Revelation Restored: Divine Writ and Critical Responses

In this thought-provoking book, David Weiss Halivni asserts that the act of acknowledging and accounting for inconsistencies in the Pentateuchal text is not alien to the biblical or rabbinic tradition and need not belie the tradition of revelation. Moreover, the author argues that through recognizing textual problems in the scriptures, as well as efforts to resolve them in tradition, we may learn not only about the nature of the Pentateuch itself but also about the ongoing relationship between its people and its source. 'Writing with an unsurpassed command of the full span of rabbinic sources, Halivni has produced a tremendously important book, confronting te "maculation" of scripture, those blemishes that have accrued to the revealed text... As a sustained meditation on scripture and tradition, this book should be read with great profit by anyone, Jew or gentile, interested in critically engaging the Bible and its exegesis.' Choice 'An excellent book which gives Christians surprising suggestions for their own struggle with problems analogous to the Jewish ones with which David Halivni deals.' George Lindbeck, Yale University 'Revelation Restored is a testimony to the learning, faith, and reason of Halivni, who is simply the greatst historical-critical scholar of rabbinics alive today. In this new theoretical work, he shows, with stunning erudition, just how one can fully belive that the Torah is the word of God and still recognize the very active role of human reason in the construction of the actual biblical text itself. As ever, all of us owe him so much, both from our heads and our hearts.' David J. Novak, University of Toronoto