When we think about how the Bible
proves itself to be the Word of God, we usually think about the miracles and
fulfilled prophecies of the Bible. We might also think in terms of the wisdom,
unity and the power of the Bible to change lives. There is even a powerful case
to be made for how biblical revelation had anticipated the findings of science
and archeology. In addition to these evidences, the Bible contains much that would
not have been written by the Israelites. In many respects, the Bible is a
collection of writings that humans would not have been motivated to write. Let
me try to present several examples:
1. THE PATRIARCHS: Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob, the forefathers of Judaism, were certainly not role-models. Instead,
the Bible reveals that they were cowards, deceivers, liars and worse. We humans
don’t create or select such role models, least of all those who we identify as
the Fathers of our faith.
Instead, the human tendency is to
fashion them into the saints with whom others would want to identify. This is
exactly what the Talmud did with the Patriarchs. It sanitized the Bible’s
depiction of them, and made them virtually sinless. In contrast, the Bible’s
portraits sharply conflict with what we’d create – so much so, that we feel
compelled to modify them.
For instance, the Bible gives us the
portrait of a spineless Abraham who routinely passed off his beautiful wife
Sarah as his sister so that no one would kill him in order to have her.
Similarly, the Bible presents Israel’s
greatest King – David – as an adulterer and a murderer. However, an orthodox
Jew informed me that the Talmud had so cleaned up David that his adultery with
Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah were both righteous acts. This is
precisely how we humans write our religious books!
2. MOSES: Even the greatest of all
Israelites had been forbidden entry into the Promised Land because he had
sinned. Aaron also is presented as a humiliated sinner. What hope therefore
could the average Israelite entertain about his own future welfare? Not much!
Such a revelation could not have been the invention of humans who’d naturally
want to maintain a zealous following.
In contrast, in ancient literature,
no historian presents his king in a negative light lest he forego his life!
3. THE ISRAELITES: They are not
portrayed as faithful to God, but as stubborn and unfaithful. On numerous
occasions, Moses warned the Israelites to not think themselves better or more
deserving than others. Meanwhile, the Talmud characterizes the Jewish people as
spiritually superior, the very thing that the Bible warns against:
·
“After the
LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, "The
LORD has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my
righteousness." No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations
that the LORD is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your
righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their
land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will
drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Understand, then, that it is not because of your
righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess,
for you are a stiff-necked people.” (Deut. 9:4-6)
In fact, we cannot find one verse
in the Hebrew Scriptures that suggests that the Israelites were superior to or
more deserving than others.
On the contrary, almost all the
prophets denounce Israel,
so much so that if we didn’t know better, we might conclude that these
Scriptures represent the heights of anti-Semitism. Often, Israel is
indicted more extensively than any other people. The first chapter of Isaiah is
representative of what we find in the writings of the other Israelite prophets:
·
“I reared
children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The
ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not
know, my people do not understand. Woe to the sinful
nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children
given to corruption! They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the
Holy One of Israel and
turned their backs on him.” (Isa. 1:2-4)
We humans don’t characteristically
write such disparaging things about ourselves and our people, especially if
these writings form the core of our self-identity – our significance and
reason-for-being. How is it that the Jewish people would canonize such
thoroughly condemning writings? They must have been convinced that they had no
other choice, lest they oppose God.
4. MOSAIC LAWS: While much of
Moses’ commands resemble those of other legal systems from that period, notably
Hammurabi’s Code, much of it is not
characteristic of anything else we find in the ancient Near East. For instance:
·
The
covenant was transacted with all
the people, not just the king – an oddity in its day. Kings wrote the laws, and
these laws reflected the fact that the king was morally and religiously above
everyone else.
·
The king
was required to read the Torah (the Five Books of Moses) to remind him that he
was no better than other people (Deut. 17).
·
A day of
rest was mandatory for even animals and foreigners (Exodus 20:10). Such
concern does not come from the ruling class but from God who created all!
·
The
Sabbath (7th) year required the cancellation of debts to protect the poor
(Deut. 15:1, 4) – certainly not something that people who make the laws – the
power elite - would tolerate!
·
The Jubilee
(50th) year required that the land be returned to its original owners. In fact,
this law was so radical – so counter to human economics - that there is no
evidence that Israel
ever obeyed it:
Then have the
trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of
Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate
the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its
inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your
family property and to your own clan. The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for
you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended
vines. (Lev. 25:9-11)
It should be noted that such a law depended upon a
supreme trust in God to provide in the absence of sowing.
