The Ladder Of Jacob

Download or read book The Ladder of Jacob written by James L. Kugel and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rife with incest, adultery, rape, and murder, the biblical story of Jacob and his children must have troubled ancient readers. By any standard, this was a family with problems. Jacob's oldest son Reuben is said to have slept with his father's concubine Bilhah. The next two sons, Simeon and Levi, tricked the men of a nearby city into undergoing circumcision, and then murdered all of them as revenge for the rape of their sister. Judah, the fourth son, had sexual relations with his own daughter-in-law. Meanwhile, jealous of their younger sibling Joseph, the brothers conspired to kill him; they later relented and merely sold him into slavery. These stories presented a particular challenge for ancient biblical interpreters. After all, Jacob's sons were the founders of the nation of Israel and ought to have been models of virtue. In The Ladder of Jacob, renowned biblical scholar James Kugel retraces the steps of ancient biblical interpreters as they struggled with such problems. Kugel reveals how they often fixed on a little detail in the Bible's wording to "deduce" something not openly stated in the narrative. They concluded that Simeon and Levi were justified in killing all the men in a town to avenge the rape of their sister, and that Judah, who slept with his daughter-in-law, was the unfortunate victim of alcoholism. These are among the earliest examples of ancient biblical interpretation (midrash). They are found in retellings of biblical stories that appeared in the closing centuries BCE--in the Book of Jubilees, the Aramaic Levi Document, the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and other noncanonical works. Through careful analysis of these retellings, Kugel is able to reconstruct how ancient interpreters worked. The Ladder of Jacob is an artful, compelling account of the very beginnings of biblical interpretation.

Download or read book The Lost Apocrypha of the Old Testament written by Montague Rhodes James and published by . This book was released on 1920 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Jacob's Ladder written by Peter Kreeft and published by Ignatius Press. This book was released on 2013-01-31 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are ten important questions everyone should ask; ; and the answers to these questions, which lead to ultimate ; truth, are a matter of reason, not of faith. Well-known Catholic philosopher and writer Peter ; Kreeft tackles each of these questions in a logical ; step-by-step way, like climbing the rungs of a ladder. ; Because questions are best answered by dialogue, Kreeft ; answers these fundamental questions in an imaginary ; conversation between two very different people who meet at ; the beach. Kreeft's characters begin at the ; beginning, at the bottom of the ladder, which is the ; passion for truth. When it comes to the most important ; questions a person can ask, no mere interest in ; philosophical dabbling will do. The passion for truth does ; not stop there, however, but carries the reader from one ; page to the next in this thought-provoking adventure of the ; mind. Among the topics, or "steps", that ; Kreeft's characters delve into include: Do you ; have the passion to know? Does truth ; exist? What is the meaning of life? What ; is love, and why is it so important for our ; lives? If there is a God, what proof is there for ; his existence? Has God revealed himself to us in a ; personal way? And many other important ; questions and topics to help climb the ladder to the truth ; about life.

Download or read book The Jacob Ladder written by Gerald Hausman and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2003 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jack the B. April/03.

Download or read book Jacob's Ladder written by Brian Keaney and published by Candlewick Press. This book was released on 2007-02-13 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Jacob wakes up in the middle of a field, he realizes that the only thing he remembers is his name, and when he arrives at a nearby town he becomes aware that everyone there is also suffering from amnesia.

Download or read book Jacob's Ladder written by Ludmila Ulitskaya and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of Russia’s most renowned literary figures and a Man Booker International Prize nominee, Ludmila Ulitskaya presents what may be her final novel. Jacob’s Ladder is a family saga spanning a century of recent Russian history—and represents the summation of the author’s career, devoted to sharing the absurd and tragic tales of twentieth-century life in her nation. Jumping between the diaries and letters of Jacob Ossetsky in Kiev in the early 1900s and the experiences of his granddaughter Nora in the theatrical world of Moscow in the 1970s and beyond, Jacob’s Ladder guides the reader through some of the most turbulent times in the history of Russia and Ukraine, and draws suggestive parallels between historical events of the early twentieth century and those of more recent memory. Spanning the seeming promise of the prerevolutionary years, to the dark Stalinist era, to the corruption and confusion of the present day, Jacob’s Ladder is a pageant of romance, betrayal, and memory. With a scale worthy of Tolstoy, it asks how much control any of us have over our lives—and how much is in fact determined by history, by chance, or indeed by the genes passed down by the generations that have preceded us into the world.

Download or read book Climbing Jacob's Ladder written by Alan Morinis and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2007-05-08 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A compelling portrait of the relationship between a student and a teacher,” this spiritual memoir “raises important questions about the meaning of Judaism and the search for spirituality in this world” (Los Angeles Times) Jewish by birth, though from a secular family, Alan Morinis explored Hinduism and Buddhism as a young man. But in 1997, in the face of personal crisis, he turned to his Jewish heritage for guidance. In his reading he happened upon a Jewish spiritual tradition called Mussar. Gradually he realized that he had stumbled upon an insightful discipline for self-development, complete with meditative, contemplative, and other well-developed transformative practices designed to penetrate the deepest roots of the inner life. Eventually reaching the limits of what he could learn on his own, he decided to seek out a Mussar teacher. This was not an easy task, since almost the entire world of the Mussar tradition had been wiped out in the Holocaust. In time, he found an accomplished master who stood in an unbroken line of transmission of the Mussar tradition, and who lived in the center of a community of Orthodox Jews on Long Island. This book tells the story of Morinis’s journey to meet his teacher and what he learned from him, revealing the central teachings and practices that are the spiritual treasury and legacy of Mussar.