Bible Books

The Lawgiver

Moses: A Life

Jonathan Kirsch (New York: Ballantine Books, 1998) 415 pp., $27.50 (hardback)

Reviewed by Sidnie White Crawford

Meek and arrogant, mild and unrelentingly harsh, merciful and cruel—Moses is one of the most difficult characters in the Bible. But Jonathan Kirsch, in this readable and well-researched account of Moses the lawgiver, does not shy away from those contradictions; instead, he emphasizes them. In so doing, Kirsch, a book columnist for the Los Angeles Times and also a lawyer, has made accessible one of the great figures of the Bible.