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For millennia people have used the Bible as a touchstone on important social and political questions and rightly so But many use the Bible simply as a weapon to wield against opponents in a variety of debates--without knowing what the Bible actually says about the issue in question In The Bible Now two respected biblical scholars Richard Elliott Friedman and Shawna Dolansky tell us carefully what the Hebrew Bible says or does not say about a wide range of issues--including homosexuality abortion womens status capital punishment and the environment In fascinating passages that shed new light on some of todays most passionate disputes the authors reveal how the Bible is frequently misunderstood misquoted mistranslated and misused For instance those who quote the Bible in condemning homosexuality often cite the story of Sodom and those who favor homosexuality point to Davids lament over the death of Jonathan But as the authors show neither passage is clearly about homosexuality and these texts do not offer solid footing on which to make an argument Readers learn that female homosexuality is not prohibited--only male homosexuality And on the subject of abortion the Bible is practically silent with one extraordinary exception The Bible has inspired people to do great good but has also been used by people to do great harm so it is vitally important for us to pay attention to it--and to get it right The Bible Now shows us how we can--and cannot--use this ancient source of wisdom to address our most current and pressing issues.



About the Author

Richard Elliott Friedman

RICHARD ELLIOTT FRIEDMAN is one of the premier bible scholars in the country. He earned his doctorate at Harvard and was a visiting fellow at Oxford and Cambridge, a Senior Fellow of the American Schools of Oriental Research in Jerusalem, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Haifa. He is the Ann & Jay Davis Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Georgia and the Katzin Professor of Jewish Civilization Emeritus of the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of Commentary on the Torah, The Disappearance of God, The Hidden Book in the Bible, The Bible with Sources Revealed, The Bible Now, The Exile and Biblical Narrative, the bestselling Who Wrote the Bible? , and his newest book, The Exodus. He was an American Council of Learned Societies Fellow and was elected to membership in The Biblical Colloquium. His books have been translated into Hebrew, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Polish, Hungarian, Dutch, Portuguese, Czech, Turkish, Korean, and French. He was a consultant for the Dreamworks film "The Prince of Egypt," for Alice Hoffman's The Dovekeepers, and for NBC, A&E, PBS, and Nova.



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