Customer Reviews

God: A Biography

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When I first heard about this book, I was put off by what I considered a "cutesy" title. Mentally, I catalogued the book with efforts along the lines of "Conversations with God" or even "The Celestine Prophecy," pop-theology that sought to gain a mass readership through some kind of clever gimmick.

Several weeks ago, though, I took a closer look and was intrigued by Miles' premise. He calls this book a biography because he's focusing on the "person" of God as described throughout the Hebrew scriptures, or Tanakh. Miles puts a lot of emphasis on the sequence of books found in the Tanakh as contrasted with the Old Testament. To him, the order in which scriptures are read makes a lot of difference to how the reader comes to learn about and understand God. Miles sees not just evidence of the period in which these works were composed (earlier to later) but also deliberate artfulness in their arrangement, so that we observe a gradual waning of God's direct involvement in the world. From the early accounts of God walking through the garden in the cool of the evening, we read story after story of God having intimate, personal dialogue with the great figures of Israelite history, only to see such reports diminish over the course of the centuries, until the final vision of a high, distant and receding figure called the Ancient of Days at the end of Daniel. By the time we get to the Chronicles-Nehemiah cycle, God is more an object of reference, the one being talked about, rather than a direct participant in the story. Or so goes the basic argument of Miles, anyway.

Though Miles cannot be relied upon to support any specific denominational or doctrinal claims that might come from a reading of scripture, I don't see him as having an agenda of undermining religious authority or personal beliefs. In his discussion of Job, toward the end of the book, he gives a helpful description of his own objectives in writing the book:

"The reading offered here attempts a consciously postcritical or postmodern reintegration of mythic, fictional and historical elements in the Bible so as to allow the character of God to stand forth more clearly from the work of which he is the protagonist."

I appreciate his clarity and honesty in making that statement. He recognizes that the Bible functions differently for many of its readers, across the span of religious traditions that trace their roots to these scriptures. He's not trying to supplant those readings, but is instead offering a supplemental perspective, which I believe is useful and relevant for our times.

The early books of the Bible get the most in-depth treatment, because they are the basis from which the rest of Tanakh develops. Genesis portrays God in his most basic roles: Creator, Destroyer (via the Flood,) and "Friend of the Family" (the personal god of Abraham and his biological descendents.) An interesting chapter titled "Creator/Destroyer" reflects on how those conflicting tendencies play themselves out in the story of Abraham, integrating into one personality aspects of deity that other societies ascribed to different gods (e.g. El, Yah, Rahab, Tiamat, etc.) This is an important point that Miles builds on throughout the book. Israel's commitment to monotheism, established early on in the development of its religious history, necessitated all the divine prerogatives to be ascribed to one and only one Supreme Being.

Miles goes on to explore God's role as Liberator, Lawgiver and Liege as told in the remainder of the Torah. Then it's on to the story of the conquest and settlement of Canaan, and God's personae of Conqueror, Father (to David and his line) and Arbiter, where Israel's lapse into idolatry mandates God's judgment for failing to fulfill their covenant obligations.

Then we see in Isaiah God's roles as Executioner and forgiving, restoring Holy One. From there Miles does a "surface scan" of the rest of the Bible, with the exception of Job, which he regards as the climactic book of the Tanakh. After Job, God becomes less imposing, more familiar, even to the point of seeming "absent" as we see in the sequence of Song, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and most notoriously, Esther, where the name of God is never mentioned. By the end, we see post-exilic Israel, partially regathered in their homeland, with an inferior reconstruction of the Temple, led by those who hearken back to a more glorious past that can never be recaptured but still provides an ideal of how things ought to be. Miles portrays a people older and wiser, more than a bit worn down and disillusioned by the ordeal that they have been through.

The final section is titled "Does God Lose Interest?" In it, Miles ponders the similarities between the Tanakh and two famous tragedies, Oedipus Rex and Hamlet. He finds Tanakh to be more akin to Shakespeare than Sophocles. Whereas Oedipus was driven to his fate by inexorable, unalterable processes, Hamlet's outcome was an outgrowth of his character. Miles sees similarities in the unfolding narrative of the Tanakh. As God acts, he seems to learn new things about himself and his creation, and this new knowledge in turn alters his future actions and affects the other participants in the story. Here Miles offers something I found quite unique, a polytheistic retelling of the story of the Tanakh. It helps to clarify the distinctions between the familiar Israelite version of creation and history and how it might be otherwise told from a different religious point of view.

