Liberal Jewish Values and Practice Leaflets
Biblical Criticism - A modern approach to the Hebrew Bible
by Rabbi Dr Charles H Middleburgh
For many centuries Jews regarded the Hebrew Bible as 'Holy
Writ' and therefore studied it uncritically, as a sacrosanct
document whose narratives are all historically true and whose
commandments are all divine and therefore to be obeyed. This
philosophy, known as Fundamentalism, is not exclusive to Judaism,
but in our context it quintessentially expresses the view that
the Five Books of Moses are the word of God revealed on Mt.
Sinai. As a result, those who espouse this view say that everything
in the Torah must be obeyed, and nothing may be denied or ignored.
Biblical Criticism (a technical term for modern, historical
Bible study) is the phrase most commonly applied to study of
the Bible which does not believe that this literalist approach
is true to the facts, and which seeks, through a more scientific
analysis, to arrive at a credible view of how and when the books
of the Bible came into being.
Many people might be under the impression that a critical approach
to the biblical text is a comparatively modern phenomenon, but
they would be incorrect; we may trace such studies in the writings
of Jewish and Christian scholars from as early as the 5th century
CE, although it was in the 18th century that the process began
to accelerate. In the 19th century, the German scholar Julius
Wellhausen propounded what came to be known as the Documentary
Hypothesis, stating that the Pentateuch was composed from several
strands (to each of which he gave a title), which spanned a
period from the 9th to the 6th centuries BCE. He noted textual
inconsistencies, repetitions, the use of different divine names,
and other factors to substantiate his views.
Also in the 19th century, the growth of Middle Eastern archaeology
led to fascinating discoveries (such as the Babylonian Creation
epic and the Babylonian Flood story) that substantiated the
view that the Bible was not a unique text but one that was a
part of its cultural and historical milieu; but which also corroborated
the historicity of many of its narratives, especially those
dating from later centuries, like Kings, Isaiah and Jeremiah.
Wellhausen's work inspired others to take a critical look at
the rest of the books of the Bible, and their objective analyses
of specific texts shed light on them and the context in which
they had been written, as well as their likely date.
Inevitably, such an onslaught by "objective" scholars
inspired a fundamentalist backlash, and some noted individuals
set out to disprove the theories of Wellhausen and his later
disciples. How convincingly they achieve their aims is a matter
for personal preference. Over a 100 years after Wellhausen first
propounded his theories, they no longer hold the sort of sway
in biblical scholarship that they once did, although they undoubtedly
opened the door for the scholarly understanding of the biblical
text that is followed by the majority today and to which, to
a greater or lesser extent, most open-minded Jews and Christians
subscribe.
To a fundamentalist, all such theories are anathema, and an
outrageous slur on divine authorship and authority. Take these
away, they argue, and you remove any reason for observing the
laws of the Torah, even for living a Jewish life.
Such attitudes are unacceptably and unnecessarily monolithic.
To the Progressive Jew, Biblical Criticism has underpinned what
for us is an obvious reality, that the Bible, and particularly
the Torah, is a human document. We feel free to say that there
is much in it that is inspiring, timeless, and beyond reproach;
but biblical scholarship's analysis has also encouraged us to
say that there is plenty that is flawed, petty, and rooted in
ancient politics and culture. We refuse to accept that the God
in whom we believe propounded some of these latter concepts
and laws, such as the stoning to death of a rebellious son or
the permanent ostracism from the community of Israel of the
members of ancient Canaanite tribes; we can only comprehend
them as emanating from a human mind, and being rooted in the
culture and morality of their time.
This does not mean to say that we necessarily discount the possibility
of divine inspiration behind the Biblical text, far from it;
the Bible is, after all, a remarkable document, replete with
great wisdom and insights and expressing timeless thoughts and
ideals that cannot easily be conceived as emanating from other
than an extraordinary intellect. For many, the acknowledgement
of the Deity behind this pre-eminent book is nothing less than
a statement of the obvious, but it in no way diminishes the
feeling that it is the work of human beings and should be responded
to as such.
Scholars of Biblical criticism, and the archaeologists and others
whose work complements their own, have liberated modern Jews
and Christians from the shackles of fundamentalist dogma, have
enhanced the Bible's worth even while demonstrating that it
is a richly composite work owing its inspiration to God, and
have shown the historicity of many of its texts to an unparalleled
degree.
Their theories may be disowned by traditionalists for whom scientific
analysis and religious dogma are incompatible bedfellows, but
they are hard to reject on any other grounds. We owe much to
the courage of those whose search for the truth led them to
take a stand against the received, uncritical wisdom of the
ages, and from the fruits of whose research we are all the beneficiaries.
Suggestions for further reading:
Robert Alter - The Art of Biblical Narrative
Louis Jacobs - A Jewish Theology - Chapter on Revelation (pp.199-210)
Richard Elliott Freedman - Who wrote the Bible?
Harold Bloom/David Rosenberg - The Book of J
Download
the pdf version of this information (Right-hand mouse click
the link and choose 'save target as...')
|
