Why Write a Biblical Commentary?
Walking in the footsteps of Philo, the first biblical commentator, taking Ibn Ezra’s critiques to heart, and paying it forward to the next generation.
Select volumes from the Anchor Bible and the JPS Torah and Bible Commentary series
Published: August 16, 2023
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Last Updated: September 7, 2026
Editor’s note: For examples of Philo’s interpretation, see Ellen Birnbaum, “What Caused the War Between the Kings? Philo’s Dual Interpretation,” TheTorah (2018); and Elad Filler, “Moses and the Kushite Woman: Classic Interpretations and Philo’s Allegory,” TheTorah (2018).
From Ibn Ezra’s introduction to his commentary, accessed via Sefaria. Translation from Ibn Ezra's Commentary on the Pentateuch, trans. and annot. by H. Norman Strickman and Arthur M. Silver (New York: Menorah Pub., 1988–2004).
I draw here on the categories of literary critic Benjamin Harshav, Explorations in Poetics (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007).
For instance, Martin Luther, Lectures on Genesis, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan, 8 vols. (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1958–1966).
Gershom Scholem, “Revelation and Tradition as Religious Categories in Judaism,” in The Messianic Idea in Judaism and Other Essays on Jewish Spirituality (New York: Schocken Books, 1971), esp. p. 289: “Not system but commentary is the legitimate form through which truth is approached.”
