Around 600 BC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Original language: Hebrew, with about 1% in Aramaic (5 chapters of Daniel and 3 chapters of Ezra).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I read the King James Version and parts of the Tanakh (Jewish Publication Society edition). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Talk about a human God. He’s very thin-skinned, quick to anger and quick to punish Man. God is like a bad father. For example Numbers 11 – First some people complain and he sends a fire to burn their camp. Then people complain about the food – they’re tired of a constant diet of only manna. So God teases them by dropping off some quail, then he kills them (the ones who craved meat) with a plague.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I do like the realism of it, though. You’ve got 600,000 people in a desert under difficult conditions. They’re basically refugees. There’s bound to be some trouble and grumbling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Old Testament is a bore. The Iliad and the Odyssey are art, they’re both great examples of narrative art. The Old Testament is not art. It’s myth, history, and religious text, but not art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Isaiah: Still dull but has some good moments like beating the swords into plowshares. A favorite verse of mine is Isaiah 6:8 — Then I heard the voice of my Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me.” (Heb: Hineni, shalacheni).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jeremiah. It’s unrelenting sameness and bleakness. God yelling at his people like a bad Jewish father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ezekiel. Same thing. Unrelenting, page after page, God scolding and threatening man. How did this book get its good reputation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Old Testament is completely demystified for me. It’s over and over, a petulant God threatening mankind if we don’t follow his rules, and\/or worship other gods. The New Testament was a brilliant brand reboot to make God’s brand more acceptable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only parts of the Old Testament that are readable are Genesis, Exodus, Kings, Jonah, Ruth, Esther, Job, and Song of Songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Psalms and Proverbs were both dull. I liked Job (philosophical dialogues) and Song of Songs (erotic poetry).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overall – what a disappointment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Around 600 BC. Original language: Hebrew, with about 1% in Aramaic (5 chapters of Daniel and 3 chapters of Ezra). I read the King James Version and parts of the Tanakh (Jewish Publication Society edition). Talk about a human God. He’s very thin-skinned, quick to anger and quick to punish Man. God is like a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-great-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1136"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1139,"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136\/revisions\/1139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}