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Jon Mote Mysteries #3
Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees: A Jon Mote Mystery
In this, the third novel in the Jon Mote Mystery series, Jon and his special-needs sister, Judy, find more bodies showing up in their lives. This time it's Bible translators.
In Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees, Daniel Taylor's unique blend of wit, satire, drama, and provocative meditations on the Big Questions is once again on full display.
Jon Mote is determined to leave behind forever both the voices that once haunted him and his life-long confusion about the meaning of his life. He reconciles with his wife, Zillah, and takes a job as a book editor. When the publishing company that employs Jon decides to get in on the Bible-selling business, Jon finds himself in the last place in heaven or on earth that he would have expected: as a member of a Bible translation committee.
Knowing nothing about the Bible, the publisher assembles a team of translators based on the principles of diversity and name recognition. Wildly different understandings of nearly everything--theology, the meaning of texts, the direction of history, the nature of reality and of the church, among others--leads to take-no-prisoner clashes on issues large and small. While these surface tensions point to a profound collision of understandings of the cosmos and the human condition, Jon soon finds himself asking if they are also a matter of life and death.
In Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees, Daniel Taylor's unique blend of wit, satire, drama, and provocative meditations on the Big Questions is once again on full display.
Jon Mote is determined to leave behind forever both the voices that once haunted him and his life-long confusion about the meaning of his life. He reconciles with his wife, Zillah, and takes a job as a book editor. When the publishing company that employs Jon decides to get in on the Bible-selling business, Jon finds himself in the last place in heaven or on earth that he would have expected: as a member of a Bible translation committee.
Knowing nothing about the Bible, the publisher assembles a team of translators based on the principles of diversity and name recognition. Wildly different understandings of nearly everything--theology, the meaning of texts, the direction of history, the nature of reality and of the church, among others--leads to take-no-prisoner clashes on issues large and small. While these surface tensions point to a profound collision of understandings of the cosmos and the human condition, Jon soon finds himself asking if they are also a matter of life and death.
298 pages, Hardcover
Published May 15, 2020
3 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Taylor
153 books62 followersDaniel Taylor (Ph.D., Emory University) is the author of eighteen books, including The Myth of Certainty, Letters to My Children, Tell Me A Story: The Life-Shaping Power of Our Stories, Creating a Spiritual Legacy, The Skeptical Believer: Telling Stories to Your Inner Atheist, Believing Again: Stories of Leaving and Returning to Faith, and a four novel mystery series, beginning with Death Comes for the Decontructionist and ending with The Mystery of Iniquity. His most recent novel, The Prodigal of Leningrad, is set in that city during the Nazi siege of World War II. He has also worked on a number of Bible translations. He speaks frequently at conferences, colleges, retreats, and churches on a variety of topics. Dr. Taylor is also co-founder of The Legacy Center, an organization devoted to helping individuals and organizations identify and preserve the values and stories that have shaped their lives. He was a contributing editor for Books and Culture. Dr. Taylor is married and the father of four adult children. Website: www.WordTaylor.com
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 4, 2020
As a mystery novel, it's a bit of a disappointment compared to the first two installments. Jon Mote is solving a mystery, but the book only dedicates about 10% of its energy to the mystery, unlike the last book in the series which has a nice, compelling pace of mystery solving interspersed with Jon Mote revelations. I would have loved to have this plot but with Peter Heller's edge-of-your-seat pacing.
Read it as an allegory for the various modes of modern biblical interpretation. In that sense, there is plenty of quotable material in the conversations between Jon Mote and others. However, there is just simply not enough action in this book. It's all "tell" and very little "show," in other words. I would've appreciated getting to see these characters in action, and I wondered if the book would've benefitted from letting each character have a chapter in his/her voice to offer his/her own back story, rather than Mote learning the back story through conversations that felt... unnaturally insightful. I also wondered if the pacing could've been tightened up by having this whole thing take place over a single week in a single location. Put them all in a high-stress isolation chamber, pull of the old murder mystery where they all drop one by one, add in some sleep deprivation and a few red herrings, and then finish with that final (fantastic) scene!
I love Judy Mote with all my heart and I will continue to read any book in which she plays a part. Taylor has a real heart for describing her with honesty and compassion.
Read it as an allegory for the various modes of modern biblical interpretation. In that sense, there is plenty of quotable material in the conversations between Jon Mote and others. However, there is just simply not enough action in this book. It's all "tell" and very little "show," in other words. I would've appreciated getting to see these characters in action, and I wondered if the book would've benefitted from letting each character have a chapter in his/her voice to offer his/her own back story, rather than Mote learning the back story through conversations that felt... unnaturally insightful. I also wondered if the pacing could've been tightened up by having this whole thing take place over a single week in a single location. Put them all in a high-stress isolation chamber, pull of the old murder mystery where they all drop one by one, add in some sleep deprivation and a few red herrings, and then finish with that final (fantastic) scene!
