Acknowledgments; Chapter One: Introduction: Split Conception; Chapter Two: Imagining the Birth of a Nation; Chapter Three: Suckling in the Wilderness: The Absent Mother; Chapter Four: At the Foot of Mount Sinai: National Rites of Initiation; Chapter Five: The Spies in the Land of the Giants: Restless Youth; Chapter Six: Crossing the Threshold: In the Plains of Moab; Chapter Seven :Epilogue: Mount Nebo; Notes; Bibliography; Index
Summary
The nation--particularly in Exodus and Numbers--is not an abstract concept but rather a grand character whose history is fleshed out with remarkable literary power. In her innovative exploration of national imagination in the Bible, Pardes highlights the textual manifestations of the metaphor, the many anthropomorphisms by which a collective character named "Israel" springs to life
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 183-194) and index
