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Hebrew Studies 40 (1999) 315 Reviews typically laconic masoretic notes, called ""00" 1'», has been added by the editors; these are extremely useful, especially for those not acquainted with the intricacies of the Masorah. The Targum of this edition uses a slightly modified vocalization system, fitting its Yemenite origin. The following seven commentators are considered ~£l commentators, and are included in the volume: Rashi, Radaq, R. Abraham ibn Ezra, R. Joseph Qara, R. Eliezer of Beaugency, R. Isaiah from Trani, and R. Joseph Kaspi. This inclusiveness is especially welcome for the Isaiah, which is the most difficult of the prophetic books; ibn Ezra's commentary on Isaiah is not included in the typical Mikraot Gedolot to Isaiah, and was previously available only in the 1873 edition of Michael Friedlander (and its reprints), and the important commentaries of Qara and Beaugency were not widely available. Thus. a careful study of this volume will offer a broader perspective of what the "peshat school" meant, and how it tried to resolve the various problems of the book. It is difficult to evaluate how accurately the commentaries of the medievals have been reproduced, since this project has completed new editions of each commentary, which will eventually be available via computer. It was good, however, to notice that this edition does not try to harmonize; when the manuscripts support biblical textual readings that differ from Aleppo, the difference is retained. Thus, this edition even offers us an opportunity to see how textual divergence continued, to some small extent, through the middle ages. In sum, one might debate the importance of this project for the Torah, where much of Aleppo is missing, and the semi-critical Torat Hayyim edition , published by Mossad ha-Rav Kook, is available, and reasonably priced. But for books like Isaiah, where the standard Mikraot Gedolot editions are difficult to read, very corrupt, and quite incomplete, this new edition is of particular importance. Marc Brettler Brandeis University Waltham, MA 02254 brelller@brandeis.edu ISAIAH 1-39 WITH AN INTRODUCTION TO PROPHETIC LITERATURE. By Marvin A. Sweeney. FOTL XVI. pp. xx + 547. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996. Paper, $45.00. Isaiah 1-39 is the ninth in the series, The Forms of the Old Testament Literature, under the editorship of R. P. Knierim and G. M. Tucker. As Hebrew Studies 40 (1999) 316 Reviews the name of the series indicates its goal is to present a fonn critical analysis of every book and every unit of the Hebrew Bible. The emphasis is on methodology, that is, fonn critical analysis (see the editors' Foreword, p. xv). The stress on a particular methodology is instructive. The point is that the scientific study of the prophetic books, including the book of Isaiah, is not monolithic. A number of established approaches dominate the research. As a matter of fact, a scholar who takes a specific approach detennines as well the direction of his/her study, its nature, and its aim. In other words, the method you employ in your study of the prophetic books reveals the goal of your specific study. Since the beginning of the century, prophetic scholarship has been deeply concerned with the diachronic question of the divisions of the prophetic books and the identification of the various oracles that constitute a given prophetic book. Gunkel and Gressman founded a literary method, Fonn Criticism (Formgeschichte), claiming that the current structure of the prophetic books is mixed; the material is presented without clear borderlines between the numerous oracles (units), originally sporadic, that are the core of the speeches that comprise a prophetic book. However, Fonn critics argue that the mixture is separable. Using a metaphor from our kitchen, Fonn critics claim that it is possible to separate tomatoes from the cucumbers and the onions. In other words, every prophetic unit constitutes a single literary genre, and through the employment of stylisticphilological means, scholarship is able to detennine the borderlines of the prophetic genres. Indeed, Sweeney divides the material of chapters 1-39 into various genres , providing as well a broad definition of the prophetic genre. He writes: "The genre is generally described in archival tenns as a collection, or collection of collections, of the oracles of...

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