Rating: 
Summary: A Good Introduction to the Bible
Review: Since my days as a child in Sunday school, I never paid much attention to the Bible. And as an adult, it never made that much since to me. After reading The Genesis of Justice, I now know why. I found violence glorified and deception affirmed. Dershowitz finds it necessary to clear up some of the inconsistencies in the Bible. He further introduces logic to obscene narratives that to me were always mere ribaldry. Hence my discontinuance of reading the Bible, especially to my children when they were younger. What is interesting, however, is Dershowitz's main premise. He argues that the root of today's judicial system lies in the Book of Genesis. He says that from Genesis we learn that actions and reactions derive from the nature of human beings and their Creator-not from formal codes of conduct. From that, I was left to wonder why are deterrence mechanisms set in place. Why the death penalty? Why prison sentences?If Dershowitz makes this required reading for his freshman law students -he will inevitability produce a group of reactionary liberals who will challenge the system-or not. It is just that pendulous. One could go either way when analyzing the narratives in Genesis. He reprises some interesting questions - Do you punish someone if they are ignorant of the law or of right from wrong? Do we punish a whole community to get to the evil few? Is it okay to commit a crime if it is a matter of life and death? Dershowitz assumes that whoever reads the book is well-acquainted with the Jewish interpretations and speaks to the reader as though you are on familiar grounds. Yet it is still an easy read. You enjoy his references to other rabbi's interpretations. The book has copious footnotes and the notes alone are informative. Dershowitz did a fine job in demonstrating how nothing comes from nothing...how laws have developed from a culmination of a long process of developments. The Ten Commandments, he argues, didn't just appear fully formed from the mountaintop - they were generated and came about because of events from the past or I should say events from the beginning.
Rating: 
Summary: worst book I've read
Review: This is perhaps the worst book I've ever read. Dershowitz is a fundamentalist when interpreting the Bible. Therefore, he assumes that each and every story happened just as the Bible relates it. Since this is a severe improbability, if not impossibility, the whole premise of the book is incorrect. From this, Dershowitz makes the argument that God is not omniscient, omnipotent, or even capable of making just decisions. He argues that God is fallible and that it is our responsibility to "call" God on His injustices. Had I understood this was the angle of the book, I would have never picked it up in the first place. Overall, it was a monumental waste of time because the book does not contain any new or useful information, much less any interesting viewpoints.
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