(Re)Searching the Bible
Reference Guide to Study Materials

Main Text - The Bible

Both the Hebrew and the New Testament with Apocrypha - various editions and translations. Recommended: Oxford Editions.

Any text of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible is acceptable. Especially good are:

• Fox and Alter translations of the Torah
• Friedman's Commentary of the Torah by Edward Friedman.
• versions of Plaut and the Women's Torah Commentary (good for Genesis-Deuteronomy. )

Others include: New Revised Standard Edition, Jewish Study Bible (published by Oxford Press), New American Edition. Translations will be compared. A Hebrew/English edition is also acceptable but not necessary. Rashi and Nachmanides commentaries are also excellent.

Materials used by specific study groups

• Katzoff and Amrani group: Kugel, James L. How to Read the Bible, A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now. Free Press.
  
  • Supplementary Readings:
    Genesis Re-Examined: Could the Torah Be Scientifically Correct?
    The Bible with Sources Revealed, by Richard Elliott Friedman (pp. 1-32)
    The Creation according to the Midrash Rabbah

• Lake Park Synagogue group, for December-January meetings: Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Tanakh Companion to The Book of Samuel: Bible Study in the Spirit of Open and Modern Orthodoxy, Editor: Nathaniel Helfgot;. Ben Yehuda Press (2006)
  
  • Supplementary Readings:
    Samuel and Saul - handouts from 12/24 class

• Congregation Sinai Women's Group: The Torah, A Woman's Torah Commentary, Edited by Dr. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Rabbi Andrea Weiss. URJ Press (2007)

Reading The Bible

Kugel, James L. How to Read the Bible, A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now.

J. Telushkin, Biblical Literacy: The Most Important People, Events, and Ideas of the Hebrew Bible, W. Morrow & Co., Inc.

N. Rosen, Biblical Women Unbound: Counter Tales, Jewish Publication Society of America

M. Glazer, Psalms of the Jewish Liturgy: A Guide to their Beauty, Power, and Meaning, Aviv Press

J. Kugel, The Great Poems of the Bible: A Reader's Companion with New Translations, Free Press

Boadt, Lawrence. Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction, New York: Paulist Press, 1984

Pelikan, Jaroslav. Whose Bible is It? A Short History of the Scriptures. NY, London: Penguin

Ancient Interpretations

R.E Friedman, The Bible with Sources Revealed, Harper San Francisco

A Cohen, Everyman's Talmud, EP Dutton & Co., Inc./A Commentary Classic

CG Montefiore and H Loewe, A Rabbinic Anthology, Jewish Publication Society of America

A Steinsaltz, The Essential Talmud, Basic Books, Inc.

S. Sandmel, The Hebrew Scriptures: An Introduction to their Literature and Religious Ideas

GH Hartman & S Budnick, Midrash and Literature, Yale University Press

M Weissman The Midrash Says, Vols. 1-5, Benei Yakov Publications

R Hammer, The Classic Midrash: Tannaitic Commentaries on the Bible, Paulist Press

The Talmud (Soncino, Steinsaltz, Art Scroll editions)

A Bonchek, What's Bothering Rashi (Vol 1-5): An In Depth Analysis of his Torah Commentary, Feldheim Publishers

W Shuchat, The Creation According to the Midrash Rabbah, Devora Publishing

N Leibowitz, Studies in Bereishit, Shemot, Bamidbar, Devarim, World Zionist Organization

Kugel, James. L. The Bible As it Was (Cambridge, Belnap, 1997)

Torah Me'Am Loez

Frazer, James George. Folklore of the Old Testament

Modern Biblical Criticism

M Mansoor, General Survey of Hebrew Literature in Translation - The Biblical Period, UW-Extension

Grant, Robert M. with David Tracy. A Short Hstory of the Interpretation of the Bible, 2nd Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984. ISBN 0-8006-1762-2 (paperback)

Modern Interpretations

GL Schroeder, The Science of G-d, The Free Press

GL Schroeder, Genesis and the Big Bang, Bantam Books

Loades, Ann. Editor Feminist Theology: a reader. Westminster-John Knox Press, 1990

Archeology & Biblical Culture

B Feiler, Walking the Bible, W. Morrow & Co., Inc.

I Finkelstein & NA Silberman, The Bible Unearthed, Free Press

I Finkelstein & NA Silberman, David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible's Sacred Kings and the Roots of Western Tradition, Free Press

National Geographic Society, Everyday Life in Bible Times

HG May, Oxford Bible Atlas, Oxford University Press

Debray, Regis. Old Testament through 100 Pieces of Art. Translated and adapted by Benjamin Lifson. London: Merrell, 2004

Encyclopedia Judaica

Women's Interpretations

Frymer-Kensky, Tikva. Reading the Women of the Bible. New York: Schocken Books, 2002

George, Elizabeth. The Remarkable Women of the Bible and their message for Your Life today. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 2003 (ISBN 07-7369-0738-6pbk)

Hyman, Naomi M. Biblical Women in the Midrash, a sourcebook. New Jersey: Jason Aaronson, Inc., 1997

Goldstein, Elyse, Rabbi. ReVisions: Seeing Torah Through a Feminist Lens. Vermont: Jewish Lights

Kalas, J. Ellsworth. Strong Was Her Faith: Women of the New Testament. Nashville: Abingdom, 2007 (ISBN 13-978-0-687-64121-5)

Out of the Garden: Women Writers on the Bible, edited by Buchmann, Christina and Spiegel, Celina. New York: Fawcett, Colombine, 1994

Syswerda, Jean, E. Women of the Bible. Zondervan, 2002

The Free Women of the Hebrew Bible. Alice Bach, editor. New York, Routledge, 1999

Trible, Phyllis, Texts of Terror: Literary Feminist Readings

Links to Materials Databases

Jewish Studies Materials in UWM Special Collections

Jewish Virtual Library - Judaism

Judaica Libraries and Archives on the Web

Navigating the Bible - translations, divrei torah, text searches, etc.

This project was conceived by the Wisconsin Society for Jewish Learning, and is being planned in cooperation with the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center
and the Coalition for Jewish Learning, the education program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation. Partial funding is from the Nathan and Pearl Berkowitz Memorial Fund, the Leslie S. Bern Memorial Fund, and the M. Michael and Sylvia Weber Scholarship Fund.