Official Review: The Old Testament and the Truth

[LinaMueller]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Old Testament and the Truth" by S.Seth Haas.]

---

1 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

The Old Testament and the Truth by S.Seth Haas is a non-fiction book that analyzes the first part of the Christian Bible from a rational perspective. At the beginning of the book, the reader gets to know the author's educational background: "S. Seth Haas has educated not only himself but a diversity of other people. He attended the Yeshiva Rabbi Israel Salanter, the Bronx High School of Science, New York University, and Adelphi University."

When I read the book's description on Amazon, I was thrilled. The title certainly seemed pretentious, after all, to paraphrase Pontius Pilate: "What is truth?" Even so, the book seemed interesting to me. I immediately decided to read it, believing that it would make an intellectual analysis of historical events and quote several intellectuals who have already discussed the subject. The book has four chapters: three that discuss the first part of the Bible and another one about the evolution of the Hebrew Alphabet. Now let's look at the pros and cons and take a closer look so that the reader can find out if the "truth" has been unveiled.

As the pages went by, however, my enthusiasm completely disappeared. I don't want to appear overly harsh, but the truth is that there is not much to write home about. The first chapter (which is more than 90% of the entire book) is basically a copy and paste from the first part of the Bible. After pasting the Bible passages, the author makes some comments that are almost always questions asked to point out inconsistencies about the events mentioned earlier. The main problem is that the questions are not well thought out and seem like guesses from a high school student. Several questions are basically "does this statement make sense?" or "would you or anyone you know do this?"

The other chapters have the same problems. They are pretty much the same "ctrl c + ctrl v." The last section that should discuss the evolution of the Hebrew Alphabet only contains a copied image, so the book ends without further ado. The reader doesn't have to be very wise to understand that the book needs another round of editing. I found more than ten grammatical errors (which is surprising because this work is almost entirely copied). It is not professionally edited.

All in all, I rate The Old Testament and the Truth one out of four stars. I can't even imagine anything worthy of praise. Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying that the author doesn't know anything about the topics covered in the book. However, the way the book was written will not please many people: it needs another round of editing. I would advise the author to split the first chapter into several smaller chapters, explain the historical context of some events in detail, mention scholars, and so forth. In its current form, I can't recommend this book to anyone.

******
The Old Testament and the Truth
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

[Becca Olsson]

This is a very well thought out review. It’s unfortunate that a topic that’s so interesting was not executed well though. I hope the author takes your words into consideration and expands upon this thoughts

[SweetSourSalty AndSpicy]

Thank you for sharing your reading experience. It could have been an interesting topic. Hopefully, the concerns you raised get the appropriate attention and necessary action.

[cd20]

Oh wow, what a disappointment. I saw the title and thought it sounded interesting, but hopefully, the author will take your words to heart and do a better job of getting to the point. Thank you for your review.

[MsH2k]

Indeed, the perennial question is, “What is truth?” It is too bad this book was not more enlightening. Thank you for your honest and thorough review.