Genesis, A Royal Epic
Second Edition
Introduction, Translation, and Notes
 

The Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor
An Ancient Egyptian Novel

Poems: On Being Human
A Collection from 1976 to 2011

The Jerusalem Academy
A Novel: How Genesis was produced
 

The Minority Report
A Novel: The making of Job II
 

Tales from Ancient Egypt
The Birth of Stories

The Many Voices of Job
The separate voices in the book of Job speak

Who Hears the Cries of the Innocent?
Job I and II: Translations Side by Side

The Rebel Job
No Justice and God is Dead
 

The Aftermath
The Experience of One Marine

Genesis, A Royal Epic

The book of Genesis is a true classic in the canon of Western Civilization. The art and literature of our culture are infused with its thought and images. At the university or in adult education, a class on Genesis is always a lively experience. In American life and culture, an author such as Mark Twain was continually fascinated with religious concepts raised for him by Genesis. As we enter the twenty-first century, we are fortunate, because we now know more about the Mediterranean world, its languages, and its thought that provided the cultural background for this book. In my new translation of Genesis, the reader can enjoy these ancient stories as they were originally enjoyed. In our older translations, the stories are so covered with traditional patina that they cannot be understood. Here these gems have been cleaned, and they sparkle with the insight and purpose of a great royal epic.

Praise for Genesis, A Royal Epic

"Loren Fisher applies what is perhaps the single most valuable method of biblical interpretation to the book of Genesis, the principle of 'multiple voices.' Instead of forcing agreement between clearly distinct units and genres, he allows the differences to speak, and then brings them together to function as a royal epic of leadership and nationhood."
-Baruch A. Levine
Skirball Professor Emeritus of Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
New York University

"Loren Fisher has produced an elegant and eminently readable translation of the book of Genesis, with helpful literary and comparative notes throughout. The author does an exceptionally fine job of situating Genesis within the world of ancient Near Eastern literature. Both the casual reader and the advanced scholar of the Bible will gain many insights from this well-conceived project."
-Gary Rendsburg
Department of Jewish Studies
Rutgers University

The Jerusalem Academy

This is a historical novel telling the heart-warming story of Jonathan and Keziah's courtship and marriage. Jonathan was one of the scribes who produced Genesis, and his wife Keziah tells and records this story. The scribes collected the stories from many places and put them together according to a detailed plan. They had many more sources than the traditional four sources of modern scholarship. These scribes worked in The Jerusalem Academy as teachers during the time of the Davidic Monarchy in about 1000 B.C.E. The scribes understood Genesis to be a Royal Epic, and this epic helped to bring the two states, Judah and Israel, together and legitimize the throne of David. In this novel, this epic was performed at the dedication of David's palace, and it is interesting to note the interplay between the scribes' text and the performance of the minstrels. Jonathan and Keziah had a great life, but they were concerned about the fact that some great ideas in their traditions were always put aside. They tried to learn from the literature of foreign academies but found it difficult to live with some of the traditionalists in David's administration and even in the academy.

Who Hears the Cries of the Innocent?

For about four thousand years people have recorded their attempts to understand human suffering. Some of their thoughts are found in the ancient story of Job and in its counterparts in Sumer, Babylon, and Egypt. This subject is always with us as can be seen in Harold S. Kushner's, When Bad Things Happen to Good People and in Archibald MacLeish's award-winning play, J.B. Since 11 September 2001 and other recent horrifying events, the problem of suffering has been thrust upon us once more. It is not just a question of why the innocent suffer or why the not-so-innocent prosper; it has to do with coming to terms with the lack of justice in our world (Job 19:7b, "There is no justice."). The ancient story of Job is not helpful in our situation, but a later Job poem, which was covered up by the old story can give us creative help as we face an uncertain future. Our task is to uncover the later Job poem. With this in mind, I translated The Ancient Story of Job (Job I) and The Poet's Job (Job II, Job 3-26) and set them side by side in this little book. This helps to clarify the problems and makes understanding possible.

The Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor

With illustrations by John Fisher.

Egypt is where literature begins. Many know about the riches of ancient Egypt and of her great monuments, but not many realize that Egypt's literature gives us our first stories for entertainment. The Shipwrecked Sailor is a good example of this. As you enjoy the tale, it makes a point dear to the heart of Egyptian storytellers: The value of good speech and the persuasiveness of thoughtful words. This bit of wisdom is the theme of yet an earlier story, The Eloquent Peasant. These works are at least 3800 years old, and skilled scribes copied them again and again. Such Egyptian stories are forerunners of the great stories of Homer. Cyrus Gordon has said, "Indeed, the whole Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor is to be compared with the episode of the wondrous land of the Phaeacians on which Odysseus was shipwrecked" (The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations, New York: Norton, 1965, p 111).

