373 - The Other Bible

The Other Bible
By Willis Barnstone, ed.
San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1984 74" pp. $24.95.

Any book that purportsto provide ancient, esoteric texts that have not found their way into the Old or New Testament is likely to arouse interest - even though a casual reading of the material will very soon disclose why much of it was passed over as obviously third-rate stuff. All of the texts collected by Barnstone, Professor of Comparative Literature at Indiana University, have long been available- have not been "long suppressed," as stated in the blurb--and constitute but a fraction of what could have been included if a small encyclopedia had been contemplated (in other words, the volume is far from being "exhaustive, " as is stated in the publicity sheet coming with the review copy). Despite such blatant exaggeration on the part of the publishers, the volume offers the reader a discriminating selection of documents that extend from the third century B.C. to the medieval Kabbalah. The editor has grouped the diverse materials under such rubrics as "Creation Myths." "Wisdom Literature and Poetry," "Gospels" (with fancy Gospels" as another section), "Apocalypses", "Manichaean and Mandaean Gnostic Texts" (with another section devoted to "Diverse Gnostic Texts"), and finally "Mystical Documents." Under the last section. one finds translations of portions of the Zohar and of pseudo-Dionysius (misspelled 'Dionysus" on the outside of the rear cover of the paperback edition sent for review purposes).

Brief but adequate introductions to the several documents provide help for beginners who dip into this "omnium gatherum."

Bruce M. Metzger
Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton, N.J.