The Gospel According to Bob Dylan: The Old, Old Story of Modern Times Book

The author makes the claim that Dylan, not just after his conversion to Christian, but since the beginning of his recording career has used biblical themes, lines, or allusions in a careful, meaningful way. He presents this lyrics as something we should read into.

The Bible permeates western culture, as it has for centuries. A person may be irreligious, Hindu, Buddhist, (this can go on and on) and still have a surface knowledge of the ten commandments, the beatitudes, the so called "golden rule," the gospels, and any number of certain stories, like Noah and the flood, Cain and Able, the near-sacrificing of Isaac, the exodus, (this too can go on.)
My point is, most people are familiar with Biblical themes and stories through second or third hand sources. Certain phrases, motifs and ideas have soaked into our culture, and in many cases you can internalize all of it without ever opening a Bible. The stories and approximations of theology have became things in themselves detached from the Biblical narrative and devoid of any real meaning.

In The Times They Are A-Changin' from '63 Dylan writes

"The slow one now

Will later be fast

As the present now

Will later be past... And the first one now will later be last"

It's a reference to Matthew 20:16 but one needn't read Matthew to know the reference, or to be familiar with the saying "the first shall be last" or any variation thereof.

Take, for one more example, Highway 61 Revisited from '65:

God said to Abraham, 'Kill me a son'

Abe says, 'Man, you must be puttin' me on'

God say, 'No.' Abe say, 'What?'

God say, 'You can do what you want Abe, but

The next time you see me comin' you better run'

Well Abe says, "Where do you want this killin' done?' "

The story of Abraham almost sacrificing Isaac is repurposed here and weaved into the song's narrative. Again, most people would be familiar with the basic details of the story.

Compare it to Leonard Cohen's more deliberate The Story of Isaac

He said, "I've had a vision
And you know I'm strong and holy,
I must do what I've been told."
...
Well, the trees they got much smaller,
The lake a lady's mirror,
We stopped to drink some wine.
Then he threw the bottle over.
Broke a minute later
And he put his hand on mine.
Thought I saw an eagle
But it might have been a vulture,
I never could decide.
Then my father built an altar..."

My point isn't that Dylan didn't pepper his lyrics with Biblical references in themes - He often did. But up until, oh, say, John Wesley Harding from '67 I wouldn't bet on any of it being directly lifted from the Bible, and the author just fails to convince me that even from his first two original songs he was mining the Bible in a deep and meaningful way. The stuff probably came to him as he now presents it to us: By it's presence in our culture, by it's constant adaptions, appropriations and retellings.

The worst part of the book may be that the author spends much of his 160 pages offering various caveats and encouraging us to discover what the songs mean to us personally, divorced from whatever they're supposed to mean. All well and good, but it simply isn't the book the title and description would lead you to believe - And the few pages of the Gospel According to Bob Dylan that actually deal with the subject mater are simply a stretch.