John Fisher Illustrator

In The Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor, a prince has just returned from a mission for the Pharaoh. Apparently he did not accomplish this mission with any great success, so the prince was frightened about his reception by the Pharaoh and the royal court. The chief mate of the ship gives the prince some advice and tries to cheer him up; he even tells him a story from his own experience. The chief mate survived a shipwreck and saved his life by finally speaking up in the presence of the ruler of a fantasy island. Thus he was able to return to his city where he could live, eventually die, and be buried in the land of his birth. Unfortunately the prince takes little comfort in the chief mate's story. He does not get the point.

C. S. Lewis says in The Allegory of Love, "The probable, the marvelous-taken-as-fact, the marvelous-known-to-fiction, such is the triple equipment of the post-Renaissance poet. Such were the three worlds which Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton were born to." Later he says, "But this triple heritage is a late conquest." This is Lewis's great book, but he does not know that the "marvelous that knows itself as myth" was alive and well by 1800 B. C. E.

The Minority Report

I became very close to Jonathan, Keziah, and their family while writing The Jerusalem Academy, and it is a pleasure to be with them again in this novel. Jonathan wanted Keziah to write another book about their difficulties resulting from the publication of his poem on Job. His Job (Job II, Job 3-26) was a rebel and totally against the ancient Job. Keziah agreed to do this and so we have The Minority Report. This story is also enlivened by the addition of Khety, a scribe from Egypt, to the faculty of the Jerusalem Academy. He was an important addition. "The history of thought is a tragic mixture of vibrant disclosure and deadening closure," said A. N. Whitehead in Modes of Thought. This story is about "vibrant disclosures," in the Hebrew Bible and in other Ancient Mediterranean Literature. The lives and reputations of Keziah, Jonathan, and their family were put at risk because of their insights and their willingness to live according to these insights and truths. They were preparing for a new future. But these discoveries were followed by "deadening closure." Majority opinions were usually able to cover up dissenting or minority opinions. The majority was conservative and demanded loyalty to altar and state; they were the ancient fundamentalists. In this story the minority can win a debate, but in the long run their helpful contributions are silenced.

The Rebel Job - Revised Edition

The invigorating discussion of The Rebel Job at the 2007 Job Conference at The Center for Process Studies prompted this new edition. I have revised my translation of the text of Job 3-26 in a few places and added to the notes. The new Appendices I and II address some of the questions raised by the participants of the conference.

Our world is fascinating, but life on this planet is not easy. So many are still asking the question, "Why me?" For many the Book of Job contains the message, which we need to deal with the realities of this life. But who can understand the Book of Job? The Rebel Job is the poem that was buried, by the "righteous," in the Book of Job. The Rebel Job deals with suffering without resorting to fantasy. This Job was too radical for his "righteous friends," who believed in an all-powerful God, who demanded fear. For the rebel this God did not exist. The rebel has given us a great gift.

This revised edition is now available from Booksurge and from Amazon in both soft cover and Kindle book formats.

Read a review of The Rebel Job

Tales from Ancient Egypt

The Birth of Stories

Poems: On Being Human

This is a collection of poems dating from the 1976 to 2011. In 1976 I resigned my position as Professor of Hebrew Bible at the School of Theology at Claremont and Professor of Semitic Languages and Literature at the Claremont Graduate University at Claremont CA. I was concerned about world food problems, and I wanted to save a ranch. Also I felt the need to take time to smell the roses. After leaving the academic scene I moved to a ranch in Round Valley, CA. These poems point to some important moments from 1976 to 2011 in my life. Also my response to those events and some thoughts about my work are summarized in these poems. For me it was important to work on the land, and as a human, to relate to the other animals in our world. We are all a part of nature.

The Aftermath

This is a look at our world and my Marine experience from 1941 to 1946.

The Many Voices of Job

After working on the separate voices in the book of Job during the past few years, it was necessary to bring them together in this book. They are brought under one cover not for some kind of false harmony, but rather to show the long and vigorous struggle in Israel to understand suffering, justice and the nature of God. From these traditions it is obvious that this struggle was ancient and ongoing in Israel's experience, and it is alive today. Questions concerning the date of the book of Job become moot in light of this living tradition. The rebel Job was and remains a person with a minority view; it is a view that is valuable and can be helpful for our future.

Here are two quotations from the back cover:

"In this compelling work, Fisher brings a fresh understanding to the book of Job by highlighting the four main sections of the book that have truly different perspectives: the folktale, the poetic dialogue, the poem on wisdom, and Elihu's speeches. . . . Anyone interested in a fresh translation and a vibrant analysis of Job will want to read this volume." - The Cascade Books

And the theologian John B. Cobb, Jr. adds: "Many writers seek a single unifying thesis in the book of Job. Fisher uncompromisingly insists that it is not a coherent book. By taking it apart he exposes the contrasting views of God and justice. In particular he frees the angry Job to utter his powerful and unqualified attack on the orthodoxy of his day and of ours."

The Many Voices of Job can be ordered from Wipf and Stock Publishers or by email at orders@wipfandstock.com or by calling 541-344-1528. It will soon be available from Amazon.com.

You can also download a flyer on The Many Voices of Job.