the bible - a collection of myths and legends
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The Bible
The Bible: What It isThe Inerrant BibleBiblical MythsThe Demise of Biblical Archaeology
Uncertain AuthorshipHaphazard Canonization and TextualDifficulties
On Morality and Word SpinningConclusions
"We find collected in this book [The Bible] the superstitious beliefs of the
ancient inhabitants of Palestine, with indistinct echoes of Indian and Pers
fables, mistaken imitation of Egyptian theories and customs, historical
chronicles as dry as they are unreliable and miscellaneous poems, amator
human and Jewish-national, which is rarely distinguished by beauties of t
highest order but frequently by superfluity of expression, coarseness, bad
taste, and genuine Oriental sensuality." Max Nordau (1849-1923)
"The dogma of the infallibility of the Bible is no more self-evident than is
of the infallibility of the popes."
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895)
The Bible: What It is
The Bible[a] is really a collection of many books. In fact, the modern Biblnot including the group of books known as the Apocrypha, actually
comprises of sixty-six books. The lengths of these books vary from Isaiahwhich comes close in length to a modern short novel, to the Third Epistle John, with only 294 words.
The books in the Bible are divided into two main sections; knownrespectively as The Old Testament and The New Testament. Christians viethe Old Testament as an account of the old covenant between God and theHebrews. The Old Testament was also supposed to contain references and prophecies to the coming of Jesus Christ. The New Testament presents,through Jesus, a new covenant, this time between God and all mankind.
In some Bibles there exist a third section, known as the Apocrypha. These books are those which canonicity as the word of God is disputed in variouchurches. The Roman Catholic Church accepts some of these books ascanonical and places them together with the books of the Old Testament.
The Bible is, thus, a collection of many different types of books. Not all th books carry the same message. For instance, Nehemiah, calls for the preservation of racial purity by the prohibition of inter-racial marriages,while Ruth has for its heroine a Moabite woman who married a Jew. Asanother example, the book of Proverbs extols living the good life which itsays is God's reward for righteous living while Ecclesiastes says life is
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meaningless and prosperity is accidental.
The New Testament stands in an uneasy contrast with the Old. The Old Testament says that the Jews are the chosen people of God. This God maysometimes abandon them as a punishment for their unfaithfulness but theseverance was always only temporary. Yet in the New Testament we areshown that the Jews are completely severed from God and are in factresponsible for the murder of his Son.
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The Inerrant Bible?
The Bible is an interesting and valuable collection of Middle Eastern mythhistory and literature . To the Christians, however, the Bible is much morethan that. It is God's word to man. As God's word to man Christiantheologians had in the past viewed the Bible as an inerrant work . This is oreasonable, for the one guarantee that the Bible is God's word must be thatcannot contain any errors whatsoever. With the development of humanknowledge, especially in the sciences, this view of Biblical inerrancy is be
shared by fewer and fewer theologians.
However, there is still a substantial group of theologians, the fundamentaliwho accept, or shall I say, assert, the strict inerrancy of the Bible. Note thathe dogma of the inerrant Bible is not that only some parts of the Bible aretrue. It asserts that the Bible is completely and absolutely without any erroIt is also the general observation of this author that most lay Christians, bethey from fundamentalist churches or otherwise, hold what is an essentiallfundamentalist view of the Bible: that it is inerrant.
Before starting our analysis, there are two ideas that must be clear in our
mind. First we have to understand the logic behind our claim that that theBible is not inerrant . Second we have to understand the difference betweethe concept of probability and possibility and why it is relevant for our analysis to follow.
We see that the Bible contains many mistakes and inaccuracies. The Bible
contains internal contradictions.contains numerical contradictions.contains failed prophecies.
Apart from these simple errors, the Bible also contains numerous scientific
errors. These include errors in:
the physical sciencesthe biological sciencesmathematics.
Thus far from being inerrant, the Bible is we can see, is filled withcontradictions, mistakes and scientific errors common to other cultures of tera.
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Biblical Myths
Perhaps the most well known of all biblical myths, and certainly the onemost stubbornly defended by fundamentalists, is the creation myth. In factcreationism (as it is called by believers-they also normally add the adjectiv"scientific" in front), is a "hot" topic among fundamentalist circles. Yetcreationism, and the corresponding creation myths in Genesis, isdemonstrably false. The creation myths (note the plural) in the Bible:
have internal difficultiesgive the wrong age for the universecould not satisfactorily account for the origin of species.
In fact we can show that the creation myths in the Bible are not even origito it but were derived from earlier Babylonian myths.
While we are on the subject of myths, we must note that the flood myth,which many believe were somehow geologically proven is demonstrablyfalse. Furthermore, it has been conclusively shown by archaeologists that t
Biblical flood myth was derived from The Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancientBabylonian myth. In fact the very name Noah is derived from the name ofBabylonian rain goddess.
