Classics and Religious Studies
Title
Review of The Harlot by the Side of the Road: Forbidden Tales of the Bible, by Jonathan Kirsch
Document Type
Article
Date of this Version
June 1998
Abstract
Many modern readers think of the
Bible as a "dry and preachy" book,
not having much sympathy for the
all-too-human passions of sex, violence
and greed. In this book, Jonathan
Kirsch, author, book columnist
for the Los Angeles Times and practicing
lawyer, attempts to change that
impression, to reveal the Bible's fullness
in recounting human complexity. In the process, Kirsch hopes "to
take back the Bible from the strict and censorious people who wave it in
our faces and to restore it to the worldly
man or woman who will appreciate the
flesh-and-blood passions that are described
in the Holy Scriptures."
Unlike most books about the Bible,
this one begins with a warning: "The stories
you are about to read are some of the
most violent and sexually explicit in all of
Western literature. They are tales of
human passion in all of its infinite variety:
adultery, seduction, incest, rape,
mutilation, assassination, torture, sacrifice,
and murder. And yet every one of
these stories is drawn directly from the
pages of the Holy Bible."
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Comments
Published in Bible Review XIV:3 (June 1998), pp. 10-12. Copyright 1998 Biblical Archeological Society. Used by permission. http://www.bib-arch.org/bswb_BR/indexBR.html