Hebrew Bible & Old Testament Study - Historical Criticism for Biblical Scholars | Academic & Religious Research

In these 6 essays, Jon Levenson takes on those who worship at the altar of the historical-critical method of interpreting the Scriptures, both Hebrew and Christian. He does so primarily by illustrating that those who espouse the histo-crit method also have a pre-conceived dogma, which they announce dogmatically, written by a hierarchy, when they approach the Bible, or the text as they call it, just as those of religious faith bring to study of the Scriptures. The former read the Testaments as mere human words, the latter as the revealed Word of God. But Levenson seems to know the histo-crit method better than its devotees, and as a Christian, i found he had a very good grasp on many parts of the Christian Scriptures and doctrine.Every few pages, Levenson adds an aside how this or that result of the histo-crit method is actually anti-Judaic, by suppressing the continuation of the People whose main vocation is to continue studying and commenting on the Torah.One minor criticism: I found Levenson's characterization of the Catholic doctrine on Tradition to be imprecise. Tradition is not a separate, 2nd stream of Revelation added onto the Bible. Rather, it is the larger stream throughout the last 20 centuries which has upheld the Scriptures,from the time of the Apostles, when the New Testament had not been canonized yet, commented on them by the Fathers of the Church and interpreted by the teaching office of the Church, much like Torah is the heart and soul of the Hebrew Scriptures, and of the Mishnah etc. The inspired Scriptures, the very words of God, norm Tradition from the inside, and thus cannot be contradictory.This book is brief and readable, hence highly recommended.