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THE BOOK
Why the First Books of the Bible Were Written and Who They Were Written For
By ALLEN WRIGHT
iUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2013 Allen Wright
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4759-7241-2
Chapter One
Introduction
With this book, I will lead you where my mind and dedicated research led me: to a wonderful, insightful, interesting, and fresh interpretation of the first Bible books to have been written, Genesis through Kings II. While doing so, I will transport you back in time to the ancient period and place of this extraordinary event, the writing of the first books of the Bible. You will return to modern life with a more enlightened understanding of the Bible's first books.
This book is about the Bible. Because the Bible and religion are often seemingly inseparable, one may readily jump to the conclusion that The Book: Why the First Books of the Bible Were Written and Who They Were Written For is about religion. It is not. It is about the Bible, its original intended purpose, and its original intended audience. It is also about history and the fascinating long-ago civilizations of the ancient Near East. More important, it's about seeing the Bible through a different lens—one offering a fresh perspective on the Bible that is well worth considering. What you learn by reading this book may disturb you, or it may not. It may challenge your beliefs, or it may not. What I most sincerely hope is that this book will educate, entertain, and enlighten you.
If ever one ubiquitous, omnipresent book has tracked our Western civilization from long before the fall of Rome to the present day, it is the Bible. The Bible, in one form or another, is the written constitution of the most venerable Western institutions in history, the synagogue and the church. More so, the Bible has been revered as a personal constitution among the countless faithful throughout the ages to this day. The Bible has been printed in nearly every language spoken throughout the world. Many have become heirlooms passed down in unbroken chains from one generation to the next. In short, Bibles are found all over the world and in nearly every home in the West. Just about every man, woman, and child knows what the Bible is and something of what it's about.
Surprisingly, just a very few exceedingly rare scraps of biblical writings have been found on parchment in their original ancient Hebrew script. Only a few samples survived, most found among the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls at Khirbet Qumran, off the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, and an even older preserved sample located near ancient Judea. These scraps of writing are beyond priceless; for many, they are the most sacred items on our planet. For biblical scholars, they're something akin.
Given the nearly complete absence of biblical writings in their original ancient Hebrew script, the Bible may well have been lost forever had it not been for a very fortuitous translation into Greek. Consequently, this translation became legendary not long after its completion, and indeed, biblical historians credit the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Bible, as one of the greatest events of all time and consequently wrapped in legend.
The story of the translation, as told in a book by Aristeas of Alexandria, was connected with a fanciful miracle, a literary device often used in ancient Hebrew writings and many before them. According to the legend, seventy wise and learned Hebrew scribes traveled to Egypt after Greek-speaking Jews living in Egypt convinced an Egyptian leader to include the books of Moses in his library. When they arrived, as the legend goes, the Egyptian leader placed each one of them into separate rooms to individually translate the writings into Greek. The king then compared the translations, and behold, not a single difference was found among the seventy translations. The Greek word for seventy is septuagint, and the Greek translation of the Bible has been known by that name ever since.
Despite the legend attached to the Greek translation, this translation is and always has been considered by nearly all to be a precise and reliable duplication of the original, ancient Hebrew Bible. Any translational subtleties between the original Hebrew script, the Greek Septuagint, and the subsequent King James translation into English (yet another significant biblical historical event) are inconsequential despite many of the feisty arguments made by individuals holding fast onto pure orthodoxy.
DATING THE BIBLE
Dating is a crucial part of history and historical analysis, needless to say. Many readers today are familiar with the designation BC, meaning Before Christ, and AD, meaning After Christ. The use of these religious connotations, BC and AD, is understandably a sensitive issue for many historians who lack any desire to be insensitive one way or the other toward all parties, believers and nonbelievers alike. In response to this concern, alternative dating designations have been developed. Some like the idea of using BP, or Before Present, meaning simply "ago." In other words, this or that happened 40, 200, or 3,180 years ago, or BP. Of course, the obvious problem with the BP designation is that "years ago" changes. One may read a book three hundred years after its publication that refers to an event as having occurred "300 BP," but this event would have occurred six hundred years ago, or 600 BP, at the time this individual was reading the book.
Given the sensitivities of some, and the long duration of the use of, and familiarity with, the BC and AD dating designations that delineate a before and after period relating to the specific but presumed birthdate of Christ, the more recent dating designations BCE (Before the Common Era) and CE (Common Era), which correspond precisely with BC and AD, are commonly used by many historians and religious scholars today.
