The Digital Renaissance: Review: What We Do Not Know About God and People in the Bible

Sunday, July 23, 2023

Review: What We Do Not Know About God and People in the Bible

What We Do Not Know About God and People in the Bible by Israel Drazin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a short and extremely interesting book that basically asks questions about scripture (specifically the Book of Genesis) and tradition to which we don’t have any specific answer (and may only speculate and/or presume). There are a few sections where the author provides some context, such as the etymology of some of the words substituted for the name God; however, the majority was simply questions without much exposition. An example from Chapter 2: “If the two trees were dangerous, why did God place then in the garden?” This continues for 22 chapters over nearly 100 pages (so the chapters are obviously very short). For the most part, I found the questions to be good and very thought provoking … and therein lies the primary appeal to this book … many religious communities force conformity to the point that questions are not tolerated; this book not only gives us permission to have questions, but it is also okay to be unable to answer them (or by extension tolerate the diversity of speculations born out of our own imaginations). It was a fun book and highly recommended.

Part One - Over 400 Examples of Obscurities in the Biblical Book Genesis
1. God’s Name
2. God’s Behavior
3. Adam and Eve
4. Cain and Abel
5. A Descendent of Cain
6. Abraham
7. Sarah
8. Visitors
9. The Description of Many Cites
10. New Focus on Abraham
11. Abraham’s Nephew
12. Isaac
13. Rebekah
14. Jacob
15. Patriarchs’ Religious Practices
16. Dinah
17. Judah
18. Rachel
19. Joseph
20. Biblical Chapters

Part Two - Mistaken Idea about Jewish Ethics and Behavior
21. Ethics over Law
22. Way to Worship God

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#WhatWeDontKnowAboutGod #LibraryThing

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My Ratings Explained ...

[ ***** ] Amazing Read - Perfect story, exciting, engrossing, well developed complex characters, solid plot with few to no holes, descriptive environments and place settings, great mystery elements, realistic dialogue, believable reactions and behaviors; a favorite that I can re-read many times.
[ **** ] Great Read - Highly entertaining and enjoyable, exciting storyline, well developed characters and settings, a few discrepancies but nothing that can’t be overlooked. Some aspect of the story was new/refreshing to me and/or intriguing. Recommended for everyone.
[ *** ] Good Read - Solid story with a 'good' ending, or has some other redeeming feature. Limited character development and/or over reliance on tropes. Noticeable discrepancies in world building and/or dialog/behavior that were distracting. I connected enough with the characters/world to read the entire series. Most of the books I read for fun are here. Recommended for fans of the genre.
[ ** ] Okay Read - Suitable for a brief, afternoon escape … flat or shallow characters with little to no development. Over the top character dialog and/or behavior. Poor world building with significant issues and/or mistakes indicating poor research. Excessive use of trivial detail, info dumps and/or pontification. Any issues with the story/characters are offset by some other aspect that I enjoyed. Not very memorable. May only appeal to a niche group of readers. Recommended for some (YMMV).
[ * ] Bad Read - Awkward and/or confusing writing style. Poor world building and/or unbelievable (or unlikeable) characters. Victimization, gaslighting, blatant abuse, unnecessary violence, child endangerment, or any other highly objectionable behaviors by Main characters. I didn't connect with the story at all; significant aspects of this story irritated me enough that I struggled to finished it. Series was abandoned. Not recommended.