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Title: Moses : A Life by Jonathan Kirsch ISBN: 0-345-41270-2 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 02 November, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.2 (10 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: The Real Moses? Who Knows!
Comment: Since there is no archeological evidence that Moses ever existed, author Jonathan Kirsch uses the words of the bible,together with modern biblical scholarship to re-create the great prophet who exists between the lines of scripture. Kirsch goes through each chapter of the bible beginning with the book of Exodus and ending with the book of Deuteronomy and shows where various traditions and counter-traditions might have intersected. He shows the Moses who is portrayed as a great hero by the "Deuteronomist" and the Moses whose role is diminished by the "Priestly source." He discusses virtually every theory including the theory that their were two Moses and the first was murdered! This is surely not the book to read if you are a bible literalist (or an Orthodox Jew) and I certainly don't agree with all his points, being partial to the biblical story myself. But Kirsch is a lively writer and it is an interesting read nonetheless, as is Kirsch's "King David".
Rating: 3
Summary: No life to be found in this life
Comment: There are a number of very good reasons to buy this. But hoping to find a life of Moses is not one of them.
Kirch is very good on the sources who wrote the Bible, and his knowledge of Midrash is astounding.
But he is weakest on the very thing the book advertises - the life of Moses. The story of Moses - unwilling prophet wandering through the desert with a group of thankless former slaves and a God who doesn't know whether to embrace him or kill him - is one of the most moving in all of literature.
Yes, literature. I'm no fundamentalist.
Yet rather than dealing with the text and exploring the relationship between Moses and the Israelites or Moses and God (which for me rivals the relationship between Hamlet and himself), he tears the text apart, searching more often not for who Moses was but for who wrote the Bible.
Much of what he writes is interesting and provocative, though sometimes condescending. But it does not provide a life of Moses.
Rating: 2
Summary: Kirsch is a detached biographer...
Comment: ...too bad he is not a more passionate writer. He seems to miss so many crucial elements in the life of Moses. Yes, there is much missing about this great man known and loved by millions, but Kirsch seems to exult in the petty. He writes as an uninvolved observer of this extraordinary man. There is no love, no passion, no sense of deep respect for Moses in this text. I kept waiting for the page that would reveal some astonishing, delightful insight into this spiritual giant but I read in vain.
Kirsch chooses wonderful subjects but leaves the reader with less information and more questions than when they first picked up the book. More insightful and intiguing studies have been done on the life of Moses. I suggest looking elsewhere for inspiration, no offense to Kirsch.
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Title: Harlot by the Side of the Road by Jonathan Kirsch ISBN: 0345418824 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 03 March, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: King David : The Real Life of the Man Who Ruled Israel by Jonathan Kirsch ISBN: 0345435052 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 28 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Woman Who Laughed at God : The Untold History of the Jewish People by Jonathan Kirsch ISBN: 0670030090 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 11 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: God Against the Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism by Jonathan Kirsch ISBN: 0670032867 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 08 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: God: A Biography by Jack Miles ISBN: 0679743685 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 19 March, 1996 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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