Description

An Alternative Hebrew Bible - The Book of Lilith, Plonit and Eve seeks to answer the question, "How would the events described in the Hebrew Bible have appeared to the women?"

The answer is provided by over two hundred women characters, some named, others unnamed, some historical, others mythical, some known to have existed, others only presumed to have done so. All possess equal validity in this work.

The plot follows the chronology of the Hebrew Bible – The Five Books of Moses, the Conquest, the period of Judges, the period of Kings, together with the Major and Minor Prophets who lived and preached during their reigns, ending with the Wisdom Writings. The only books of the Hebrew Bible not covered in this work are Psalms and Ecclesiastes.

Each chapter deals with a specific event, grouping together the first-person narratives of a number of women who are presumed to have existed or been present at the time, narratives in which each describes the same event from her particular point of view.

It is the task of a Narrator to describe what happened after the women died and the legacy they left behind them. The Narrator also adds material that embellishes their stories and provides links between them.

Although An Alternative Hebrew Bible - The Book of Lilith, Plonit and Eve is very much a personal interpretation of the texts on which the narratives are based, an effort has been made to remain faithful to the spirit of the text, if not to the literal word. These texts include not only the Biblical text, but also post-Biblical Jewish texts up to the time of the 11th century rabbi and commentator, Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki).

By its very nature this book does not seek to be original. It is, after all, a retelling of some of the most famous stories in the world, stories that have been retold countless times by others. All it seeks to do is to present a different way of looking at things. Nevertheless, an attempt has been made to emphasize characters and events that have enjoyed less attention by commentators, especially those connected with the period from the destruction of the First Temple to the return of the exiles from Babylon.

Underpinned by ten years of research, An Alternative Hebrew Bible - The Book of Lilith, Plonit and Eve imagines what might the Hebrew Bible might have been like, had it been written by women.

December 2022

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About the author

It began:

By the time they are thirteen, most Jewish children have managed to glean amazingly little from their cheder education – little of value I mean. Few realize that hidden somewhere in the mass of Hebrew script that they are expected to learn by heart, there actually exists a rich folklore of stories and poems from the Old Testament, which I am sure would be of interest to them, if presented in a lively fashion.

There followed a short synopsis of the stories of Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah, Deborah, Ruth and Esther, in what I must have thought at the time to be 'a lively fashion'.

Many years passed. Then, twelve years ago, casting around for a subject that would keep the little grey cells working, I returned to a subject I had studied at university, then called 'comparative religion' and now called 'belief systems'. This led to an examination of my own belief system, Judaism, and the text on which it is based, the Hebrew Bible. One thing led to another, and this book is the result.

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