All in all, this book has had quite an effect in increasing my curiosity about the Bible and the history of its interpretation across the wider span of western cultures. I recommend it highly.

Jack Miles has responded to a number of theses concerning the character of his deity. Many biblical critics have suggested the early books present several gods lumped together by editorial fiat. Miles insists that the god of the Hebrew Bible is but one. That circumstance, uniqueness and solitude, is the cause of various character changes this god went through in the course of history. He has neither siblings nor peers. It's a very human story, but Miles doesn't portray this god as a human personification with superior powers. On the contrary, this god is unaware of the powers he possesses until he tries them out. They become, predictably, addictive with the passage of time. As the god develops, he exhibits changes in character that would be considered "growing up" in people. Finally, for unknown reasons, but perhaps just fatigue, the god retires from human contact. People are left only with previous lessons to follow.

Although "God" is the result of intensive knowledge of the Hebrew Tanakh, Miles dismisses the notion that his study is a psychoanalysis of the god, but that's because he's dealing with a divinity. The character variations Miles chronicles, the creator, destroyer, family patriarch, liberator and others, could be applied to any complex character. Any good biography of a national leader might evince the same personifications. The depiction might manifest as many, if not the same, characteristics. Miles' demurral may be overlooked, since his presentation is a compelling account delivered with lively writing skill. He is able to achieve a cool detachment, but not clinical aloofness, in presenting a deity to which he retains some level of adherence.

Miles' personal faith doesn't restrict what minimal judgments he offers on this god. He accepts that the god reneges on promises, is a genocidal killer of some note, and punishes even those he claims to love with spontaneous wrath. In early days, he doesn't seek worshippers, just obedient subjects. We learn his sacrifices must be living creatures instead of agricultural crops, but the issue rises with Cain and repeats frequently. It's an arbitrary decision, enforced with vigour, but the motivation remains hidden. It all seems to boil down to whimsical expressions of power. The power is challenged, however, in the outstanding chapters in this book, the account of Job. Job's story has been retold countless times in various arenas, but Miles has analysed the account with fresh, engrossing insight. In his view, Job wins the encounter by simply accepting the god enjoys greater power than he, responding "So what?". It's a given. Job's not contesting the point, so why the terrible punishments? Miles' god is here shown as lawgiver, but not an administrator of justice. Miles, too, accepts the condition - the god has simply grown old and too irascible to reason with.

The shade of Samuel Langhorne Clemens hovered nearby during the reading of this book and writing this review. Silently, the spectre seemed to point repeatedly at Miles' text. Comment wasn't required, the message was clear: why would any person venerate such a creature? Miles fails to answer this question, in fact, he doesn't even pose it. For him, faith in this deity is a given. He doesn't adore sightlessly, but clearly accepts the conditions laid down as valid history. For some, the detachment seems inhuman, but that doesn't detract from the value Miles' portrayal has offered us. The story is too well presented to ignore.

Jack Miles achieved his stated intent to write a biography of the character God based on the Tanakh, a literary work. The result is a fascinating study of the evolution of the Judean notion of a monotheistic God, the linchpin for the Jewish, Christian and Muslin religions. Some reviews here either entirely shun Miles work or nit-pick at one of his arguments with certain shrillness, as if Miles had stepped on sacred toes. Unless you can accept, at least temporarily, that man created God and not the other way around, you are liable to suffer a similar upset.

Miles is a scholar. He has devoted his life to the study of religion, literature and language, and his writing is rich with insightful analogies. This is not an easy read, however. I had to look up more words while reading this work than with any other book in memory, and some required delving into the cognate, but it was unquestionably worth the effort.

Miles' thoughtful, searching, and sometimes thrilling re-examination of the Old Testament (or more properly, Hebrew Bible or Tanakh) turns on the intriguing premise that we can read the Bible as a novel in which God serves as protagonist. Miles never overplays this notion, keeping one eye on historical interpretations, but uses it to develop a fascinating reading of the familiar text.

