A couple months ago, Jim brought home a book from our church's library. I must mention that 99% of the books in there are from before I was born, so I was surprised at the "newness" of the book. Its title, "The Hidden Book in the Bible" was also very compelling. For quite some time now, I have believed that the midrash stories of old had been collected for the Old Testament. Take the stories, add some history, then smatter a TON of laws and social stuff and...voila! A Bible is born.
So I started reading the preface information. Richard Elliott Friedman was extremely verbose in his discovery of the "hidden" book of the Bible. He went back to the original Hebrew and translated as close as possible, not deviating from awkward sentences, etc. He claimed that the hidden book included all the popular stories from Sunday School - all those that didn't include Jesus that is. However, his claim is that this "hidden" book was written by one person. No storytelling history here...just the work of one person (man or woman). Apparently many Bible scholars attribute the Old Testament to the work of 4 sources. Regardless what the truth is, I was extremely interested in reading Friedman's interpretation.
The narrative is quite brief in comparison, but all my favorites were in there. That is, until I came to the Ten Commandments. Now, depending on if you grew up Lutheran or another Christian religion your "ten" are divided differently. However, they are either from Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5:6-21. As noted above, the "hidden" book doesn't include any one book of the Old Testament, so many stories are different or shorter than my many readings of the Bible. However, I was shocked to read the "hidden" book's ten were from a completely different place. Here is the text from Exodus 34:14 -26 from the NIV:
14 Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. 15 "Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. 16 And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.
17 "Do not make cast idols.
18 "Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt.
19 "The first offspring of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock. 20 Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem all your firstborn sons.
"No one is to appear before me empty-handed.
21 "Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.
22 "Celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. [b] 23 Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD, the God of Israel. 24 I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the LORD your God.
25 "Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Feast remain until morning.
26 "Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God.
"Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk."
So here are these interesting commandments of the Lord. Yes, in the greater work of the Bible as we know it; but the only ten in this "hidden" book. These commandments are what were carried in the ark of the covenant. My personal favorite is the young goat in its mother's milk. I really think that is kosher law, but I might be wrong.
I plan on finishing this "hidden" book today, as it isn't much to accomplish with a sick child (even though the sun is shinning and the temperature is warm).
I believe that I am a very open person. I keep an open heart and mind to interpretations of books, especially the Bible. Everyone thinks he/she has the right interpretation, and that is no different that Friedman's attempt at the investigation behind "The Hidden Book in the Bible." I, on the other hand, do not believe that there was one person that wrote the "hidden" story. It could have been a couple people compiling other works, but it seems rather bizarre to think that stories like the flood and creation were written down originally. This is all considering that these stories have been found in other cultures from thousands of years before common era. It's a cool idea, but artistic drama created for the sell of a contemporary book.
And thus my thoughts are finished.
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