Rating: 
Summary: Did King Solomon believe in
Review: ... Richard Elliot Friedman's brilliant reconstruction of the Biblical source J into a complete independent text covering the history of the world from the Creation to the coronation of King Solomon, beginning with the words "On the day in which JHWH made Heaven and Earth", argues that the whole epic of the six days of creation is no part of J. J therefore concentrates the whole act of creation, including man, in a single day; and it knows nothing of the opening scene of our text of Genesis, which has always made trouble for Christian theology, which showed "the Spirit of God brooding over the waters" - implying that some sort of material existence existed before Creation. If Freedman is correct, this was not necessarily the original Jewish conception, and may even represent an intrusion from one of the surrounding polytheistic religions. We should remember that by the time Genesis and the rest of the Pentateuch came to their current form, the Jews had been long under heavy Persian and Greek influence. But J, according to Freedman's claim, is a text that breathes the air, if not of Solomon himself, at least of times in which he was well remembered; and it asserts creation out of nothing. This is of great interest: it shows that the doctrine of "Creation out of nothing" - a pretty strong assertion of Divine power and the utter dependence of heaven and earth on the pure creative word of God - existed in some strands of Jewish religion to be dated, according to Freedman, as early as King Solomon. At the very least, it certainly is several centuries earlier than Christianity; and Christianity seems otherwise to be the only religion to envisage a genuine creation, rather than a transformation from some kind of previous existence.
Rating:
Summary: Great research, interesting results
Review: Everyone has their own unique way of talking and writing. Where I would use one set of words to describe something someone else would use a totally different wording for the same thing. Where I would use one type of illustration to make a point someone else will use a totally different one. Friedman uses this sort of linguistic analysis along with other techniques to search the Old Testament and find passages that appear to be written by the same author. What results is a Biblical history book that apparently had been scattered throughout several of the Old Testament books and now is brought together as one consistent and highly readable book.
Working from Hebrew sources, his research is sound and scholarly and yet the result is easily understandable and highly readable. Mr. Friedman notes that as he researched this common authorship he noticed that each time one section ended the next section that met the same author's writing style started up from the same place the first left off as if there had been nothing between. This further supported his position that it has at one time been one text and was probably the original work of prose for the Bible.
The book covers the period from the creation until the reign of Solomon and is a wonderful read for those interested in Biblical studies, early Jewish thought, or Biblical history. A recommended read.
Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing Reinterpretation of the Bible
Review: Friedman argues that the so-called "J" material in the Hebrew Bible (traditionally limited to the Pentateuch) actually includes large parts of Joshua, Judges, and Samuel. The bulk of the book consists of Friedman's translation of the passages he ascribes to J, which fit together into a reasonably coherent narrative. I'm not sure I'm convinced, though. The established J material includes talking animals (the serpent in the garden, Baalam's donkey), spectacular miracles, and many theophanies (God walking in the garden, closing the door of Noah's ark). The material in Joshua, Judges, and Samuel has little or none of this; it is much more realistic in tone. Still, Friedman's theory is provocative and interesting, and his book should appeal to anyone with an interest in the historical context of the Hebrew Bible.
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Summary: Enjoy the Bible story as you have never read it before.
Review: Having studied the Old Testament for over 60 years, it was always the genealogy and the talmudic laws that killed the enjoyment of the poetry and story line in the Old Testament. But in this wonderful book Professor Friedman after years of work and study uncovered the Hidden book within the Bible, the story by J. Here is the first great prose of mankind. Shorn of all the additions heaped on it by editors with their own agendas you now have a work of beauty. It is more like Homer or Shakespeare. I never thought, I not only would understand the story of the Hebrews from creation to King Solomon, but would truly enjoy reading it. Boiled down to 222 pages of beautifully printed text, Professor Friedman calls this version "IN THE DAY" taken from the first three words of this new revision of the Book of J. He shows why his translation works by as he says "presenting the text of the original as carefully as possible. This translation is made from Hebrew original sources. This is a big departure from for example the King James version that used Greek translations that muddied the works even further. Let me quote Freidman. "Readers have an opportunity to see the first great prose writer's full achievement; an epic work of the struggle between God and humans. and between good and bad." Professor Friedman is one of the most interesting biblical writers actively writing today.
Rating: 
Summary: An Entertaining Look at the Bestselling Book of All Time
Review: I am not a theologian, nor a Biblical scholar. I am thus woefully unprepared to evaluate "The Hidden Book in the Bible" on its merits as an academic work. Having become moderately familiar with the major schools of thought on the development of the Bible, I can say that the author clearly favors an evolutionary development of the Bible, placing him at odds to some extent with those who believe it to be the divinely-inspired word of God. Friedman here has attempted to link together like-sounding passages from the Old Testament which he attributes to the Yahwist (the author he believes is distinctive for referring to the God of the Jews as YHWH). The resulting book tells the story of the Bible from the creation of the world until the reign of King Solomon. Surprisingly, the story is cohesive, lending some credence to the claim that this was the sturdy scaffolding upon which later authors (divinely-inspired or no) built. All in all, I found the book to be an entertaining read, and a bit of fun in its attempt to puncture preconceived notions about the Bible. I thus recommend it, but am incapable of evaluating it on its scholarly merits.
