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The Great Poems of the Bible: A Reader's Companion with New Translations
Biblical scholar James Kugel offers a magnificent exploration of eighteen of the most beautiful and important poems of the Old Testament.
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 28, 2009
Non-fiction- a series of essays.
While this book dwells on forms of Biblical poetry, it's main focus is on taking the more famous poetic sections of the Old Testament and using them to examine the beliefs, ideals and lives of the people of ancient Israel. It definitely introduced me to what scholars consider are the best poems of the Old Testament. However it's not so much about poetry itself but about interpreting religion through poetry. Interesting, but not what I expected.
All in all, Great Poems of the Bible is a smart, thoughtful and well-written tome. Although, at times, it gets a little dry and academic. To be fair, I think it was written with academic readers in mind.
I got this book because I wanted to learn more about the writing of the Old Testament, and it definitely helped in that department. I also learned a lot about life and philosophy and theology of the times in which the Old Testament was written.
Some interesting ideas that I ran across:
People who lived in ancient times felt much closer to God than we do today. (Their God was not in some far off heaven, removed and looking down)
Some ancient theologians believed that our souls are on loan to us from God- and when we die he gets them back.
That ancient Hebrew and Near-Eastern scholars regarded wisdom not as a personal quality, but as a mysterious, static pattern or puzzle either created by or discovered by God. So- in their world view- getting wisdom didn't make you any smarter than anyone else, it just meant that you had somehow discovered or gained a glimpse of the master pattern/ puzzle. Thus "getting wisdom" was less like learning something and more like going somewhere. An easier way to understand the distinction between our modern view of wisdom and their ancient one is that, in their estimation, wisdom would still be around whether or not there was anyone around to learn about it.
That rather than use long discourses like their Greek counterparts, ancient Hebrew and Near Eastern thinkers preferred their knowledge in tiny two-part sayings and poems called "meshalim". Meshalim sounds (to me) like a kind of like modular knowledge: highly portable, easy to memorize and to disseminate. It's like knowledge with a different, heartier DNA structure than what we're used to. Although (again) simply knowing these proverbs didn't make you wise, but it might give you a chance to glimpse wisdom.
Learned that big chunks of the original Book of Lamentations were written in an acrostic style. Which is to say the first line begins with the old Hebrew letter equivalent of the letter A. The next line begins with the Hebrew letter B and so on.
Overall, a good read, although a little clunky and dry in places, and I thought it might have been helpful for Kugel (the author) to maybe have consulted with a poet so there could be more written about the lanuage and play of the wordcraft itself.
While this book dwells on forms of Biblical poetry, it's main focus is on taking the more famous poetic sections of the Old Testament and using them to examine the beliefs, ideals and lives of the people of ancient Israel. It definitely introduced me to what scholars consider are the best poems of the Old Testament. However it's not so much about poetry itself but about interpreting religion through poetry. Interesting, but not what I expected.
All in all, Great Poems of the Bible is a smart, thoughtful and well-written tome. Although, at times, it gets a little dry and academic. To be fair, I think it was written with academic readers in mind.
I got this book because I wanted to learn more about the writing of the Old Testament, and it definitely helped in that department. I also learned a lot about life and philosophy and theology of the times in which the Old Testament was written.
Some interesting ideas that I ran across:
People who lived in ancient times felt much closer to God than we do today. (Their God was not in some far off heaven, removed and looking down)
Some ancient theologians believed that our souls are on loan to us from God- and when we die he gets them back.
That ancient Hebrew and Near-Eastern scholars regarded wisdom not as a personal quality, but as a mysterious, static pattern or puzzle either created by or discovered by God. So- in their world view- getting wisdom didn't make you any smarter than anyone else, it just meant that you had somehow discovered or gained a glimpse of the master pattern/ puzzle. Thus "getting wisdom" was less like learning something and more like going somewhere. An easier way to understand the distinction between our modern view of wisdom and their ancient one is that, in their estimation, wisdom would still be around whether or not there was anyone around to learn about it.
That rather than use long discourses like their Greek counterparts, ancient Hebrew and Near Eastern thinkers preferred their knowledge in tiny two-part sayings and poems called "meshalim". Meshalim sounds (to me) like a kind of like modular knowledge: highly portable, easy to memorize and to disseminate. It's like knowledge with a different, heartier DNA structure than what we're used to. Although (again) simply knowing these proverbs didn't make you wise, but it might give you a chance to glimpse wisdom.
Learned that big chunks of the original Book of Lamentations were written in an acrostic style. Which is to say the first line begins with the old Hebrew letter equivalent of the letter A. The next line begins with the Hebrew letter B and so on.
Overall, a good read, although a little clunky and dry in places, and I thought it might have been helpful for Kugel (the author) to maybe have consulted with a poet so there could be more written about the lanuage and play of the wordcraft itself.
May 31, 2021
Insightful and helpful introduction. I liked best the translation and found most illuminating the following essays:
Psalm 104, "A Place in the System"
Psalm 42, "The Double Agent"
Psalm 29, "The Death of Baal"
Psalm 51, "A Pure Heart"
Psalm 23, "And Obscure as that Heaven of the Jews"
Micah 7:8-20, "God's Character"
Ecclesiastes 12, "For Everyone a Season"
Psalm 104, "A Place in the System"
Psalm 42, "The Double Agent"
Psalm 29, "The Death of Baal"
Psalm 51, "A Pure Heart"
Psalm 23, "And Obscure as that Heaven of the Jews"
Micah 7:8-20, "God's Character"
Ecclesiastes 12, "For Everyone a Season"
January 16, 2024
No matter what anyone else
Say's I love this book because I
love Psalms and much of the context all throughout this book.
