Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs recounted in the canonical Bible. The "Testament" adds that Reuben spies Bilhah as she bathes in secret; and that when she later becomes drunk, Reuben rapes her. That trope derives from a reading of Genesis 49:4, "wanton as water", as "wanton "in" water", taken from the Book of Jubilees. This theme is also in 2 Samuel 11:2's account of David and Bathsheba. The "Testament" portrays women as the cause of the downfall of the Watcher, and of man in general (excepting Bilhah, in accordance with "Jubilees"). Joseph is on the other hand portrayed as the ideal, for his resistance against
In the Shadow of the Sword (book) or 'Muslim' is looked upon with suspicion." Another critic, Sarah Annes Brown, believes it is impossible to find any Islamophobic content in the book, while the historian Glen Bowersock criticized it for lack of historical accuracy, saying he has "not seen a book about Arabia that is so irresponsible and unreliable since Kamal Salibi's "The Bible Came from Arabia" (1985)." Dan Jones, writing for the "Telegraph", gave the book a favourable review calling it a "complex story" which Holland "made his own". He describes Holland as "one of the most distinctive prose stylists writing history today, and he drags his