Never Before Available in Paperback, Louis Ginzberg's landmark seven-volume The Legends of the Jews assembles the many elaborations and embellishments of Biblical stories that flourished in the centuries following the Bible's own creation. Ginzberg devoted most of his life to gathering these legends from their original sources - written in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Syrian, Aramaic, Ethiopic, Arabic, Persian, and Old Slavic - and reproducing them completely, accurately, and vividly. He presents them in their traditional Biblical sequence and reconciles the sometimes contradictory versions of the same stories found in different sources. In addition to four volumes of the legends themselves, The Legends of the Jews includes two indispensable volumes of notes, which provide the sources for every legend, as well as a comprehensive index to the people, places, and motifs found in the legends and their sources.

The masterpiece of one of the preeminent Talmudic scholars of the 20th century, the multivolume Legends of the Jews gathers together stories from the Talmud, the Midrash, the Bible, and oral traditions-also known as the Haggada-and offers them in chronological order. Volume I, first published in 1909, features tales of The Creation of the World, The Birth of Cain and Noah, The Birth of Abraham, and The Birth of Esau and Jacob-The Favorite of Abraham. A work of brilliant erudition and deep devotion, this is an invaluable collection of religious lore. American rabbi LOUIS GINZBERG (1873-1953) founded the American Academy of Jewish Research and was a prolific contributor to the Jewish Encyclopedia.