This volume marks the conclusion of the first step towards the publication of a new edition of the Hebrew Bible, presenting the known data concerning the biblical text, its variants and its development. The introduction discusses the history of the bible text, the basic text and the Massora, the version, the scrolls from the Judean Desert, medieval bible manuscripts and spelling, vowels and accents, and is followed by selected chapters from the Book of Isaiah.

From Noah to Abraham, is the second in a series of comprehensive commentaries on the Book of Genesis that the late Professor Umberto Cassuto had planned as part of a magnum opus embracing the whole Pentateuch and also the Book of Psalms. The present work is rich in original insights and scholarly illuminations that make it an invaluable guide to the Bible student – be he an erudite scholar or just a well-read lay enquirer – irrespective of the opinions he holds with regard to the Higher Critical doctrines.

Contents of this volumes include: -Yigal Yadin: Ancient Judaean Weights and the Date of the Samaria Ostraca -M H Goshen-Gottstein: Prolegomena to a Critical Edition of the Peshitta -M H Segal: The composition of the Pentateuch - A Fresh Examination -E Z Melamed: Break-up of stereotype phrases as an Artistic Device in Biblical Poetry -N H Tur-Sinai: A Contribution to the understanding of Isaiah i-xii And more.....

The aim of this commentary is to explain, with the help of an historico-philological method of interpretation, the simple meaning of the Biblical text, and to arrive, as nearly as possible, at the sense that the words of the Torah were intended to have for the reader at the time when they were written. I investigated the history and principles of the literary tradition with no less care than the development of the thematic tradition. The study of the history of the traditional themes is bound up with the study of the sources… In my opinion the sources are very different from the documents J (Jahwist), E (Elohist), P (Priestly Code), postulated by the commonly-held theory. I made every effort to note accurately all the linguistic details of the text, its grammatical niceties, its allusions, even its play upon words. It was not my object to defend any particular viewpoint or any particular exegetical method, but only to arrive at a thorough understanding of the Torah’s meaning, whatever that might be.

Remarks added by Chaim Wirszubski

This book contains a selection of the historical and methodological articles of Isaac Julius Guttman (1880-1950), a Jewish philosophy scholar and one of the first of the Hebrew University. Guttman was one of those thinkers who did much thinking and little writing. Each article emphasizes his spiritual character and his knowledge of Judaism as well as ancient Greek, Christianity, Islam and European cultures.

The late Professor U. Cassuto had originally planned to write, in Hebrew, a monumental commentary on the Bible that would comprise a series of detailed expositions of the Book of Genesis, and less elaborate commentaries, consisting of one volume for each book, devoted to the remaining four books of the Pentateuch. It was also his intention to compose a compendious Introduction to the Torah as a whole, and a comprehensive commentary on the Book of Psalms. Unhappily the author died after completing only three of his commentaries (two on Genesis and one on Exodus). Cassuto's comments have a vivid quality seldom found in the exegetical writings of other Biblical expositors, who all too often prefer a jejune and lifeless approach to their subject. Cassuto succeeds in injecting a sense of dramatic excitement into his interpretations. Without neglecting the scientific data provided by archaeological and philological research, he makes us conscious of the literary attributes of the Bible. Unlike the volumes dealing with the first two pericopes of Genesis, the present work does not separate the annotations from the Biblical text, but forms a continuous, unified commentary in which the Scriptural citations are interlinked with the exposition. The elements are so closely and artistically interwoven as to form a new literary entity not a text with notes, but a homogeneous expository work, which must rank among the finest modern contributions to the treasury of Biblical learning.

The chapters in the book are: hysteria, unconsciousness, repression, the Psycho-energetic instincts, the development of human sexuality, dreams, neuroses, cultural history of psychoanalysis, Freud's theory followers and critics, and more.