Secret Bible of Luck & Happiness

By Joseph R. Rosenbloom

Book Overview

A secular approach to The Bible This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B000XOM0RO
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Jack Malbourg
• Length: 133 Pages
• Weight: 0.79 lbs.

Customer Reviews

"The Secret Bible" is highly recommended and provocative reading

Joseph Rosenbloom was ordained as a Reform rabbi in 1954 and served congregations in St. Louis and Lexington. He retired from Temple Emanuel in St. Louis in 2003 and is now their rabbi emeritus and senior scholar. Rabbi Rosenbloom brings a very special expertise to "The Secret Bible: A Secular Approach To The Bible" in his 192-page examination of the traditions comprising the Hebrew Bible (known to Christians as the Old Testament). His principle thesis is that these traditions were, in their original form, basically secular. It was much later, when the existence of the Jewish people was threatened, the texts that made up the Hebrew Bible were 'religionized', that is, when they were seen as stories and histories that had a single, all-powerful deity with a unique and special relationship with the Jewish people. Many of the legal codes of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible are secular. The stories of the first Hebrews and comprising the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses) are basically secular accounts of families and their problems. The religious elements were added later in the history of the Israelites. "The Secret Bible" reveals that the secular nature of the Hebrew Bible will make it more accessible and of value to readers who do not accept God as the author of history and in control of nature. Articulate, well-reasoned, informed and informative, "The Secret Bible" is highly recommended and provocative reading for students of Judaism, Christianity, Humanism, Religion, and History.