ebooks The Great Meadow: Farmers and the Land in Colonial Concord (Yale Agrarian Studies Series) by Brian Donahue in History

Description

A powerful hero of the Bible; Jacob is also one of its most complex figures. Bible stories recounting his life often expose his deception; lies; and greed—then; puzzlingly; attempt to justify them. In this book; eminent biblical scholar Yair Zakovitch presents a complete view of the patriarch; first examining Jacob and his life story as presented in the Bible; then also reconstructing the stories that the Bible writers suppressed—tales that were well-known; perhaps; but incompatible with the image of Jacob they wanted to promote. Through a work of extraordinary “literary archaeology;” Zakovitch explores the recesses of literary history; reaching back even to the stage of oral storytelling; to identify sources of Jacob's story that preceded the work of the Genesis writers.The biblical writers were skilled mosaic-makers; Zakovitch shows; and their achievement was to reshape diverse pre-biblical representations of Jacob in support of their emerging new religion and identity. As the author follows Jacob in his wanderings and revelations; his successes; disgraces; and disappointments; he also considers the religious and political environment in which the Bible was written; offering a powerful explication of early Judaism.