Other myths include the myth of Cain and Abel and the myth of the Toweof Babel. We can safely conclude that the first eleven chapters of genesis pure mythology .
The Demise of Biblical Archaeology
Indeed , there is now so much contrary evidence against the historicalaccuracy of the Bible that the term "biblical archaeology" has now beendiscarded in professional archeology! [The preferred term now being SyroPalestinian archaeology [1]] The whole paradigm of archaeology in the NEast has shifted away from thinking of the Bible as a reliable archaeologicfield guide to that of a collection of ancient fairy tales and legends.
The BBC journalist Matthew Sturgis account in his book It Ain't Necessar
So (2001) summarizes the current situation nicely:
A new generation of archaeologists has emerged...they arechallenging the intellectual assumptions of their predecessors...During the years since World War II it has become harder and harder to escape this sense of doubt. Theexpected discoveries of specific biblical artifacts and buildings were simply not being made...Discrepancies between the biblical account and the ever increasingarchaeological record become more noticeable and harder toignore...Rather than using the Old Testament as a field guide, the current crop of archaeologists is increasingly putting the Bible aside...The very term biblical archaeologyhas become tainted, and is now rejected by many
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academics...The old quest to confirm the historical truths of the events in the Bible has been replaced by a new agenda:to build a full and detailed picture of life in the ancient Near East. If the Bible is consulted at all, it is approached withvarying degrees of skepticism. The onus of proof has shifted:the text [of the Bible] is now considered historicallyunreliable until proven otherwise. [2]
Over the last decade, quote a number of books have been published outlin
this state of affairs.
T.W. Davis, “Shifting Sands: The Rise and Fall of BiblicalArchaeology”, Oxford 2004I. Finkelstein, “The Bible Unearthed”, Free Press 2001A.D. Marcus, “The View from Nebo”, Little, Brown & Co 2000M. Sturgis, “It Ain’t Necessarily So”, Headline 2001T.L. Thompson, “The Mythic Past”, Basic Books 1999T.L. Thompson, “The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives”, Trin2002
Basically the main thesis of these books can be summarized as follows: mof what passed as history (such Abraham and the “patriarchal narrative”,Moses and the exodus and the conquest of Canaan) is now considered, bason the mass of available archaeological evidence, to be largely mythical. TIsraeli archaeologist, I. Finkelstein (see his book above) goes even further;asserts that historical evidence is lacking for even the united kingdom of David and Solomon! Indeed today some of the major events and characterof the Old Testament are no longer considered historical!
Abraham and the patriarchal narrativesMoses and ExodusJoshua and the conquest of Canaan.
While it is true that David and Solomon existed, the archaeological evidenshows that the kingdom of David and Solomon were nowhere near how thare described in the Bible. Indeed Jerusalem during the time of David and Solomon was little more than a village with less than 5,000 people!
There are clear fictive elements in other Biblical books as well.
The books of Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiacontain contradictions, elements of numerology and anachronisms.The books of Ruth, Esther, Job and Jonah are works of pure fiction.
The book of Daniel is fraudulent fiction masquerading as a propheticwork.
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Uncertain Authorship
The books of the Bible are books of testimony. Unlike treatises onmathematics and logic, where the correctness of the argument can be inferfrom the written sources themselves, testimonials invariable involve a pers
or persons telling you something actually happened . Thus the integrity of
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person giving the testimonial is of utmost importance. For that integrity iswhat makes us trust what he or she says. The Bible makes testimonies abothings that are, by any reckoning, out of the ordinary. There are testimoniaabout the appearances of God to some of his prophets, about tremendousmiracles such as the parting of the Red Sea and even about a man walkingwater! Surely on such incredible testimonies, the integrity of the persontelling the stories must be scrutinized very very closely. Remember the oldmaxim: extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof . As a corollary that, we should demand that the incredible stories demand impeccable
integrity on behalf of the storyteller to be believed.
The first step towards examining the integrity of a person is, of course, toknow his or her identity. It is therefore not surprising that Jewish and Christian traditions ascribed the authorships of the books in the Old Testaments to well known Jewish kings and prophets: the very charactersmentioned in the Bible. To Moses, certainly the most important figure inJudaism, was attributed the authorship of the first five books of the Bible:Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In a similar trendJoshua, Moses' successor, was supposed to have penned the book that has name as the title. Other important figures in Jewish history, such as David
and Solomon, also have books attributed to them.
There is a similar trend in the New Testament. Most books in the NewTestament had their authorship attributed to the disciples of Jesus, or at leatheir immediate followers. For examples the two letters of Peter weresupposed to have been written by the apostle himself, while the gospel of Mark was presumed to have been written by one of Peter's followers.
