The Art Of Biblical Narrative

The Art Of Biblical Narrative
by Robert Alter

The Art Of Biblical Narrative
List Price: $16.50
Our Price: $6.00
You Save: $10.50 (64%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.66 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Robert Alter
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1983-08-03
ISBN: 046500427X
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Basic Books

Book Reviews of The Art Of Biblical Narrative

Book Review: A Fascinating Way to Read the Bible
Summary: 5 Stars

Modern Biblical scholarship has tended toward a process of atomization: how many editors were involved in the creation of the Bible? How many different strands of tradition can we find in a given story? Robert Alter's "The Art of Biblical Narrative" at once provides a corrective to this tendency, and a striking alternative way of understanding the Good Book.

Although recent scholarship has emphasized historical- and textual-critical methodologies, Alter chooses a literary-critical approach; that is, he asks how we should read the Bible first and foremost as literature. Ancient Hebrew storytelling conventions were often radically different from those we use today, so we must learn to be attuned to things like a character's silence, or minor, telling variations in a scene that is repeated several times. In this way, Alter takes much of what may make the Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible) seem "boring" today--its Spartan narrative style, the apparent redundancy of many of its stories--and shows how these elements are actually integral to how the Bible tells its story.

Alter's prose style is scholarly without being suffocating. It is, however, dense with ideas. I often found myself reading as little as five pages at a sitting, as each sentence seemed so full that it was all I could take in before I had to stop for a mental breather. (I recommend reading the Conclusion first, which ten pages provide an excellent summary of the book's main ideas and may make it easier to digest them as the author investigates each one in detail in the rest of the book.) His examples are profuse, and well-chosen to illustrate his points.

Alter mostly steers clear of ideological disputes about what the Bible is or isn't, sticking to his purely literary analysis of the text. He occasionally makes comments to the effect that he sees the stories of the Bible as "historicized fiction," but his approach can still fit into any faith framework; it is just as possible for a devout Christian and an atheist to read the Bible as literature. What's more, Christians will not only find an enriching way of appreciating their sacred text here, but may even gain comfort in the face of some scholars who seem to think that a Bible with editors is inherently an unreliable Bible. Alter, to the contrary, shows that the Biblical author-editors must have been very sophisticated storytellers, and that what are often taken for mere inconsistencies today may well represent a deeply thoughtful approach to depicting the moral and social ambiguities the authors saw in their world.

"The Art of Biblical Narrative" takes effort to read, but those willing to take the time to absorb it may find their understanding of the Bible enhanced, deepened, even changed.

~

Summary of The Art Of Biblical Narrative

In what is both a radical approach to the Bible, and a fundamental return to its narrative prose, Robert Alter reads the Old Testament with new eyes?the eyes of a literary critic. Alter takes the old yet simple step of reading the Bible as a literary creation.

Literature & Fiction Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Literature & Fiction Books
Little Women ImageLittle Women
by Louisa May Alcott
Scribner; Published: 1986-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops: $5.00
The Killing Ground ImageThe Killing Ground
by JACK HIGGINS
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS LTD; Published: 2007; Hardcover; Book
Saving Fish from Drowning ImageSaving Fish from Drowning
by Amy Tan
4th Estate; Published: 2005; Paperback; Book
Life Expectancy ImageLife Expectancy
by Dean Koontz
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Constant Princess ImageConstant Princess
by Philippa Gregory
Touchstone/Simon & Schuster; Published: 2005; Hardcover; Book
Wolf of the Plains (Conqueror, Book 1) ImageWolf of the Plains (Conqueror, Book 1)
by Conn Iggulden
Harper; Published: 2007; Paperback; Book
Sahara ImageSahara
by Clive Cussler
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2005-03-21; Paperback; Book
Perelandra (Cosmic Trilogy) ImagePerelandra (Cosmic Trilogy)
by C. S. Lewis
Voyager; Published: 2005-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.76
Price in other shops: $10.50
The Lord Of The Rings: Part 2 The Two Towers ImageThe Lord Of The Rings: Part 2 The Two Towers
by J. R. R. Tolkien
Harper Collins Publishers; Published: 2001; Paperback; Book
Red Mars ImageRed Mars
by Kim Stanley Robinson
Trafalgar Square; Published: 2001-06; Paperback; Book
Similar Books and other products
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version, College Edition ImageThe New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version, College Edition
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2010-03-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $26.09
Price in other shops: $32.99
An Introduction to the Old Testament: Second Edition ImageAn Introduction to the Old Testament: Second Edition
by Tremper Longman III, Raymond B. Dillard
Zondervan; Published: 2006-11-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $20.81
Price in other shops: $34.99
Poetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative ImagePoetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative
by Adele Berlin
Eisenbrauns; Published: 1994-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.00
Price in other shops: $22.95
The Jewish Bible: Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures -- The New JPS Translation According to the Traditional Hebrew Text: Torah * Nevi'im * Kethuvim ImageThe Jewish Bible: Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures -- The New JPS Translation According to the Traditional Hebrew Text: Torah * Nevi'im * Kethuvim
The Jewish Publication Society; Published: 1985-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.25
Price in other shops: $22.00
God and Rhetoric of Sexuality (Overtures to Biblical Theology) ImageGod and Rhetoric of Sexuality (Overtures to Biblical Theology)
by Phyllis Trible
Fortress Press; Published: 1986-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.65
Price in other shops: $21.00
The Art Of Biblical Poetry ImageThe Art Of Biblical Poetry
by Robert Alter
Basic Books; Published: 1987-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.77
Price in other shops: $17.50
Interpreting the Pentateuch: An Exegetical Handbook (Handbooks for Old Testament Exegesis) ImageInterpreting the Pentateuch: An Exegetical Handbook (Handbooks for Old Testament Exegesis)
by Peter Vogt
Kregel Academic & Professional; Published: 2009-11-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.48
Price in other shops: $21.99
Mark as Story Second Edition ImageMark as Story Second Edition
by David Rhoads
FORTRESS PRESS; Published: 1999-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.59
Price in other shops: $21.00
The Art of Biblical Poetry ImageThe Art of Biblical Poetry
by Robert Alter
Basic Books; Published: 2011-09-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.44
Price in other shops: $18.00
Genesis (Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible) ImageGenesis (Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible)
by R. R. Reno
Brazos Press; Published: 2010-01-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $19.30
Price in other shops: $32.99
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories