• Good Book

  • Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible
  • By: David Plotz
  • Narrated by: David Plotz
  • Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (388 ratings)

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Good Book  By  cover art

Good Book

By: David Plotz
Narrated by: David Plotz
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Publisher's summary

Like many Jews and Christians, David Plotz long assumed he knew what was in the Bible. He read parts of it as a child in Hebrew school, then attended a Christian high school where he studied the Old and New Testaments. Many of the highlights stuck with him - Adam and Eve, Cain versus Abel, Jacob versus Esau, Jonah versus whale, 40 days and nights, 10 plagues and commandments, 12 tribes and apostles, Red Sea walked under, Galilee walked on, bush into fire, rock into water, water into wine.

And, of course, he absorbed from all around him other bits of the Bible - from stories he heard in churches and synagogues, in movies and on television, from his parents and teachers. But it wasn't until he picked up a Bible at a cousin's bat mitzvah - and became engrossed and horrified by a lesser-known story in Genesis - that he couldn't put it down.

At a time when wars are fought over scriptural interpretation, when the influence of religion on American politics has never been greater, when many Americans still believe in the Bible's literal truth, it has never been more important to get to know the Bible. Good Book is what happens when a regular guy - an average Job - actually reads the book on which his religion, his culture, and his world are based.

Along the way, he grapples with the most profound theological questions: How many commandments do we actually need? Does God prefer obedience or good deeds? And the most unexpected ones: Why are so many women in the Bible prostitutes? Why does God love bald men so much? Is Samson really that stupid? Good Book is an irreverent, enthralling journey through the world's most important work of literature.

©2009 Harper (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Here are some of the bizarre, hilarious, and disturbing things in the Good Book (i.e., the Hebrew Bible)....Deeply religious people might be offended by the book, but for the rest of us there's a laugh on every page." (Booklist)
"Thanks to David Plotz's amazing book, I will never have to read The Bible. When can he do this for Madame Bovary?" (Andy Borowitz)
"Highly entertaining." (The Jerusalem Post)

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Rollicking trip through the Old Testament

Plotz is smarter than his narrator, even though the author reads the work himself. That is to say, there's a bit of "aw shucks" here, which doesn't conceal Plotz's fundamental seriousness and intelligence.

I've read some other reviews of the written work; many Christians lambast it for not dealing with the New Testament. THAT is NOT Plotz's Bible. He's Jewish, & that's his point-of-view. Bemoaning the lack of NT treatment is absurd.

The author gives us a very thoughtful, amusing, humane reading of the OT. He gives time and attention to stories that we don't hear in Sunday School (nor in Hebrew School, apparently). Even when one might disagree with Plotz's take on some character or event, there's no doubt that he's reading with an open mind. (The only time I had any quarrel with him was when he bent over backwards to put a positive moral spin on some appalling event, though we seldom disagreed for long.)

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26 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

I agree!

While browsing in a book store a couple years ago I came across a bible broken down into 365 daily installments, enabling you to read the bible in a year. One year later my thought was -- why would anyone want to worship the cruel, vicious God of the Old Testament. I thoroughly enjoyed David Plotz' book since it pretty much agreed with what I thought.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Very poor offering

Plotz admits upfront that he is ignorant, but he does not do the courtesy of checking his stated facts with the result that the reader/listener cannot trust what he says. For instance, that in the Torah's Genesis Abraham did not have to kill his son, but 'in the Christian version of the Bible' he did! How absurd! Why, if that were so, then the 12 tribes of Israel would never have been born, and the story of the Bible would never have happened. Plotz is careless, foolish, and a waste of time. His editor couldn't be bothered to check the facts, either, apparently. Very irresponsible writing. The subject deserves better. In fact, any subject at all deserves better.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Lots of fun!

Wildly entertaining and humorous. The short sections also make this ideal for listening to off-and-on. The narrator (who is also the author) has just the right tone for the book. While most of the book is a romp through the Old Testament, the final discussion of how this reading affected the author's faith was insightful and thought provoking.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Cliff notes for the Old Testament

I appreciated books like this for summarizing long stories and presenting the key points because i'm a lazy reader. Hearing these summaries with some wit and personal insight is really entertaining. The authoris convinced the stories cannot be a literal log of early life with God actively at the helm but in the end accepts his Rabbi's explanation of the inclusion of absurd doctrine such as stoning our disobedient children to death, as included for the sake of discussion or debate. If that were so, which fundamental points were real and which were just to make you think, God or the translators left out the italics.
My suggestion to anyone listening to this book for a quick and clear synopsis of the old testament-enjoy this one, then read Conversations With God Book 1 and see what resonates in your heart as true. Be sure to listen to the very end so as not to miss the "greatest lists of the Bible' which are even more absurd and unbelievable when reviewed in sequence. What I see in the history presented in biblical verse is the same practice of doing and explaining away atrocious personal human behavior by claiming it was Gods will or for the honor of God. These are fables written in retrospect years after they occurred preserved and presented to shape future behavior based in fear, not love. Until someone of high moral authority makes it clear that this is self deception and wrong, man will continue to do despicable things to others in their Gods name and look back at it as if it were God's hands themselves at work.So, the only place I disagree with the author is in the explanation of why certain content is included in the bible and the basic nature of God if you don't believe these stories-The question isn't WHY was the God of the old testament so vengeful and violent, is is WAS the God of the old testament vengeful and evil-or were vengeful evil people attributing their unacceptable acts to their God? Again, continue your search for truth in the CWG series.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Good Background and thought provoking

I have never read the bible all the way through either. I was raised going to church every Sunday and most Wednesdays too. I really found it fascinating what was in the Bible vs. the digested stories I was taught.

I wish someone would look at the new testament the same way.

I would definitely recommend this book, unless you are easily offended by an analytical book at the bible.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Not all that interesting

A rather smug, self centered and facile attempt to summarize part of the Old Testament from a humanistic viewpoint. The attempts a comedy don't come off well and are often pointless. Pretty much a waste of time.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Painful

Very painful. I actually winced any number of times as the author made what he obviously thought were very clever observations. His observations were not clever. He seems to be using the Bible as straight man for his comedy act. Only he isn't funny. At all. OK, I did laugh at Brokeback Sinai but anything else that was humorous was from the Bible itself and I already have several of those around the house. He is very proud of his own reasoning skills and uses them freely to pass judgement on God. He seems to believe he is the first person to think of these things. Apparently the people that published this don't get out much either. I have heard these arguments many times.

The whole thing just made me tired.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Hilarious commentary on the old testament

I have thoroughly enjoyed this book, it made a very succinct summary on the old testament, so for those who do not have time to read the entire old testament, this is a viable alternative. The moral repungnance of the old testament is a common knowledge, I found his commentary a bit superficial, this book should really be longer. It's still a good book, and I agree mostly with the author.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

I liked it

I thought this was a great listen. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. I think there may be a few things that slipped past the fact checkers but all in all it was a good book, very funny, very captivating. I would recommend this to anyone regardless of religious views.

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4 people found this helpful