Saturday, December 08, 2007
How Not to Read the Bible, Part 3
How about modern scholars who believe in a literal interpretation? Those who have used archeology, linguistics, and history to back up the biblical text?
It is hard to just flatly say "modern scholarship" and react to it. Modern scholarship doesn't want to leave room for God, and (surprise!) it finds no miracles.
When you start with a presumption of disbelief, scholarship rooted in disbelief will come up with a ton of stories and explanations for what is in the text. But do they account for all the evidence?
For example, let's assume I believe scholarship that the Torah was written rather late. And for giggles, let's say it was done for political purposes or some other such story.
Why are all these commands in the Torah about helping the poor and limiting the power of rulers?
Second, Kugel leads us through the Bible as it’s understood by modern scholars, who for the past 150 years have used archaeology, linguistics, history, anthropology and all the other tools of science to excavate the truth about the Good Book. Kugel seems to have begun “How to Read the Bible” with the notion of giving equal weight to his two methods, but he soon sidelines the ancient interpreters and focuses on the exceedingly provocative modern scholarship. Though Kugel surely did not intend this, in its own way, his book proves as devastating to the godly cause as any of the pro-atheism books that have been dominating the best-seller lists in recent months.
How about modern scholars who believe in a literal interpretation? Those who have used archeology, linguistics, and history to back up the biblical text?
It is hard to just flatly say "modern scholarship" and react to it. Modern scholarship doesn't want to leave room for God, and (surprise!) it finds no miracles.
When you start with a presumption of disbelief, scholarship rooted in disbelief will come up with a ton of stories and explanations for what is in the text. But do they account for all the evidence?
For example, let's assume I believe scholarship that the Torah was written rather late. And for giggles, let's say it was done for political purposes or some other such story.
Why are all these commands in the Torah about helping the poor and limiting the power of rulers?
Labels: how to read the bible
