3 out of 4 stars
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In the beginning of The Biblical Clock we are told that it is not a book to read in one sitting. What the authors, Daniel Friedmann and Dania Sheldon should have advised us, is to read it at least twice to absorb it. Although classified as non-fiction, the book also uses fiction to achieve its objective. It boldly sets out to marry two apparently disparate ways of measuring time; to show that the six-day timeline for the creation and development of the universe in the book of Genesis, coupled with biblical accounts of human history, is mirrored by science’s 13.8 billion-year period for the same. This is, of course, and age-old preoccupation for just about everyone from a culture with a creation myth that is confronted with the challenges science poses to traditional beliefs. Friedmann and Sheldon take us on a journey through the creation story and its establishment of the End of Days. They provide an explanation of how this end will come and then tie up everything to demonstrate our role in bringing about the Messianic Era.
The authors synthesise voluminous information very well, making the book educational and thought-provoking. One does not need to be adept in the bible, or any scripture, for the hypotheses to make sense. Further, there is a detailed glossary, and reference maps to aid the reader. I particularly liked how some seemingly far-fetched contentions were made and then substantiated. The time calculations seemed so contrived and even fanciful that I just had to seek out independent sources on the subject to verify them.
It turns out that the concept of time itself was vague in the minds of those who wrote the scriptures and the people in their time. Consequently, and translators of these have had difficulties trying to make intelligible to us. If you imagine that the “hour” as we know it varied greatly in the Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic usage of it in those days; it could be anything from an instant to an entire agricultural season. Therefore, although this told me that it is then impossible to achieve adequate calibration from our stand-point, the attempt made by Friedmann and Sheldon is mostly credible. I was able to appreciate that the historical characters in the book knew what they were doing and were more than capable of doing their own calculations, interpretations and even predictions.
However, I do take issue with three major areas in the book. Firstly, a controversy with regard to the authenticity of the Zohar, but do not address it properly. This is a crucial factor as the Zohar is supposed to be a fundamental to scriptural interpretation. Secondly, the religion-based calculations are detailed whereas the scientific ones are not, appendix and endnotes with references notwithstanding. One cannot claim to demonstrate how “widely divergent narratives” from Genesis and scientific theories affirm each other without presenting both sides equitably. It follows, therefore, that an End of Days scenario cannot be claimed for all humanity.
Lastly, the depiction of Israel a righteous victim and Russia as some sort of covetous devil, has the potential to alienate readers and is not really appropriate for a book dealing with factual issues because the discourse quickly resembles propaganda. The authors’ right to creativity notwithstanding, this is more appropriate for fiction.
Even with these issues, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I learned far more than I expected when I set out to read it for it was illuminating and clearly well researched, not just for the grasp of many biblical issues of contention, but also the historical context around them. Further, there are almost no grammatical errors in the entire book, which is not surprising since one of the authors is also a professional editor. However, the book omits some essential details and thus is more like a summary, or a prompt for further reading. This is probably because it covers a scope that took Friedmann three other books to do.
I normally enjoy books that give me whiplash. This one gave me lots because I had to keep turning from the main text to the appendices, glossary and endnotes just to keep up. I rate it 3 out of 4. Anyone who needs an intellectual kick up the you-know-what once in a while should read this book; it will make you seek out many others like it.
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The Biblical Clock
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