I love Judy Mote with all my heart and I will continue to read any book in which she plays a part. Taylor has a real heart for describing her with honesty and compassion.
June 10, 2020
Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees is the third installment in Daniel Taylor’s series of mysteries featuring Jon Mote, erstwhile Ph.D. student and special-needs adult caregiver, now book editor for Luxor House, a subsidiary of Continental Media, itself a small part of World Wide Holdings International, which in is run by an even larger corporation known to insiders as Imperial Interests.
The book begins and ends at a retreat center in northern Minnesota as fall is changing to winter. The central plotline takes place on a single day and is written in the voice of Jon Mote. Readers get Mote’s perspective on events as they unfold, but the unfolding involves a lot of flashing back to earlier events.
Those gathered at the retreat center are part of a Bible translation committee charged with producing the New World Standard Bible, the primary need for which seems to be making its publisher lots of money. In order to expedite the translation process, the publisher buys the 70s-era paraphrase of the Bible produced by Dr. Jerry DeAngelo (“Dr. Jerry”), a retired televangelist who’s glad to be back in the game. His dutiful wife, Cate, sits in on all meetings, saying little but knitting a lot.
Members of the committee are a diverse group, including Dr. Bart Sprung (“the most publicly known progressive figure”); Dr. Lilith Weekly (“an established feminist scholar”); Dr. Martin Shabazz Douglas (“a rising young black scholar”); Dr. Adam Corinth (“an expert on the historical books of the Old Testament”); and Dr. Peter Stone (a fundamentalist theologian “teaching at a Baptist university in Virginia”). If disagreement about a choice of translation arises, committee members vote, and ties are broken by Robert Green, an agnostic Jew from New York who represents the publisher’s financial interests and enforces its deadlines.
If you know anything about Bible translation committees, you know that this committee would never exist in real life. It’s too ideologically and ecclesially diverse. And with the exception of Adam Corinth, none of the members is a biblical scholar per se.
That niggling detail should be overlooked, however, because Daniel Taylor isn’t satirizing Bible translation as much as using Bible translation to satirize the sorry state of Christianity in America, of the academic study of religion, and of religious publishing. The satire works well, hilariously so at points. Bart Sprung seems like a mashup of Bart Ehrman and John Shelby Spong. Two other characters, Robby Clapper and Orlanda, are stand-ins for Rob Bell and Oprah. Even the Peter Stone’s redundant name—Peter derives from the Greek word for rock—is a witty caricature of fundamentalist immovability.
Moreover, if you like series novels, as I do, Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees continues the story of Jon Mote as he heals from the personal traumas related in Death Comes for the Deconstructionist and Do We Not Bleed?, which I reviewed here and here. He is reconciling with his ex-wife Zillah and continues to care for his older sister Judy, who has Down Syndrome. All of that makes for a rich, textured literary universe that’s enjoyable to explore.
As a mystery, however, Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees was only so-so, in my opinion. Several characters die in the novel, starting with Adam Corinth, and there are hints at a suspect, but the clue that solves the mystery arrives too abruptly when no one is looking for it. It is literally just found. As a mystery novel reader, that aspect of the novel was something of a letdown.
I can’t help but wonder, though, whether this observation is beside the point. The title of the book is Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees, which alludes to Jesus’ denunciation of the same in Matthew 23 and Luke 11. Taylor doesn’t cite any verses from those chapters in the book’s epigraph, however, instead quoting Deuteronomy 4:2 and Mark 7:13. Regardless, given the allusion and the quotation, it seems clear to me that Taylor has authorities in both academe and the church in mind throughout this book. They are the ones “making the word of God of none effect through you tradition” (Mark 7:13 KJV).
In other words, this book ultimately isn’t a mystery about violent murder but about misusing the Bible. The way some people use the Bible kills. If so, then I’d hazard the guess that Dr. Martin Shabazz Douglas is the real hero of the story.
If that doesn’t make sense to you now, read the book, and it will.
Book Reviewed
Daniel Taylor, Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees: A Jon Mote Mystery (Eugene, OR: Slant, 2020).
P.S. If you liked my review, please click “Helpful” on my Amazon review page.
The book begins and ends at a retreat center in northern Minnesota as fall is changing to winter. The central plotline takes place on a single day and is written in the voice of Jon Mote. Readers get Mote’s perspective on events as they unfold, but the unfolding involves a lot of flashing back to earlier events.
Those gathered at the retreat center are part of a Bible translation committee charged with producing the New World Standard Bible, the primary need for which seems to be making its publisher lots of money. In order to expedite the translation process, the publisher buys the 70s-era paraphrase of the Bible produced by Dr. Jerry DeAngelo (“Dr. Jerry”), a retired televangelist who’s glad to be back in the game. His dutiful wife, Cate, sits in on all meetings, saying little but knitting a lot.
