Harvard law professor Dershowitz has written a dazzling and stimulating
commentary on ten Old Testament stories and how they provide the
origins for today’s laws. In a familiar style that evokes being in a
small seminar with the professor, Dershowitz takes ten biblical
stories, including those of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Lot, and
offers multiple views on their application today. His view is that the
Book of Genesis reveals the origins of justice in society. Ranging over
such topics as the insanity defense, police corruption, federal
sentencing guidelines, and the defense of the guilty, the book provokes
the reader to consider God’s fairness as well as that of our current
justice system. In the best Socratic tradition, Dershowitz (Reversal of
Fortune) asks many questions and provides multiple scholarly and
commonsense views of the lessons to be learned from the biblical tales.
He ends the book with a discussion of the Ten Commandments and shows
how they can be traced to the stories of Genesis. For believers of all
faiths, as well as nonbelievers, this is an outstanding work. ~ Harry Charles for Library Journal