The Exegetical Imagination: On Jewish Thought and Theology

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Summary: Exegetical Imagination
Review: This is an intriguing book, but no easy read. (I am sure it would disappoint the scholars if it were.) A knowledge of Hebrew is not required, but is helpful. A familiarity with the underlying biblical texts is crucial. This is not bed-side reading, but requires full application of all your intellectual capacity.

This book illustrates the technique of midrashic biblical exposition, as well as discussing some of the conclusions reached. Fishbane shows how the rabbis used the scriptural text as a language for theological reflection, in ways foreign to our current methodology.

Concepts discussed will be of interest to Christians as well as Jews, and in some discussions New Testament literature is considered.