Members of the committee are a diverse group, including Dr. Bart Sprung (“the most publicly known progressive figure”); Dr. Lilith Weekly (“an established feminist scholar”); Dr. Martin Shabazz Douglas (“a rising young black scholar”); Dr. Adam Corinth (“an expert on the historical books of the Old Testament”); and Dr. Peter Stone (a fundamentalist theologian “teaching at a Baptist university in Virginia”). If disagreement about a choice of translation arises, committee members vote, and ties are broken by Robert Green, an agnostic Jew from New York who represents the publisher’s financial interests and enforces its deadlines.
If you know anything about Bible translation committees, you know that this committee would never exist in real life. It’s too ideologically and ecclesially diverse. And with the exception of Adam Corinth, none of the members is a biblical scholar per se.
That niggling detail should be overlooked, however, because Daniel Taylor isn’t satirizing Bible translation as much as using Bible translation to satirize the sorry state of Christianity in America, of the academic study of religion, and of religious publishing. The satire works well, hilariously so at points. Bart Sprung seems like a mashup of Bart Ehrman and John Shelby Spong. Two other characters, Robby Clapper and Orlanda, are stand-ins for Rob Bell and Oprah. Even the Peter Stone’s redundant name—Peter derives from the Greek word for rock—is a witty caricature of fundamentalist immovability.
Moreover, if you like series novels, as I do, Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees continues the story of Jon Mote as he heals from the personal traumas related in Death Comes for the Deconstructionist and Do We Not Bleed?, which I reviewed here and here. He is reconciling with his ex-wife Zillah and continues to care for his older sister Judy, who has Down Syndrome. All of that makes for a rich, textured literary universe that’s enjoyable to explore.
As a mystery, however, Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees was only so-so, in my opinion. Several characters die in the novel, starting with Adam Corinth, and there are hints at a suspect, but the clue that solves the mystery arrives too abruptly when no one is looking for it. It is literally just found. As a mystery novel reader, that aspect of the novel was something of a letdown.
I can’t help but wonder, though, whether this observation is beside the point. The title of the book is Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees, which alludes to Jesus’ denunciation of the same in Matthew 23 and Luke 11. Taylor doesn’t cite any verses from those chapters in the book’s epigraph, however, instead quoting Deuteronomy 4:2 and Mark 7:13. Regardless, given the allusion and the quotation, it seems clear to me that Taylor has authorities in both academe and the church in mind throughout this book. They are the ones “making the word of God of none effect through you tradition” (Mark 7:13 KJV).
In other words, this book ultimately isn’t a mystery about violent murder but about misusing the Bible. The way some people use the Bible kills. If so, then I’d hazard the guess that Dr. Martin Shabazz Douglas is the real hero of the story.
If that doesn’t make sense to you now, read the book, and it will.
Book Reviewed
Daniel Taylor, Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees: A Jon Mote Mystery (Eugene, OR: Slant, 2020).
P.S. If you liked my review, please click “Helpful” on my Amazon review page.
February 21, 2021
Authentic questions, without pat answers
An interesting theological quest, wrapped in an well written story. I have met and had discussions with Every character in the book.
An interesting theological quest, wrapped in an well written story. I have met and had discussions with Every character in the book.
June 19, 2020
Set in northern Minnesota, this highly entertaining page-turner revolves around a Bible translation project by a committee whose members are chosen for their diversity. It pokes fun at the publishing industry, academe, religious pop culture, etc. and spoofs a number of recognizable public figures (or composites thereof). Meanwhile, the muddled and troubled protagonist/narrator, Jon Mote, newly back with his wife after a separation and invited to sit in on the meetings as an editor, ponders important life questions as well as the circumstances surrounding the mysterious deaths of certain people connected with the project. As always, Jon's endearing "special" sister, Judy, stays focused on things that matter and unwittingly provides the key insight that leads to resolution. Taylor's mysteries have unique, complex plots with a certain intellectual appeal that adds to the fun.
May 17, 2025
I’ve loved this series and I enjoy the writing, the style, the wit, the cleverness. This book didn’t compel me like the others, though.
April 18, 2022
It might be easier to enjoy this book if you've read the first two in this series where the main characters and their backgrounds are developed more, but book stands well on its own in some ways. The main new characters are a group of diverse scholars involved in Bible translation with Jon Mote as the observer and narrator of the story. Each of the participants represents a different, commonly held view of Christianity and the Bible. Readers are likely to see their own views rather fairly represented by one or more of the characters and the dialog and narration provides some interesting reflections on each. Plenty of food for thought along the way with the mystery only hinted at through most of the book before it's dramatically revealed toward the end. A very enjoyable and thought provoking read if you are interested in the subject.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews