Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Jewish scholar Jacob Neusner died on Saturday
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340 ... 10,00.html

Andrew Criddle

From my research on Morton Smith I have TROVES of stories about Neusner, most of which would be inappropriate at this time. Who says resentment isn't productive.

900 books??? Even if a lot of those he just edited or wrote an essay for, that's still a Herculean achievement.

He published the same manuscript or translation in like 5 different ways. He owned his own publishing arm. Literally. Now that we have Google it's embarrassing to see the same words (when put into the search) come up with four different books. If you discount the duplication you end up with 300 - 400 books. But read Saul Lieberman on the QUALITY of Neusner's scholarship. Quantity versus quality.

The paper that shook the world of scholarship in 1984 (the year Quesnell and Smith almost met in Jerusalem) https://www.jstor.org/stable/602175?seq ... b_contents Lieberman died in an airplane crash a few weeks later.

Secret Alias wrote:The paper that shook the world of scholarship in 1984 (the year Quesnell and Smith almost met in Jerusalem) https://www.jstor.org/stable/602175?seq ... b_contents Lieberman died in an airplane crash a few weeks later.

Did Lieberman continue to refer to Neusner as simply "the translator" for the duration of the review? Ouch.

Thanks for sharing that Andrew.

I've always thought that dying around the High Holidays was the optimal way to go.

Secret Alias wrote:The paper that shook the world of scholarship in 1984 (the year Quesnell and Smith almost met in Jerusalem) https://www.jstor.org/stable/602175?seq ... b_contents Lieberman died in an airplane crash a few weeks later.

Lieberman actually died in March 1983 (on an airplane but not IIUC in a plane crash). The review of Neusner's translation was published posthumously at the decision of Lieberman's colleagues/legal executors.

Andrew Criddle

andrewcriddle wrote:

Secret Alias wrote:The paper that shook the world of scholarship in 1984 (the year Quesnell and Smith almost met in Jerusalem) https://www.jstor.org/stable/602175?seq ... b_contents Lieberman died in an airplane crash a few weeks later.

Lieberman actually died in March 1983 (on an airplane but not IIUC in a plane crash). The review of Neusner's translation was published posthumously at the decision of Lieberman's colleagues/legal executors.

Andrew,

Yes, I have seen that review before. L seemed to think that Neusner was woefully ignorant of the technical nature of the Aramaic grammar, and had no business translating the Jerusalem Talmud. Why he would be competent to translate the Babylonian Talmud, but not the Jerusalem, if that is even an accurate observation, is hard to imagine.

I happen to like the way that Neusner breaks down the arguments and discussion to make it easier to understand the argumentative strategies being employed (or imputed by the final editors) by the Rabbinical authorities cited.

It is bad enough that there appear to be several ways to divide the JT into sections and other headings, making cross checking between JT & BT very difficult.

DCH

Yes, I also heard that Prof. Lieberman died of natural causes on a plane.
J. of the American Oriental Society is a fine journal, imo.
Jerusalem Talmud and Babylonian Talmud include somewhat different dialects of Aramaic.
Yes, different editions of the Yerushalmi are tricky to compare.
I recall that Neusner's 3 volumes, Rabbinic Traditions about the Pharisees before 70 (1999), was a useful compilation. (Views about Pharisees evolved, I think. Ditto Nazarenes.)
I found his insistence of breaking up the sentences according to some (Harvard?) scheme an unhelpful modern imposition.
Many of his books surely could have used a good editor, or consideration for not being published at all. It's a burden for librarians to try to figure out which might be worth buying.