WHEN I think of Advent and the Old Testament, I am immediately drawn to Isaiah, which features so prominently in our lectionary and from which comes much of the rich liturgical material for the season. The latest in Amy-Jill Levine’s “beginner’s guides” offers a refreshingly different perspective: it is the study of three nativity narratives from the Hebrew Bible which provide a lens through which to view the birth of Jesus.

Levine is, in her own words, “a Yankee Jewish feminist”, an “unorthodox member of an Orthodox synagogue”, and a scholar and teacher of both Old and New Testaments. She brings a distinctive perspective on both the historical Jesus and the intersection between Judaism and Christianity. (It is then, perhaps, unhelpful that the front cover shows a Western, plaster-cast Madonna and Child — surely an image that the book seeks to challenge.)

The introduction presents the birth of Moses as a framework for the rest of the book. The first three chapters explore the nativity stories of Isaac and Ishmael, Samson, and Samuel. Levine elucidates the parallels and links between these narratives — “connections upon connections” — and how they anticipate the birth of Jesus. The fourth chapter considers the conception and birth of Jesus, the heir to these traditions. The book “seeks to reveal what the comparison makes apparent, including surprise over the echoes of one text by another”, based on Levine’s rather beautiful assertion that “in the Bible, stories don’t repeat; they rhyme.”

Levine’s style is engaging, and peppered with her wry humour. She drills deep into the texts, and shines a light on how the very human issues in these stories — blended families, infertility, and menopause, to name but a few — help us to place ourselves in the narrative. Rather than a boxed set of questions at the end of each chapter, Levine naturally weaves into her writing questions for reflection. What might this mean for us?

A detailed leaders’ guide enabling this book to be studied by a group is available separately, as are four ten-minute teaching videos presented by the author (she writes as she talks). It would make an excellent resource for an Advent group, but it is equally excellent for individual study.
 

The Revd Daniel Sandham is Vicar of St Paul’s, Winchmore Hill, and Area Dean of Enfield, in the diocese of London.

A Child is Born: A beginner’s guide to nativity stories
Amy-Jill Levine
Abingdon Press £16.50
(978-1-7910-3510-5)
Church Times Bookshop £13.49

A Child is Born: Leader guide
Amy-Jill Levine
Abingdon Press £13.99
(978-1-7910-3512-9)
Church Times Bookshop £11.19