Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On Nov 25, 2007 3:26 AM, kenneth greifer wrote:
>
> Just out of curiosity as a non-scholar, why is the review of Furuli's book 
> important? I
> understand his ideas are controversial, but why are book reviews important 
> or is this the
> first step in some process?

This is not a peer-review in the sense that it comes before
publication.  An independent
pre-publication peer review could be responsible for making sure the
book *does* include
all the data.  After publication, reviews could only criticize that
the data isn't given.

Any review is good.  It is part of the way a book or research is accepted into
scholarship.  I generally don't buy a book without having read it --
or having seen that
I keep finding references to the book keep coming up again and again
in research.
But whether I look at a book in the library or buy it, I also
appreciate being able to
weigh the scholar's opinion.  Even if I have expertise in a subject,
it is good to see
what criticisms or agreements other scholars find in the work.  If I have less
expertise, then a review is essential for being able to evaluate the
work.  Even a
4 page review is good.  But reviews can be longer, in which they can
even become
more like commentaries.  Pardee has a 400 page review (of a 1000 page work).

Yitzhak Sapir