This book uses the BCE and CE dating designations and accepts the flaw inherited from the BC and AD dating system—that flaw being the absence of year zero. "Zero" was a numerical or counting concept developed after the BC/AD dating designations came into use. The problem is that AD begins with year one after Christ (1 AD) and counts forward from there, omitting the twelve months leading up to year one. In most cases, ancient Near East history professors do not care what dating designation their students use, as long as they get their dates correct.
Chapter Two
In the Beginning
The greatest show on earth, humankind, saw its first urban civilization arise between two rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, around 5,500 BCE (or some 7,500 years ago) in ancient Mesopotamia, near present-day Iraq. Yet, long before this civilization arose, as archaeological finds of early human artifacts reveal, mankind had practiced some form of religion holding notions about some form of higher being or beings possessing a great force.
This is a very reasonable conclusion when one simply looks over the horizon or up into the nighttime sky, sees something we humans didn't put there, and naturally wonders who did. It's a question that begs itself, sparking little surprise that all human societies for at least a good 30,000 years have tried to explain it in some form or fashion.
Eventually, these fascinating views of the curious and dark nighttime sky full of stars sparked inspirational and entertaining talk around the campfire that eventually turned into stories. Their stories became organic, took on a life of their own and grew. In time, these ancient explanations became matters of belief—belief in powerful gods—and around these beliefs and gods religions have formed, grown, matured, blossomed and have been around us ever since. Among the most enduring and most widely accepted organized religions today are the Abrahamic religions, arguably the most influential and historically significant religions found in human history to date. They include the Muslim, Judaic, and Christian faiths, which rest upon the writings that comprise the Quran, Hebrew Bible, and the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible.
The Bible's preeminence is due in large part to a popular perception held through the ages: it is seen as speaking the ultimate truth handed down to man by the Lord Himself, which is to say the Bible is perceived as divine. Its infallibility must be strongly embraced, widely accepted, and passionately defended, just as it has among the multitudes for many, many hundreds of years. Accordingly, the Bible has been more collectively read, worshipped, revered, quoted, and studied than any other book. If there is one book, one title that nearly everyone living today is aware of, it's the Bible, a work often referred to as "the greatest story ever told." And indeed, this single literary source has arguably altered and shaped Western history more than any war, any government, any struggle, any calamity, or any popular movement combined.
However, what truly brought the Bible and its compositions into existence was something much closer to home, and what it became is something far, far greater than what it was originally intended to be. Nevertheless, the true story behind the writing of the Bible is indeed one of remarkably great heroes whose names we do not know nor ever will. Those who originated the Bible's first compositions were great and unselfish humanitarians who possessed an unbridled human compassion for their people. It was their work and dedication that is the true and magnificent story behind the story.
This book recounts how these heroes went about saving their own civilization against overwhelming odds—and succeeding. This book will clearly illustrate why the Bible came to be written as it was, and for whom it was written.
The setting of the extraordinary and profound historical event of the Bible's first composition was the ancient Near East. Here, the world's first great human civilizations rose, thrived, declined, and fell, but not before leaving their many wonders for all the generations to come on every corner of the earth to appreciate, ponder, and study. Among these wonders are such splendid treasures as the pyramids and alphabets; laws and philosophy; decorative ornaments; and other abundant architectural and engineering marvels of human achievement. The ancient Near East civilizations comprise many of the grandest civilizations of all, including Mesopotamia, Assyria, Egypt, Persia, Babylonia, and Phoenicia. Smaller and lesser-known civilizations that are also worthy to note include the Hittites and Lydia.
Nestled among these magnificent civilizations was a great paradox, the ancient Hebrews. On one hand, they were an insignificant people compared in all ways to the many civilizations that surrounded them. In another way, with help from the Phoenicians' pioneering alphabet, the Hebrews' influence upon the modern world was longer lasting and farther reaching than all the others combined. Had a group of Hebrews not written the Bible, what would be left of them except a footnote in ancient Near East history textbooks? And had it not been for a series of events and other coincidences, the Bible as we know it would never have been written, and Western and Middle-Eastern history as we know it today would be far different. Was it all just an accident, or was it not? Is there purpose, or do things just happen? This much is for sure: all events have consequences—some small, some large.
