Rating: 
Summary: Who Twisted the Bible?
Review: This book is totally biased against any supernatural involvement or spiritual purity in the formation of the Bible. A wonderful book for those who do not want to live lives accountable to God, and so gladly blind themselves to spiritual truth by the assumption that the Bible is a merely human entity. It leaves out an essential ingredient, namely, that the Bible cannot be grasped with the natural mind, but only with the spiritual essence of a human being. But even with that dogma aside, it is very far from conclusive in its conclusions, yet seems to leave little room for other theories. To suppose that the Torah was mainly changed after the entire kingdom of Israel was established is just too much for me to believe; you could argue around either way, but it makes more sense to take the Bible at face value. Surely such a national book would be well known and not easily changed, much like our constitution. I concede that there may have been two accounts woven together, but to attack the basic veracity of the story line the Bible carries is just too much. This book says that the early stories of the Bible were all maligned to align with the political tendencies of the writers during their later particular eras with their particular leanings. The man takes some passages of the Bible at face value and uses them to twist other passages into a total farce. That makes no sense to me. Why say that Jeremiah and Deuteronomy were written by the same author, just because they are similar? Wouldn't God speaking through Jeremiah call to mind His first covenant with Israel? Why say the golden calf at Mt. Sinai had to do with the golden calves of Jeroboam? You could argue just as well that Jeroboam knew about the first golden calf and wanted to totally break off the people's loyalty to Yahweh. There are many, many more examples I could use and refute each one... but then I'd have to write a book. I could call it, "Who Twisted the Bible?" This book is riddled full of just as many loopholes as it claims the Bible has. I think it was really written by four authors, "I", "B", "U", and "J", and then later edited into one volume. "I" for "indoctrinating", "B", for "biased", "U" for "unbelieving," and "J" for "just plain false logic." I don't care how many degrees the man has, I just can't follow his reasoning.
Rating: 
Summary: Friedman answers the big question
Review: In his thought-provoking book, Friedman sets off an a journey back through time to uncover one of the greatest mysteries in history: the authorship of the Bible. To be more specific, Friedman focuses his attention on the Old Testament. Friedman subscribes to the popular "Documentary Hypothesis" that espouses the following: The five books of Moses were composed using four different source documents into one continuous story. Friedman goes through a brief history of biblical scholarship in relation to the hypothesis and points out that many scholars were considered 'heretics' and 'wicked' for promoting such a theory. It is obvious that this theory was not widely accepted in the 19th century and still attracts opposition to this very day. Friedman then continues by examining different periods in biblical history and uses documentary evidence along with archaeological support to lend credence to his hypothesis. Especially interesting are his examples that clearly illustrate the validity of the hypothesis. One such example examines the existence of two different versions of the Flood story merged into one within the text of Genesis. Upon reading each version separately, the reader can truly see two different stories that may be understood independant of each other. Friedman proceeds to point out many other examples in the Bible which offer similar evidence. Overall, Friedman's book is well written and captivates the reader from beginning to end. Some may argue that a number of Friedman's conclusions are speculative. However, it is important to remind oneself that even though many of today's best hypotheses and theories are tentative they present the best explanation of natural events from the evidence available.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but Out of Date
Review: This book was so fascinating, I couldn't put it down. It was so gripping, I kept reading it, even though I was supposed to be attending a Bible class at that very moment. This book is easy to read, and provides a wonderfully coherent theory as to the authors of various parts of the bible. The only problem is that most biblical scholars don't believe in it any more. After reading it, I approached a number of my professors (I am a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College) to ask them about this book, and had to duck to avoid the vitriol that was unloaded against it. The Documentary Hypothesis doesn't have too many adherents there. It is definitely worth reading; it needs a huge grain of salt to go with it, though, so be careful.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Insights
Review: Have you ever noticed that the story of the Creation is told twice in Genesis, in different ways? Or that at one point in Genesis Noah releases a dove from the ark, but just a few verses away, it says he released a raven? Scholars have found dozens of such "doublets," bits of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) that cover the same ground, often differing in the details or the words used. Richard Friedman, in Who Wrote the Bible?, unravels the major literary strands in the Pentateuch. By sorting out verses according to word usage and other markers in the original Hebrew, Friedman comes to the conclusion that today's Pentateuch was originally four different works. (Not all of this is original with Friedman, but he sums up previous research and advances the theory significantly.) One book originated in Israel before the Babylonian invasion, the other in Judah, the southern and longer surviving part of the Hebrew kingdom. Among the differences between them, God is always called Yahweh (Jehovah) in the book from Israel, and Elohim in the book from Judah. A third major strand that Friedman unravels is associated with the priestly class. Not surprisingly, it dwells mostly on various ritual requirements. Almost the entire book of Leviticus is from this source. The fourth source is the writer of Deuteronomy. Have you ever noticed how Deuteronomy repeats so much of Genesis and Exodus? Perhaps the most important insight of the book is how the God of the books from Israel and Judah is essentially forgiving and maintains a personal relationship with the central figures of the narrative - Adam and Eve, Noah, Joseph, and Moses, for example. The God of the priestly source is characterized by high standards for human behavior and the imposition of consequences for going astray. Both of these aspects of God's nature are found in the New Testament as well. With ample documentation and convincing logic, Friedman develops the theory that a single editor wove these books together after the Babylonian exile, producing what we now know as the Pentateuch. This was a grand synthesis, in which no one original strand emerged dominant, and in which the several aspects of God are revealed. The result was a sum greater than the component parts (the kind of synergy one would expect from divine inspiration), and which ever since has been a central source for our understanding of God. Friedman does identify who he thinks wrote and edited most of the Pentateuch - names you will recognize. But I won't ruin the detective-like suspense of the book by telling you. If the book has a shortcoming, it's that it does not deal with the entire Old Testament. Beyond the Pentateuch, Friedman reaches forward briefly as far as Chronicles. I had hoped to read a treatment of Isaiah, with its prophecies of the Messiah, but it's not here. Altogether, an outstanding, insightful book. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: brilliant
Review: this book really explains in understandable way for layman (me). i will not read the Bible the same way as I used to.
