Click here for a link to a tablet that tells the story of Atra-hasis, which is at the British Museum today:

Cuneiform tablet with the Atra-hasis Epic

Upon casually looking for a book while wearing an Obama mask, I came across two texts that I thought would be relevant to the material we are learning in class. I used the Lafayette College Catalog to find my books. One was called Radical Religion in America by Jeffery Kaplan. The book generally spoke about different religious practices that would seem barbaric to us now, but were accepted in the past. While looking for a book, I saw one of my friends that is currently taking a Religion 101 course. She is reading Religions of India in Practice. The book provides a different way to look at how everything was created compared to what we are learning in class. I find it extremely interesting that people came up with these complex explanations of how the world was created and that they were accepted without question.

Smith, W. (1993). What is scripture? : a comparative approach / Wilfred Cantwell Smith. Minneapolis : Fortress Press, c1993.

When I search for books, I type a very broad search term. It has always been easier for me to do that because I get a range of books. that might interest me. Something I may not have been looking for might pop up in my search. If I know exactly what I’m looking for, I am more specific. However, in this case, I just wanted to know the different books that were there that had the potential to contribute to our discussion. So I typed in “religion” in the Lafayette Library online catalog just so I knew where all the related books were located. As I searched through, the book, What is Scripture, (maybe because I’ve always wondered myself) jumped out at me.

From reading the preface and a little bit of the introduction, it seems like this book uses a comparative approach to explain what scripture is and what it means to different religions. It also seems that the book may intend to examine the use of scripture in human life for these major religions. In the preface, the author explains that even though academia has studied these texts, rarely have they considered human involvement or why religious communities have scriptures. There is a chapter that discusses scripture and the Jewish/Christian religion.

While I was looking, I saw another book, Women, gender, religion : A Reader. Being a women’s and gender studies major and having a major interest in religion, I was particularly excited to see what this book was about. It seemed as though it examined and analyzed  the intersectionality of gender and religion.

Castelli, E. A., & Rodman, R. C. (2001). Women, gender, religion : a reader / edited by Elizabeth A. Castelli with the assistance of Rosamond C. Rodman. New York : Palgrave, 2001.

Evans, Craig A, Joel N Lohr, and David L Peterson, eds. The Book of Genesis: Composition, Reception and Interpretation. Boston: Leiden, 2012. Print.

I found this book by using the Lafayette Library Catalog in the Skillman library. I used the keyword “genesis” to find a whole listing of books related to Genesis. I then wrote down the call number and located the book in the upper part of the Skillman library.

The book I chose is called The Book of Genesis: Composition, Reception and Interpretation. I chose this book because I liked how the cover was plain and simple (just like me). The book contained 29 essays on a range of topics with four main section: 1.) General Topics, 2.) Issues in Interpretation, 3.) Textual Transmission and Reception History and 4.) Genesis and Theology. I thought this book related a lot to what we have been discussing in class with the story of Genesis and the Interpreters idea of what the different stories in Genesis mean. There were parts of the book that were in Hebrew and in front of the book there were pages with Hebrew Abbreviations of words. It caught my eye and looked interesting.

Pieters, Albertus. Notes on Genesis: For Minister and Serious Bible Students. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1947.

The author of Notes On Genesis, Albertus Pieters, states the position from which he writes the book right off the bat; immediately the reader has the knowledge that Pieters believes that the Bible is the true word of God, and also that he holds this belief from a Christian point of view. As a result we can use this book to study Christian interpretations of Genesis. As the title indicates that serious Bible students should read the book, it is likely that the text contains more than simply Pieters’ own opinions, but rather what he considers to be the most widely accepted interpretations of the book of Genesis. The title also states that the book is for ministers, indicating that it is useful for faith-based study as well as academic study.

I was able to find this book in the 200s (Religion) section of the basement floor of Skillman Library, as I have made use of several other books of similar nature from this location. These books tend to be older (the book I selected was published in 1947), which I find appealing as the majority of them stick to pure analysis and interpretation, whereas many of the newer books focus on cultural ramifications and the politics involved in interpreting the Bible in different ways. This section of the library includes books containing analysis of all aspects of the Hebrew Bible, from the perspective of Jews, Christians, University professors, and ministers.

