Talk:Book of Gad the Seer

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I have changed the opening line of this article. It previous said that this Book "was probably written by" Gad. I changed it to say that "it purports to be written by" Gad. This is a specimen of medieval (not ancient) pseudepigrapha. I think it is very regrettable that this article did not mention the provenance of the manuscript(s) that supposedly presents its text; the fact that much of it is not available because of one and only one person who apparently has a monopoly on its text should set off alarm bells as to its authenticity. It is otherwise described as a 19th century(!!) manuscript; Kimelman, Reuven, Psalm 145: Theme, Structure, and Impact, Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. 113, nr. 1 (Spring 1994) page 50. Apparently the manuscript came from a Jewish community in Cochin, India. Its language, the total silence of Talmudic and medieval authorities about it, etc., all indicate a fairly recent composition; Lieberman, Abraham A., Again: The Words of Gad the Seer, Journal of Biblical Literature, vol 111. nr. 2 (Summer 1992) pages 312-314. Sussmanbern (talk) 16:42, 25 November 2011 (UTC)

What on earth is this?
This article has descended so far into insanity it's appalling.

The actual biblical book that was attributed to Gad the Seer has for a very long time been considered a lost book of the tanakh, it is considered authentic because of it's reference by name, and it is considered lost because no one has been known to hold a copy in several millennia. There are also other lost books, the most famous is normally known in english as "The book of the war of Gods" which was supposed to list the major wars fought by the Israelites from the earliest point in their history up to the final ruling days of Soloman.

The book listed as reference on deviantart is an old work of fiction, the author readily admits it's a work of fiction on the webpage, and a simple read through of the work itself will show an incredibly large amount of dick jokes, including God repeatedly instructing people to "hoist up their loins".

EDIT: I'm unsure where this information about the book being written in India came from, but that would not be the case of the original work as it would predate any Jewish community in India.

I'm also really shocked by the rumor of a copy in the Cambridge library, I've studied theology for nine years now and despite countless discussions with other historians and theologists not one in my lifetime has ever brought up the work hiding in Cambridge.

Double edit: The only reason I typed all this out was due to the fact I had been shown the exact work on deviantart by a friend back in 05-06, back then I'm almost certain he found it on IRC, it also carried a disclaimer in the very end revealing itself as a work of fiction along with the words of the author that, in a personal experiment, he wanted to see how many individual logical holes and errors a person could see but still be willing to believe in the work as a whole. The post on deviantart is missing this explanation. In any case the work on deviantart can be recognized as a farce by the fact that a discovery like a lost book of the bible that has a copy sitting in the Cambridge Library will find a far better platform to reach an audience then deviantart. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.43.202.180 (talk) 16:14, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

Is it lost or not?
In the beginning of the article it is said that the text is lost, but then it says that the text has been published on Deviant Art.

Does anyone care to explain?

Thank you!92.29.171.229 (talk) 18:25, 16 November 2012 (UTC)