By Sarah Ruden in the Wall Street Journal: Book Review: 'How the Bible Became Holy' by Michael L. Satlow. Jews cherished scripture as one of the few things that allowed them to endure and transcend alien hegemony. Excerpt:
The operative paradox that Mr. Satlow misses is that of popularity and adaptability. No words were more self-consciously and thunderously "holy" than the curses inscribed on pharaohs' tombs as warnings, but these must merely have entertained the robbers who sacked every funerary hoard they could find. What's at issue isn't a writer's intention that a text be holy, or any authority's treatment of it as holy, but the broad assent that the text can win for its holiness.By Rathe Miller in Philly.com: Picking and choosing among sacred texts to make the Bible. Excerpt:
I would wager that the book's title is more a marketing ploy by Yale University Press than the author's choice - it is a misnomer. More accurate would be: How the Texts That Became the Bible Slowly Acquired Authority. Or perhaps: Canonicity Happens.Earlier reviews etc. noted here, here, and here.
