The Art of Biblical Narrative
Revised and Updated

I will often talk in my reviews about a book's "accessibility." By this I am usually thinking about how wide of an audience will truly be able to engage the book, understand it, and enjoy it. This book would not rate high on accessibility. It's a very heady read that required work for me to stay ful......more

The author is a professor of Hebrew and comparative literature, not a theologian or “biblical scholar.” This is the basis for a perspective on the Old Testament to which most Christian readers do not have access. Consider, for example, the talking snake of Genesis 3; fictionalized prose or historica......more

Alter's impressive sense for literary detail is immensely helpful for dense readers like myself. I picked this book up in the hopes of gaining some insights that would help me to write an exegetical paper on a narrative passage, and I wasn't disappointed. While I can't agree with every conclusion at......more

Alter's description of the intricate details of OT narratives that usually escape modern readers is fantastic. His defence of the literary integrity of the OT narratives against the claims of source criticism is refreshing. He's ambivalent about the historicity of the events of the OT narratives. Al......more

A must read for anyone interested in understanding the Bible from a literary perspective. Although Alter doesn’t share all of my theological and religious convictions, I recommend his work on the Hebrew Bible. He wonderfully illustrates how to approach these Hebrew texts by cultivating an attentivene......more