Strata: In Their Own Words

Robert Alter, professor of Hebrew language and comparative literature at the University of California, Berkeley, has published masterful translations of the Five Books of Moses, Psalms, the Wisdom Books and, most recently, the Books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. Rather than approaching Biblical stories with great solemnity, Alter suggests that it is better to embrace them as works of literature in this excerpt from his book The Art of Biblical Narrative.¹

As one discovers how to adjust the fine focus of those literary binoculars, the biblical tales, forceful enough to begin with, show a surprising subtlety and inventiveness of detail, and in many instances a beautifully interwoven wholeness. The human figures that move through this landscape thus seem livelier, more complicated and various, than one’s preconceptions might have allowed.