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By Root 1171 0

glitches are there in the Bible? How many other “little” mistakes in translation have blurred our understanding of the real story? After all, the Bible has been through an awful lot of translations during the past two thousand years, including, only in fairly recent times, into English and other modern languages. Moses and Jesus never said “thee” and “thou.” In fact, even the name Jesus is a muddled translation of the Hebrew name Joshua. In the words of one politician, “Mistakes were made.” They were compounded over time. What if one of those medieval monks had slipped a bit with his quill when he was illuminating a manuscript? Or perhaps one of King James’s scribes had too much sacramental wine the day he worked on Deuteronomy.

My questions about the Bible took a more troubling turn when I wrote Don’t Know Much About the Civil War. I discovered that Christian abolitionists and defenders of slavery both turned to the Bible to support their positions. Slaveholders pointed to the existence of slavery in biblical times, as well as laws and biblical commands requiring slaves to be obedient, to justify America’s “Peculiar Institution.” Abolitionists cited Jewish laws for emancipating slaves and sheltering runaway slaves, New Testament verses that suggested freeing slaves, and Jesus’ commandment to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” How could the Bible be right for both of them? The moral quandary pitting slavery against abolition marked a turning point in American history: for the first time, doubt was cast on the Bible’s authority.

The fact that the Bible was used to support an evil like slavery raises another uncomfortable fact. To many people, the Bible has been a weapon. For centuries, Jews have feared the anti-Semitic message drawn by some Christians from the New Testament and its emphasis that the Jews killed Jesus—a devout Jew himself. The Crusades, the Inquisition, and Catholics fighting Protestants are all part of the Bible’s blood-soaked past. The nightly news is still filled with stories of Jews fighting Arabs over “biblical” lands. And in America, “biblical” issues permeate political debates. Abortion. Capital punishment. Homosexuality. Prayer in schools. On all of these burning social issues, people point to the Bible in justifying their positions.

Few biblical or religious questions have divided people more deeply in recent times than the role of women in the Scriptures. The Bible has been used as a cudgel against women for centuries. Biblical stories granting men supremacy over women—from the Garden of Eden through the early Christian church—seemingly conferred “divine authority” on women’s second-class status. Second-class status in synagogues and churches cemented second-class status at home. The biblical role laid out for women seemed clear: make babies and make dinner.

The fact is, while we all know of the Bible’s “macho men,” such as Moses, David, and Samson, the Scriptures are also filled with stories of strong, brave women. Preachers and Hollywood have always focused on the Bible’s “bad girls,” like Delilah or Jezebel, but they’ve overlooked some compelling heroines. In my view, the daring Eve is far more interesting than gutless Adam; Ruth was a model of loyalty and faith; Esther a brave beauty queen who saved the Jews from history’s first anti-Semitic pogrom; and Deborah was the Bible’s answer to “Xena, the Warrior Princess.”

My own curiosity about these troubling questions of biblical authority and accuracy come at a time when new discoveries and scholarship are challenging many accepted notions about the Bible. For instance, there have been startling discoveries drawn from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the ancient Hebrew Bible texts unearthed fifty years ago in some caves in the desert near the Dead Sea. These scrolls, the oldest known versions of the Hebrew scriptures that make up the Old Testament, have added immensely to an understanding of Bible texts and life at the time Jesus lived. Even more dramatic and controversial are questions raised in The Gnostic Gospels, a book that explores