He was a jealous god, yet he allowed non-Hebrews to worship whatever lesser gods they pleased. Immediately following this, we are told of the nature of this god:
Respect?! What god does Michener mention here? Certainly not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! Certainly not the Creator of the Ten Commandments! “The walls of the town shall open to receive you and the gods of the place you shall respect.” 3 In a chapter set in 1419 BC concerning the migration of one Jewish family into the land of Canaan, Michener presumes to speak for God Himself in giving instructions to the patriarch: Things get worse, though, in the historical sections. As we will see later, this Rockefeller connection is no coincidence on Michener’s part. This “Jewish translation,” of course, also happens to coincide with the translation of the Revised Standard Version, produced by the Rockefeller-funded National Council of Churches and notorious for the blatantly Jewish slant of key verses such as Isaiah 7:14. I think we’re entitled to an accurate Jewish version.” 2 “Throughout the centuries,” Eliav explained, “hundreds of thousands of Jews were burned to death or massacred because their own Bible was misused against them. It had been introduced by Christian scholars as a device for proving that the Old Testament prophesied the New and that the New should therefore supersede the Old. “Look at the original Hebrew,” Eliav suggested, handing him a third version, and in the original language of the Bible the word virgin was not mentioned. Noting that the King James Bible is too poetic in its description (to a Catholic?!), Eliav gives him an unnamed “Jewish translation” of Isaiah 7:14 to study: A prescient example of their relationship takes place after Cullinane notes Jews’ ability to quote biblical passages, in language that makes it sound like an ethereal trait. Hence, this passage is disingenuous as well.Ĭullinane’s main means of enlightenment is a young Jewish scholar named Eliav. As well, while Roman soldiers may have carried out the Crucifixion in accordance with Pilate’s edict, the fact remains that Jewish betrayal of Christ is what sent Him to the cross in the first place. Little people like parish priests are cretins, while the upper echelons of any organization dispense pearls of wisdom. Michener’s intellectual elitism has never been more apparent than in this passage. He also discovered that no Catholic dignitary who had advanced beyond the stage of parish priest any longer proclaimed such views. It was not till Cullinane reached college that he discovered that it had not been the Jews who had done these things to Jesus it had been Roman soldiers. Young Cullinane and his friends would listen in growing anger as they heard of the manner in which the Jews betrayed Jesus, forced a crown of thorns upon His brow, nailed Him to the cross, pierced His side, mocked Him in His agony and even bargained in selling His clothes. It doesn’t take us long to realize, though, that Cullinane will be presented as the prototypical Reactionary White Guy who needs to have his brain scrubbed and that right early. The chapters are held together by a connecting story concerning a modern archaeological dig on the site by a mixed Jewish-Arabic expedition headed by an Irish-Catholic American, John Cullinane. It covers the history of a settlement in Palestine from prehistoric times to the 1960’s, with detailed chapters concerning its pagan origins, its flowering under the kingdoms of David and Solomon, and its existence under Babylonian, Greek, Roman, Mohammedan, Crusader, and British rule. In terms of sheer scope, The Source certainly is among Michener’s most ambitious works. To the Bible-believing Christian, it also must be ranked among the most insidious pieces of popular fiction of the twentieth century.
The Source would go on to become the top-selling novel of 1965 and could be said to represent the pinnacle of Michener’s career.
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Written during a time when American interest and sympathy towards Israel was at its peak, due in no small part to works such as Leon Uris’s Exodus and the movie Judgment at Nuremburg. Nowhere was this more apparent than in his 1965 novel about Israel, The Source. In addition to Michener’s obvious themes of multiculturalism (by force, if necessary) and miscegenation, another trope that turns up often in his works is a particular admiration for the romanticized version of Judaism.
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