David Rosenberg

Poet-scholar David Rosenberg is co-author of the New York Times bestseller, The Book of J (with Harold Bloom), and the former editor-in-chief of the Jewish Publication Society. A poet of Toronto Coach House, New York School, and Jerusalem Cricket lineage, he has published several volumes of poetry. A Literary Bible presents thirty years of his original translation from ancient Hebrew. His A Life in a Poem (Memoir of a Rebellious Bible Translator) was published in 2019.

Books

An Educated Man

A Dual Biography of Moses and Jesus

A magisterial project: a dual biography of the preeminent figures of Judeo–Christian civilization overturning conventional views of Moses and Jesus as humble men of faith.

By reanimating the biographies of Moses and Jesus in their historical context, Rosenberg reads their narrative as a cultural—rather than religious—endeavor. He charges that Moses and Jesus were "educated" men, steeped in the literature and scholarship of their day. There were no old or new testaments for them, only a long history of writing and writers. When scholars and clergy quote Moses and Jesus, they routinely neglect to inform us that Jesus is quoting the Hebrew Bible, often in the manner that Moses quoted Egyptian medical texts. The remarkable ability of both men to recall and transform a wide range of sources is overlooked. Where did they get these profound educations? Part biography, part critical analysis, An Educated Man challenges us to envision what defines "an educated man or woman" today—and how understanding religious history is crucial to it. Rosenberg offers a sympathetic approach to why we need Judeo–Christianity—and ultimately convinces us that the life of Jesus is unthinkable without the model of Moses before him.

A Literary Bible

An Original Translation

A stunning new translation—“the best in a century, without a doubt”—of the Hebrew Bible that restores the creativity and poetry of the original text (New Republic).

Whether rendering the Bible as wondrous or as strangely familiar, David Rosenberg’s “brilliant” and “truly fresh” translation forces us to ask again—and at last in literary terms—why the Bible remains a crucial foundation of our culture (Booklist).

Until today, translators have presented a homogeneous Bible in uniform style—even as the various books within it were written by different authors, in diverse genres and periods, stretching over many centuries. Now, Rosenbergs artful translation restores what has been left aside: the essence of imaginative creation in the Bible.

In A Literary Bible, Rosenberg presents for the first time a synthesis of the literary aspects of the Hebrew Bible—restoring a sense of the original authors and providing a literary revelation for the contemporary reader.

Rosenberg himself brings a finely tuned ear to the original text. His penetrating scholarship allows the reader to encounter inspired biblical prose and verse, and to experience each book as if it were written for our time.