Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [6]
Beyond “lighting a fire,” Don’t Know Much About the Bible has more ambitious goals. We live in fascinating but confounding times. Rarely has the world seemed so “corrupt,” yet rarely has there been such worldwide interest in religion and spirituality. Whether it is millennial curiosity or the weary rejection of modern life, many people are pondering their lives and searching for “something.” Call it family values. Morality. Virtue. Perhaps even faith. For these searchers, Don’t Know Much About the Bible sets out to offer some help in “attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight; for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair” (Proverbs).
An ambitious goal? Absolutely. In other words, for the modern spiritual journeyer, this book sets out to provide a readable road map through a Bible that remains morally instructive, vividly alive, and spiritually challenging. Can I bring you “faith”? Can I make you “believe”? I’m not even going to try.
If that is what you find, amen. If you don’t find faith in these pages, however, I hope you will at least find wisdom.
Author’s Note: When people heard I was writing this book, the most frequently asked question was “Which translation are you using?” It’s a reasonable curiosity that points to one of the basic problems in discussing and understanding the Bible—there are so many Bibles. I have relied upon several translations, all of which are listed in the Bibliography. As a researcher, my preference is for The New Oxford Annotated Bible, a New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). The result of research by a broad range of scholars from diverse religions and denominations, it is a translation that reflects the latest discoveries in biblical scholarship and presents valuable notes regarding controversial, disputed, or conflicting versions. Bible verses cited in this book are generally from the Oxford NRSV unless otherwise noted. The most frequently cited alternatives include the King James Version (KJV), the Jewish Publication Society (JPS) edition of the Tanakh, and The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB).
Historical dates have traditionally been written as BC, for “before Christ,” and AD, for “anno Domini” (“in the year of the Lord”). Both terms reflect a Christ-centered viewpoint. Many scholars now prefer a dating system that uses BCE (“before the Common Era”) and CE (“Common Era”). I have adopted that dating system in this book.
Part One
WHOSE BIBLE IS IT ANYWAY?
The Devil can cite scripture for his own purpose.
—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE,
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
The Bible has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies.
—MARK TWAIN,
LETTERS FROM THE EARTH
…what is it to me if Moses wrote it or if another prophet wrote it, since the words of all of them are truth and through prophecy.
—FIFTEENTH-CENTURY SCHOLAR JOSEPH BEN ELIEZER BONFILS
* What is the Bible?
* What’s a “testament”?
* Are the Dead Sea Scrolls the “original” Bible?
* Who wrote the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament?
* Didn’t Moses write the Torah?
* If not Moses, then who?
* Who were the Children of Israel?
* If they wrote it in Hebrew, where did all the Greek words come from?
My Bible or yours? Whose version shall we read? The King James? The Jerusalem Bible? The Living Bible?
Take a look at this brief passage from one Bible story as told in a version called The Five Books of Moses:
The human knew Havva his wife,
she became pregnant and bore Kayin.
She said:
Kaniti/I-have-gotten
a man, as has YHWH!
She continued bearing—his brother, Hevel.
Now Hevel became a shepherd of flocks, and Kayin became a worker of the soil.
Havva? Kayin? Hevel?
“Who are these strangers?” you might ask.
Perhaps you know them better as Eve and her boys, Cain and Abel, whose births are recounted in Genesis. In Everett Fox’s The Five Books of Moses you will also encounter