Biblical Criticism

Thus saith Wikipedia:

Modern reconstructions of Israel's religion have become much more circumspect in how they use the Old Testament, not least because comparative data (the comparison of ancient Israel with other cultures) and archaeology have led many to the conclusion that the Bible is not a reliable witness to the religion of ancient Israel and Judah and represents the beliefs of only a small segment of the ancient Israelite community, the members of a late Judean religious tradition centred in Jerusalem and devoted to the exclusive worship of the god Yahweh.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_hypothesis

Haha. Scholars are so silly. 

This Wikipedia article makes contemporary scholars sound so circumspect about Biblical criticism that they are reluctant to agree that "history is written by the winners". 

Really, is anybody shocked by the thought that the Bible doesn't convey "history" in the modern sense? Modern history didn't exist when the Bible was being written. Modern history didn't exist until about the 1600s. 

Ancient writings required money and power. They came into being because someone in power, whether a person or a group, paid for them to be written and/or collected. The ancient writings that still exist do so because they were either valuable enough to stand the test of time, being read and passed down over the generations--for example, the Bible or Catullus--or they were protected by continued money and power--for example, royal annals and land grants. 

Leviticus discusses, by and large, an idealized sacrificial life that would support an idealized communal life. It therefore has little relation to life as lived by the common man. Why else would there be so much time spent on Biblical "leprosy", that is, the laws concerning whether someone's skin disorder was the result of sin and made them ritually unclean? These laws, in particular, were written by priests and for priests. Only the afflicted individual and the priests had an interest in these skin eruptions. 

Because if the laws had been written for the use of the Israelite people, much more attention would be lavished on everyday items and activities, such as selecting flour for the meal offering or the laws of washing garments and cooking pots, the laws of olive presses and of the maintenance of latrines, the laws of animal husbandry and viticulture, and so on.

Just use your own brain when reading Torah. God gave you your brain and Torah for a reason. Read with your eyes and heart open to the freedom that the holy words will give you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Talmud - First Page

I take a deep breath and leap into the rabbit hole of an ancient legal system.... The first piece of Talmud is "Tract Sabbath", Chapter 1, "Regulations Regarding Transfer on Sabbath". The Talmud starts with a ruling on when transferring something from one person to another on the Sabbath makes you guilty, and when you are free of guilt for transferring on the Sabbath. The Mishnah posits 2 people: one outside a house and one inside a house, with a window between them. The translation calls them mendicant and master of a house . If the mendicant reaches through the window AND puts something into or takes something from the master's hand, the mendicant is guilty--he has performed an illegal act of transfer on the Sabbath.  If the mendicant reaches through the window and the master puts something into or takes something from his hand, both are innocent--"free" of the guilt of transfer on the Sabbath.  This is not what I was expecting at all. ...
Read more

First Seder

Mrs Giyoret is making her first Seder dinner. She is feeling a little frantic. Mrs Giyoret has been to 30 years of Seders, so she is an experienced Seder-goer. But she is an inexperienced Seder-maker. And she has just learned that double the number of people are coming tomorrow night. Double. Eek! Mrs Giyoret can cook more food--that's not the problem. But Mrs Giyoret only knows how to cook one thing at a time. She doesn't know how to cook two things at a time. Never mind three things at a time. Plus, her ability to make hard-boiled eggs is pretty sketchy. And there's only one bottle of wine. And not enough chairs. But everything will be fine. Because Seder is not about having everything perfect. Seder is about praising Hashem together. Seder is always Dayenu. So we will perch on someone else's folding chairs, eat whatever Mrs Giyoret manages to get cooked, sip from our one bottle of wine, read the Haggadah, and... Baruch Hashem, we will be free.
Read more