History & the Bible
Dateline: March 21, 1999
Learning about the Bible
It's a sad fact of life that the vast majority of people who profess to believe in the Bible and attempt to follow it in their daily lives know precious little about it. Not only are they ignorant about what is actually in the bible, but they are incredibly ignorant about what has developed out of the past couple of hundred years of scholarly work on the Bible. Indeed, there is a tremendous amount of prejudice against "German rationalism," the term often applied to any form of higher, scholarly criticism. This is perhaps because such critiques of the bible started in Germany and there may be a hope to associate it with Marxism, Nazism, etc.
At any rate, there is a desperate need in this country, and indeed around the world wherever Christianity and Judaism are common, for people to learn more about just what is in the bible. Unfortunately, most works which discuss the subject are very "scholarly," which usually means very dense, very difficult to read and not at all attractive to the average reader, exactly the person who needs to be reached. Luckily there are a few exceptions, books with fantastic information but written in such a way as to appeal to the people who most need to learn what they were never taught in Sunday school, by their preachers or by their parents. One recent and worthy addition is Don't Know Much About the Bible: Everything you need to know about the Good Book but never learned by Kenneth C. Davis, who has written a series of books on a variety of subjects, attempting to inform people about matters which they should know more about, but usually don't.
I'd say that Davis does a really good job - not only with this book, but with his others as well. I enjoy reading what he has not to say - not only because he writes about very interesting subjects, but because he knows how to present them and how to write in a very engaging style. This book on the Bible in particular tackles a difficult and even dangerous topic, but does so in a fair, intelligent and informed manner.
This book should also appeal to a wide range of people. On the one hand are the people without much experience in biblical scholarship and religious studies - they will obviously benefit a book which opens up for them a wide world of information which they never knew about before. This should be particularly true for young people who haven't had much experience with more difficult texts. On the other hand are those who have quite a bit more experience with biblical scholarship - there is much in this book which will be old news to them, but I suspect also much which will be surprising and interesting.
The Bible is presented sequentially, not thematically. Each chapter of the book discusses a book of the bible, in the order they are found in the standard Christian bible. This formatting also makes this book a really good reference - any time you are looking for more details on a particular book or story, it shouldn't be too difficult to find just what you need.
This isn't meant to be a skeptic's examination of the bible - it is instead meant as an information resource. First and foremost the book aims to tell you just what happened - who is reported to have done what to whom, where and why. Secondly comes the question of just how reliable the information is, where the information may have come from, what sorts of political and cultural contexts existed at the time of writing, etc.
Despite the emphasis on the Christian ordering of things, Davis never hesitates to explain what the original Hebrew ordering is and why the order might be different. This brings us to the question of what exactly the bible is and to whom it actually belongs - a question which can raise controversy but which Davis doesn't shy away from. Many people will be surprised to learn that there are a great many bibles - different translations, different books which didn't make the "final cut" when the canon was created, etc. This is of course all rather obvious to most skeptics and freethinkers, but not to a great many believers.
"Who wrote the bible?" is also a controversial question - many Christians are sure that it was written by god, but the human hand in the origins of the many stories is unmistakable. Davis takes us through the discussion of Moses' alleged authorship of the Torah and the debate about the J, E, D and P authors whose influences are seen through the Old Testament. These, along with other facts like the multiple creation accounts in Genesis, are among the things which will be old news to many people, but a real shocker to most.
Particular attention is paid in this book to any archeological evidence which might offer empirical support to the various stories we read. When there exists archeological finds which might give evidence of some things, Davis usually mentions them and discusses just what sorts of conclusions might be derived from them. There is not a lot of such evidence - far less than most believers assume. But there is I think a bit more than Davis actually mentions. At any rate, most of the other books I have on the bible never even bother to discuss this, so its inclusion is very welcome.
Another possible problem is that Davis' treatment of various portions of the bible may at times be uneven. With some books, he provides us with a wealth of information and details. At other times, like with Paul's letters, we don't get much information at all - just a minimum. However, it should be noted that Paul's letters are a complex subject, and perhaps a more decent treatment would have required too much space.
I was already familiar with most of the ideas presented in this book, although I certainly wasn't familiar with all the details I later learned. I won't go into detail about them all - that would certainly take way too much time. I may, however, discuss some of the in individual articles at later times. Presently, I'd rather mention a couple of the more minor but more amusing points which this book brought up.
In the chapter entitled "Over the River" which discusses the books of Joshua, Davis recounts an interesting passage after the Hebrews had crossed the river into Jordan:
To commemorate this crossing of the Jordan, twelve river stones are set in a pile at Gilgal. The first Passover in the Promised Land is celebrated here and a mass circumcision is performed with flint knives - Ouch! - because all the men born in the wilderness had not been circumcised. That is why Gilgal means "Hill of the Foreskins." Lovely mailing address!
I've read the bible more than once, but I have to admit to not having been aware of that! And this certainly isn't the only time Davis points out an amusing portion of the bible which is not normally discussed in Sunday School.
On perhaps a more serious note, when dealing with the passages about Jesus's birth, Davis says:
What might you say if your fourteen-year-old daughter sat you down and said that an angel told her that she was going to give birth to the Son of God? But not to worry, Mom and Dad. She'll still be a virgin! The traditional images of the Virgin Mary tend to obscure the fact that the Holy Mother of Jesus was an unwed teenager.
All of this is certainly true - and all of it is totally glossed over by almost all believers. Davis does an excellent presentation of such facts, making him well worth reading.
The final question asked by Davis is: Whose God is it anyway. Just as Davis pointed out in the beginning that there are a multitude of different bibles out there, he also points out that there are a multitude of different possible gods which can be taken away from a reading of those bibles. This, too, will come as a shock to many people who are raised with a single, narrow view of God, Jesus, Christianity and the Bible. I can't tell you how many times believers will ask me something along the lines of "Do you believe in the God of the Bible," expecting me to know exactly what they are talking about. I do not, and I cannot, simply assume that I know just what sort of god they believe in - and rarely do they ever manage to understand this.
Davis certainly isn't an atheist, but he is at least a skeptical believer who doesn't hesitate to raise difficult and uncomfortable questions. If more believers did that, religion today would be a great deal more rational and reasonable than it currently is.
In the end, I don't hesitate to recommend this book. It perhaps shouldn't top the most wanted list of someone with a great deal of biblical experience, but everyone else (which means most people) should definitely give it a long, hard look.
If you know of any good books which address this topic, please take the time to let others know about them either on the Bulletin Board or in the Chat Room. Share your experiences with others!
Other books by Davis:
Don't Know Much About Geography : Everything You Need to Know About the World but Never Learned
Don't Know Much About History : Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned
Don't miss the other section:
Part 1: Introduction
Part 3: Myths of History
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