The New Psalmists Forum Book Reccomendations and Discu..

If you're looking for some wonderful books on Biblical Narrative and Poetry I would highly recommend the following:

1) Alter, Robert. The Art of Biblical Narrative. United States: Basic Books, 1981.
2) ---The Art of Biblical Poetry. United States: Basic Books, 1985.

Robert Alter is, arguably, the most famous and respected Jewish Theologian of our time. These two books are a fascinating journey through the structure, art and craftsmanship of Biblical Literature.

3) Holtz, Barry ed. Back to the Sources: Reading the Classic Jewish Texts. New York: Simon&Schuster, 1984.

A masterful and comprehensive guide to Jewish Theological literature from the Torah to the Talmud to the Kabbalah and the folktales of the Hasidim.

4) Fox, Everett. The Five Books of Moses. New York: Schocken Books, 1997.

A fascinating new translation by the scholar Everett Fox who took the original Hebrew and translated it, as literally as possible (in a linguistic sense), into English�paying little attention to the compunctions of English grammar. The result is an amazing new way to look at the poetry, structure and beauty of the Biblical narratives. Robert Alter said of this book: "Fox's translation has the rare virtue of making constantly visible in English the Hebraic quality of the original, challenging preconceptions of what the Bible is really like. A bracing protest against the bland modernity of all the recent English versions of the Bible."