Good Book

This was an interesting book, maybe the last chapter the most interesting of all. The author is Jewish, although not really practicing. So when he starts reading the Hebrew Bible (or the Christian Old Testament) it is not in the same way that many others would read it. Plotz is a friend of the text, he doesn't deconstruct it or tear it apart. Instead he reads it, mostly as a person with very little history with the text. He is amazed, delighted and horrified by it. If you want to see what the Old Testament is like to someone that doesn't really know the stories, but is highly educated, thoughtful and interested, then this is a book for you. If you are concerned when someone does not think the same way as you do about scripture, then you should skip it. But this is a book that pastors and others that are serious about scripture should read, because Plotz has reasonable questions. Some of them would be easy to answer, he just needs more info. But many of them are exceedingly hard.

A longer review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/good-book-the-bizarre-hilarious-disturbing-marvelous-and-inspiring-things-i-learned-when-i-read-every-single-word-of-the-bible/