6 Books Of The Old Testament - Anchor Bible Volumes

Sold on 10/07/07 - no longer availabe

These were a real find. The one we just sold over the weekend originally retailed for almost fifty dollars for the single volume when it was originally published over 20 years ago. They are new translations of the Old Testament done in the 1960's 70's and 80's and which are now presumably out of print. Using newly available historical sources such as the manuscripts found in Israel, such as Masada, and in a synagogue used for storage of old texts in Cairo, this massive undertaking sought to go back to the original sources and rebuild the texts based on these newer sources and comment on the different books of the Old Testament.

These translations and accompanying commentaries are detailed, thoughtful, and even offer alphabetic renderings in some of the occasional accompanying notes of the original Hebrew and Greek and other languages so that the original words can be sounded out. The Wisdom of Ben Sira also known as Ecclesiasticus (not to be confused with the other book with a similar name that is also for sale now called Ecclesiastes) has also just already sold. In addition, the biggest book and the one that attracted our attention, Leviticus 1-16 sold on Sunday, albeit at a very low price compared to the comparable fixed price sales. Any scholar or clergyman (or clergywoman) of the Old Testament would certainly appreciate these volumes. The only wear is some minor wear on the dust jackets. The detail and insight in these books is superb, since the translators were carefully selected for their expertise in the languages available from the multiple language sources.

We were avidly reading the part about the Book of Daniel. There is the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace, because of a song we were reviewing for a future sale of a fairly rare Memphis Blues CD. The lyrics in one of the songs on the CD made reference to another fourth figure walking around inside the "seven times hot" fiery furnace. There is a lot of detail, why they built the fire, what happened to those who stood too close, and who the mysterious figure that they saw walking around in the furnace along with those condemned to the flames. See the auction descriptions for more details. Click on the green arrow in the widget to select the item, then click again to enlarge the details.