David Plotz, a proud but mostly secular Jew, read the Bible for the first time, every word of it. Plotz didn’t have any particular spiritual agenda in mind; he was simply reading out of curiosity and fascination. He, all of a sudden, had the need to understand the book that has shaped his religion and culture.
His column “Blogging the Bible” on Slate.com was the precursor to his new book about his Bible reading adventure called Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible. “Every single word of the Bible” doesn’t include the New Testament of course. As a Jew, he is exempt.
On the surface, Good Book reads like a chapter-by-chapter summary of the Hebrew Bible. Plotz mixes witty, thoughtful and often hilarious commentary with personal anecdotes: sometimes heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking. He occasional uses quotes from rabbinical Bible scholars to put context into perspective, but more often than not, Good Book is a common man’s guide to the Bible.
But Good Book is much more than a Bible summary. It is a memoir about a man eagerly reading the book that influenced nearly every aspect of his life; learning about his Jewish heritage. “Reading the Bible has joined me to Jewish life in a way I never thought possible,” Plotz shares. Throughout his reading, he becomes horrified and delighted and then horrified again at what he reads. Good Book is about a Biblically uneducated man learning who the God of the Bible is for the first time, ultimately rethinking his entire belief system and changing his life forever. It’s a pretty powerful and thought provoking read. Consider this quote from the last chapter of the book:
After reading about the genocides, the plagues, the murders, the mass enslavements, the ruthless vengeance for minor sins (or no sin at all), and all that smiting—every bit of it directly performed, authorized, or approved by God—I can only conclude that the God of the Hebrew Bible, if He existed, was awful, cruel, and capricious. He gives us moments of beauty—sublime beauty and grace!—but taken as a whole, He is no God I want to obey, and no God I can love.
Throughout the book, Plotz argues the importance of Biblical literacy. So much of our culture is deeply in the scriptures. At times though, in Plotz’ summary of the Bible, you get the feeling that he is skimming over parts, or at least summarizing in a way that is more entertaining to the reader, at the expense of accuracy. The story of Lot is an example. In Genesis 19, Lot and his two daughters flee from the destroyed ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah and settle in a cave. The daughters, thinking there are no men alive on the earth get Lot drunk and sleep with him “so that we may preserve offspring through our father.” A disturbing, but genuinely sincere plan: simply wanting to preserve mankind. Plotz makes the daughters out to be sex-crazed party animals. He writes, “But then the two daughters—think of them as Judea’s Hilton sisters—complain that cave life is no fun because there aren’t enough men around. So, one night they get Lot falling-down drunk, have sex with him, get pregnant, and bear sons.” Entertaining yes, but not completely accurate.
Ultimately, Good Book is, well…good, really good even. Plotz is an excellent writer. He successfully treads the line between very funny, and extremely serious. Not an easy thing to do. Plotz’ pitch for Good Book: “If you don’t have the time or inclination to read the Bible, you can just read Good Book instead. Good Book is unlike the Bible in one very significant way: you can, without feeling guilty, keep it in the bathroom.”
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