This volume is the first trilateral exploration of medieval scriptural interpretation. The vast literature written during the medieval period is one of both great diversity and numerous cross-cultural similarities. These essays explore this rich heritage of biblical and qur'anic interpretation.

• Preface


• Part One: Medieval Jewish Biblical Exegesis


• 1: Barry D. Walfish: Introduction


• 2: Stephen D. Benin: The Search for Truth in Sacred Scripture: Jews, Christians, and the Authority to Interpret


• 3: Haggai Ben-Shammai: The Tension between Literal Interpretation and Exegetical Freedom: Comparative Observations on Saadia's Method


• 4: Daniel J. Frank: Karaite Commentaries on the Song of Songs from Tenth-Century Jerusalem


• 5: Michael A. Signer: Restoring the Narrative: Jewish and Christian Exegesis in the Twelfth Century


• 6: Martin Lockshin: Rashbam as a 'Literary' Exegete


• 7: Elliot R. Wolfson: Asceticism and Eroticism in Medieval Jewish Philosophical and Mystical Exegesis of the Song of Song


• 8: Barry D. Walfish: Typology, Narrative, and History: Isaac ben Joseph ha-Kohen on the Book of Ruth


• 9: Marc Saperstein: The Method of Doubts: Problematizing the Bible in Late Medieval Jewish Exegesis


• 10: Eric Lawee: Introducing Scripture: The Accessus ad auctores in Hebrew Exegetical Literature from the Thirteenth through the Fifteenth Centuries


• 11: Alan Cooper: On the Special Role of Biblical Interpretation: The Case of Proverbs 22:6


• Part Two: Medieval Christian Biblical Exegesis


• 12: Joseph Goering: Introduction


• 13: Abigail Firey: The Letter of the Law: Carolingian Exegetes and the Old Testament


• 14: Edward Synan: The Four 'Senses' and Four Exegetes


• 15: James R. Ginther: Laudat sensum et significationem: Robert Grosseteste and the Four Senses of Scripture


• 16: Robert Sweetman: Beryl Smalley, Thomas of Camtimpre, and the Performative Reading of Scripture: A Study in Two Exempla


• 17: John Boyle: The Theological Character of the Scholastic 'Division of the Text' with Particular Reference to the Commentaries of St. Thomas Aquinas


• 18: Edouard Jeanuneau: Thomas of Ireland and his De tribus sensibus sacrae scripturae


• 19: A. J. Minnis: Material Swords and Literal Lights: The Status of Allegory in William of Ockham's reviloquium on Papal Power


• Part Three: Medieval Exegesis of the Qur'an


• 20: Jane Dammen Mc Auliffe: Introduction


• 21: Fred Leemhuis: Discussion and Debate in Early Commentaries of the Qur'an


• 22: Herbert Berg: Weakness in the Arguments for the Early Dating of the Qur'anic Commentary


• 23: Gerhard Bowering: The Scriptural 'Senses' in Medieval Sufi Qur'an Exegesis


• 24: Hava Lazarus-Yafeh: Are There Allegories in Sufi Qur'an Interpretation?


• 25: Angelika Neuwirth: From the Sacred Mosque to the Remote Temple: Surat al-Isra' between Text and Commentary


• 26: Gerald Hawting: Qur'anic Exegesis and History


• 27: Stefan Wild: The Self-Referentiality of the Qur'an: Sura 3:7 as an Exegetical Challenge


• 28: Andrew Rippin: The Designation of 'Foreign' Languages in the Exegesis of the Qur'an


• 29: Jane Dammen McAuliffe: The Genre Boundaries of Qur'anic Commentary