(A video version of this post can be found at: https://www.instagram.com/p/DcQ9HdvOLrS/?hl=en)

The Bible, a term derived from the Greek ta biblia meaning “the books”, is often claimed as the world’s all-time bestseller. It’s become noun for any reference material that supports Christian ideals. The Old Testament portion is generally a collection of four genres: law or the Pentateuch, history, wisdom, and the prophets – both major and minor. Did Moses write the Pentateuch? Doubtful. The Documentary Hypothesis suggests the Pentateuch is actually a blending of four different sources of material written over a five hundred year period starting about a thousand years before Christ. Many of the other books are attributed to the Minor Prophets who claimed either inspiration from God or hearing his words directly. Today, if an author claimed to have written something as dictated directly from God, he’d be branded a lunatic, so I’m curious how the Bible gets a free pass. The bible we reference today has chapters and verses (that which foments the ease of quotability of passages), but they are only editorial additions that date back to the 13^th and 16^th centuries. To fully understand the evolution of the Bible we have today from the early collections of the Tanakh (to the Septuagint to the Torah, one would need to combine the talents of a scholar, a detective, and a puzzlist.

But the issue which concerns me is the staunch reliance on using it as the standard by which we measure our moral code. Certainly, the world has no lack of poor moralistic behavior, but to be guided by a series of texts that were drafted by unknown authors from thousands of years ago doesn’t strongly support much credibility especially if we acknowledge how heavily male-centric the documents are. More to the point, the moral fabric of our society is more complicated and diverse thant it was in past millennia, and it fluctuates. For example: there has always been homosexuality, at various points in history it was more acceptable than at other times, but it’s been around. Several hundred years ago it was acceptable for an older man to marry a girl just past puberty as she was now physically able to provide heirs. Today, that same man would be recognized as a pedophile. People surely had issues with gender identification, but probably just had to live with it. Psychology dates to the ancient Greeks and Egyptians, but it didn’t become a science until the 19^th century. Our greater understanding of human complexity because of it alone should antiquate the Bible as a governing source of moral standards.

Still, the most egregious use of the Bible is the cherry-picking of quotes as a basis for taking the upper hand in an argument. You know what I mean – all those people who open a sentence by saying: the Bible says…or according to the Bible…I love the scene from season 2, episode 3 of The West Wing in which President Bartlet demonstrates how ridiculous it is to cherry-pick by displaying the inconsistencies of the Old Testament that systematically condemns our modern way of life. Check it out on Netflix.

Then we have the New Testament, the Gospels attributed (doubtfully) to the words of the apostles and the letters (epistles) from Paul, James, Peter, and John. These are given nearly divine significance because of their personal association with Jesus, well, except Paul, he never met him. If anything from the bible should be used as the foundation for moralistic behavior, it might be the teachings credited to Jesus, or more appropriately Yeshua; at least he taught acceptance and love toward ALL. In fact, if you even ignore the belief that Jesus was incarnate from God and just listen to what he had to say, the teachings offer an amazing amount of guidance. All the Christian mutterings in the news today seem to fly in the face of everything Jesus stood for just as Republican policies regarding immigration, DEI, ICE operations, and being anti-WOKE do. Most Christians wouldn’t relate to what Jesus stood for if they were slapped in the head with a copy of the Beatitudes.

As for the bible itself, as far as I’m concerned you can toss it in the garbage along with the Torah and the Koran.

Simply replace it all with the Golden Rule – that covers a lot of ground all by itself because it transcends all religions, civilizations, and societies.

From Yeshua – Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you… John 14:27

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