And I own this book it
was a gift from my mom
and she thought of me
immediately when she
saw it.
I love reading anything that's
on the Bible and the Psalms and scriptures are simply beautiful
they're poetry to me.
Say's I love this book because I
love Psalms and much of the context all throughout this book.
And I own this book it
was a gift from my mom
and she thought of me
immediately when she
saw it.
I love reading anything that's
on the Bible and the Psalms and scriptures are simply beautiful
they're poetry to me.
August 4, 2025
a scholarly work that at times is quite dry and seems to almost not follow the Poems as written.
October 23, 2008
The Bible here refers to the Hebrew Bible, what Christians call the Old Testament. There's not much poetry in the New Testament anyway.
This is not one of those hoary Bible-as-literature books. James L. Kugel makes it clear that he sees the Bible as God's word. The literary devices aren't the main thing; they are tools used to express God's precepts in particular ways.
Each chapter begins with Kugel's translation of a poetic biblical passage (the exception is Psalm 23, for which Kugel uses the King James Version) followed by an essay on that passage. I particularly liked the chapters on Psalm 104, Job 28, the one-line poem (selections from Proverbs and Ecclesiastes), Jeremiah 12:1-6 and Psalm 137 (which includes a fascinating couple of paragraphs on the book of Lamentations).
I learned a lot from Kugel's insights, all of which are beautifully, conversationally written. He even offers an interesting interpretation of "The Wizard of Oz."
One passage, in the chapter on Jeremiah 12, made me want to cheer, as Kugel takes on pop theology and swiftly dispatches it:
"Some modern theologians, moved to despair, have suggested that God does indeed love humanity and wants only good for it, but that even He is powerless to prevent evil from afflicting good people. But this is essentially a return to the old, polytheistic view. Such a God may be altogether lovable, but He is not really God. And so one is left with inscrutable justice. What is particularly striking in the Bible is that injustice is not swept under the rug. It is unfair, Israel's prophets and sages say. There is always something thrilling, heroic, even, in their speaking the truth."
The biographical note says that Kugel used to be a professor at Harvard, and that his course on the Bible was regularly one of the two most popular at Harvard.
I would love to attend a lecture by Kugel, although I would not pay Harvard's tuition to do it.
This is not one of those hoary Bible-as-literature books. James L. Kugel makes it clear that he sees the Bible as God's word. The literary devices aren't the main thing; they are tools used to express God's precepts in particular ways.
Each chapter begins with Kugel's translation of a poetic biblical passage (the exception is Psalm 23, for which Kugel uses the King James Version) followed by an essay on that passage. I particularly liked the chapters on Psalm 104, Job 28, the one-line poem (selections from Proverbs and Ecclesiastes), Jeremiah 12:1-6 and Psalm 137 (which includes a fascinating couple of paragraphs on the book of Lamentations).
I learned a lot from Kugel's insights, all of which are beautifully, conversationally written. He even offers an interesting interpretation of "The Wizard of Oz."
One passage, in the chapter on Jeremiah 12, made me want to cheer, as Kugel takes on pop theology and swiftly dispatches it:
"Some modern theologians, moved to despair, have suggested that God does indeed love humanity and wants only good for it, but that even He is powerless to prevent evil from afflicting good people. But this is essentially a return to the old, polytheistic view. Such a God may be altogether lovable, but He is not really God. And so one is left with inscrutable justice. What is particularly striking in the Bible is that injustice is not swept under the rug. It is unfair, Israel's prophets and sages say. There is always something thrilling, heroic, even, in their speaking the truth."
The biographical note says that Kugel used to be a professor at Harvard, and that his course on the Bible was regularly one of the two most popular at Harvard.
I would love to attend a lecture by Kugel, although I would not pay Harvard's tuition to do it.
July 25, 2013
It's a great book and it really is a great introduction to the language of the bible and its poetry. In a way, it opened up for me a new way of looking at the bible and at what it says. And unlike Kugel's magnum opus "How to Read the Bible", in this book Kugel is much less technical and dry and much more flowery and fluid. I would dare say Kugel is much better at being a modern interpreter and purveyor of ancient interpretations of the bible than he's at being a bible historian (God of Old, HTRTB) or a theologian (In the Shadow of The Valley, On Being a Jew, and last chapter of HTRTB). Not to say that he isn't great at the latter ones. He is. But his strength is interpretation, specifically of biblical poetry. To sum it up: this is a great book and it'll give you a totally new and refreshing perspective in biblical poetry.
July 8, 2014
This book is not for the faint hearted. If you want a truely complex book that makes you think about the bible, this is it. I admit I didn't understand many things in it, but maybe this is because the author is more learned than I am. I certainly do not have a solid background in the Bible, so this may have contributed to it.
When one thinks of the Bible, they usually think of it as a Christian term, but this book was written from what I believe to be a Jewish perspective that was more about analysis than a commentary on how faith in a person's life is shown through biblical poetry.
When one thinks of the Bible, they usually think of it as a Christian term, but this book was written from what I believe to be a Jewish perspective that was more about analysis than a commentary on how faith in a person's life is shown through biblical poetry.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 11, 2014
Excellent. Kugel takes several "great poems" in the Hebrew Bible, including some Psalms, selections from the Prophets, &c., gives his own sometimes slightly idiosyncratic translation, & discusses the poem's place & context. He also includes a chapter on the "Mashal" (basically, one-line aphorisms, especially as in the book of Proverbs ("Mishlei"), & explains how to interpret them.
January 22, 2008
The translations are excellent but the commentary makes this a very special book--makes you really think about the meaning of these texts.
August 31, 2012
Going to read this again; amazing insights; amazing scholar!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews