The Book of J, translated by David Rosenberg, with commentary by Harold Bloom.#

The `Book of J' referred to by this book is described in the Wikipedia article on the Documentary Hypothesis, in the section on The modern hypothesis. I won't explain all the details, except that Bloom thinks the Yahwist is probably a princess of the House of David, writing after Solomon and the breakup of the United Monarchy.#

On the anthropomorphism that is not problematic in Mormonism:#

The long history of what is called "the problem of anthropomorphism" brought about by J's depictions of Yahweh constitutes one of the curious cultural comedies of Western religious tradition. Embarrassment caused by the impishness of J's Yahweh presumably began with the early revisionists, attaining a first culmination with the work of the Redactor. But such puzzlement or resentment at the Yawistic text became far more overt among the Jews of Hellenistic Alexandria during the last two centuries before the common era. Greek philosophy demanded a dehumanized divinity, and Jewish Hellenists rather desperately sought to oblige, by allegorizing away a Yahweh who walked and who argued, who ate and who rested, who possessed arms and hands, face, and legs. [p. 24]

One of things I enjoy about Bloom is that he puts the Book of Mormon in the same sentence as the Torah, the Bible, and the Quran, in every instance that he must mention them. (See for example, p. 31.)#

Another thing that I like about Bloom, although in a complex way, is that he advises the reader of the Book of J to forget all their religious beliefs and read the book as an exquisite piece of writing that transcends all preexisting genres and has a level of irony unequaled ever before or since. I find that to be true and reminiscent of Aslan on the Quran, but also to miss the mark a little bit. The closer we get to the original and understand the revisions, we can understand more about the purpose of the writing, Yahweh. [p. 48]#

Something I've always noticed in the King James translation of Genesis in the story of the Tower of Babel that God says "Let us go down" and refers to multiple divine beings. Bloom mentions this around page 50 and shows multiple translations. In Rosenberg's translation, the phrase is translated as "Between us, let's descend", as if Yahweh is talking to the reader or himself and being `impish', in Bloom's words.#

On Adam naming the animals and beasts:#

When we consider Adam's task of naming, we often do not remember that what is being named is precisely what is not fit to mend Adam's solitude. J's insight is Nietzschean long before Nietszche: that which we find words for is that which we cannot hold in our heart. [p. 179]

Typical Bloom:#

We, whoever we are, are more naive, less sophisticated, less intelligent than J or Shakespeare. [p. 234]