Tanakh: Text, Narrative, and Classical Commentary
Domain 1: Tanakh - text, narrative, and classical commentary. The exam tests whether you can read a passage closely, place it in its literary and canonical setting, and use commentators as arguments rather than decoration.
Core framework
- Tanakh has three divisions: Torah, Nevi'im, Ketuvim. The masoretic text includes vowels and cantillation, and the annual parashat ha-shavua cycle shapes Jewish reading.
- Narrative analysis asks about speaker, repetition, keyword (milah manah), gap, ambiguity, and structure such as chiasm or type-scene.
- Classical commentary: Rashi blends peshat and midrash; Ibn Ezra and Rashbam press grammar and plain sense; Ramban (Nahmanides) argues legally and theologically; Radak reads prophecy and history.
Worked example
Genesis 1:1, 'Bereshit bara Elohim.' Rashi quotes Proverbs 8:22 and reads bereshit as 'for the sake of [Israel/Torah],' not simply 'in the beginning.' Ibn Ezra rejects this and treats the verse as a temporal clause. Reasoning: identify the lemma; note the grammatical crux (construct vs absolute); cite the commentator's proof text; state what kind of claim is being made (theological vs grammatical); then assess. A strong answer gives text, commentator, argument, and stakes.
Traps
- Treating midrash as peshat, or Rashi as the only legitimate voice.
- Ignoring cantillation and paragraph breaks (petuchah/setumah).
- Proof-texting one verse without its chapter context.
- Assuming the Hebrew is univocal; translations often hide ambiguity.