·
The
priestly caste was denied true wealth – land. Instead, God was to be their
inheritance. What powerful caste would willingly place themselves in such a
disadvantageous position!
·
The law
granted soldiers permission to leave the army if they feared (Deut. 20). If
any nation granted their soldiers such an out, it would loose its army.
Therefore, it would be surprising to find such a law in any man-made legal
code.
Similarly, there are many other
laws that humans, especially from that period of time, would never tolerate.
Therefore, it seems more likely that these laws must have come from above!
5. MOSAIC THREATS: The warnings for
disobedience were severe and demanding. If an Israelite failed to keep the law
in just one respect, he was under a curse (Deut. 27:26). We humans would not
accept such a threatening religion. Nor would the Rabbis, who qualified this
teaching in several ways. For instance, Gerald Sigal, The Jew and the Christian Missionary, wrote,
·
[Deuteronomy
27:26] does not refer to the breaking of the Law by an ordinary individual. It
is, as the Rabbis explain, a reference to the authorities in power who fail to
enforce the rule of the Law in the land
of Israel (J.T. Sotah
7:4). The leadership of the nation is thus charged, under pain of the curse, to
set the tone for the nation and make the Law the operative force in the life of
the nation.
Instead, this verse and many others
damn every Israelite. This is a state-of-affairs that no people would tolerate.
We come to religion for its benefits and not its curses!
6. PROPHECIES: The Prophets
uniformly prophesied Israel’s
future failure (Deut. 29:4; Joshua 24:19). Moses even taught Israel a song
that would serve to continually indict them. Israel would reject their God, and
God would bring destruction upon them (Deut 32:15-35). No one would invent a
religion foretelling such negative consequences for its own people. And who
would follow such a religion!
Perhaps even more offensive to Israel, the Prophets also envisioned the hated
Gentile nations enjoying in the end the abundant blessings with Israel. Perhaps
the most poignant demonstration of the Israelite consternation to this Divine
plan is exhibited by Jonah, who rebelled against God’s call to preach to Nineveh. This is because
he feared that his preaching would serve as a vehicle for God to bless the
Ninevites. Even Israel’s
prophets are characterized as unworthy of their Master!
7. PENTATEUCHAL HOLIDAYS: Of the
five prescribed holidays, only one of
them is truly commemorative of an historical event – the Passover/Feast of Unleavened
Bread. The other four seem to be prophetic. They look forward to God working
events to their glorious culmination.
However, this is very unusual –
something we humans don’t do! Holidays commemorate past events, like the
birthdays or deaths of our significant people, military victories, and even
great tragedies like Pearl Harbor Day.
They make us remember events that are key to our national and religious
identity.
Likewise, all of Israel’s non-divinely-ordained holidays are commemorative. Hanukkah
commemorates the cleansing of the Temple
and the Maccabean military victories. Purim commemorates the salvation
of the Jewish people in Persia.
T’sha b’Av commemorates the destruction of the Temple. Simchat Torah commemorates the
giving of the Law on Sinai.
8. ASSIGNMENT OF DATES: We assign
dates to occasions we want to remember. Not so the Torah (Pentateuch). There is
no assignment of a date to the giving of the law, to any military victories or
momentous triumphs over an enemy. There is no “Victory over Jericho”
day or “Pharaoh’s Defeat in the Red Sea” day.
Instead, the dates are those that are important to God. They certainly weren’t
important to the Israelites! In fact, Israel was so dumbfounded about the
purpose of some of these dates and prescribed holidays that they had to invent
rationale for them.
For instance, the purpose for the “Feast
of Trumpets” was never specified. Therefore, the Jewish people invented a
meaning for it. They called the day “Rosh Hashanah” (the head of the year) or
“New Years Day.” How strange not to
know the significance of one’s holidays! Had they been humanly ordained, there
never would have been any question!
This is only a mere outline of the
ways that the Bible is humanly foreign and sometimes repugnant – not the type
of thing that we would create if we had the choice. When we survey the Hebrew
Bible, we do not find a human landscape with identifiable benchmarks. Instead,
we encounter something entirely alien to our expectations and inclinations –
something that doesn’t flatter the ego, but instead humbles us, if we are
enabled to see this unearthly terrain through unbiased eyes. But it’s this
humbling process that prepares us for a Divine encounter that will leave us
unsatisfied with the world we had once inhabited.
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