Commentary Review

The JPS Bible Commentary series is written by distinguished Hebrew Bible scholars organized under the Jewish Publication Society. In preparation for my upcoming sermon over the book of Jonah, I purchased Uriel Simon's JPS commentary on the book of Jonah.

I found Simon's perspective truly valuable, and he has influenced my thinking tremendously regarding Jonah's message. I greatly appreciated being able to access centuries of Jewish commentary tradition, as Simon interacts heavily with the Jewish commentators that have preceded him. On the whole, Simon is rather conservative in his approach. He is, however, open to a non-historical view of the book--which he nevertheless regards as sacred text.

The commentary also deals extensively with the Hebrew text. One unique feature of the work (and I assume, the entire series) is that it is written in 'right-to-left' fashion, as does the Hebrew language. Thus, the "last page" of the commentary is really the first page. This does get annoying after a while, but that only demonstrates how much I've lost of my Hebrew skills.

The work is also unduly short (by far, the shortest of the series thus far). At less that 60 pages, I feel Simon could have done far more. However, the 60 pages are well written, and Simon rarely wastes words.

Also, one should keep in mind that this commentary is utterly devoid of a Christian perspective. It's value does not lie in its Christological interpretations. For that, I would recommend the NICOT volume. The value of this commentary is that it offers Christian scholars and pastors a rare look at scripture through the eyes of a Jewish interpreter.

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[Following information taken from another website]. The Jewish Publication Society of America was founded in Philadelphia in 1888 to provide the children of Jewish immigrants to America with books about their heritage in the language of the New World. As the oldest publisher of Jewish titles in the English language, the mission of JPS is to enhance Jewish culture by promoting the dissemination of religious and secular works of exceptional quality, in the United States and abroad, to all individuals and institutions interested in past and contemporary Jewish life.

Over the years JPS has issued a body of works for all tastes and needs. Its many titles include biographies, histories, art books, holiday anthologies, books for young readers, religious and philosophical studies, and translations of scholarly and popular classics. It is perhaps known best for its famous JPS Tanakh, the translation of the Hebrew Bible in English from the original Hebrew. You can find more information about JPS by visiting their website.