Advanced students and academics alike are sure to find a wealth of insights in this slim tome.
Laura Quick Vetus Testamentum Levinson has provided us with two fine detailed studies that nicely demonstrate the interplay of language and hermeneutics.
John J. Collins Theologische Literaturzeitung It is so very tempting to surrender and suggest that Levinson has uttered the final word on the subject. The book is just that good.
Jim West Zwinglius Redivivus A More Perfect Torah is an important contribution to the ongoing dialogue about text and composition. The best feature of the work is the author's effort to bring together two often insular disciplinesbiblical studies and the history of Jewish interpretation.
Matthew McAffee Bulletin for Biblical Research By showing how the earliest exegetical impulses have impacted biblical texts, Levinson is shaking the canonical foundation on which many histories of biblical exegesis begin.
Jonathan Klawans The Review of Rabbinic Judaism Essential reading for understanding the development of authoritative Judaean texts in the Second Temple Period.
Sandra Jacobs Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Within biblical studies, where there are so many competing models for understanding the formation of the Pentateuch, the Temple Scroll would seem to offer valuable empirical evidence, not only for the way that scribes worked with texts in antiquity, but also for the hermeneutical issues they confronted in seeking to integrate originally inconsistent sources into a unified document. The categories of Scripture and Rewritten Scripture are, according to one conclusion of Levinsons insightful study, not so far apart as is often assumed. The fields of Bible and Second Temple/Dead Sea Scrolls should ideally be more closely integrated than they are today. With this, I believe, one can only agree.
Karin Finsterbusch Henoch A More Perfect Torah contains two short yet richly rewarding studies which seek to combine what are frequently considered separate disciplinary pursuits within biblical studies, skillfully demonstrating the benefits of a broader and more integrative approach to the field.
Deane Galbraith Relegere