Sample Chapters

Introduction

The Bible must be exactly what we say it is, so that God is who we say He is, so that He can save us from death? After all, isn’t  that what religion is all about-----our fear of the Abyss?  Is it Creationism or Evolution?  Is there a middle ground, or at least a 60/40 split? Let’s prove as much right, as possible, on both sides of the question, while endeavoring to not disprove the other side. In other words, just because you’re right, does not mean those who don’t share your view are suspect

This book is supposed to be about the Bible and the literal interpretation of it, so why start with evolution? Mainly because that is where the Bible starts and the whole of the Creation story relies mainly on a literal reading as it’s only support.  Should the Bible be read as a literal work or is it allegorical? Is it a book of moral stories or a history? That is what I intend to examine.

Good Intentions

Something that I noticed was the way information seems to flow through the Christian religion. Christianity is based on the teachings as put down in the Bible. Yet, from each religion and even each church the message will vary, even on the same topic. 

Then I started to think about a children’s game we all have played called, “whisper down the alley.” That’s a game where a group of children get in a line and the teacher whispers a short message into the first child’s ear. Each participant, in turn whispers the message into the next child’s ear. The last child in the line will speak out loud the message that he or she receives. The fun is that the message is always different than the one they started with. Most children have good hearing as any parent can testify when trying to communicate with their spouse about a Christmas secret, and certainly they have the ability to repeat anything they hear, to which all parents can also agree. Then why does the message get rearranged so that sometimes it is almost totally different?

This muddling of the stories carries over to the total Bible because it was written by many different men, each trying to tell us a story of what happened, or a story often based on information that was many years old and was “whispered down the alley” to them. Some of the stories may also be designed to teach us a moral message. Much like the fables of Aesop or the tales of Mother Goose, these are stories that are based on some fact or moral principle and never were meant to be literal interpretations. These stories are written so that the people with whom the writers were communicating could best understand, or so that the storytellers would not end up in jail or worse---- be excommunicated and sent to Hell for blasphemy. The New Testament stories were written by secretaries who were either listening to dictations from the principals involved or witnesses of the events, or the secretaries were recording oral renditions of stories told and retold many times, which is just another chain of “whispering down the alley”. The fascinating thing is that even though God gave us common sense to distinguish the differences, it’s still mind boggling how we can get such different readings.

Who Says

The Documentary Hypothesis is an accepted modern theory that explains the authorship of the Torah or Pentateuch (the First 5 books of the Bible). In order to reconcile the inconsistencies that are found in the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, a study of the possible authors was done. The Bible clearly states in writing at the top of the first page of each of these books that this is the First Book, Second book, etc., of Moses. However, after years of scholarly examination, it is now widely accepted that Moses could not have written many of the passages because they address things that happened after his lifetime, plus they contain information about which he could not have had knowledge. The accepted opinion is that there were several authors. They have come to be known by the alphabetical designations of J, E, P, D and R.

The Creation

The book of Genesis is in part a story to explain a concept to a people who had no knowledge of things like time, space, gravity, any of the physical cosmic laws, or even very much knowledge of a world beyond their own back yards, and in part a book of historical facts. The Genesis stories are all lumped together to lay the foundation to teach those people and us about God. The problem is that we now understand too much and it’s hard to make the pieces fit and make sense. Well maybe, just maybe, we actually need to know more.

The “J” or “P” Boat?

Noah is a great example of why you should not take the Bible literally. I’ve heard and read many attempts to justify Noah. On the Internet, I’ve read discussions by scholars and laymen on the subject, and I have watched several programs and read many blogs on Noah’s Ark. All were excellent arguments on the validity of the Flood story. They covered all the angles from the power of God to do things that are outside the physical laws of nature, to simply claims that we must “have faith”. I agree that God had the power, but I ask the question, “why all the bother”? If He can collect that much water from around the universe, bring it here and keep the Earth with its new huge watery mass in orbit around the Sun for an extended time period, then why go about it in this curious way?

