From Gods to God: How the Bible Debunked, Suppressed, or Changed Ancient Myths and Legends

by Avigdor Shinan, Avigdor Shinan, Yair Zakovitch

The ancient Israelites believed things that the writers of the Bible wanted them to forget: myths and legends from a pre-biblical world that the new monotheist order needed to bury, hide, or reinterpret.

 

Ancient Israel was rich in such literary traditions before the Bible reached the final form that we have today. These traditions were not lost but continued, passed down through the ages. Many managed to reach us in post-biblical sources: rabbinic literature, Jewish Hellenistic writings, the writings of the Dead Sea sect, the Aramaic, Greek, Latin, and other ancient translations of the Bible, and even outside the ancient Jewish world in Christian and Islamic texts. The Bible itself sometimes alludes to these traditions, often in surprising contexts.

 

Written in clear and accessible language, this volume presents thirty such traditions. It voyages behind the veil of the written Bible to reconstruct what was told and retold among the ancient Israelites, even if it is “not what the Bible tells us.”
 

Genres: Religion, History, Nonfiction, Jewish, Judaism, Theology, Judaica

320 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2012

Reviews

[Theo Logos · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book could have been twice as good if it concentrated on half as much material. Which is to say, it’s not the book I was hoping it would be, or the book that it teased that it would be.

By far, the most interesting parts of this book were the chapters examining pre-monotheistic, pagan traditions that are hinted at in the Hebrew Scriptures. The chapter covering a creation myth of God defeating a great sea dragon (similar to other Near Eastern creation myths) was brilliant, with its evidence hiding in plain sight. Likewise, the chapter on the Sons Of God and the daughters of men being an echo of other myths where divine beings mate with human females to produce semi divine offsprings was promising. Even more so was the chapter on Samson being one of the Nephilim, or Great Men who were offsprings of these divine beings, and showing a link to a Sun deity. Even the chapter on Jacob’s mysterious wrestling match that seems to point to an original story of him actually defeating a divine being had fascinating promise. I wanted more of this — more and deeper detail, more context, more comparison with neighboring mythos.That’s the book I wanted to read. Unfortunately, this book stopped short, starting, but never fulfilling that promise.

Instead, it left me wanting more on all of these stories. In place of added detail and deeper analysis, it added many trivial chapters on who actually had sex with whom, who really killed Goliath, what was Ham’s offense against his father,etc. These stories lacked the heft of the buried pagan traditions, and diluted the potential power of the book.

There is certainly worthwhile information here, and learning a bit about the methods used to discover these buried traditions is interesting, but the dilution of the most impactful stories with lesser trivia was continuously frustrating.

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some chapters are quite striking and interesting, meanwhile others are not. Some chapters feel like the author exploits rather minor differences in the text to prove his point, making mountains out of molehills. Other chapters, like I said, are excellent.

[Ishmael Seaward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book. These authors are clearly authorities in the subject matter and love to solve mysteries buried in Jewish biblical writings. The references include not only the Bible, but the Qu'ran, the New Testament, Josephus, and many midrash writings.

The book is actually 30 chapters, each about 5-10 pages long, that picks apart 30 well-known stories in the Old Testament to get at "the rest of the story." The early Israelites had many myths and legends that the writers of the Bible wanted to obscure as the culture moved from many gods to one God. But the old myths and stories weren't totally obscured. The authors manage to remove the veil of history and get at the real story.

Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (QoS): According to the main Biblical story, Solomon and QoS did not have a sexual relationship. The editors of the Bible did their best to obscure this because they didn't feel it was an appropriate topic for the Bible. However, the use of certain key phrases give away the erotic content: "Who is she who comes up from the dessert like columns of smoke, in clouds of myrrh and frankincense, in all the powders of the merchant?" And the Ethiopian national epic, Kebra Nagast, states that Menelik I was conceived during QoS visit to Solomon. It is also established that Solomon had a special floor made in the palace so that QoS would be forced to raise her skirt, thereby allowing Solomon to judge how hairy her legs were.

The giving of the Law: Moses gave the law to the Hebrews twice, first at Marah, then at Sinai. Joshua, just before his death, gave it to the Hebrews a third time.

