"In this provocative set of essays, Levenson takes aim at the orthodoxy of his-torical critical method, its assumptions, misplaced optimism, and institutional support systems. Timely, accessible, thought-provoking-Christopher Settz, Associate Professor of Old Testament, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

Writing from a Jewish perspective, Jon Levenson reviews many off-neglected theoretical questions. He focuses on the relationship between two interpretive communities-scholars who are committed to the historical critical method of biblical interpretation, and those responsible for the canonization and preser vation of the Bible.

"This is an important book that opens a new era of mutual interreligious study of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. Jon D. Levenson challenges the tradi tional Christian and in particular the Protestant way of studying the Old Testament He asks questions that urgently need to be asked and whose answers can only be given with the cooperation of Jewish and Christian schol ars who are willing to face the problems of interpreting the common Jewish and Christian Bible in the religious and intellectual context of our world today-Rolf Rendtorff, University of Heidelberg