Defying conventional wisdom with witty iconoclasm, Pamela Tamarkin Reis proves in these thought-provoking essays that you don’t have to be a scholar to formulate intelligent, original opinions about the Bible. In refreshingly readable prose, Ms. Reis presents eleven essays on debated cruxes of the Hebrew Bible, all of which have been published in serious academic journals despite the author’s lack of traditional credentials.

Reis challenges many commonly held assumptions of scholars by reading biblical texts as integrated, intelligible literary masterworks. She does not find warrant in these stories for the too-easily accepted conclusion that they are patchworks from multiple authors and sources. Her analyses are patently literary, though she is well informed by modern scholarship and traditional Jewish interpretation.

Using everyday analogies and paradigms drawn from contemporary life and infusing her approach with references to literary figures from Cervantes to Edmund Wilson to Ring Lardner, Reis’s analyses display originality and unpretentious intellect. Her compelling opinions and down-to-earth approach will show lay readers that the Bible is neither too hard nor too far away and will oblige scholars to approach their own interpretations with more rigorous attention to every word.