The I, Claudius author’s “lightning sharp interpretations and insights . . . are here brought to bear with equal effectiveness on the Book of Genesis” (Kirkus Reviews). This is a comprehensive look at the stories that make up the Old Testament and the Jewish religion, including the folk tales, apocryphal texts, midrashes, and other little-known documents that the Old Testament and the Torah do not include. In this exhaustive study, Robert Graves provides a fascinating account of pre-Biblical texts that have been censored, suppressed, and hidden for centuries, and which now emerge to give us a clearer view of Hebrew myth and religion than ever. Venerable classicist and historian Robert Graves recounts the ancient Hebrew stories, both obscure and familiar, with a rich sense of storytelling, culture, and spirituality. This book is sure to be riveting to students of Jewish or Judeo-Christian history, culture, and religion.

This exhaustive exploration of the Hebrew myths and the book of Genesis resulted from a remarkable collaboration between one scholar raised as a strict Protestant and one raised as a strict Jew. It goes beyond Christian biblical and Judaic myth and incorporates midrashes, folk tales, apocryphal texts, and other obscure sources to extend and complete the stories. An intriguing view of the suppressed and censored pre-biblical accounts is the result, along with a rich sense of a culture consisting of oral and literary traditions, where the spiritual is deeply rooted in landscape and history.

Annotation The essays contained in this book are preliminary studies directed toward a new synthesis of the history of the religion of Israel. Each study is addressed to a special and, in the authors view, unsolved problem in the description of Israel's religious development.

Jewish esotericism is the oldest and most influential continuous occult tradition in the West. Presenting lore that can spiritually enrich your life, this one-of-a-kind encyclopedia is devoted to the esoteric in Judaism—the miraculous and the mysterious. In this second edition, Rabbi Geoffrey W. Dennis has added over thirty new entries and significantly expanded over one hundred other entries, incorporating more knowledge and passages from primary sources. This comprehensive treasury of Jewish teachings, drawn from sources spanning Jewish scripture, the Talmud, the Midrash, the Kabbalah, and other esoteric branches of Judaism, is exhaustively researched yet easy to use. It includes over one thousand alphabetical entries, from Aaron to Zohar Chadesh, with extensive cross-references to related topics and new illustrations throughout. Drawn from the well of a great spiritual tradition, the secret wisdom within these pages will enlighten and empower you. Praise: "An erudite and lively compendium of Jewish magical beliefs, practices, texts, and individuals...This superb, comprehensive encyclopedia belongs in every serious library."—Richard M. Golden, Director of the Jewish Studies Program, University of North Texas, and editor of The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western Tradition "Rabbi Dennis has performed a tremendously important service for both the scholar and the novice in composing a work of concise information about aspects of Judaism unbeknownst to most, and intriguing to all."—Rabbi Gershon Winkler, author of Magic of the Ordinary: Recovering the Shamanic in Judaism

This book tells the story of the thirty-year friendship between Robert Graves and Raphael Patai, and in particular, the story of the literary collaboration that culminated in their joint authorship of the Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis. The friendship between Graves and Patai began in 1947 when Graves, having read Patai's book Man and Temple, wrote him a "fan letter" full of remarkable scholarly comments and reflections. It was the beginning of an exchange of letters between the two authors that led to their participation in each others books and studies, joint public appearances in lectures and interviews, mutual visits, and a lasting friendship. In addition to the nearly two hundred letters they exchanged that are published here for the first time, the book contains the full recorded texts of a long conversation between them about the Hebrew myths, a joint lecture in New York City, and a radio interview. It also includes the lecture Graves gave to the London Hillel Foundation on "Hebrew and European Myths Contrasted," and Patai's long essay on "Myth and Hebrew Myth," originally planned as an introduction to the Hebrew Myths but not published until now. The book discusses other writings produced by Graves and Patai and the reaction of the scholarly and literary world to their joint work and their major separate publications. Patai also allows a glimpse into the private lives of the two authors, including their struggles and successes, their frustrations and achievements. Robert Graves and the Hebrew Myths gives rare insight into the lengthy process of gestation that preceded the writing of the Hebrew Myths; the exchanges that led to the reconciliation of the two authors' different views and approaches; the meticulous care they invested in its planning, construction, and execution; and the production of the terse and dramatic presentation that characterizes the book. This volume is a unique account of a difficult but successful collaboration between two writers of very different characters, orientations, and talents.

From tales of Adam, Moses, and other biblical figures, to the fall of Lucifer and the quarrel of the sun and moon, an anthology of Jewish myth presents seven hundred key stories and through extensive commentary places them in context with the literature of the world.

In this carefully researched analysis, Raphael and Jennifer Patai begin by defining race. They then develop the idea of the existence of "races" through history. In rich and fascinating detail, the authors consider the effects of intermarriage, interbreeding, proselytism, slavery, and concubinage on the Jewish population from Biblical times to the present. New material explores the psychological aspects of the Jewish race issue, the Jewish psyche, and the consequences of the 1975 United Nations resolution equating Zionism with racism. A revised and updated scientific section on the measurable genetic, morphological, and behavioral differences between Jews and non-Jews supports the conclusion that the idea of a "Jewish race" is, indeed, a myth.