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A friend of mine is trying to find the source of a story she uncovered a few weeks ago. She probably copied it from a book or a magazine in late 1960/early 1970 in the Netherlands, so the text is in Dutch but it's highly likely that the original was in English. The title in Dutch is "Heel goed, zei Jahwe" which translates to "Very well, said Yahweh" subtitle "2 koningen 9+10" or "2 kings 9+10".

The subtitle refers to a biblical story about Jehu and Jezebel and the text begins with that story but written in a modern way, I'm not religious but I compared the bible text with this one and it's the same story just written down differently. But about every other paragraph a science fiction story is written.

It describes Yahweh in a spaceship behind time-monitors, drinking scotch. While watching the monitors he gives orders via an intercom, orders like: "Okay let Moses move now. It's the right time. The Pharaoh doesn't know what to do now that his eldest son is dead... Yeah, oh yeah he will regret letting them go and he will follow them but that is where the Red Sea comes in. Oh you know that little trick..."

He also gets calls from angels(?) like Gab (Gabriel?) who tells him about Brezjnev and ask him what to do about that situation. Other names are also mentioned like: Gunnar Jarring and Golda Meir. So we can conclude that Yahweh in his spaceship can see different times in history and tries to influence the outcomes while drinking a nice scotch.

My friend would like to know where it came from and if there is more, at the time she was in high school and can't remember more than I already explained. The text itself is 4 pages long, if it helps to translate is all to English I will.

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"Heel goed, zei Jahwe" is of Dutch origin, per The Internet Speculative Fiction Database, one of the most, if not the, reference on sci-fi/fantasy stories. Published for the first time in 1971, by Bruna (Zwarte Beertjes #1426).

Here's its page. It was written by Ef Leonard, a Dutch author, pen name of Frans Hummelman. His ISFDb page lists his other works.

Most notably, "Heel goed, zei Jahwe" was collected in the Het Koninkrijk der Kikkeren Is Nabij (The Kingdom of Frogs is Near) anthology, a further summary of which can be found here. The anthology includes, per ISFDb, the following works, all of them short stories (except "Een Tweezaam Bestaan"/"A Lonely Existence" which is a novelette). Translations are courtesy of the mighty Google Translate.

  • "Weet Iemand Waar de Rijst Is?" ("Does anyone know where the rice is?")
  • "Leve de Chinezen" ("Long live the Chinese")
  • "Landing" ("Landing")
  • "Het Gif van het Verleden" ("The Poison of the Past")
  • "Ik Denk de Toekomst Maar Dacht Ik" ("I Thought I'd Think the Future")
  • "Cerebro - Verboden Toegang" ("Cerebro - Prohibited Access")
  • "Heel Goed, Zei Jahwe" ("Very good, said Yahweh")
  • "All-In Tour 19..." ("All-In Tour 19...")
  • "Lieve Tom, Lieve Dave ..." ("Dear Tom, Dear Dave ...")
  • "De Twee Gekken" ("The Two Madmen")
  • "De Groene Pil" ("The Green Pill")
  • "De Beantwoorde Verwachting" ("The Answered Expectation")
  • "Een Tweezaam Bestaan" ("A Twosome Existence")
  • "Het Koninkrijk der Kikkeren Is Nabij" ("The Kingdom of Frogs Is Near")
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  • Trying to track down an Archive/Gutenberg version of the stories...
    – Jenayah
    Feb 20, 2019 at 12:04
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    Duty calls for now, but so far all my attempts to locate the texts bring me back to this page and this one. This PDF apparently has someone saying they never heard of the author.
    – Jenayah
    Feb 20, 2019 at 12:39

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