Homer and the Bible in the Eyes of Ancient Interpreters

by Maren R. Niehoff (Editor)

Thus far intepretations of Homer and the Bible have largely been studied in isolation even though both texts became foundational for Western civilisation and were often commented upon in the same cultural context. The present collection of articles redresses this imbalance by bringing together scholars from different fields and offering prioneering essays, which cross traditional boundaries and interpret Biblical and Homeric interpreters in light of each other. The picture which emerges from these studies in highly Greek, Jewish and Christian readers were concerned with similar literary and religious questions, often defining their own position in dialogue with others. Special attention is given to three central the Alexandrian scholia, Philo, Platonic writers of the Imperial Age, rabbinic exegesis.

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Maren R. Niehoff, Max Cooper Professor of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, trained in Jerusalem, Berlin, and Oxford and at the Harvard Society of Fellows. She is the author of Jewish Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria, Philo on Jewish Identity and Culture, and The Figure of Joseph in Post-Biblical Jewish Literature. Niehoff received the Polonsky Prize for Creativity and Originality in the Humanistic Disciplines at the Hebrew University in 2011 and is widely regarded as one of the leading Philonists today.

Reviews

[Tyler Horton · Rating 3 out of 5]

"This book is neither about Homer nor about the Bible. Instead, it treats the ways in which both texts were understood and appropriated at different times in specific cultural circumstances." (3)

Maren Niehoff has edited (and contributed) to an interesting book on the reception history of Homer and the Hebrew Bible. This collection of essays is much more about the Hellenistic era than it is about either of the two texts in its title, and this is important to recognize. There is plenty of compelling material here, but you could be forgiven for being disappointed if you had come to the book to learn more about Homer or the Bible.

Most of the topics here are far enough outside my own expertise that it is difficult to evaluate the success of the essays or to place them in the field. There seems to have been a conscious effort for the writers to go beyond their own area and I think this is commendable. I also think that the aim of the collection (to examine the shadows cast by these two monumental texts) is worthwhile and is successfully done here for the most part.

At the same time, I was also somewhat unsatisfied at the end in a way that I can't quite put my finger on. This could simply be that I am interested in a different set of questions than what this group of authors tackled. Perhaps it is the inherent weakness of collections like this in that they lack a direct, shared focus which pulls everything together. I think I learned something in every chapter, but I'm not sure that I have a significantly better grasp of the bigger picture as the reception of these two texts developed through this period.

I think that the editor could have wielded a heavier hand on the final product. There was a decent amount of ground which was repeated a number of times. This was especially in the opening sections of essays as they often spent time on the place of Homer in the Greco-Roman world. Outside of those with a specific interest in the topics each essay covers, it is hard to see much of a broader interest in the book. There is good material here (chapters by Joshua Levinson and Maren Neihoff were the highlights for me), but I'm not sure that the sum comes out to something greater than the parts.