Tobit and Judith

(Paperback)

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Description

Part of the popular textbook series introducing key themes and issues of books of the Apocrypha and Jewish Pseudepigrapha. The two apochryphal books, Tobit and Judith, are Jewish legends presumably created in the 3rd or 2nd century BCE, the first in the Eastern Diaspora, the other in Palestine. The events related are placed in the Assyrian epoch in the 7th century BCE. The book discusses the problems between real history and historical fiction, the genres and purposes of the two books, and the literary and religious motives of the tales. Also dealt with are textual problems such as the Greek text in the Septuagint vs. Hebrew and Aramaic Tobit-fragments from Qumran.

Reviews

"A thorough survey of this scholarship on these two fascinating apocryphal/deuterocanonical books that appear in the Septuagint, the Vulgate and the Tridentine Roman Catholic canon, giving his own opinion as well on matters of dating, authorship, structure, thematic concerns, texts and versions...Not intent on writing a commentary on these books, he traces the development of critical opinion on all matters, taking the trouble to distinguish between Protestant and Roman Catholic positions. Several bibliographies, indexes, some tables, and suggestions in each chapter for further reading help make the slim volume reader-friendly... Otzen's meticulous study is a sound introduction to these two pieces of religious creative writing." Robert C. Hill, University of Sydney, Australia, Heythrop Journal

Author Bio

Benedikt Otzen is Professor of Old Testament Exegesis, University of Aarhus, Denmark.