Books in Brief

The Bible is perhaps the most interpreted book of all time. Historians, text critics, paleographers, linguists, ministers, rabbis and priests have all wrestled with the text, trying to reveal its meaning. But some of the most moving and beautiful interpretations of scripture have been not in word, but in picture. A medley of recent books selected by BR’s editors celebrates the work of two millennia of artists who have turned to the Bible for inspiration.

The Illustrated Hebrew Bible

Adapted by Ellen Frankel (New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1999) 240 pp., 136 color illus., $50.00

Ellen Frankel is a storyteller. She is also editor in chief of the Jewish Publication Society, the renowned Philadelphia press best known for publishing a leading English translation of the Hebrew Bible. Which makes her uniquely suited to tackle the task of “adapting” the Bible, that is, retelling 40 stories from the Torah (Pentateuch) and 35 from the Prophets and Writings to make them “as accessible as possible to contemporary readers.”

The stories are good: After all, they’re based on the quintessential good book. Loose translations of too-familiar passages can be disconcerting: “In the very beginning, God created a world—the heavens and the earth—out of nothing. But this world was without rhyme or reason.” Why the very beginning? And rhyme or reason?