BOOK PUBLISHING: Latest Titles

Genesis 2000 Publishing was launched in August 2020 during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Its founding purpose is to publish books that deal with the historical origins of biblical faith and its philosophical, theological, scientific, and aesthetic ramifications in the 21st Century–our Millennial New Age. It was founded by Dr. James D. Tabor, whose academic work focuses on ancient Judaism and earliest Christianity. Genesis2000.org was founded in in Williamsburg, VA on May 5, 1987 for the same general purposes, including publishing and other related educational activities.

Despite delays the revised and expanded 4th edition of the best-seller, Restoring Abrahamic Faith will be published on April 9, 2024 (Nisan 1st on the Hebrew Calendar) on Amazon in Kindle, Paper, and Hardcover…

Restoring Abrahamic Faith (Charlotte, NC: Genesis2000, 2024).

This is a non-specialist book written in plain language that takes the Hebrew Bible as its foundational text. It addresses five basic areas: Knowing God, The Way, The Plan, The Messiahs, and Turning to God. It was written particularly for those interested in understanding Jesus in his own historical context, as a first century Jew; an exponent of the faith of Abraham, Moses, and the Prophets, rather than the founder of the new religion we know today as Christianity.

Endorsements

This terrific little book is a “must read.” We love this book because it takes the Bible completely seriously, explores it fearlessly, following the text itself, and other sources, and explains things – including, e.g., the nature and early history of Christianity, but also many aspects of the Torah Tradition itself – directly, simply, and rigorously honestly. This is an openhearted, large-souled book, very American, in its way (in its trust in the power of logic, truth and the black-letter Scripture itself to create change), which convincingly explains why the whole human race needs to re-think the Bible and rediscover the ancient faith of Abraham.
Michael Dallen, 1st Covenant Foundation

I just finished reading an amazing book entitled Restoring Abrahamic Faithby Professor James Tabor of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Tabor’s book is a manifesto of biblical theology deeply rooted in the text of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). The book is full of profound wisdom and penetrating observations that skillfully elucidate the meaning of numerous biblical verses. Whether or not one agrees with all of the author’s conclusions, there is much to be learned from his encyclopedic knowledge of the biblical text and archaeology. I strongly encourage anyone who has a love for God’s holy Word to read this book!
Nehemiah Gordon, Founder, Nehemia’s Wall, biblical scholar, Author

I have just finished Restoring Abrahamic Faith. I’m not sure that my words will convey how profoundly your book has reached me. You have put into words something that I have “felt” and understood but didn’t have words or ways to convey what I felt and understood. I was raised in the Episcopalian tradition and have attended many other main line churches in my lifetime but I have always “talked to God.” Your book has given me a new understanding of what biblical Faith is. A new pathway has opened for me through your words and I can’t wait to see where it takes me.
Lori Bollinger, Executive Assistant, Trinity Episcopal Church in the City of Boston

 

 

Selections from the Hebrew Bible: A New Translation from the Transparent English Version (Charlotte, NC: Genesis 2000, 2022). Available now in Amazon Print and Kindle Editions, both USA and International.

This is a supplement to The Book of Genesis listed below. It contains samples from the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) or “Old Testament” with notes. It follows the same methods and as described in the preface of the Book of Genesis. Available now in Amazon Paperback, both USA and International. 

The Transparent English Bible is an ongoing effort to produce a fresh new English translation of the Hebrew Bible. The idea behind this unique translation is to allow the read to peer through the English to the underlying Hebrew, preserving the rhythm, idioms, and cadence of the original. It is impeccably accurate and brings into English the freshness and feeling of reading the Hebrew directly. It makes reading the Bible a wholly new experience. The entire Book of Genesis has already been published in 2020 but these Selections allow one to get a feel for other key chapters of the Hebrew Bible. It is produced by Dr. James D. Tabor and a selected group of scholars with whom he consults.

 

The Book of Genesis: A New Translation from the Transparent English Version (Charlotte, NC: Genesis2000, 2020). Available now in Amazon Print and Kindle editions, both USA and International. 

There’s an ancient, mysterious quality about it that makes me want to like Moses take my shoes off while standing on holy ground. Professor James D. Langford, Ph.D. Linguistics, University of Texas

The first book of the Bible presented in an authentic translation that allows the English reader to “peer through” to the Hebrew and “come as close as we will probably ever come to the original text.” This translation allows readers to experience the original Hebrew and the rich resonance of alliteration, pun, word play, and idiom that are so essential to the meaning of the Bible itself. These elements of the text are more than merely stylistic; they allow the reader to understand the echoes and meaning of the text in a way never before available. Beyond the content, the flow and verbal rhythm of the original Hebrew is conveyed, not through English style but through a reflection of its basic structure. This translation allows readers to experience the original Hebrew and the rich resonance of alliteration, pun, word play, and idiom that are so essential to the meaning of the Bible itself. These elements of the text are more than merely stylistic; they allow the reader to understand the echoes and meaning of the text in a way never before available. Beyond the content, the flow and verbal rhythm of the original Hebrew is conveyed, not through English style but through a reflection of its basic structure.This translation allows readers to experience the original Hebrew and the rich resonance of alliteration, pun, word play, and idiom that are so essential to the meaning of the Bible itself.

Advance praise for the Book of Genesis:

It also brings the reader closer to the spirit and sense of the original sources than any other translation I have seen.                                                                                      Professor Richard Rubenstein, Philosophy and Religion, George Mason University

As close as we will probably ever come to the original text.                                    Professor Eugene Gallagher, Religious Studies, Connecticut College

There’s an ancient, mysterious quality about it that makes me want to like Moses take my shoes off while standing on holy ground.                                                               Professor James D. Langford, Ph.D. Linguistics, University of Texas

 

Paul’s Ascent to Paradise: The Apostolic Message and Mission of Paul in the Light of his Mystical Experiences (Charlotte, NC: Genesis2000, 2020). Available now via Amazon in Print and Kindle editions, both USA and International. More e-book platforms coming soon.

Paul makes the singular claim to have been the “last but not the least” of the Apostles of Jesus. Paul never met Jesus, but he makes high claims for his experiences of mystical revelations that include his ascent to heaven and his claim to not only have “seen” Jesus in his glory, but to have regularly communicated with the one he calls the Risen Christ. Early Christianity, as it unfolds, stands or falls on the claims of this single man whose Message and Mission are distinct from that of James, Peter, and John. In this book Paul’s Ascent to Paradise becomes an entrée into his whole world of Hellenistic mystical religious experience. This “history of religions” approach to Paul supersedes the dogmatic approaches of Christian theology and dogma. It is refreshing, gripping, dramatic, bold and fascinating. For Paul the “appointed time of the end had grown very short,” to use his words. Everything has to be viewed through that apocalyptic lens and one is transported back to Paul’s social world, the “battles of the apostles,” and either his triumph or his failure–depending on the judgment of history.

 

Academic Reviews

Tabor’s study [of Paul] is not the defanged apostle so familiar to us from Christian theology and much of contemporary New Testament scholarship, but a religious experimenter steeped in magic and mysticism, full of apocalyptic fervor, and inhabiting a cosmos populated with demons and angels.
Arthur Droge, Journal of Religion

Tabor has put his finger on the pulse of what is most central and characteristic about the Jesus movement from its earliest and most direct witness.
Jonathan Z. Smith, University of Chicago