Joseph's Bones: Understanding the Struggle Between God and Mankind in the Bible

A bold and radical reinterpretation of the Old Testament. "Brilliant...Nothing quite like it has appeared in years." (Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography )

Imagine if someone who had never heard of Judaism or Christianity read the Old Testament. How could the relationship between God and humanity possibly be understood? In Joseph's Bones, Segal approaches the Bible from this fresh perspective-one framed by the story of the Israelites' fidelity to Joseph-and finds something unexpected: an account of the human condition that reads like an existential novel about the struggle of mankind against the unpredictable and often unwarranted wrath of God. This is a rarity in Biblical interpretation- brilliant and rigorously argued, "a work of stunning originality."

The narratives concerning Joseph, the eldest son of Jacob and Rachel, are related in Genesis, verses 37 to 50. They form the transition between the stories of the patriarchs and the Israelite enslavement in Egypt. Segal points out that Joseph's bones are mentioned three times in the Hebrew Bible and once in the New Testament. He posits that the first six books, Genesis through the Book of Joshua (sometimes called the Hexateuch), reveal a single, powerful, and coherent story that does, in some ways, resemble Greek mythology. "It is not Pious. It does not revere God, but depicts a constant struggle between God and humanity, and in many ways, its sympathies lie with mankind." Philosopher Segal has written a perceptive and intelligent book. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved