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DONALD HARMAN AKENSON, Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and Talmuds (Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 2001). Pp. xi + 658. Paper $25.
Akenson offers an intellectually stimulating investigation into the historical development of the important founding texts for what he terms the Yahweh-faith of Judahism (i.e., postexilic Judaism), the Jesus-faith of Christianity, and the Jewish faith of rabbinic Judaism. The key texts of these three faiths are, respectively, the Tanakh, the NT, and the Babylonian Talmud. A.'s most basic proposition, and therefore the most important to grasp in order to appreciate what he is attempting to argue, is that these texts are "inventions" and not "creation." There is more than a subtle distinction to be made here. According to A., "Inventors do not create, for creation is to make something where there was nothing. Inventors use what is to hand, and then add something of their own genius, or tiny little improvements in existing parts so that what otherwise would not work does; or they take out their tools and make a part of new design and suddenly everything works" (p. 24). Apparently, both Christianity and Judaism so radically reinvent the Yahweh-faith that "neither one can legitimately share a single label with its ancient predecessor" (p. 404).
Akenson divides his core material into four parts. In the first, "Inventing the Covenant," he explains the invention of the Tanakh and of the Yahweh-faith that it divulges. Taking a radical position, A. argues that the first nine books of the Hebrew Bible (Genesis-Kings) are to be considered as a unity, and that this work was the invention of a single author around 550 B.C.E. This exilic editor-writer-historian produced what A....