The Bible's composition was influenced in two ways, one small the other large. In Part One, you'll clearly see how important stories in the Bible were influenced by extra-biblical, preexisting Mesopotamian literary texts written long before the biblical writers first sat down to the their task. In Part Two, you will see unequivocally how earthly, human events brought the Bible's compositions into existence as a specific human response to adverse events weighing heavily upon the Hebrew people for whom it was written.
Chapter Three
Intertextuality, Case One THE DELUGE
The biblical writing project began with the compositions of the Bible's first books, Genesis through Kings II, as they still appear today. The project was undertaken and completed during a two-year period, 562-560 BCE. (In future chapters, you'll see how this precise period has been reasonably narrowed down to this specific time frame.) The remaining books found in the Old Testament (and of course the New Testament) were added over the decades and centuries that followed.
Genesis-Kings II was the result of closely coordinated work among several participating authors. A key significant event leading to the Bible's first composition occurred in 586 BCE following the defeat of the Hebrews and the subsequent sacking of Jerusalem and the destruction of their temple by the Babylonians (an important event you'll read more of in future chapters). The writing of Genesis-Kings II was a direct response to this earthly, historical occurrence, which adversely and severely impacted the writers' fellow Hebrew people. The primary focus of this book is a book-by-book analysis of Genesis through Kings II, found in Part Two, that will clearly illustrate this interpretation of the Bible's first compositions.
While these events weighed large upon the Bible's creation and composition, as you will see, a second and less influential, but very interesting, source of biblical text was the literature of other Near East civilizations, primarily ancient Mesopotamia and, to a lesser extent, Egypt.
Scholars often use the term "intertextuality" when describing text from one source that has found its way into another book or composition, either verbatim or in slightly altered form. This chapter illustrates two examples of intertextuality found in the Bible, but more can be found if one desires to dig deeper. The term intertextuality may seem to some to have been invented as a benign word for plagiarism, a term defined as "presenting the ideas and words as one's own." Use the word as you may.
The first example of intertextuality can be found by comparing text from the popular story of Noah's ark, which appears in Genesis, with a text found in a much earlier and fascinating literary work known as The Epic of Gilgamesh. The Epic of Gilgamesh was first discovered in the mid-nineteenth century by archaeologists working and digging near present-day Iraq, where the ancient Mesopotamian civilization emerged around 5,500 BCE. The story is of Mesopotamian origin and was found written on stone tablets in cuneiform. Cuneiform was an early form of writing that predated the Phoenician alphabet from which the ancient Hebrew alphabet was derived, along with the alphabets of many other languages. As is commonly known, the Bible was originally written in ancient Hebrew script.
A second example of intertextuality is found in Samuel I's treatment of the popular and familiar duel between David and Goliath. A comparative illustration will show that this popular story of a boy battling a giant resulted from the alteration of several details of an earlier Mesopotamian text, yielding a new version with interesting and revealing changes.
As previously mentioned, very few examples of biblical verse written in Hebrew script prior to the Common Era have been found, and nearly all were among the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls. These priceless artifacts were discovered at Khirbet Qumran and became an archaeological treasure trove. Among these ancient Hebrew remains were biblical verses written in their original Hebrew script and dated between 2 BCE and 1 CE. Had it not been for the wisdom and work of the ancient Jewish historian Josephus, whose foresight and urging prompted the Hebrew Bible to be translated into Greek, the entire work best known today as the Old Testament may have easily been lost forever, as evidenced by the near complete absence today of any surviving Hebrew biblical script written before the Common Era. The frequent upheaval of the Jewish people throughout their early history placed a large strain on the preservation of their limited collections of sacred but balky scrolls through the ages.
Included with, or later inserted into the text of, the ancient literary masterpiece The Epic of Gilgamesh is a chapter titled "The Deluge," or "The Flood." Again, be reminded this was written in cuneiform long before the Phoenician Hebrew alphabet was configured. Read that short story from The Epic of Gilgamesh below, and then immediately compare it with the biblical story of Noah. I find it very interesting, though some might find it disturbing:
1. The dates of 562-560 BCE for the composition of Genesis-Kings II were carefully calculated by Dr. Serge Frolov of Southern Methodist University's department of religion, with whom I agree.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from THE BOOK by ALLEN WRIGHT Copyright © 2013 by Allen Wright. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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