At first glance, Jonathan Kirsch's new book could be mistaken for a steamy romance novel. A misty painting of a veiled woman with long, dark tresses graces the cover. As an enticement, Kirsch decided to highlight seven stories of incest, gang rape, child sacrifice and mass murder that he asserts have been censured, suppressed or ignored over the millennium.
Some people prefer the Bible to be cleaned up or prettied up.
I think it took chutzpah to write this book. The intent may appear to simply shock. But Kirsch said he hopes that exposing the Bible's underbelly will tempt readers who would otherwise dismiss the holy text as a collection of fluffy, feel-good stories. The Los Angeles author, whose book tour will bring him to the Bay Area in early June, offers the seven provocative and sometimes horrific sagas in plain, modern English. Kirsch, for example, retells the seduction of Lot by his two daughters after they flee the destruction of Sodom.