Interesting take on the bible

I loved the authors walkthrough of the bible stories and the story of God himself. I think the crescendo is the story of Job and his analysis in the final chapter . After the Job chapter, and God becomes silent I became bored. Up until that point it was following very closely, great perspective and say to piece this story together .

Free Palestine

Only a former Jesuit could have written this. Treating God as the protagonist in an epic that's "more" chronological than Christian Scripture is thought-provoking, if not earthshaking. Jack Miles looks as the different roles Scripture gives to God. It has the effect of remaking the divine in very mortal form. This God grows in understanding. This God can be bested. This God is conflicted: "A monotheism in which the divine is not just conceived but also imagined as one must have a different effect on its adherents than one in which the divine is conceived as one but imagined -- and portrayed in art, drama, and folklore -- as many. ... It must foster a way of thinking of the self as similarly composite and similarly alone." This book is not for fundamentalists; the reader has to be able to keep the premise foremost while reading it. I think it also helps to read the book as the first of a two-volume work, the second being Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God, Miles' sequel.

Interesting view of the Bible. I’ve heard the opinions and justifications of the Bible as a literary work and this dives deep into that hypothesis. There are some broad assumptions made by the author that have little to no evidence, though many of them are widely accepted by both religionists of biblical sects as well as secular scholars. Some of these are, but not limited to, (1) The idea that the Creation was indeed the beginning and that we did not exist as cognitive beings prior to and in God’s presence. (2) The idea that God, El, was alone in the creative process, even though the Hebrew often uses a plural, Elohim, and God is directing someone(s) in the narrative. (3) Assuming that the Bible is all of God’s word and dealing with man, hence his reliance on things such as Cain never being commanded not to kill or Abraham’s test. (4) God is a master puppeteer and simply pulling the strings verses mankind making their choices and having to face the consequences. (5) That somehow Christ is not seen and looked for as early as Adam and even down through Abraham and Moses. (6) God simply excluded His dealings with the patriarchs, then the Israelites, then the Jews. There are additional records that show the divine relationship of God with other people beyond the Biblical text. (7) The prophetical words have only one meaning or were to conclude at some earlier time and have yet to come to pass. (8) The biggest assumption is that God is a changing being not constant or that there is not both perfect mercy and perfect justice at play.

There are many more ideas that could be poked at. The look at the Biblical as a literary piece is interesting but it is confining. The Bible is not complete and must not be seen in a completeness. There is more that clarifies so many of the very issues that he brings up.

This God guy is an absolute madman. I’d never want to party with him.

It is a wonderfully fresh perspective and was masterfully written. That being said, there were parts in the middle that dragged a bit. 3.5 is a closer reflection of my true rating, but such is not possible so I had to settle for a 3

This was fascinating and and a really great analysis of God as a character in the story of the Bible. However, it felt like the writing was very heavy and almost tiring to read hence the 3 stars. It's clear though that Jack Miles put a ton of work and thought into this analysis. I don't remember how this book made its way onto my shelf but I'm glad I read it.

Time and again mister Miles surprises me by presenting God as a character in all the ways our religious upbringing failed to present him. The opposite of almighty and sovereign sometimes. The bible as a book of adventures, how is this so utterly original? A book of a scholar (Miles was trained by Jesuits), but itself an adventure to read. Amusing, sometimes liberating. Maybe theologically interesting also, but most of all a refreshing look on how the bible is first grade literature. This is what famous Dutch writers like Gerard Reve and Jan Wolkers already knew very well and told us emphatically.

This book doesn’t share anything new to those who read the Bible. God is presented as a complex character, rather than a real personage. A close reading of the Bible makes that obvious already. This book could be interesting if he went off the text of the Bible a bit more and used texts from that time to show more of how God was created.

Brilliant piece of literary criticism, friendly to the believer and the nonreligious alike.

Through a close reading of the Tanakh, Miles demonstrates how the God character evolves. In Genesis, God is portrayed as both creator and destroyer, a figure of power and wrath. However, as the narrative progresses, God also reveals compassion and a capacity for relationship with humanity. This shift in characterization raises questions about the nature of God and the development of the Hebrew religion.

By analyzing God as a character, Miles suggests that the Tanakh is ultimately a story about humanity. God's actions and reactions reflect human emotions, desires, and struggles. This literary device allows readers to grapple with their own moral dilemmas and understand the complexities of human nature.

This is a book with which I thoroughly disagreed, and thoroughly enjoyed. On the one hand, Miles is a vivid interpreter and helps you to really appreciate the Old Testament (or Tanakh, as he rather forcefully presents with his in my opinion forced narrative of an active beginning God and a closing God who "loses interest") as literature, compelling and enthralling literature. On the other hand, he pushes his thesis (narrative?) of "God in tension" to the breaking point. He finds the tension within Yahweh to be irreducible; he seems to have little favor for the idea that "God is one" (presented in the book as the view of the Dtr). For my part, certainly there is a tension in the character of the OT God, but it is not as irreducible as Miles says it is. For example, in the closing Miles blithely states that "....but it may also be taken as a statement about the initial untransparency of God to himself. He wants an image because he needs an image" (402). I found myself saying "Really? The text just doesn't say that!"

To sum up perhaps the major difference between myself and Miles is that I am a Christian interpreter. The literary drama of the First Testament finds its climax in Jesus Christ, not "God losing interest". Perhaps his biography is closer to the raw "tragedy" of a hopelessly deluded God, but I am one who thinks that the Biblical story (and indeed life itself) goes "Beyond Tragedy". From a literary standpoint, though, tragedy is quite the cathartic experience.