The Hidden Book in the Bible [Paperback]

Richard Elliott Friedman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 18, 1999

Renowned biblical sleuth and scholar Richard Elliot Friedman reveals the first work of prose literature in the world-a 3000-year-old epic hidden within the books of the Hebrew Bible. Written by a single, masterful author but obscured by ancient editors and lost for millennia, this brilliant epic of love, deception, war, and redemption is a compelling account of humankind's complex relationship with God. Friedman boldly restores this prose masterpiece-the very heart of the Bible-to the extraordinary form in which it was originally written.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Richard Elliott Friedman's The Hidden Book in the Bible may be the most important literary discovery of our century. Or it may be a load of guano. The Hidden Book, like Michael Drosnin's The Bible Code, makes the audacious claim that its author has discovered a secret structure of meaning in the holy texts of Christianity and Judaism. Bucking more than a century of biblical textual criticism, Friedman claims that one author, probably a lay person, wrote many of the most familiar stories in the Hebrew Bible (including the stories of Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, and David) as one unified text. The Hidden Book's introduction defends this thesis with close readings of the patterns of punctuation, word choice, sentence structure, and allusion used in these stories; the remainder of the book is a reconstruction of what Friedman says is the original, foundational text at the heart of the Bible.

Unlike The Bible Code, Friedman's book abstains from making specific interpretive claims based on its findings. Yet Friedman does draw one lesson for contemporary readers from the story he has found--perhaps the only element of this book that will escape the controversy it is sure to cause. In an age of relativism, Friedman writes, "Suddenly this work comes back from nearly three thousand years ago. And it says yes, humans have the power to make judgments of what is good and bad and right and wrong. In this story, the creator of the earth does not always reveal what is good and bad, but rather the humans take the fruit that enables them to make these judgments." --Michael Joseph Gross --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Richard Elliott Friedman is that rare biblical scholar who is both able to address a broad audience and willing to raise large speculative issues about the Bible...a challenging, exhilarating theory that will force biblical scholars to rethink some basic assumptions...a bold thesis that should give everyone pause." -- Robert Alter, the New York Times Book Review

"[Friedman's] work is poised to produce one of those once-in-a-generation breakthroughs, after which the field of study can never look the same again." -- H. G. M. Williamson, Regius Professor of Hebrew, Oxford University

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Product Details

• Paperback: 420 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; 1 edition (August 18, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060630043
• ISBN-13: 978-0060630041
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #148,803 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard Elliott Friedman is professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature and holds the Katzin Chair at the University of California, San Diego. One of the premier biblical scholars in the country, he received his doctorate at Harvard and was a visiting fellow at Oxford and Cambridge. Author of The Hidden Face of God, The Hidden Book in the Bible, Commentary on the Torah, The Exile and Biblical Narrative, and the bestselling Who Wrote the Bible?, Friedman is also the president of the Biblical Colloquium West. A consultant to universities, journals, encyclopedias, and publishers, he is also the editor of four books on biblical studies and has authored over fifty articles, reviews, and notes in scholarly and popular publications.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing Reinterpretation of the Bible, January 31, 2002

By 

Sauropod (Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hidden Book in the Bible (Paperback)

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.

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Friedman's best work yet., February 9, 2002

By 

reason (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hidden Book in the Bible (Paperback)

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.

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fleshed out "Book of J" is good, regardless of authorship, November 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Hidden Book in the Bible (Hardcover)

First, a quick primer: People who study the Bible divide the Old Testament into four basic categories depending on who wrote what: The Yahwist Texts, Elohist Texts, Deuteromnic, and Priestly. Yawhist and Elohist texts are both attributed to single authors. Yahwist came from Judah probably, while Elohist came from northern Israel. Their focus is to a large degree in line with where they came from: 1st Kings is Yahwist, 2nd Kings is Elohist. Both write about similar things at times which is why there are similar stories in the Bible, such as Joshua crossing the Jordan River and Moses crossing the Red Sea. "YHVH", or "Yahweh", is where the Latin "Iehova" came from, which is where our "Jehovah" came from today, hence the Yawhist Texts are sometimes called the "J" Texts. The Book of "J" is universally attributed to one author.

I never read the "Book of J", so this is the first time I have had the chance to see the Yawhist Texts put end to end. The adding of additional material into "the book of J" is controversial. Nonetheless it's a fascinating read.

I have one item of concern with the adding of the Material. Just because passages are similar does not mean that they are attributed to the same hand. While the case is strongly made that certain passages _ARE_ related due to word choice and theme, it doesn't mean that relationship is one of authorship. It is entirely possible that the passages can be inter-related with word choice and theme and still be written by different people. It is an age-old technique to gain respectibility of your work/point by mimicking something that came before, and letting readers catch on to it. For example, the Book of Matthew, intended for Jewish readers, is divided into five major "parts", similar in design to the Torah. Jesus and his family flee into Egypt to escape Herod because of Herod's killing of First Borns is at about the same placement as the Book of Exodus in terms of Matthew's progression vs. Torah Progression, and that was done on purpose. It was to make Jewish people _SEE_ the connection of Jesus to themselves. In spite of the similarities here, nobody claims that the Book of Exodus and Book of Matthew were written by the same person. It's just a deliberate similarity--one author mimicked the themes of another on purpose.

The same thing can happen in the Book of Kings vs. the Cain and Able story--one author ties his work into the significance of another. It doesn't necessarily mean both are written by the same person.

Nevertheless, even _IF_ the various passages were written by different people, SEEING THE PASSAGES LINED UP/LINKED IN THE WAY THE _HIDDEN BIBLE_ DOES IT BRINGS OUT THEMES AND MEANINGS WE WOULD OTHERWISE MISS. For that reason by itself, the Hidden Bible would be worth the read, regardles if the Author is one person or several. There are other reasons to be sure, but in the end the themes still hold regardless of authorship.