Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible
Here are some of the bizarre, hilarious, and disturbing things in the Good Book (i.e., the Hebrew Bible). Cain gets off scot-free after killing Abel. Abraham dies at age 175, “a good ripe age, old and contented.” Jacob wrestles with and defeats an angel. God keeps seething about the golden calf. David sets himself up as a guerrilla, a freedom fighter. He’s the George Washington of Judea. Solomon really doesn’t dig Jewish girls, preferring the thrill of the pagan. King Ahaziah is seen as Israel’s precursor to Gerald Ford. Plotz compares Ezekiel to the bad parts of Portrait of a Lady, Madame Bovary, and Married with Children rolled up into a ball of rage. Deeply religious people might be offended by the book, but for the rest of us there’s a laugh on every page. --George Cohen