Ancient Biblical Interpretation

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“Ancient Biblical Interpretation” is a new weekly study group which will be led by Rabbi Dana Evan Kaplan meeting weekly from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Wednesdays beginning Sept. 3.

 

Using James Kugel’s “The Bible As it Was” as a text, the participants will discuss how the earliest interpreters of the scriptures radically transformed the Torah and made it into the document that has come down to us today.   The course is designed for persons willing to make an on-going commitment to study.

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Using biblical stories we know well, we will ask how and why the writers of this formative age of interpretation – roughly 200 B.C.E. to 150 C.E. – assumed such a significant role.  Mining their writings – including the Dead Sea Scrolls, works of Philo and Josephus and letters of the Apostle Paul, and writing of the Apostolic Fathers and the rabbinic Sages – we will read short selections from the actual texts that uncover this crucial interpretive process.

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Going over every detail in the Torah’s stories, prophecies, and laws, these interpreters let their own theological and imaginative inclinations radically transform the Bible’s very nature.  Their sometimes surprising interpretations soon became the generally accepted meaning.  These interpretations, and not the mere words of the text, became the Torah.

 

  New participants may join any time. Participants will need to provide a personal copy of Kugel’s book – “The Bible as it Was”  and a copy of the Bible.

 

The cost for the course is $20 per person per month for Temple members and $35 for non-members, or one coupon per month.  Payment is required at the beginning of each month. Contact the Temple Office at 623.977.3240 or templebethshalomaz@gmail.com to sign up for the course, purchase coupon books (if desired) and make payment before Sept. 3.