Betty L. (rainbowbrite) reviewed on 3/22/2011

Helpful Score: 4

After much anticipation due to all the excitement [and hype] I have heard surrounding this book, I was, to say the least, disappointed. The Red Tent is an interesting read if taken as a purely fictional novel. I do stress this point because if you are expecting a fictionalized biblical account of the story you will be sorely disappointed. It is biblical only in the most basic of outlines, but many of the important points of the story surrounding this biblical family are so full of grossly inaccuracies that they border on or are completely heresy. I can understand fictionalizing sections of the story that are not expounded on in the Bible, but to take biblical accounts and totally change them in the ways this author has is very disconcerting. One example is Jacobs night of wrestling with the angel of the Lord. This is clear in the Bible- Jacob needed an something from the Lord, some blessing and assurance as he was going to meet his brother who had vowed to kill him twenty years before. He wrestled with the Angel of the Lord and would not let him go until He blessed him. In this book is makes it sound as if he was attacked and beaten senseless, unconscious and nearly dead while the Bible recounts how that Jacob spoke with the angel of the Lord and then walked back across the Penuel and back to his camp. Jacob is described in the book as a week cowardly, disoriented feeble person although the Bible says the Lord changed his name to Israel, because for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. He received Gods blessing and a new name and was a changed man. Another example is in the recounting of Josephs situation at Potiphars house in Egypt. The author says that Potiphars wife and Joseph were having an affair and that Potiphar actually walked in on them in the sex act and so Joseph was stripped of his position and thrown into prison. Of course, this is completely contrary to the biblical account And it came to pass after these things, that his masters wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me. But he refused, and said unto his masters wife, Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand; There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened NOT unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her. There is virtually almost no mention at all of the Biblical or Jewish God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but mostly filled with idolatry in every form. I could not reconcile this book with the reality of the Bible, even to read it as a fictional account. If you read this as just a novel with nothing to do with the Bible or Bible characters, then it is an okay read, but otherwise, I would strongly NOT recommend it.

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