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The river of attention

A chat with one of the editors of the Jewish Annotated New Testament

I just had the profound pleasure of spending half an hour on the phone with Marc Zvi Brettler, author of How to Read the Bible and co0editor of the Oxford Jewish Study Bible (both of which were essential rabbinic school textbooks for me.) Brettler and A.J. Levine recently edited The Jewish Annotated New Testament, also published by Oxford -- the first-ever edition of the Christian Scriptures, annotated and contextualized by Jewish scholars. (For more on that, read Focusing on the Jewish Story of the New Testament in the New York Times.)

The first printing sold out almost immediately; a second printing is in the works, but I'm extra-glad to have received a review copy from Oxford, since I was eager to get my hands on this!

Brettler and Levine will be speaking at Hevreh of Southern Berkshire on Saturday, December 17, at 6pm. My interview with him -- transformed into article form -- will run in the Berkshire Eagle sometime shortly before that. (I'll let y'all know when it's published.)

We had a delightful conversation about the Bible, academia, the mishna and the gospels, Judaism and Christianity, "holy envy" and stained glass windows, and more. It was definitely one of those "wow, my life is really fun" moments. Thanks for taking some time to chat with me, Marc! I'm so glad to have this volume on my bookshelf.

 

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