The Legends of the Jews: Notes to Volumes 1 and 2 from the Creation to the Exodus

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.