Doesn’t tell one: how to read the bible, the nuances, the symbolisms, the internal structure, the immediate impacts, the inter-communications among thDoesn’t tell one: how to read the bible, the nuances, the symbolisms, the internal structure, the immediate impacts, the inter-communications among the biblical texts, the many parallels, the mythic origins, the historical scholarship, the civilizational conflicts; textual discussions on: the evolution of two religions, the reasons for conflicts between the two, the rise of the cousin; the role of the greek and roman philosophies, the difficulties of interpretation, etc. That could have been a wonderful VSI.
This is instead a VSI about: the history of the bible — on how it was constructed, put together, contested; has been read, argued for, interpreted, defended, codified, canonized, regaled, defiled, blamed, contested, disproved, reinterpreted, etc. And I should stop — I am making it sound better than it really is. Anyway, not anywhere near as good as it could have been if it was about the Bible itself instead of about its history. At the very least it could have been a book about how to read the Bible. But then it would only serve as introduction for newcomers to the Bible… but wait, isn’t that the purpose of a VSI? A book about an eastern text wouldn’t have taken it for granted that the reader is familiar with the text and just discussed the ‘interesting’ tidbits of its later development. What exactly is being 'introduced' then? This is where some of the west-centric aspects of this series peep through, well, a bit....more
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