The Hidden Book in the Bible PDF
Preview The Hidden Book in the Bible
The Hidden Book in the Bible Restored, Translated, and Introduced by Richard Elliott Friedman This book is dedicated to my beloved daughter Jesse Rebekah Friedman who has brought me so much happiness Contents Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Recovery of the Work 2. Reading the Work About the Translation In the Day Afterword Textual Notes Appendix 1. Converging Evidence for the Unity of the Work 2. The Antiquity of the Work 3. Late for a Very Important Date 4. Distribution of Terms in Prose Narrative Notes About the Author Other Books by Richard Elliott Friedman Copyright About the Publisher PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I arrived at this discovery twelve years ago. Because of its potential significance, I proceeded extremely slowly and cautiously. I passed it before as many colleagues as possible to get their reactions and criticism. I first presented it as a paper before the Biblical Colloquium, the forty-year-old distinguished society of biblical scholars, at its annual meeting held at Princeton University in 1986. I then presented it to seminars at the University of Cambridge; Yale University; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of California, San Diego; the Hebrew University in Jerusalem; and the American Schools of Oriental Research at the Albright Institute in Jerusalem. The overall response was encouraging. I learned much from criticisms that were raised, and I addressed them in subsequent research, and the case became progressively clearer as a result. The enthusiasm of the response grew over the course of the presentations. I also tried out the idea at meetings of clergy and in open lectures at universities and to the public. And I used my best, time-tested means of working out a new idea: I gave a course on the material and worked through it with my students. The twelve years that it has taken have been well worth it. I present the restored work that appears in this book with confidence that it is in fact the first great prose work of world literature. I have tried to present it in such a way that both laypersons and scholars will be able to judge the evidence for themselves and see its remarkable unity. I am particularly grateful to my colleagues in San Diego at the University of California: David Goodblatt, Thomas Levy, William Propp, and especially our senior colleague, David Noel Freedman. It is remarkable fortune to have such a group of admirable scholars right in one’s own backyard, to share and test ideas, to catch mistakes, and to encourage one another. The editor of this book, at Harper Collins, is Mark Chimsky. The work benefited from his superb skills and understanding. Elaine Markson, my literary agent, nurtured the work from start to finish. And, as always, my wife, the legal anthropologist, listened patiently to things that are not in her field, and, as always, improvement resulted from her good sense. And so I am grateful to the many readers and listeners who refined this work by their reactions, comments, and wisdom. I hope that, with their help, I have done justice to the great anonymous author who gave us this treasure. Richard Elliott Friedman Jerusalem April 1998 INTRODUCTION
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