A fantastic idea for students of the Bible but one that isn’t fully fleshed out.
Debut author Stevens explores the different names of God as found in the book of Psalms.
The author rightly notes that English translations of the Bible all but ignore the many versions of the names used for God in the Old Testament. A prime example of this is the book of Psalms, in which the author identifies 16 distinct Hebrew words which, when translated into English, are presented simply as “God.” These variations on God’s name include, for example, “Adonai” (“the Lord we are His servants”), “El” (“Most High”), “Yah” (“Sacred”), and, of course, “Yahweh” (“Sacred and Personal”). Stevens notes that God’s name appears more than 1,200 times in the Psalms, yet the most commonly used form is “Yahweh,” with 555 instances. By ignoring the rich differences in the use of God’s name, she asserts, “The reader misses the fervor associated with each name unless they happen to study the Hebrew text.” In order to rectify this problem, Stevens has reprinted the entire book of Psalms, from the King James Version translation, adding in the Hebrew meanings of each use of “God” throughout. For instance, Psalm 81:4 is presented as, “For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God Mighty One of Jacob,” denoting that “God” here, in Hebrew, is “Elohe,” which is most properly read as “the Mighty One.” The author is to be lauded for providing average Bible readers with a useful tool and, moreover, for highlighting a limitation in English translations of which very few readers of the Bible will be aware. Her work could have been greatly augmented by a few study aids, however; she provides only a scant introduction, for instance, which only slightly touches upon the book’s topic. Even a few more pages that delved into the practice of qualifying God’s name in Hebrew would have been useful. This is a topic with a rich history, but it’s one that’s undervalued by English readers of the Old Testament. Commentary on how these many names specifically touch upon Christian tradition might have also been a worthwhile addition.
A fantastic idea for students of the Bible but one that isn’t fully fleshed out.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2017
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 247
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”
The powerful story of a father’s past and a son’s future.
Atlantic senior writer Coates (The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, 2008) offers this eloquent memoir as a letter to his teenage son, bearing witness to his own experiences and conveying passionate hopes for his son’s life. “I am wounded,” he writes. “I am marked by old codes, which shielded me in one world and then chained me in the next.” Coates grew up in the tough neighborhood of West Baltimore, beaten into obedience by his father. “I was a capable boy, intelligent and well-liked,” he remembers, “but powerfully afraid.” His life changed dramatically at Howard University, where his father taught and from which several siblings graduated. Howard, he writes, “had always been one of the most critical gathering posts for black people.” He calls it The Mecca, and its faculty and his fellow students expanded his horizons, helping him to understand “that the black world was its own thing, more than a photo-negative of the people who believe they are white.” Coates refers repeatedly to whites’ insistence on their exclusive racial identity; he realizes now “that nothing so essentialist as race” divides people, but rather “the actual injury done by people intent on naming us, intent on believing that what they have named matters more than anything we could ever actually do.” After he married, the author’s world widened again in New York, and later in Paris, where he finally felt extricated from white America’s exploitative, consumerist dreams. He came to understand that “race” does not fully explain “the breach between the world and me,” yet race exerts a crucial force, and young blacks like his son are vulnerable and endangered by “majoritarian bandits.” Coates desperately wants his son to be able to live “apart from fear—even apart from me.”
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”Pub Date: July 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9354-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