These attribution of authorship were accepted, almost without question, byChristians for close to two millennia. In the 19th century, with the use of thmethods critical historical research to the books of the Bible, these traditio beliefs were slowly but relentlessly eroded. The research has reached a po
where almost all the books in the Bible are no longer held to be written bythe people tradition thought them to be. This valid discovery, however, isvery rarely communicated to the lay public. When it is conveyed at all, it inormally preceded with attempt on behalf of the scholars to cushion the"blow" on the reader. As a result, to this day most lay Christians and (of course) all fundamentalists hold firm to these traditional attribution of authorship.
Let us look at the problem of authorship:
Although Jewish and Christian traditions attribute the authorship of
Pentateuch to Moses, this attribution can easily be shown to be falseTraditional attributions are also false for Joshua and Samuel.At least some of the so-called Psalm of David could easily be showto be of later composition.In fact we know precious little about the author of many of the bookin the Old Testament.The gospels were not written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.The two epistles attributed to the apostle Peter were definitely notwritten by himMany of the epistles attributed to Paul were not written by the apostAlmost all the other NT books had dubious attribution of authorship
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Haphazard Canonization and Textual
Difficulties
Many Christians have a very vague idea about how this collection wasachieved. Even then it is probably filled with belief that the method of
collection was miraculously inspired. When Christians speak of the "canonthe Bible" they mean the list of books that are to be considered as sacred writings or the word of God to the exclusion of all other books. There is nmiddle ground, no gray area. Either a book is inspired by God or it is not.There is no book that is "partially" inspired. The uninitiated would naturalland common sensically expect these "inspired" books to be somehow sodifferent from those rejected that it would be an easy matter to separate theSurely a work written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit would beclearly distinct from the works of mere mortals. The truth of the matter, ashistory shows, is very different.
We will proceed to show that the method of collection was haphazard and
no means carried out with the unanimous consent of early Christendom. Lus looks first at the Old Testament:
The Jewish OT canon, finalized at the end of the first century CE, w based on, among other things, the mistaken attribution of authorship political considerations and haphazard selections of the "authoritativtextual versions.The Christian OT canon, is similarly confused . With the variousdenominations unable to agree on even which books are inspired!Some canonical New Testament books even refer to books not in thOld Testament Canon as though they are authoritative scripture.
The history of the New Testament canonization and textual transmissionshows a process that is equally haphazard:
The history of the transmission of New Testament manuscripts showthat the text became more and more corrupted as time goes onculminating with the faulty text used as the basis for the King Jamesversion.Some of passages beloved by Christians, such as the Johanine Comm
the Pericopae Adulterae and the passages describing Jesus' resurrectin the earliest gospel have been shown by textual criticism to bespurious!.
Indeed we see that the often made claim by fundamentalists that themore than five thousand extant manuscripts of the New Testament point to something special is nothing but an empty boast.The canonization process was a hodgepodge of mistaken authorshipattribution, faulty logic and the politics of heresy.
Due to all these difficulties, it is important to know that not all Bibletranslations are of equal standard of scholarship. Some, especially the onesfrom fundamentalist publications, have theological axes to grind in their translations: smoothing over some of the difficulties above and getting ridsome of the (to them) more offensive passages of the Bible .
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On Morality and Word Spinning
Some believers have argued that while it is may be so that the Bible is notcompletely true and is a largely a human concoction, it is still a valuablestorehouse of moral teachings. This too, is patently false, upon close
examination. We see that:
God commands atrocities, the type which rivals the worst atrocities Hitler and Stalin.The Bible is essentially misogynistic.It condones slavery.The teachings of Jesus where they are original, are not good moralguides. Where they are good or positive, they are not original.
It can be shown that much of the harm Christianity has visited on the worlhas been due mainly to these Bible passages.
That leaves us with the liberal theologians. They try to explain away thecontradictions, mistakes and moral flaws of the Bible with theological worspinning.
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Conclusions
What can we conclude from our study of the Bible?
It is filled with scientific errors, contradictions and numerous other
errors.Many of its myths are not even original, but were derived from earlmiddle eastern myths.The authors are largely anonymous.The canonization process is largely haphazard and accidental.It does not serve as a good moral guide and in fact had been largelyresponsible for the atrocities committed by believers.
In short, the Bible is not a "good Book".
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Notes
a One of the way documents were made in ancient times was to write them down on rol
of papyrus. The material to make this rolls comes from the inner bark of a reed plant t
grows only in swampy places. The plant was called byblos. This name is derived from
the Canaanite seaport in Phoenicia (modern Lebanon) called Byblos. Hence, the Greek
word for the roll of papyrus is biblion which is translated into English as “book”. The
plural of biblion is biblia. It is from this word, biblia, that the word Bible is
derived.[Bruce, The Books and the Parchments: p11]
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References
1. Davis, Shifting Sands: p145
2. Sturgis, It Ain't Necessarily So: p36-39
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