“The Prince and the Prodigal” is the newest novel by Jill Eileen Smith. It chronicles the stories of Joseph (the prince) and Judah (the prodigal). Without a doubt, the book is incredibly faithful to the Biblical text. It seeks to flesh out the story with this strong backbone.
However, I felt that the book’s greatest strength led to its weaknesses. Part of the beauty of Biblical fiction is that while it closely adheres to the Bible, it also seeks to capture the imagination by taking us into the possible thoughts, feelings, and lives of these human beings. It works to process and understand what these people might have been experiencing during that time-period and draws us into their struggles of faith. It ultimately points us to our Heavenly Father.
The story of Judah in the book fails to accomplish this. We are not given a nuanced picture of led him to his hatred of Joseph or his rejection of God. He flees from his father’s home due to guilt over Joseph and continues to stay away. His eventual turn back to God and his father Jacob is abrupt after the birth of his twin sons by Tamar. For this to be the prodigal story, it needed to have a greater watershed moment.
The story of Joseph is filled with more shades and coloring. We do see him wrestle with his suffering and him trying to understand God’s bigger plan. My biggest pet peeve in this version of the story is of him constantly thinking and referring to himself as a “prince” in Jacob’s family even after his relocation to Egypt. I cannot reconcile that with the culture of Canaan in that time-period, and I feel it does a great disservice to his humility later on in his life.
I have loved Jill Eileen Smith’s books for years. She is one of my favorite Biblical fiction authors. In my opinion this book fell short of her usual excellence. I received a digital copy of the book from the publisher. All opinions expressed are my own.
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