Review: Jerusalem: The Biography

Jerusalem: The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This really does read like a biography of a city. And, given the many millennia of history, not to mention how central it has been to history, religion, politics and pretty much everything else, I can say that reading this book once isn't nearly enough to confidently say I know the history of Jerusalem.

Many of the incidents and issues will be familiar to most, from Bible stories, history books, newspapers, etc. Here they are all interwoven into a thread, with tidbits that (at least to me) are entirely new. For example it was interesting to read how, after Jesus' death, his brother James had been the de-facto head of the religion until Paul came around and insisted on preaching to non-Jews (and after James' death his cousin took over).

Regardless, this book is packed with way too much information to remember, but it is definitely a journey. One reviewer recommended reading it like a work of fiction, and I think I'd agree. It reads like an adventurous history of a land that was (and is) important to so many different people.



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Review: The Gospels: A New Translation

The Gospels: A New Translation by Sarah Ruden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The translator in me loved the amount of detail Ruden goes into, not only with her translation, but with her first explanatory chapter and all of the footnotes. However, much of the discussion of the times and the place in history was too detailed for me. Plus, I felt she was threading the needle for some of these points (e.g. Pontius Pilate was Roman, and the Romans had no history/custom of washing their hands to rid themselves of blame. But it seems natural that, as governor of a Jewish area, he'd be familiar with local customs).

Still, a very meticulous work and interesting read.


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Review: The Whole Bible Story: Everything That Happens in the Bible in Plain English

The Whole Bible Story: Everything That Happens in the Bible in Plain English by William H. Marty
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had been wanting to re-read the Bible, which I had been putting off for a while, and this was a good stopgap. I found it to be a great summary of pretty much everything in the Bible. 

I was sort of hoping it would include the Epistle of James, since I was wondering how he would summarize that and how he would identify James. But there you go...

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Review: Infinity in the Palm of Her Hand: A Novel of Adam and Eve

Infinity in the Palm of Her Hand: A Novel of Adam and Eve by Gioconda Belli
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A retelling of the Adam and Eve story, but from Adam and Eve's point of view. From the decision to eat the forbidden fruit (I was very happy the author didn't make it an apple). It covers the whole "Why create this Chekhov's gun of a tree in the first place if you don't want anyone to partake of its fruit?" issue, but takes it further. As in, God actually wanted humanity to have consciousness, but couldn't do it himself, so he had to create humans with the need for knowledge. 

Regardless, it is interesting to see how they react to animals being hostile, different seasons, whether to kill animals in order to eat, pregnancy, etc., as well as the memory of the Garden of Eden while dealing with real life. 

As for children, it seems to follow a version similar to the Quran (I think), where they have two sets of twins, Cain, Abel, and their sisters (Luluwa and Aklia). There also seems to be a tie into naming Cain after Adam's beloved pet dog. It's difficult to tell in translation, but I'm guessing it's a play on the Latin Canis.

I can't say I liked the ending. There was no mention of Seth. And I didn't really understand what happened to Aklia. Still, definitely an original and pleasurable read. 

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Review: The New Testament: A Translation

The New Testament: A Translation by David Bentley Hart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've always thought the profession of Translator should be more respected when dealing with (a translation of) the Bible. All too many interpretations are taken from commonly accepted faulty translations, and yet very few people are actually qualified to translate ancient Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek from the original/oldest sources. 

Obviously I'm not one of the those people, so I can't really judge the accuracy of Hart's translations, but at least it is something he takes very seriously. His introductory and concluding chapters detail this. In this translation, he endeavors to not only provide an accurate translation (dealing with words like "spirit", "fornication", "eternity", etc.), but also tries to convey the voice of the original text (when it was erudite, when more coarse, when not necessarily written by a native speaker, etc.). 

The result is very interesting indeed. Plus it gave me a chance to revisit the New Testament, which, like it or leave it, is one of the main canonical texts of our age. 

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