Book Review: The Enhanced Old Testament September 26, 2008 Reviewed by Jeffrey Needle   As I sat reading this morning's newspaper, getting ready for the firstPresidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama, I decided I needed some relief from the financial crisis, the political mess, and the whole world situation.  I skipped directly to the funnies.  Such relief!  One strip is a favorite.  It's called "Pooch Cafe" and stars a thoroughly reprobate dog named Poncho.  His hapless owner often doesn't know what to do with him.  His owner's wife is a cat lover.  You can imagine the friction.  In today's episode, Poncho is wondering why God allowed a tree to fall on his master's house and wreck it.  A fellow pooch suggested that God was confused by the cat hair that covered poor Poncho, and ended up by observing, "Maybe he was in an Old Testament mood."  I laughed out loud.   Just who is this Old Testament God we hear so much about?  He often seems so petulant, so arbitrary, so unpredictable.  We like the New Testament version a lot better.  He seems to have his act together.  Of course, he''s the same God, the same "yesterday, today and forever." But we poor humans continue to struggle  with our perceptions of this elusive deity.   And we often don't do much better when it comes to the patriarchs and prophets who populate holy writ.  Their lives are likewise confusing and contradictory.  It's enough to make an old guy like me throw up my hands in despair and say, "Forget it!  Let's skip to the New Testament!"   As you might expect, there is an abundance of opinion when it comes to the Old Testament God.  Jews and gentiles, believers and skeptics, have all had their say over the years.  We've read so much of it, and dismissed much of this as wildly imaginative and, at times, disingenuous and wrongly imagined.  But the literature is rich in speculation and imagining the lives of not just the God of the Old Testament, but the men and women who populate that record.   Clawson helpfully supplies a key to the reference works he's used to compile his book.  In addition to scripture, he cites:               Velikovsky's "Ages in Chaos"             Gaster's "The Dead Sea Scriptures"             The Forgotten Books of Eden             Hancock's "Fingerprints of the Gods"             Whiston's "Josephus, The Complete Works"             The Book of Jasher             Ginzberg's "The Legends of the Jews"             The Lost Books of the Bible             Barnstone's "The Other Bible"             Yonge's "The Works of Philo"             Velikovsky's "Worlds in Collision"             I dare say there isn't a Chuck-a-Rama on the planet that offers such a rich and tasty selection as does this little book.  The questions becomes, how much weight do we give these works when it comes to understanding the Old Testament's message?   Clawson is careful to preface his thoughts with the warning that the additional materials are presented for "interest only."  In this brief statement, he deflects any idea that he might be advocating the truthfulness, or otherwise, of the various comments.  He maintains a safe distance from the danger of giving too much weight to sources that are, at best, questionable.   What follows is an interesting interweaving of scripture with the sources listed above.  In many cases, the added material adds intriguing dimensions to the scriptural text.  We don't accept these additional sources as canonical.  Nor do we believe that these writings constitute an authoritative corpus of scripture for our edification.  Instead, we are treated to a wide spectrum of delightful tradition and speculation, fun to read, and at times, mind-blowing.   How helpful is it to be able to look into the minds of others as they contemplate the Old Testament story?  I would suggest that we have much to gain from reading these sources.  Of course, we need to maintain a proper distance from them when it comes to authority and canon, but it's sure a lot of fun to brush shoulders with these writers.  Some of what they say may liberate some of us to come a bit higher in our thinking.   Poncho would be proud.   Jeff Needle Association for Mormon Letters   To order: The Enhanced Old Testament   <<< back    next >>>