The Nine Commandments
Uncovering the Hidden Pattern of Crime and Punishment in the Hebrew Bible
-
- $14.99
-
- $14.99
Publisher Description
In a book certain to be as controversial as Harold Bloom's The Book of J and Elaine Pagels's The Gnostic Gospels, David Noel Freedman delves into the Old Testament and reveals a pattern of defiance of the Covenant with God that inexorably led to the downfall of the nation of Israel, the destruction of the Temple, and the banishment of survivors from the Promised Land. Book by book, from Exodus to Kings, Freedman charts the violation of the first nine Commandments one by one-from the sin of apostasy (the worship of the golden calf, Exodus 32) to murder (the death of a concubine, Judges, 19:25-26) to false testimony (Jezebel's charges against her neighbor, Naboth, I Kings 21). Because covetousness, Freedman shows, lies behind all the crimes committed, each act implicitly breaks the Tenth Commandment as well.
In a powerful and persuasive argument, Freedman asserts that this hidden trail of sins betrays the hand of a master editor, who skillfully wove into Israel's history a message to a community in their Babylonian exile that their fate is not the result of God's abandoning them, but a consequence of their abandonment of God. With wit and insight, The Nine Commandments boldly challenges previous scholarship and conventional beliefs.
David Noel Freedman has been General Editor and a contributing coauthor of the Anchor Bible series since its inception in 1956. He is a professor in Hebrew Bible at the University of California, San Diego, and lives in La Jolla, California.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This book is the rare example of a scholar who manages to say something new--new!--in an utterly accessible and engaging book about the Bible. Freedman, the general editor of the Anchor Bible series, argues for a pattern of disobedience throughout the Old Testament: God gave the Ten Commandments, and then one by one, the Israelites broke them. Israelites broke the first two commandments ("You shall have no other gods before me" and "You shall not make for yourself an idol") by worshiping a golden calf instead of God. They subsequently took the Lord's name in vain, broke the Sabbath, shamed their parents, committed adultery and murder, and stole. The tenth commandment--"You shall not covet"--lies at the heart, Freedman asserts, of the other nine; although it is never broken by itself, it is, in a sense, broken nine times. In other words, Achan stole because he coveted someone else's property (Joshua 7); David committed adultery because he coveted another's wife. Throughout the Old Testament, the people of Israel failed to uphold their half of their covenant with God. The "scarlet thread of commandment violations" ends with the exile of Israel. God, Freedman suggests in an important argument, did not abandon Israel; Israel abandoned him and his laws, and God responded. In the tradition of Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg and Robert Alter, Freedman merges two styles of biblical study, exploring the Bible both as theological text and as a work of literature. Freedman has produced a riveting book that will fundamentally change the way readers understand the Old Testament.