As with Harold Bloom's Book of J, this book can fascinate merely by challenging conventional english translations: the profusion of puns, irony, and sarcasm in the original Hebrew comes as a shock and a thrill to readers who first learned these stories as children. Miles would be worth reading for this analysis alone. And when he applies his methods to the Book of Job, the result is a radical reinterpretation that finally makes sense of the problematic tale, giving it a moral weight traditonal readings have denied.

Miles' conclusions go deeper, demonstrating how in forcing the function of a half dozen pagan deities into a single God, monotheism created a figure contradictory, paradoxical, powerfully creative and self-destructive: like nothing seen before - and in doing so, forged the first literary character of true psychological complexity.

In the Tanakh God creates mankind in his own image so that he may have a way to better see himself -- Miles' interpretation shows us man creating the Tanakh, and God, to do precisely the same thing.

This is a very interesting book. Although Jack Miles states that one need not be either a believer in the Judeo-Christian concept of God or an unbeliever to appreciate the book, still this reviewer thinks that only those committed to this tradition will bother to read it.

The author takes the unusual approach of treating the main character in the Jewish Bible (Christian Old Testament) "God" as a literary character and then explores how this character changed substantially during the thousand year history that is recorded in the Bible.

The reader should be forewarned that if you are a real believer, then you will find yourself shouting on nearly every page, "That is not God". If you are not clear that this "God" is being treated only from a literary point of view, you will not comprehend the main thrust.

Judaism and Christianity are both "historical" religions. This means, among other things, that the validity of its central teachings depends upon the real occurrence of some historical events, unlike a religion such as Buddhism where the validity depends upon logic and personal experience alone. Yet none of the incidents and ideas expressed in the Bible were written by people who treated events the way a modern historian would treat them. The philosophical and theological sophistication of the various Biblical writers (and their numerous editors) vary tremendously. The concept of God that Moses probably had would differ significantly from that of a modern day Jew or Christian. The working assumption of a modern believer would be that his/her concept of God is accurate, and consequently someone else's concept would be inaccurate insofar as they differ. So the major question at stake for a modern believer would be "Is my concept of God a genuine organic development from that of the Biblical writers (so that our concepts, though different, represent the same God), or does my concept make any less accurate concept as found in the Bible guilty of error/heresy?"

If the reader's answer encompasses organic development, then it should be smooth sailing; if not, then batten down the hatches! The book also strongly hints that the current monotheistic concept of God contains so many different aspects that our current intelligence cannot fit these into a neat rational synthesis. Should this really be a surprise that the Transcendent Creator of the universe, including our limited finite intellects, must remain somewhat mysterious to us?

The book is an eye-opener for anyone who thinks the Bible has been transmitted to us in a manner equivalent to a classical theology textbook. If "God" had chosen to compose the Bible as a textbook, then it would have been much more "accurate", yet probably much more boring and lifeless. This reviewer thinks "God" knew the better way to do it. Remember, this book is not the Bible itself, not the Word of God, but it is a worthwhile literary commentary.

This is a daring, ambitious, complex, thought-provoking book. My reaction is mixed. On the positive side, I admire the author's largely successful attempt to look at the character of "God" from a fresh perspective, that of a complex character as revealed only in the pages of the Bible, rather than the God of an often uncritical religious dogma. On the negative side, Miles:
* Makes a lot of assumptions and conclusions that do not seem warranted. For example, in Chapter 2, "Generation," Miles says about God's command "Let there be light" that "One does not speak commandingly to oneself. It is rather as if a carpenter reaching for a hammer were to speak the word 'hammer' aloud." What is the author's point? If a witch or wizard speaks a spell or incantation to summon magical or natural forces, the spell caster speaks not to herself but rather to the source of the forces being summoned. I was especially uneasy with Miles' assumptions about details of God's existence that are based not only on what is explicitly stated in the Bible, but also on what is left unsaid. In the life of any significant literary character, can we automatically assume that anything about the character that is not explicitly stated does not exist? For me, the answer is "No." As I continued through the book, I found myself repeatedly in disagreement with the validity of the assumptions upon which many of the author's conclusions were based.
* Is often needlessly verbose.
* Writes in a stilted style that I often found irritating. I particularly did not enjoy his often pedantic tone, his seemingly gratuitous use of needlessly esoteric verbiage, and his use of the "royal `we.'" The frequent use of "we" would not have bothered me so much if I had felt that it implied a sort of partnership between author and reader, but too often that seemed not to be the case.
My recommendation: If you are open-minded and are interested in theology, religious history, and literary analysis, then read this book and arrive at your own conclusions.