The Great Escape

The Exodus story is unsubstantiated as there is almost no archaeological information or historical documentation available that supports this story. Therefore, it may occasionally sway between fact and fable. The only tidbits available outside the Bible are some Egyptian hieroglyphics about a man named Joseph and a people from Canaan having been in Egypt. The whole story may be just some spicing up of a story with sensationalism. That is and has been the position that many scholars have taken for years.

The Gospels

You would expect the main character in the New Testament to be Jesus, but in actuality, the words of Paul of Tharsis outnumber those of Jesus of Nazareth. At least, so it seems. We shall see if that holds true. First, let’s take a closer look at Jesus through the eyes of the Gospel writers. In order to understand Jesus, we have to try to understand the Jews of that time. Because, much to the chagrin of many a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant or Catholic, Jesus was first and foremost, a Jew. Judaism believed in several different heavenly beings and angels plus, of course, God. They also believed in other gods. Some Jews worshiped these other gods as late as near the end of the first century A.D. The god Baal was the main deviation from the “One True God”. The Jews had a covenant with God that was made in the early times with Abraham. This covenant stated that as long as the Jews worshiped God, he would remain their God and help them. This original covenant did and didn’t work out because, as I just stated, certain individuals and groups tended to deviate at times, while other followers did remain true to the deal that was made on their behalf. In order to re-establish the relationship, a new covenant was made with Moses at Mount Sinai----Ten Commandments time. To reinforce the training that the nation had undergone during their 40-year camping trek, another even newer one was made with Joshua, just before they took on the war with the inhabitants of the Promised Land. David renewed this covenant near the end of his days when he repented for all his shortcomings----one of which was the worship of the flesh. He had gotten into a major coveting debacle. The final covenant was made with the Jewish people with the coming of Jesus, or so it would seem. I leave some opening here that we will explore in the coming paragraphs.

Saint Paul and his Acts, Plus Peter and the Jewish/Christians

The Book of Acts was written by Luke, who was a gentile physician and the traveling companion of Saint Paul. It’s possible that some of this book is copied from some other sources. It could be a composition of different travelogues with an added narrative. We will discover that the Epistles (the letters that are credited to Paul) include a few forgeries. First, let’s find out who and what Paul and the Apostles are, and what we know about them and their times. A famous quote says, “What is history, but a guide to great men”? This is also true of the Bible. The Book of Acts is mostly about Paul and the start of Christianity, outside of the Jewish communities. We are also given a fair insight as to who the Apostle Peter was. Here, too, is the first clear sign that Jesus will return as the “Son of Man” coming on a cloud, a claim that Jesus never made for Himself. The time of His return is not made clear, and the information of when is even kept from the readers.

John’s Revelation

This book must be looked at through the eyes of the time in which it was written. It was written in the latter part of the first century in the Roman Empire, by a secretary taking dictation from an exiled priest living in a cave. This is possibly the most well known Apocalyptic writing ever written.

John’s Revelation was very disputed in the early church and was not included in any of the earlier attempts to come up with a list of books for the Bible. It only made the final cut in the 419 A.D. version----our present day canon. When Martin Luther translated the Bible for the Protestants, he left Revelations out. The Syrian Orthodox Church still does not include it in their Bible. So, as far as God’s endorsement----there were some interesting circumstances trying to influence its exclusion.

Conclusions

Maybe the greatest and most lasting reason to honor the people who brought us this book is the understanding that they were willing to die for their beliefs. 1000 Maccabees died instead of fighting on the Sabbath. That reasoning was quickly changed for obvious reasons, but it set an example that made the early Christians willing to be martyred. It held this faith together in time of great strife and it gave us all a common bond to know we are not alone, ever.

There are many deep secrets still waiting to be unearthed and many more that we will never know about. The marvels of science are opening doors to our past that were never available before. Science and evolution are not the enemy or the devil’s work. Archeology often agrees with the Bible. Telescopes and microscopes are showing us a world beyond ourselves.