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The ''Legends of the Jews'' is a chronological compilation of
aggadah Aggadah ( he, ''ʾAggāḏā'' or ''Haggāḏā''; Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: אַגָּדְתָא ''ʾAggāḏəṯāʾ''; "tales, fairytale, lore") is the non-legalistic exegesis which appears in the classical rabbinic literature of Judaism ...
from hundreds of
biblical The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of ...
legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...
s in
Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Tor ...
,
Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...
and
Midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.
he, מִדְרָשׁ; ...
. The compilation consists of seven volumes (four volumes of narrative texts and two volumes of footnotes with a volume of index) synthesized by
Louis Ginzberg Louis Ginzberg ( he, לוי גינצבורג, ''Levy Gintzburg''; russian: Леви Гинцберг, ''Levy Ginzberg''; November 28, 1873 – November 11, 1953) was a Russian-born American rabbi and Talmudic scholar of Lithuanian-Jewish desc ...
in a manuscript written in the
German language German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also a ...
. In 1913, it was translated by Henrietta Szold. It was published in Philadelphia by the Jewish Publication Society of America from 1909 to 1938.


Summary

The narrative is divided into four main volumes, Volume I covering the period from the
Creation Creation may refer to: Religion *''Creatio ex nihilo'', the concept that matter was created by God out of nothing *Creation myth, a religious story of the origin of the world and how people first came to inhabit it *Creationism, the belief that ...
to
Jacob Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. ...
; Volume II covering the period from
Joseph Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the m ...
to
the Exodus The Exodus (Hebrew: יציאת מצרים, ''Yeẓi’at Miẓrayim'': ) is the founding myth of the Israelites whose narrative is spread over four books of the Torah (or Pentateuch, corresponding to the first five books of the Bible), namely E ...
; Volume III covering the period from the Exodus to the death of Moses; and Volume IV covering the period from
Joshua Joshua () or Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' lit. 'Yahweh is salvation') ''Yēšūaʿ''; syr, ܝܫܘܥ ܒܪ ܢܘܢ ''Yəšūʿ bar Nōn''; el, Ἰησοῦς, ar , يُوشَعُ ٱبْنُ نُونٍ '' Yūšaʿ ...
to Esther.


Reactions and influence

According to Ginzberg's son Eli, Clarence Darrow consulted Ginzberg while preparing for the Scopes Trial in order to find out who Cain had married, a subject on which Darrow later cross-examined
William Jennings Bryan William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925) was an American lawyer, orator and politician. Beginning in 1896, he emerged as a dominant force in the History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, running ...
during the trial. Ginzberg referred Darrow to the ''Legends of the Jews'', which relates legends about Cain's wife having been one of Adam and Eve's daughters not mentioned in the Bible. Nahum Glatzer wrote in 1956, "The first four volumes of ... ''Legends of the Jews'', which present the non-legal traditions of the Talmud and the Midrash, make pleasurable reading, which does not prevent the two volumes of 'Notes' that follow them from being documents of meticulous research into the original texts and their variants, as well as into general and Jewish folklore, into comparative religion and ancient Near Eastern thought." In 2014, Benjamin Ivry wrote, "If any work of stunning erudition can be called loveable, then surely Legends retains this allure. ... e work and its author have attracted ecstatic praise." In 2009, the ''Legends of the Jews'' was the subject of a colloquium held by the World Association for Jewish Studies, papers from which were published as ''Louis Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews: Ancient Jewish Folk Literature Reconsidered''. In 2019, painter Joel Silverstein presented an exhibition of paintings inspired by Ginzberg's work, titled ''The Ginzberg Variations''.


See also

* Jewish folklore


References


Bibliography


The Legends of the Jews by Louis GinzbergLegends of the Jews (PDF)The Legends of the Jews
Hathi Trust {{Authority control 1909 books Books about Judaism German-language works Jewish folklore Books about folklore Works based on legends