K. Walker

Artiiculate, Suggestive Interpretation

Revisado: 11-27-22

This is really two very short books wedded together to form one moderately short book. The first half consists of a proposed reconstruction of the historical kernel behind the Bible's story of the Exodus. Friedman utilizes critical textual analysis of the Bible, linguistic evidence, and logic, without bringing archeology into the picture. Overall, his theory seems quite plausible.

It's worth noting that I recently listened to "The Bible Unearthed", and while it did not lend positive support for Friedman's theory, the distinct accounts of Israelite history do not seem incompatible with each other.

The second half of the book concerns the origin and development of Jewish monotheism. The discussion is interesting; but despite Friedman's effort to tie together the two halves, they seem rather weakly related to one another.

I should add that I rather like it when authors "perform" their own books. Friedman's narration is a plus.

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Quite Eye Opening

Revisado: 10-11-22

The authors provide a reasonably detailed reconstruction of the history of the ancient Hebrews, comparing the Biblical text with evidence drawn from archeology, including inscriptions and documents from other ancient kingdoms in the region. I found this evidence, and the conclusions inferred from it, to be somewhat startling. I had already been generally dubious of a literal interpretation of the Bible’s miraculous stories. But beyond this, Finkelstein and Silberman convincingly argue that many details of its prima facie plausible historical accounts also depart from what really happened, and present instead a crafted picture of what the redactors wanted its readers to believe. For example, both the “conquest of Canaan” and the stature of Israel at the time of David and Solomon turn out to have been different in reality than as depicted in the Bible.

Overall, The Bible Unearthed, is well written and not excessively pedantic. I did not find it to be “ideologically driven” as one scholar has alleged, though theirs is obviously not the last word on this topic.

As for the narrator, he did a great job, inspiring me to finish this audiobook before some others I had already begun. I also like the fact that he read through each of the appendices, which are all interesting and informative.

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Peculiar Narration Ruins the Audiobook

Revisado: 06-21-22

First of all, the narrator reads too slowly. This can be rectified, however, by adjusting the speed to 1.25x. Stranger still, he reads the footnotes in a manner that disrupts the flow of the story. Many narrators omit footnotes altogether, others read them so that they mesh seamlessly with the main story. But this narrator reads out the title, publisher, year of publication, as well as the entire URL, as referenced by the respective footnote, something no other narrator I've encountered ever has!

The content of the audiobook is fine, but the peculiar narration makes for an unsatisfactory listening experience overall.

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Interesting Topic Ruined by Poor Narration

Revisado: 04-08-22

I've listened to a lot of audiobooks, but this narrator has to be the worse. He literally cites Nick Redfern's name in the course of the reading as though Nick is not the author of the book, but a reference being cited. Nick Redfern is a good researcher, though, so if you don't mind the narrator there is a lot of interesting information.

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Testimony of Pue Devotion

Revisado: 08-23-19

This is one of the best audiobooks I’ve ever listened to. It’s a plus to have the author as the speaker. This book provides possibly the most comprehensive account of the history of ISKCON, with a special emphasis on the female point of view. I also appreciate the extensive utilization of the memoirs of other devotees, as well as the Lilamrta.

Yamuna devi was great devotee. (One day she should get a Wikipedia page.)

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