Book Review: Jacob's Multi-color Dream Goats

I was recently asked by the author to review his book. I agreed to try, expecting to read a few pages and have to dismiss it as drivel. Instead, I found it a brilliant book, and wrote the following review:

***
The title "Jacob's Multi-Color Dream Goats" might lead someone to think
this might be a fantasy or folk tale. The first chapter might lead one to
think that this will be a book of "workarounds" for difficult passages in
the Bible. However, those who get past the title and the first mundane
chapter will be treated to a bit of fascinating Bible-based anthropology.
The author moves from trying to resolve the apparent scientific ignorance of
the account of Joseph craftily controlling the breeding of goats by the use
of visual stimuli, into a profound investigation of the depth of scientific
knowledge that appears to have existed in ancient times. One is challenged
by the author, who presents pertinent and compelling historical and
scientific information, to rethink the presumption that the ancients were
all a bunch of superstitious idiots. I, personally, love to have my
assumptions challenged. I found this book constantly requiring me to
consider the "ascent of man" as more linear than is commonly believed.

I'm not an anthropologist. I'm certain that I don't agree with everything in
the book. But I so enjoyed reading the book (which sports a low-brow but
content rich style) precisely because it challenged me and *required me* to
think and re-think the sweep of history. And the author is no slouch about
literary style. He puts a large vocabulary to brilliant use, supplies
illustrations from detailed scientific descriptions of things he sees
rolling off the tongues of ancient Bible writers, such as Job, and never
fails to provide cogent arguments (with not a hint of preachiness or
condescension).

The most obvious audience for this book would be those who already take
pains to understand the Bible, but anyone with a desire to take a fresh look
at ancient history would be well served. Personally, I will add this to my
short list of very useful modern books on understanding the Bible and
anthropology.

Bill Ross, Author
"Bible Shockers!", Wounded Ego Books
***

Here is the Table of Contents:

Jacob and his multi-coloured dream goats .................. 1
PART ONE: THE BIBLE AND ARISTOTLE: SETTING
THE SCENE
Battle for the Bible ................................................... 11
Literalists and compromisers .................................... 15
Needed: new wineskins.............................................. 23
PART TWO: THE ANCIENT WORLD: SETTING THE
RECORD STRAIGHT
Dead men tell tales ................................................... 29
Was there life before Aristotle? ................................. 31
Myths of antiquity ..................................................... 37
Santa Claus in the computer age............................... 43
Unholy troika ............................................................ 47
Oracle, oracle on the hill........................................... 53
Israel, myth, and magic ............................................. 59
Israel: pacesetter among nations............................... 63
Was scientific knowledge revealed? ........................... 69
PART THREE: SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE
The Bible: scientific drivel? ....................................... 73
Law and order ........................................................... 77
Dust thou art ............................................................ 83
Pillars of the earth .................................................... 91
To spin or not to spin ................................................ 97
The host of heaven .................................................. 103
Stars ain’t stars....................................................... 109
Rocks of ages .......................................................... 113
Sea secrets .............................................................. 119
Mud, lilies, and the Red Queen ............................... 123
For plant lovers ....................................................... 131
Fearfully and wonderfully made.............................. 135
Wonders of the weather........................................... 143
Epilogue: The sounds of silence............................... 151
References .............................................................. 153
Scripture index ........................................................ 155
Sources and acknowledgements .............................. 157

The book is not yet published, but you can meet the author on his blog at:

http://www.dawntoduskpublications.com/html/blog_current.htm