The Bible's Cutting Room Floor

The Holy Scriptures Missing from Your Bible

By: Joel M. Hoffman

Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross

The Bible you usually read is not the complete story. Some holy writings were left out for political or theological reasons, others simply because of the physical restrictions of ancient bookmaking technology. At times, the compilers of the Bible skipped information that they assumed everyone knew. Some passages were even omitted by accident.

In The Bible’s Cutting Room Floor, acclaimed author and translator Dr. Joel M. Hoffman gives us the stories and other texts that didn’t make it into the Bible even though they offer penetrating insight into the Bible and its teachings. The Book of Genesis tells us about Adam and Eve’s time in the Garden of Eden, but not their saga after they get kicked out or the lessons they have for us about good and evil. The Bible introduces us to Abraham, but it doesn’t include the troubling story of his early life, which explains how he came to reject idolatry to become the father of monotheism. And while there are only 150 Psalms in today’s Bible, there used to be many more. Dr. Hoffman deftly brings these and other ancient scriptural texts to life, exploring how they offer new answers to some of the most fundamental and universal questions people ask about their lives. An impressive blend of history, linguistics, and religious scholarship, The Bible’s Cutting Room Floor reveals what’s missing from your Bible, who left it out, and why it is so important.

©2014 Joel M. Hoffman (P)2014 Recorded Books

Easily accessible to a general audience

This book presents a few of the important works related to Jewish and Christian scriptures, but omitted from the Protestant canon. The author summarizes them and provides useful comments for laypeople. The audiobook is nicely narrated.

Good content, rather poor presentation by narrator

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, but I would warn them about the patronizing narration style and recommend the print version.

What other book might you compare The Bible's Cutting Room Floor to and why?

History of the Bible- The Making of the New Testament Canon
by Bart D. Ehrman,The Great Courses

How could the performance have been better?

The narrator speaks clearly and pronounces names and places properly, for the most part (far moreso than most non-fiction narrators tend to do).
The problem is that his style is that of an adult reading "down to" a child. He makes me feel like I am a 6 year old during story time at the public library.

Any additional comments?

There is some highly interesting information in this book. Overall, I think Bart Ehrman's works are a bit better, but you do yourself a disservice if you only look at things from one vantage point. This compliments Ehrman's similar books and Great Courses lecture series.

Interesting.

Not too bad but predictable. Just another.story of mankind changing the truth to his own liking.

Too Scholastic for me

if you're like me, looking for a bible study material on the specific books found only in the Catholic bible, you'll be disappointed. however it does provide a good overview of everything not found in the bible.

excellent overview of book of bible left out

very good overview of noncanonical books, old and new testament easily understood by the layman.

Off the rails

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I don't dough the author knows what he is talking about and or has done his research. However the book while informative broadens out too far from it's original theme in my thinking. The content of the dead sea scrolls and other lost works are talked about but there's no English translation of there content to be found here.

Has The Bible's Cutting Room Floor turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

Did The Bible's Cutting Room Floor inspire you to do anything?

Beyond looking for another book........ not really.

hard read for a critical thinker

What would have made The Bible's Cutting Room Floor better?

If the author had researched several documents on their own merit and compared them instead of postulating that every deviation from his source document was wrong.

What was most disappointing about Joel M. Hoffman’s story?

In an attempt at literary archeology the author takes inconclusive evidence and arrives at concrete decisions that he states as the facts to build his assumptions moving forward. Every copy of the subject matter has been transcribed from oral tradition so there can be no signature document, however he has chosen to give the oldest document full weight regardless of the other factors like geography, isolationism, the number of copies, and how closely they conform. He seems to have predetermined which document was correct and researched his book by looking for discrepancies is subsequent documents rather than actually researching.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Not applicable

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The author presents a lot of interesting facts about historical religious texts, and has some interesting theories. His facts seem to be correct with regards to time lines and people and places.

Any additional comments?

This book is more Dan Brown than historical research, only not as entertaining as Mr Brown.