When in Jerusalem recently I was interviewed for TLV1, an English-language internet radio station, about How the Bible Became Holy. The interview can be heard here, starting around minute 25.
Review
Was Paul a Palestinian Jew?
In her review of How the Bible Became Holy in the Wall Street Journal, Sarah Ruden wrote:
He tries to undercut, for instance, the well-founded consensus that Paul was a Diaspora Jew, from a family established in Tarsus (in modern-day Turkey), who first lived in Jerusalem during his youth or young adulthood for study and professional and religious development. For this account Mr. Satlow substitutes a speculative one of Paul as a cradle Palestinian Jew, and he does this seemingly in order to support a widespread characterization of the evangelist as a traitor to his heritage: As far as scripture is concerned, Paul hawked a debased version among people he didn’t know and who themselves didn’t know any better; he wasn’t one of them, attuned to their needs and aspirations; holy writing as he presented it and remade it thus has no deep integrity.
(my bold)
Ruden’s charge that appears after the sentence in bold – that Paul “hawked a debased version” and was a “traitor” – I found entirely bizarre. I neither made this charge in my book nor do I believe that it is remotely true.
As for the sentence in bold, I do argue that Paul was born and raised in Palestine. But is it speculative? Or, maybe more precisely, is it any more speculative than the “well-founded consensus”? And what is at stake? I have recently posted an essay that sketches the existing evidence on both sides of this question and develops in more detail why I think what I do. A more scholarly version of this argument is forthcoming, and will eventually be posted here.
In the interim, my essay can be found here.
Another Review: H-Net
Another review of How the Bible Became Holy, this one by Ronald Hendel, was posted on H-Net and is available here.
And a couple more reviews….
Above is the interview that I had with Steven Weiss on The Jewish Channel about my book. My three minutes begins at 4:00.
Two other reviews appeared the other week in newspapers:
More Reviews
Reviews of How the Bible Became Holy have begun to appear. Here are the ones that I know about:
The Jewish Daily Forward: http://forward.com/articles/200343/how-we-know-the-bible-was-written-by-human-hands/?p=all
Commentary: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/missing-the-text/
Los Angeles Review of Books: http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/timely-history-timeless-story
There has also been a surprisingly sophisticated discussion of the book appearing in less formal web venues, which is especially gratifying.
Some of the reviews raise serious issues that deserve response. Despite my desire to respond to them as they come out (I am practically jumping out of my skin with the desire to do so), I do believe that the “author is dead” (metaphorically!) – I have had my say and now rather than attempting to steer the conversation I want to hear the reactions of others. At some later point I will prepare a unified response, probably to be posted here. Should you have any other reactions that you wish to share, by all means feel free to leave them as comments here or to email me directly (but better if they are left as comments).
Also, there is an interview with me appearing on The Jewish Channel this week. I will post the entire interview when it appears, but highlights are contained in the clip above beginning at 6:37.