The Legends of the Jews, Volume IV - Professor Louis Ginzberg

As the Boston Book Review wrote in December 1998: "Nothing better illustrates the odd intimacy of the Bible and interpretation than The Legends of the Jews, a seven volume set of biblical interpretations that was compiled by the famous Judaic scholar Louis Ginzburg nine decades ago, and that remains unsurpassed and indispensable today.." This series of books, published between 1909 and 1939, was certainly the first, and is perhaps the greatest, comprehensive overview of Judaic tradition, belief and lore ever published. Utilizing his proficiency in the Latin, Greek, Syriac, Aramaic, Arabic and Akkadian languages, Ginzberg was able to draw not only from the Torah, Talmud, and Midrash, but also from the Pseudepigrapha, Christian scripture and apocrypha, and Islamic legends, his sources spanning in origin from three centuries before Christ unto his own modern times. The present volume, which has been out of print for some time, pertains to matters stretching from the time they entered the Promised Land, under the commanding lead of their anointed ruler, Joshua, until the rule of Queen Esther, including the period of the Judges, the reign of kings Solomon and David, the dividing of the kingdom, the captivity, and the return from exile.