Moshe David Cassuto (1883-1951), one of the greatest biblical commentators of his time, studied the history of the Jewish people and language and laid the foundation for understanding Ugaritic texts and their link to the biblical text. Researchers of the bible and the Ancient Near East will undoubtedly find Cassuto’s essays fascinating, as they reveal his original approach to biblical research. The essays open up new horizons in the field of Ancient Near East cultures, stressing the bible as the nucleus of the Jewish nation. This second volume offers essays first published by the author in European languages in 1910-1949 and translated to Hebrew after his death.

A digital version of this book is available here Sample pages The present collection of essays is the second of two volumes comprising articles on the Bible, Ugaritic writings and other texts. This volume includes comparative studies in which Biblical subjects are examined in the light of Eastern literature (particularly Ugaritic) and articles on Ugaritic and other texts, while the first is devoted to purely Biblical themes. This volume contains also the index to both volumes.

A digital version of this book is available here Sample pages Cassuto wrote in many languages and published his articles in a variety of learned periodicals. Many, if not most of these kleine Scriften are very difficult to obtain today and a number of scholars have complained of their inaccessibility. Although the majority of essays presented here in English translation were written a long time ago, the passing years have dealt kindly with them - their value has not been dissipated. The present collection of essays is the first of two volumes comprising articles on the Bible, Ugaritic writings, and other texts. This volume is devoted to purely Biblical themes.

CASSUTO (1883-1951), one of the greatest Bible scholars and Jewish historians of his generation, was also a pioneer in the field of Ugaritic-scholarship. His book The Goddess Anath is a classic of its kind. It was first published in Hebrew by the Bilalik Institute in 1951, reprinted in 1953, 1958, and 1965, and appears now in the English translation of Prof. ABRAHAMS (reprint 2009). The book contains three parts a) an introduction to Ugaritic literature that is based on the texts discovered (up to 1951) at the Ras-Shamra in general, and on the epic of Baal in particular b) some Ugaritic tablets containing episodes from the epic of Baal, in which the Goddess Anath plays an important role. These texts appear in three parallel columns: the first gives a transcription of the Ugaritic text in Latin characters, the second contains Cassuto's Hebrew translation, and the third comprises the English rendering. c) A commentary on these texts. This work also sheds invaluable light on important and hitherto unexplained linguistic usages in the Bible, while the author's brilliant methodology will serve as an enduring beacon of light to many generations of researchers.

The late Professor U. Cassuto had originally planned to write, in Hebrew, a monumental commentary on the Bible that would comprise a series of detailed expositions of the Book of Genesis, and less elaborate commentaries, consisting of one volume for each book, devoted to the remaining four books of the Pentateuch. It was also his intention to compose a compendious Introduction to the Torah as a whole, and a comprehensive commentary on the Book of Psalms. Unhappily the author died after completing only three of his commentaries (two on Genesis and one on Exodus). The present volume, a commentary on the Book of Exodus, is the last of the commentaries to be rendered into English. Cassuto's comments have a vivid quality seldom found in the exegetical writings of other Biblical expositors, who all too often prefer a jejune and lifeless approach to their subject. Cassuto succeeds in injecting a sense of dramatic excitement into his interpretations. Without neglecting the scientific data provided by archeological and philological research, he makes us conscious of the literary attributes of the Bible. Unlike the volumes dealing with the first two pericopes of Genesis, the present work does not separate the annotations from the Biblical text, but forms a continuous, unified commentary in which the Scriptural citations are interlinked with the exposition. The elements are so closely and artistically interwoven as to form a new literary entity – not a text with notes, but a homogeneous expository work, which must rank among the finest modern contributions to the treasury of Biblical learning. Published on January 1st 1967

From Noah to Abraham, is the second in a series of comprehensive commentaries on the Book of Genesis that the late Professor Umberto Cassuto had planned as part of a magnum opus embracing the whole Pentateuch and also the Book of Psalms. The present work is rich in original insights and scholarly illuminations that make it an invaluable guide to the Bible student – be he an erudite scholar or just a well-read lay enquirer – irrespective of the opinions he holds with regard to the Higher Critical doctrines.

The aim of this commentary is to explain, with the help of an historico-philological method of interpretation, the simple meaning of the Biblical text, and to arrive, as nearly as possible, at the sense that the words of the Torah were intended to have for the reader at the time when they were written. I investigated the history and principles of the literary tradition with no less care than the development of the thematic tradition. The study of the history of the traditional themes is bound up with the study of the sources… In my opinion the sources are very different from the documents J (Jahwist), E (Elohist), P (Priestly Code), postulated by the commonly-held theory. I made every effort to note accurately all the linguistic details of the text, its grammatical niceties, its allusions, even its play upon words. It was not my object to defend any particular viewpoint or any particular exegetical method, but only to arrive at a thorough understanding of the Torah’s meaning, whatever that might be.

The late Professor U. Cassuto had originally planned to write, in Hebrew, a monumental commentary on the Bible that would comprise a series of detailed expositions of the Book of Genesis, and less elaborate commentaries, consisting of one volume for each book, devoted to the remaining four books of the Pentateuch. It was also his intention to compose a compendious Introduction to the Torah as a whole, and a comprehensive commentary on the Book of Psalms. Unhappily the author died after completing only three of his commentaries (two on Genesis and one on Exodus). Cassuto's comments have a vivid quality seldom found in the exegetical writings of other Biblical expositors, who all too often prefer a jejune and lifeless approach to their subject. Cassuto succeeds in injecting a sense of dramatic excitement into his interpretations. Without neglecting the scientific data provided by archaeological and philological research, he makes us conscious of the literary attributes of the Bible. Unlike the volumes dealing with the first two pericopes of Genesis, the present work does not separate the annotations from the Biblical text, but forms a continuous, unified commentary in which the Scriptural citations are interlinked with the exposition. The elements are so closely and artistically interwoven as to form a new literary entity not a text with notes, but a homogeneous expository work, which must rank among the finest modern contributions to the treasury of Biblical learning.

This book is part of a series of comprehensive commentaries on the Book of Genesis that the late Professor Umberto Cassuto had planned as part of a magnum opus embracing the whole Pentateuch and also the Book of Psalms. The present work is rich in original insights and scholarly illuminations that make it an invaluable guide to the Bible student be he an erudite scholar or just a well-read lay enquirer irrespective of the opinions he holds with regard to the Higher Critical doctrines.