economics and politics,
and he could discuss with insight the history of the British monarchy. And
in our case, he could advise us about life, human relationships, and keeping
fi xed on what is important in a life.
In the end, we could describe Noel like Bogart’s description of Captain
Renault in Casablanca: “He was a man like any other man, only more so.”
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CONTENTS
Preface xi
ONE Homosexuality 1
TWO Abortion 41
THREE Women’s Status 64
FOUR Capital Punishment 126
FIVE The Earth 149
Afterword 177
Notes 181
Subject Index 209
Scripture Index 217