Rating:
Summary: Be sure you don't let yourself call this book an authority
Review: Freedman commits innumerable crimes in his analysis of the sources of the Hebrew text. First, he subscribes to a conclusion about the structure of the text that belies a complete ignorance of ancient semitic poetic and prose structures, that is, that retellings and "doublets" in Hebrew biblical literature are evidence that our finished Hebrew bible is a result of a conflation of separate texts. This is something that biblical scholars are far from agreement on, and those that choose to follow this line of thinking (in spite of considerable evidence that retellings are merely a facet of semitic literary style, particularly in religiously motivated semitic literature) are rarely in agreement about the number and source of these independent compositions, thereby making Freedman's claims to be just another set of suppositions from a scholar who has yet to provide any conclusive evidence (such as the actual existence of one of these source texts) that his suppositions are anything other than his own fancies. Also, Freedman evinces an overarching love of scholars and scholarship, as illustrated by many comments he makes about quivering at the idea of having to deliver papers at conventions attended by mammoth scholastic minds of genius caliber. He is more interested in engaging in dialogue with other scholars, in the process assuming that some of their ideas are true (with little or no evidence) and that others are false (with the same lack of evidence). This book contains basically the dreams and suppositions of a scholar who has nothing before him but a Hebrew bible which he has difficulty understanding and for this reason he assumes that the text is just a hash-mash. He is really only interested in bouncing his ideas around with other, similarly confused scholars and really doesn't say anything that should convince anyone who doesn't want to agree with him about the origin of the biblical text. The book is interesting for those who want to see what the scholars are dreaming up these days, but I would highly recommend that those who read this book also check out works by other scholars who have other notions (whether well founded or not) so they can guage the level of certainty that one can have about biblical origins.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best!
Review: If you are searching for readable, solid scholarship that will help you get a handle on critical insights of the Hebrew Bible (sadly, too often called the "Old" Testament), Friedman's book will be a priceless resource for you. Step by step, the author walks his readers through a series of chapters that offer background and insights into the sources and environment that produced the Hebrew scriptures. For Jews and Christians alike, this book is a must. If there are still too many details about the development of the Hebrew Bible that just won't come clear for you, the clarity and organized thinking of this fine volume will prove to be an amazing benefit.
Rating:
Summary: A new perspective for me in 1993
Review: I read this book back in 93. It was the first time I read an alternate view of what the bible is. It opened my mind to new ideas and helped me to start a deeper search into the meaning of religions. I really like this book and I have read it 3 times since 1993. This book is well worth the price. It just might start a layman thinking.
Rating:
Summary: A highly sophisticated and amazing explanation
Review: The book from R. E. Friedman compromises two aspects which in other works about Biblical literature is still missing over a decade since the first edition of "Who wrote the Bible" - it builds a bridge between the scientific niveau of readers trained in Biblical scholarship and readers without great backgrounds in the matter. Its importance, still or especially today, lies in the undogmatic way of dealing with a subject that is and has been difficult, in scientifical and religious aspect. Friedman shows the "specialist" in the stuff some fresh and new ideas and, which is even more important, presents the results of over 100 years of scholarship about the Bible to the wider public: the reader gets closer to the Bible through Friedman`s assistance. Despite, the pedagogical impacts are not to be underestimated: by destroying myths about the Bible, it prevents a wrong interpretation, which can be very dangerous. To conclude, Friedman has written the maybe most important book in Biblical scholarship within the last thirty years - and anyone who takes the Bible serious should read him!
Rating:
Summary: Another grand slam from A&E Video
Review: This is an outstanding introduction to biblical scholarship, and it is presented in A&E's typically excellent manner. While those with any advanced study of the topic may find it redundant (I don't, and I have a bit of subject expertise), the target audience is the "average" reader of the Bible, and for this audience the material is just right. A two-tape set (about 75 minutes per tape), the first delves into the Hebrew Bible, while the second addresses the Christian books. In examining the Hebrew scriptures such topics as the documentary hypothesis vs. Moses' personal authorship of the Torah, the Dead Sea scrolls, and the numerologic/mystical aspects of Hebrew are discussed. The review of Christian books includes discussions of authorship (the identities of the gospel writers, and the Pauline/pseudo-Pauline epistles), inclusion of books in the biblical canon, and the Nag Hammadi/gnostic writings. There's enough explanation and review of topics to quickly bring most viewers up to speed, but enough new and interesting scholarship and theory to keep the viewer glued to the screen. The videos move along, but they never lose you. Executive producer Bram Roos must be congratulated on his inclusion of a diverse panel of experts in the fields of theology, archaeology, and biblical scholarship. It's not often one sees both John Dominic Crossan and Jerry Falwell in the same program agreeing with one-another (in fact, I must admit I was pleasantly surprised that Falwell sounds intelligent and inspirational in his comments -- not the usual fundamentalist diatribe for which he so often gets press coverage). Richard Kiley provides excellent narration, and Jean Simmons is powerful (yet not maudlin) in her readings of text passages. I've viewed these tapes many times, and led several Bible study groups which included them. I recommend them highly enough for anyone wanting a wonderful introduction to the topic.
| 
