Tod Linafelt: 3 books

Some ancient works of literature survive in fragments that appear so simple and complete it's hard to imagine them as being part of a larger narrative. Such is the case with Ruth and Esther. On first reading they appear so simple, so whole, and their meanings so completely self-evident. Yet the closer...

The Hebrew Bible, or Christian Old Testament, contains some of the finest literature that we have. This biblical literature has a place not only in the synagogue or the church but also among the classics of world literature. The stories of Jacob and David, for instance, present the earliest surviving...

The writers of the New Testament were largely Jewish and laying the blame for the Holocaust at their feet would be absurd. However, the later cultural origins of anti-semitism means that reading the New Testament after the event calls for a new ethics of interpretation. These essays address this grave issue in detail,