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The Tunneling Burglar and the False Prophet: Opening New Chapters of Biblical Interpretation

JL;DR SUMMARY Yaakov Taubes examines the Christian origins of chapter divisions in the Hebrew Bible, focusing on their impact on biblical interpretation and Jewish tradition. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish TraditionHebrew BibleBiblical InterpretationExodusChristian OriginsChapter DivisionsIsaac NathanParashat MishpatimBiblical Citations

Places mentioned

Israel
"or the 929 Tanakh Byachad project in Israel, named for the total of chapters in Tanakh, originally sponsored by the Israeli Education Ministry both of which had wide appeal."
Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur, France
"The earliest known Jewish author to make use of the Christian chapter system was R. Isaac Nathan of Arles (Provence) in his Meir Nativ, the first Hebrew Biblical concordance, created between 1437-1447."
Holy See (Vatican City State)
"let us break this down. While various systems for dividing the Vulgate, or Latin Bible, into sections were devised in the centuries following its creation, what would become the standard chapter division system emerged in the early thirteenth century and spread rapidly."
Canterbury, England, United Kingdom
"Although the creator of this system was long assumed to be Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1207-1228, most contemporary scholars reject this."
New York, United States
"The Stone Edition: The Chumash ed. Nosshon Scherman et. al (Brooklyn, New York, 1993), 426."
Venice, Italy
"This edition, published by the non-Jewish Daniel Bomberg in Venice in 1525, would prove extremely popular and was the basis of many future Hebrew Bibles which likewise adopted its chapter divisions and eventually added verse enumeration."
Jerusalem, Israel
"Also see David Marcus, Alternate Chapter Divisions in the Light of the Masoretic Sections, Hebrew Studies 44 (2003), 119-28, who discusses some of the issues raised here."

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