Soulen, Richard N., and R. Kendall Soulen. Handbook of Biblical Criticism. 4th ed. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox, 1976. Print.

Richard N. Soulen and R. Kendall Soulen
I used the Lafayette College Library Catalog to search for my book. I typed in “analytical bible” and clicked search. The first result sounded promising so I went to the shelves to look for it. However during my search for the book another book caught my eye. I found Richard N. Soulen and R. Kendall Soulen’s “Handbook of Biblical Criticism”. After briefly flipping through the pages and realizing that I was in the reference section I figured out the book was more of a helpful guide to a reader reading the bible or works that analyze the bible. The handbook does no analyzing of its own from what I can tell, however, I provides quick definitions to common biblical ideas, words, phrases, and analytical terms. For example the Documentary hypothesis is explained in the handbook. The individual letters, their origin, creator, and meanings, of the Doc. Hypothesis are discussed. The books around this one also provide full list of all male and female biblical characters and other helpful resources for a bible critique. The handbook might not further the class yet rather help fortify the class along the way.

The book I found in the library is entitled Reading Biblical Narrative: An Introductory Guide by Dr. J. P. Fokkelman. I used the Lafayette College card catalog to search for my book. I first searched Noah & the Flood, which took me to Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction by Eric H. Cline on the 2nd floor of the library. However, this book mainly concerned biblical sites and the excavations of these sites, so I figured I would continue my search for a more relevant book. After looking at the books adjacent to this book I found Reading Biblical Narrative.

I was surprised to see how potentially beneficial this book could be for my studies in this course. Many of the learning outcomes of this book run in unison with the learning outcomes of our course. Reading Biblical Narrative teaches amateur readers of the Bible certain skills to enhance their analysis and understanding of the bible. Fokkelman provides the reader with a thorough breakdown of the Bible’s organization, point of view, narration, etc. Reading Biblical Narratives discusses mostly the Old Testament of the Hebrew bible, but does offer some analysis of the New Testament. I thought this to be the most relevant book to this course in this section of the library; especially considering a majority of the surrounding books concerned the Christian Bible.

Rice, John A. The Old Testament in the Life of Today. New York: Macmillan Company, 1921. Print.

My search for a book to use was more difficult than expected. I began my search on the library’s website and went to OneSearch. I typed in Adam and Eve because I find these characters in the Old Testament particularly intriguing. While looking for a book titled “Adam’s Sons, Eve’s Daughters,” (which wasn’t in its right spot on the shelf) I stumbled upon “The Old Testament in the Life of Today” by Rev. John A. Rice.

After  flipping through this book I realized that this one may be even more interesting than the Adam and Eve book I intended on using! The Foreward section of the book strives to inform the audience what the author’s intent is in writing the novel. The author is trying to broadly outline the growth of the Old Testament so the reader can look at the stories within the Old Testament and eventually string them together to get the big picture. The author then states that a difficulty in the way the Scriptures are used comes from the “distance from us of the world out of which they came,” (Rice vii). I found this to be the most important message because the Scripture has little purpose if it cannot be applied to people in their lives today. Other books that surrounded this one were related in the fact that the topic was the Old Testament but the title of Rice’s work seemed most interesting.

 Zeitlin, Irving M. Jesus and the Judaism of His Time. Cambridge: Polity, 1988. Print.

In order to find my book in Skillman, I used the Lafayette Library website catalog. To find the location of my book I searched keywords like “bible” and “Jesus” . That helped me come across the section in the basement where I found this book and a bunch of other ones like it. I was originally searching for another book but found this one to be more interesting at first glance because of the title and the cover art.

The book I chose is called Jesus and the Judaism of His Time. This book explores what life would have been like during the time Jesus was alive.  A lot of the research in this book focused on trying to discover what Judaism in the first century was like. The book also attempts to explore how Jesus understood himself and his role in religion. Charisma and its role in Jesus’s life is also brought up in relation to how Jesus came into his role in early Christianity. The sources used in this text to uncover more about Jesus’s life and Jewish traditions were ancient writers such as Josephus who lived during that time. Other than discussing life in the first century, this book evaluates the legitimacy of certain authors in the New Testament such as Matthew. The straightforwardness of the title kept true to the contents of this book.