[4] He told Contemporary Authors Online: "a lifelong focus on the intersection of autobiographical writing and lost writers.

"[4] In his New York Times book review, Frank Kermode discussed how Rosenberg worked to be both modern in his translation, and faithful to the original Hebrew.

[12] In this work, which was a product of a collaboration with Harold Bloom, the authors focused on the first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch, and more specifically a source identified as the Yahwist.

Frank Kermode, in his review of The Book of J for The New York Times, says that Rosenberg's translation "...[avoided] the blandness of the modern versions" of the Bible.

[5] He adds: "This bold and deeply meditated translation attempts to reproduce the puns, off-rhymes and wordplay of the original.

"[4] Barbara Probst Solomon, a contributor for the Washington Post Book World, commented that Rosenberg "has given a fresh, interpretive translation of the salient portions of the 'J' sections of the Pentateuch.

[4][15] The work includes commentary from Devorah Bat-David, a semi-fictional scholar in the Solomonic Library of ancient Jerusalem.

[16] Robert Taylor, from The Boston Globe said that "Rosenberg blends Devorah Bat-David's commentary on the Book of Paradise with his own remarks, framing a lucid prose poetry that conveys the sense of the story as both extremely old and intensely immediate.

"[16] Jonathan Wilson wrote in The New York Times Book Review that "Rosenberg has done a remarkable job in bringing to English some of the most unnerving and powerful passages in the early cabala.

"[17] A contributor for Publishers Weekly said: "Rosenberg's ruminations range so widely that they are sometimes difficult to follow; alongside allusions to Kafka and Dante, he refers to the television series Touched by an Angel and devotes nearly an entire chapter to the spirituality exhibited on Oprah.

[19][20] Jeff Ahrens of Booklist said: "He translates the results, which actually lack the events of David's life before he became king, and they entertain as much as the presentation of them fascinates.

"[23] In the New York Sun, Carl Rollyson says: "Abraham is not, in Mr. Rosenberg's view, a legendary figure but a person who actually lived.

He is not merely a "fiction" created by writers establishing a religion but a flesh-and-blood man who left records of himself and his culture, lost for millennia but now gradually being excavated from what once was Sumer and its surroundings.