Review of Sommer, Revelation and Authority

MARGINALIA REVIEW OF BOOKS: Bible as Scripture, Bible as Artifact. Hindy Najman on Benjamin Sommer’s Revelation and Authority.

Benjamin Sommer has written one of the most important books as a biblicist and as a scholar of Jewish studies. He has written from a place of theology, religion, and Jewish thought. As his inspiration he has focused on figures such as Franz Rosenzweig and Abraham Joshua Heschel. His account of revelation is deeply engaged with rabbinic and later post-biblical Jewish thinkers such as Moses Maimonides, Moses Mendelssohn, and Emmanuel Levinas. His conversation partners are Jewish theologians and yet his disciplinary heroes are located in the world of academic biblical studies—these include scholars such as S. R. Driver, Moshe Weinfeld, Moshe Greenberg, and Sommer’s own doctoral adviser and teacher, Michael Fishbane.

Past PaleoJudaic posts on the book are here and here.