{"id":50,"date":"2009-04-27T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-27T08:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/04\/the-hebrew-bible-for-kids-and-for-adults-who-are-kids.html"},"modified":"2009-04-27T08:30:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-27T08:30:00","slug":"the-hebrew-bible-for-kids-and-for-adults-who-are-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/04\/the-hebrew-bible-for-kids-and-for-adults-who-are-kids.html","title":{"rendered":"The Hebrew Bible for Kids, and for Adults Who Are Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It always breaks my heart to see how simplemindedly the Hebrew Bible is discussed in the media. David Plotz, editor of <a href=\"http:\/\/slate.com\/\">Slate<\/a>, has a new book out about the experience of trying to read the Bible straight through &#8212; apparently with no serious Jewish commentary, an impossibility for adults, I would think.\u00a0Without the oral tradition that explains the Torah and the rest of the Bible, how could anyone take that stuff seriously?\u00a0<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The result sound predictably juvenile and depressing, a la A.J. Jacobs&#8217;s\u00a0<span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-style: italic\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Year-Living-Biblically-Literally-Possible\/dp\/0743291476\">The Year of Living Biblically<\/a><\/span>. He has an interview in <span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-style: italic\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/online\/blogs\/books\/2009\/04\/the-exchange-david-plotz.html\">The New Yorker<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0Excerpt:<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\"><p>My favorite bits of the Bible tend to be those that show human beings behaving in our flawed, weak ways: Jonah whining about God&#8217;s mercy to Ninevites; David sexually misbehaving and expecting God&#8217;s forgiveness; Elijah playing the dozens with King Ahab; Moses whacking the rock in frustration.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Sigh. No wonder you have atheists like Sam Harris (who is Jewish too, by birth) rejecting Biblical religion &#8212; talking snakes in the Garden of Eden and all that &#8212; not realizing that the Bible he finds worthy only of contempt I would also find contemptible if it were the authentic Jewish understanding of Scripture.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Do you really think that the Bible as it stands, without explanation, is worthy of adult consideration? Seriously?<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It always breaks my heart to see how simplemindedly the Hebrew Bible is discussed in the media. David Plotz, editor of Slate, has a new book out about the experience of trying to read the Bible straight through &#8212; apparently with no serious Jewish commentary, an impossibility for adults, I would think.\u00a0Without the oral tradition&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hebrew-bible-oral-torah"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Hebrew Bible for Kids, and for Adults Who Are Kids - Kingdom of Priests<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/04\/the-hebrew-bible-for-kids-and-for-adults-who-are-kids.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Hebrew Bible for Kids, and for Adults Who Are Kids - Kingdom of Priests\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It always breaks my heart to see how simplemindedly the Hebrew Bible is discussed in the media. David Plotz, editor of Slate, has a new book out about the experience of trying to read the Bible straight through &#8212; apparently with no serious Jewish commentary, an impossibility for adults, I would think.\u00a0Without the oral tradition&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/04\/the-hebrew-bible-for-kids-and-for-adults-who-are-kids.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Kingdom of Priests\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-04-27T08:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Klinghoffer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Hebrew Bible for Kids, and for Adults Who Are Kids - Kingdom of Priests","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/04\/the-hebrew-bible-for-kids-and-for-adults-who-are-kids.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Hebrew Bible for Kids, and for Adults Who Are Kids - Kingdom of Priests","og_description":"It always breaks my heart to see how simplemindedly the Hebrew Bible is discussed in the media. David Plotz, editor of Slate, has a new book out about the experience of trying to read the Bible straight through &#8212; apparently with no serious Jewish commentary, an impossibility for adults, I would think.\u00a0Without the oral tradition&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/04\/the-hebrew-bible-for-kids-and-for-adults-who-are-kids.html","og_site_name":"Kingdom of Priests","article_published_time":"2009-04-27T08:30:00+00:00","author":"David Klinghoffer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/04\/the-hebrew-bible-for-kids-and-for-adults-who-are-kids.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/04\/the-hebrew-bible-for-kids-and-for-adults-who-are-kids.html","name":"The Hebrew Bible for Kids, and for Adults Who Are Kids - Kingdom of Priests","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-04-27T08:30:00+00:00","dateModified":"2009-04-27T08:30:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/#\/schema\/person\/6e6734f7e172e24221264a565e8f4454"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/04\/the-hebrew-bible-for-kids-and-for-adults-who-are-kids.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/04\/the-hebrew-bible-for-kids-and-for-adults-who-are-kids.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/04\/the-hebrew-bible-for-kids-and-for-adults-who-are-kids.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Hebrew Bible for Kids, and for Adults Who Are Kids"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/","name":"Kingdom of Priests","description":"David Klinghoffer","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/#\/schema\/person\/6e6734f7e172e24221264a565e8f4454","name":"David Klinghoffer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/285\/28517f740f5d348f010a20178619ea6cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/285\/28517f740f5d348f010a20178619ea6cx96.jpg","caption":"David Klinghoffer"},"description":"David Klinghoffer is an author and senior fellow in the Religious, Liberty & Public Life program at the Discovery Institute. His writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the National Review, the Weekly Standard, and the Jewish Forward. A California native, he currently lives on Mercer Island, Washington, with his wife and five children.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/author\/dklinghoffer"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}