Rating:
Summary: Not convinced of his hypothesis but he makes a good case
Review: I loved this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in biblical literature and/or in the history of the biblical world. The revolutionary idea that Freidman presents and defends is that the author of the J source of the Hebrew Bible (which includes many of the famous narratives such as The Garden of Eden, the rape of Dinah and her brothers' response to it, the story of Lot and his daughters and several others that are spread throughout the books of Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers) and the author of the court history (CH) of David in 2 Samuel and the narrative from 1 Samuel that leads into it were actually the SAME PERSON. In other words Freidman's hypothesis is that there was a story - an early novel - that began with the Garden of Eden and ended with the establishment of the reign of Solomon (he also includes some texts that are now part of Joshua and Judges in the middle). Although I found his reconstructed novel, which he calls "In the Day" enjoyable to read and found his introduction and commentaries very interesting, well written, and educational, he has not convinced me that the same person wrote the two works. Friedman does not adequately discuss the issues involved in dating the texts, other than explaining that J must have been written after the middle of the 9th century (when Edom supposedly gained its independence) and before 722 (when the Kingdom of Samaria fell). But Baruch Halpern makes an excellent case (in David's Secret Demons) that what he calls the B source (the part of 2 Sam that leads into the CH), a text which Freidman includes as part of the J author's work, was written no more than a generation later than the time of David or even closer to David's time. He also shows that the events of the B source had to have taken place before the campaign of the Pharaoh, Sheshonq (c. 925). I would add that the Mesha stele (mid 9th century) talks about the people of Gad as if they were Moabites, IOW not yet an Israelite tribe, and that many of J's narratives are easier to imagine as being written when the Assyrian empire had made a vassal of Judah (8th century BCE, closer to the 722 end of Freidman's range). So, while J is clearly based on the CH, I do not think it was the same author unless the person had a lifespan similar to that of some of his/her J characters.
Rating:
Summary: Controversial, but fascinating
Review: If you read Harold Bloom's "The Book Of J", you need to buy this.
The scholarly consensus over most of the past century was that the oldest Biblical stories were from the Yahwist (or "J") source. However, Friedman makes a pretty convincing argument that the J source and another Biblical source, the "Court History of David" were written by the same person. Of course, this means that J is much more recent than previously thought, since it could not pre-date the reign of Solomon (with whom the Court History ends).
Rating:
Summary: Controversial, but fascinating
Review: If you read Harold Bloom's "The Book Of J", you need to buy this.
The scholarly consensus over most of the past century was that the oldest Biblical stories were from the Yahwist (or "J") source. However, Friedman makes a pretty convincing argument that the J source and another Biblical source, the "Court History of David" were written by the same person. Of course, this means that J is much more recent than previously thought, since it could not pre-date the reign of Solomon (with whom the Court History ends).
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, Provocative, but Editioral Shortcomings!
Review: In this book, Richard Elliot Friedman gives us the material of the J source, combined with the 'Court Historian' printed as one work. His J is slightly different from the J of the Bloom/Rosenberg version in omitting the Balaam story and the plagues, but he explains in textual notes that he is unable to separate the J strands in these stories. Beyond J, he gives us some of Joshua, some of Judges, much of Samuel and a teeny bit of Kings (the accession of Solomon, but not his reign). In the past, these two sources were often regarded as related, but not necessarily from the same hand. Friedman explains his reasoning, for uniting the sources, and the books do go together well. His translation is admirably simple and consistent, and makes compelling reading. I'm not sure I agree that J is really the first historian or that his(or her) writing represents the first prose masterpiece, because even this source seems to me to be spliced together from other sources, and its methods and concerns seem grounded in other concerns than those of history or prose. The density of wordplay, the webs of free association and the frequent interjection of proverbial material link it more to poetic and wisdom literature than history. The plots, if you will, are a by-product of the play of language. I'm sure more work can be done on these sources, and it will be equally interesting. As to editorial problems, it seems like Harper has a policy of making many of its Bible-related works more inaccessible than they should be. There are no descriptive headers on the pages to give you a hint as to what particular story or standard Biblical book you are looking at on any given page. Moreover, there are 91 textual notes for which NO indication is given in the text. Are we just supposed to intuit the note's existence? As it is , I spent a few hours preparing the book for use, but isn't this the EDITOR'S job?
Rating:
Summary: Friedman's best work yet.
Review: It makes intuitive sense that there might be a single dominant thread in the Hebrew bible, with a timeline running from the creation story through the rule of David. Friedman, expanding on his earlier work "Who wrote the Bible", develops his thesis of this core work (with a sole author) through painstaking linguistic analysis and textual criticism. Within his interpretation of what is referred to by documentary hypothesis scholars as the "J" (Yahwist) account, you'll be surprised by such things as a very different rendering of the ten commandments, to say nothing of some surprising redefinitions of words and phrases that will both amuse and enlighten you. All in all, the reader will feel as if they are seeing an extremely unvarnished and unedited version of ancient Israel's history for the first time, and if you really enjoy an in-depth look at the construction of the Torah, as well as the court era of the old testament, this work will not disappoint you. One warning though: be prepared, if your academic skills lie elsewhere, to read it twice because Friedman will put you through your paces in terms of the biblical expertise required of you to understand his thesis. Additionally, I would recommend that you read "Who Wrote The Bible" as a prelude to this book.
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