The Unholy Bible: Hebrew Literature from the Time of David to the Beginnings of Greek Influence (1000–300 BC)

Clean, unmarked interior. Spine is square and tight. There is some general shelf-wear to the cover, including light edge-wear and a subtle crease to the upper fore-edge corner of the front cover. Cover design by Jim Fleming. In the preface to this innovative collection of translations, Rabinowitz defines his method as 'historical' (as opposed to 'free' or 'academic') by calling attention to the idiom, 'by the skin of my teeth'. The phrase, he asserts, as spoken by a beleaguered Job, really means, 'I escaped with nothing but the teeth in my head'; translators made uncomfortable by the idea of an unjust God have obscured this intent. The cover collage by James Koehnline perfectly captures the 'erotic, pagan, aristocratic, impious and elegant' nature of Rabinowitz's take on Kingdom-period Hebrew literature. 156 pp.