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Product Description

It is well-known that readers of the Bible generally skip over the Book of Chronicles, the last book in the Hebrew Bible, as it is seen as merely a recap of the historical books that preceded it. This misconception leads to missing out on an important historiographic work of ancient Israel, written during a significant transition stage in the development of the Hebrew language. The Twice-Told Tale: Parallels in the Bible is the English version of a Hebrew work titled Parallels in the Bible, another Carta Jerusalem book collated by accomplished Hebraist Abba Bendavid. Bendavid’s work arranges the entire Book of Chronicles in the right column, with the left column including parallel verses from biblical books such as Genesis, Samuel, Kings, among others. Parallels between books other than Chronicles are also included, such as parallel laws in the Pentateuch, later prophets’ use of earlier prophets, and parallel psalms and proverbs.

Abba Bendavid (1911-1994) was an accomplished Hebraist, whose research interests focused on the relationship of the two major strata of the Hebrew language, the earliest one preserved in the Bible, and the later one in the writings of the rabbis. He set out his findings in the important study Biblical Hebrew and Mishnaic Hebrew (Tel Aviv: Dvir 1967) [Hebrew] for which he was awarded the prestigious Bialik prize. After he settled in Jerusalem in 1934, Bendavid participated in mapping the Dead Sea area. In 1942 he joined the British Army, serving in the 524 Field Survey Unit made up on Jewish volunteers from what was then Palestine. In 1959 he was appointed by The Academy of the Hebrew Language to be its language adviser to the Israel Broadcasting Authority. He was a major contributor to the stabilization of the Hebrew language by writing an extensive manual for the use of broadcasters. In his later years, Abba Bendavid served as an active member of The Academy of the Hebrew Language.