This is just a sampling. Five stars because this book will stay on my shelves for additional reading.

[Mindy Burroughs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very illuminating, inspiring more questions than it can possibly give answers. The authors are creative when it comes to diving deeper than the pshat (the simple, top-level interpretation of biblical literature), and they give compelling reasons as to why and how the stories have conflicting details. To me, it read like a conversation, a discussion, not a prescription or even an explanation. I appreciate how the authors find so much meaning in the grey areas and the conflict of “facts” without telling the reader what to think. It’s about what’s possible. Worth reading for fans of Israelite history and midrash.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting book which provides insights into some of the legends, myths, and oral traditions from which the Torah was constructed and the reasons for the alterations made in the process of codifying the Torah. Shinan concentrates on showing the reader that many of these earlier forms still have traces in other books of the Bible.

[Samuel Draper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating dive into the wide, ambiguous, and interconnected world of ancient literary traditions. Zakovitch is such a compelling scholar, and his attention to the odd and notable narratival details of a number of the Bible’s stories brought out so many interesting observations. The existence of fuller or differing character traditions that are found in a number of extra-biblical and intra-biblical sources were fascinating, particularly those located in Mishnaic, Talmudic, and other apocryphal texts. Furthermore, the coy and intentionally ambiguous nature of OT storytelling was well engaged with, which I’m quite glad to see acknowledged. I wish more of Zakovitch’s books were translated to English. Maybe I should make that happen when my Modern Hebrew gets good enough.

High recommendation to those interested in OT Biblical Studies.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

From Gods to God is a book for the specially interested in both mythology and Biblical history, of which I'm mostly just a fan of mythology. My rating should therefore not be seen as ghospel, (Hah!) but rather as the personal enjoyment I got out of the book.

It can be a bit heavy at times and often focus on such minor differences in versions and it does have some wild theories I have a hard time grasping, but it's really interesting. I want to enjoy this more than I do, but as is, I can think of some other people who will enjoy this a lot more than me.

[Nia]

While I remember reading this book and I believe I finished it, I also remember that I had notes somewhere that I want to use for in writing the final review. Since those notes have not surfaced, I will simply leave my impressions, which were essentially that this was pretty obvious, given what we now know about the Documentary Hypothesis. I thought this is otherwise known as the J, the P, and the Deuteronomist. Nevertheless, both interesting and worth reading.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very cogent and persuasive at times. At other points, it feels like the authors are reaching and I was ultimately left unconvinced. Either way, a good book that reminds the reader to dig deep into the source text and re-evaluate what you think you know.

[Keith Pinckney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Illuminating.

[Michael Moniz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely interesting with reasonable arguments and thought-provoking. However, it doesn't necessarily follow the Gods to God narrative of the title.

[Yehudis Dick Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, engaging read. The chapters are short and can be read out of order.

[Akiva Weisinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Their main contention is that biblical texts can be seen as building on/responding to texts that come before it. That's relatively uncontroversial. I think, though, they end up too enamored with their own theory, and they end up ripping apart the text in order to show the various competing ideologies when its unnecessary, and in fact, illogical to do so. One example is that they explain the story of David and Avigayil to be a censored version of an original story where David looks much worse, because the author of Shmuel definitely did not want David to look like someone who takes people's wives. Which raises the obvious question of the story of David and Batsheva, to which they answer, the story of David and Avigayil is there to make it David and Batsheva less damning. Which has numerous issues. Number one, it doesn't quite work. Number two, why censor one and not the other? It seems much more straightforward to assume that the author of Shmuel is more than just a propagandist, and his portrayal of David is not propaganda but literature, perhaps even history. Thus, I feel their methods are mostly invalid for Tanach. Where its value truly lies, I think, is in their way of reading Midrashim as older traditions that didn't quite make it in.

[Amos Vos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quote from the Book:
Is it conceivable that the Bible did not faithfully transmit events as those events occurred? That it allowed itself to alter what had been recounted in our forebears’ homes about the history of Israel and its heroes and even about the acts and pronouncements of God? To each of these questions we answer yes. (p. 267)