Committee Speak 
Robert Alter
- Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible by Karel van der Toorn Buy this book
This scrupulous study by the Dutch scholar Karel van der Toorn of how the Hebrew Bible was written and then evolved over time is in most respects finely instructive. Some of what Toorn has to say involves concepts long familiar to Bible scholars, though even in this regard he provides many fresh insights. Nearly all the book’s argument, moreover, offers a strong corrective to popular misconceptions about the Bible.
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Robert Alter teaches Hebrew and comparative literature at Berkeley. His translation of Psalms, with a commentary, will be published by Norton in the autumn.
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