This review is based on the paperback version of the book.

One need not accept all, or indeed any, of Jack Miles' conclusion to derive enormous benefit from just thinking about the issues he raises. In this scholarly yet approachable book, Miles surveys the development of God's nature and character as it unfolds in the Hebrew Bible. Each of the many distinct personalities that one finds in the Bible's protagonist is held up and examined, using the metaphor of literary character development to fuel the narrative. Of particular interest to me is the interpretation of the story of Job. In Miles' view, the opening verses portray Satan as tempting God, while the closing confrontation between Job and God serves to demonstrate that might, even the might of God, does not make right. In the end, it is Job's integrity and courage that enable God to overcome the temptation. This is just an example of the kind of thought-provoking insights that are strewn throughout this book to richly reward anyone who approaches the thesis with an open mind.

I am 67 years old and have spent a lot of time in life reading and studying the Bible and searching for God in its contents. A lot of time has been spent trying to discard a lot of narrow sectarian beliefs and concepts which I grew up with as a child. When I first began to read this book, I reacted to it somewhat in anger. I considered his approach as sacrilegious and cavalier, until I saw what he was simply doing. Jack has taken the Bible and its main character (protagonist) and simply presented him as the literary character of its pages. When I changed my negativism, it opened my eyes to a lot of passages in the Bible about God. I found similar thoughts in Walter Bruggermanns, Theology of the Old Testatment, which I read a couple of years later. He too presents God as the protagonist of the Old Testatment, and speaks of the "development of God" in a similar fashion. Miles asks the question: "How do you know that God is unknowable? Who told you so? If your answers comes from outside the Bible, your objection is undercut because it is only the God of the Bible we are considering."

He has fairly and honestly taken the words out of the mouth of those who spoke and wrote about him. God "regrets", "changes his mind", "grieves", alters plans, is angered. The first words put in his mouth are somewhat pluralistic in number, "Let us make man in our image." He takes you through the development of God all the way to his hiding and withdrawal in Isaiah, where his transcendence is introduced and his unknowableness.

If you don't want to learn of a God who has things happen to him one thing a time, who acts, and then reacts to what he has done, or to what others have done in reaction to him, the book isn't for you. If you don't believe that the God of the Old testament makes plans and adjusts them whey they don't quite work out, it isn't for you. If the words of God's "repenting", "starting over", "looking ahead", and "looking back" bother you, the book won't be for you. You will find yourself having to jump one anthropomorphic hurdle after another.

But if you want to read a book that takes you through the literal words of the Bible spoken about God, you won't want to pass this one up.
His book is brilliantly written. One's religious upbringing may resist some of his style at first blush, but if you give the book a chance, I think you will come away with a broader perspective of the God spoken of in the Old Testament.

I am still in the process of reading this book, but have found it to be the most objective look at the litarary character of God as presented in the Old Testament. The emphasis is not placed on the dogmatic character of God as accepted by most Christians, but instead focuses on the character of God strictly based upon his actions in the Bible. The book follows the evolution of God, as though he was any other litarary character. Very informative approach. You will never look at the Old Testament the same again

God! Actually he is the man of the last 5000+ years. No other man is as well known, spoken of, spoken to, and referred to as God in the history of man. This book describes God within the Judeo-Christian context as portrayed in various versions of the Bible. Specifically, this book examines the Bible as a biography of God; or more specifically, a series of biographies of God, each written by a different author. From this viewpoint, we see how different personality traits are displayed by God depending on which book he is found in. In this way, we see how the representation of God comes from representations of other dieties from throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. The book is not a work of proselytization, but is more of a history book combined with a literary analysis. Overall a great book and recommended for historians, religious scholars, and those of the faith.