{"product_id":"the-rule-of-peshat-jewish-constructions-of-the-plain-sense-of-scripture-and-their-christian-and-muslim-contexts-900-1270-hardback-9780812252125","title":"The Rule of Peshat; Jewish Constructions of the Plain Sense of Scripture and Their Christian and Muslim Contexts, 900-1270 (Hardback) 9780812252125","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eThe Rule of Peshat\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eJewish Constructions of the Plain Sense of Scripture and Their Christian and Muslim Contexts, 900-1270\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eMordechai Z. Cohen (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780812252125\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 29 May 2020\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e496 pages, 1 illus.\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 3.2 cm, 0.774 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\"Cohen'swide-ranging expertise encompasses Jewish exegesis from both Islamic and Christian milieus, and he engages meaningfully with Islamic and Christian hermeneutics themselves. Likewise, his ability to draw from earlier rabbinic literature provides the reader with critical context. Cohen's philologically and historically informed argument details the medieval Jewish appropriation of hermeneutical tools from competing religious traditions. His work challenges us to explore the theological anxieties occasioned by turning to other faith traditions for tools to interpret one's own sacred canon. Cohen offers a major contribution to the development of peshat and an invitation for future scholarship in hermeneutics and adjacent fields.\" (Speculum) \"Cohen's proficient use of both prior research and the primary sources is simultaneously far-reaching in breadth and granular in detail...Cohen's insights are eye-opening, his examples clear and persuasive, and his conclusions leave no room for argument. For the scholar and lay person alike who mistakenly conceive of the Jewish tradition as self-contained and untouched by intellectual developments in the outside world, or for anyone interested in medieval Judaism, Cohen's book is required reading.\" (Medieval Encounters) \"Cohen has made his point and made it well...[The] tug of war between peshat and nonpeshat interpretation, and the fluctuation in what peshat itself could mean, reflect a larger interpretive question: Does the precise formulation of Scripture matter, or (as Abraham Ibn Ezra asserted) did the Bible's human writers formulate God's ideas in language of their own? Cohen's book will leave readers with four centuries' worth of fascinating discussion of that question.\" (Review of Biblical Literature) \"\u003ci\u003eThe Rule of 'Peshat'\u003c\/i\u003e is an enormously useful and brilliantly insightful work whose time has certainly come. Mordechai Z. Cohen's important contribution to the study of medieval Jewish biblical exegesis reflects his unsurpassed expertise in this area.\" (Baruch J. Schwartz, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) \"In this monumental study, Mordechai Z. Cohen reveals the theoretical complexities that attend the construction of \u003ci\u003epeshat\u003c\/i\u003e, the 'plain sense' or 'literal sense' of Jewish biblical hermeneutics. Cohen's erudite and wide-ranging analysis breaks down what has been viewed too easily as monolithic. Through his acute readings, \u003ci\u003epeshat\u003c\/i\u003e emerges as a multi-linguistic and cross-cultural tradition, as Jewish interpreters amalgamated influences from Christianity and Islam, from Byzantium and Western Asia, and from al-Andalus to northern France and the Rhineland.\" (Rita Copeland, University of Pennsylvania)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn exploration of the theoretical underpinnings of the philological method of Jewish Bible interpretation known as \u003ci\u003epeshat\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Within the rich tradition of Jewish biblical interpretation, few concepts are as vital as \u003ci\u003epeshat\u003c\/i\u003e, often rendered as the \"plain sense\" of Scripture. Generally contrasted with midrash-the creative and at times fanciful mode of reading put forth by the rabbis of Late Antiquity-\u003ci\u003epeshat\u003c\/i\u003e came to connote the systematic, philological-contextual, and historically sensitive analysis of the Hebrew Bible, coupled with an appreciation of the text's literary quality. In \u003ci\u003eThe Rule of \"Peshat,\"\u003c\/i\u003e Mordechai Z. Cohen explores the historical, geographical, and theoretical underpinnings of \u003ci\u003epeshat\u003c\/i\u003e as it emerged between 900 and 1270.\u003cbr\u003e Adopting a comparative approach that explores Jewish interactions with Muslim and Christian learning, Cohen sheds new light on the key turns in the vibrant medieval tradition of Jewish Bible interpretation. Beginning in the tenth century, Jews in the Middle East drew upon Arabic linguistics and Qur'anic study to open new avenues of philological-literary exegesis. This Judeo-Arabic school later moved westward, flourishing in al-Andalus in the eleventh century. At the same time, a revolutionary \u003ci\u003epeshat\u003c\/i\u003e school was pioneered in northern France by the Ashkenazic scholar Rashi and his circle of students, whose methods are illuminated by contemporaneous trends in Latinate learning in the Cathedral Schools of France. Cohen goes on to explore the heretofore little-known Byzantine Jewish exegetical tradition, basing his examination on recently discovered eleventh-century commentaries and their offshoots in southern Italy in the twelfth century. Lastly, this study focuses on three pivotal figures who represent the culmination of the medieval Jewish exegetical tradition: Abraham Ibn Ezra, Moses Maimonides, and Moses Nahmanides. Cohen weaves together disparate Jewish disciplines and external cultural influences through chapters that trace the increasing force acquired by the \u003ci\u003epeshat\u003c\/i\u003e model until it could be characterized, finally, as the \"rule of \u003ci\u003epeshat\u003c\/i\u003e\": the central, defining feature of Jewish hermeneutics into the modern period.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eList of Abbreviations\u003cbr\u003e Introduction\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 1. Geonim and Karaites: Appropriating Methods of Qur'an Interpretation\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 2. The Andalusian School: Linguistic and Literary Advances in the Muslim Orbit\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 3. Rashi: \u003ci\u003ePeshat\u003c\/i\u003e Revolution in Northern France\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 4. Qara and Rashbam: Refining the Northern French \u003ci\u003ePeshat\u003c\/i\u003e Model\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 5. The Byzantine Tradition: A Newly Discovered Exegetical School\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 6. Abraham Ibn Ezra: Transplanted Andalusian \u003ci\u003ePeshat\u003c\/i\u003e Model\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 7. Maimonides: \u003ci\u003ePeshat\u003c\/i\u003e as the Basis of Halakhah\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 8. Nahmanides: A New Model of Scriptural Multivalence\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Pennsylvania Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52559228829976,"sku":"9780812252125","price":67.36,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/the-rule-of-peshat-jewish-constructions-of-the-plain-sense-of-scripture-and-their-christian-and-muslim-contexts-900-1270-hardback-9780812252125","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}