The Golden Calf between Bible and Qur'an

Pregill’s work is an important contribution, both as a model for exploring scriptural intertextuality and as a prolegomenon to a similarly detailed study of the Calf story in Islamic, Christian, and Jewish (and perhaps also modern secular) traditions after the Qur’an. This volume will be of as much interest to biblical scholars and historians of religion as to scholars of the Qur’an. * Franz Volker Greifenhagen, professor of religious studies at Luther College, University of Regina, Canada, Reading Religion *…excellent study * Stephen J. Shoemaker, University of Oregon, Church History *This fascinating and brilliant study traces the use and transformation of the episode of the Golden Calf (Exod. 32.1-35) in Judaism, Christianity and the Qur’an…This is an incredibly rich study that will set new standards for the exploration of biblical themes in the Qur’an. * Anslem C. Hagedorn, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament *Pregill’s work provides an outstanding example of the uses to which comparison can be put when done seriously and on a small scale. While based on careful scholarship and responsible philological practice, his comfort with the material and the novelty of the analysis leads him to venture forth and make much bolder claims about the nature of the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. The result is a textually rich and theoretically sophisticated work that, while closely focused on one base text, subsequently broaches much larger issues that deal with textuality, politics, and the nature of scholarship. * 2021 AAR Book Awards *This monograph is one of the most comprehensive works to investigate the interpretation of the Golden Calf narrative, as it includes the full spectrum of Jewish, Christian and Muslim reception history. * Abdulla Galadari, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations *This well-argued, well-researched book is a welcome contribution to establishing an understanding of the Qur’an as a well-informed, deliberate textual engagement with the Bible. Its coherent, clear language makes it accessible to scholars and students of diverse disciplines. Each chapter is clearly related to the chapters before and after it, creating a chronological and thematic continuity…allows for individual chapters to be read independently, thus making the book useful for teaching too. * Michael E. Pregill, Journal of the American Academy of Religion *In this volume, Pregill demonstrates an impressive command of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim interpretive traditions. This work will be of interest to any scholar working in any one of these interpretive fields. I highly recommend Pregill’s volume. I learned much from its pages and hope that further such studies, involving the interaction of such diverse interpretive traditions, will be forthcoming. * Jeffrey L. Morrow, Society of Biblical Literature *Pregill produced a diachronic journey through literatures tracing the evolution of the story since its appearance and its later acceptance in various literatures. This is realized through a comprehensive and extremely thorough explanation of the reasons for numerous and divergent interpretations. This is the correct approach to literature and a good way to explain how motifs were renewed through the ages and maintained their ability to answer different questions. * Roberto Tottoli, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam *

Michael Pregill is a scholar of comparative religion, specializing in the history of the scriptural cultures of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Much of his research focuses on the reception of biblical, Jewish, and Christian traditions in the Qur’an and Islam. He lives and teaches in Los Angeles, California.