The Truth about the Jewish Scriptures
Michael D Magee
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Christians and Jews say scripture is the place to start to understand Jewish history. It is not. Critical scholars consider that the Jewish bible is a pious fraud, containing a little history hard to discern among the fiction, …read more
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JudaismThe Truth about the JewishScriptures
Abstract
Christians and Jews say scripture is the place to start to understand Jewish history. It is not. Criticalscholars consider that the Jewish bible is a pious fraud, containing a little history hard to discern amongthe fiction, propagated for theological reasons. If David once lived, but not as in the bible, the biblicalstories about him are fiction. History is scientific, religious history is tendentious. Most universitydepartments of biblical studies employ committed evangelists not skeptics, so religious history is nothistory. Only when scripture is corroborated by archaeological scholarship should it be accepted ashistory. Traditional biblical scholars are guilty of giving a religious text a factual historicity it neither seeksnor deserves. The Persian period is the earliest admissible context for the biblical romance.Biblical history is largely myth, so the task is to show what is and what is not history using every relevantmethod, documentary, archaeological, anthropological, scientific, social. Such evidence shows Israel andJudah remained Canaanite until the Persians came at the end of the sixth century BC. Biblical Israel, itsleaders and heroes are mainly fictional. Their victories, defeats, religious policies are inventions written noearlier than the Persian period. Some kings of Israel and Judah appear in official Assyrian king lists,inscriptions and correspondence, but the Persians ruled Assyria and Babylonia, and had access toarchives which provided the historical framework for stories about biblical monarchs. The bible washistorical fiction even when it was written. Pious Jews and Christians ought to realize this.No trace of the sagas of the
Old Testament
has ever been found in any archaeological dig from Jerichoto Megiddo. A fortified city that fell in a definite moment of history is an archaeological prize. At Jericho,Christian and Jewish archaeologists dug and dug. They found ancient walls thousands of years too old,and none the right age. A thick layer of burnt material above the Middle Bronze Age buildings is thehighest surviving layer. No city existed when Joshua invaded. Did Jerusalem only host only one temple?Even the bible admits Jews had temples for Moabites, Ammonites and Phœnicians at Jerusalem,including a shrine to Moloch in the Vale of Hinnom where humans passed through the fire. Biblical editorssuppressed the details. The most common archaeological object found in Palestine is the crudely shapedfigurine of a naked goddess!The temple at Elephantine in Egypt, according to a letter of 407 BC, existed before the Persian period,before the “return” from exile and so before the so-called second Jerusalem temple. The Yehudim were areligious group from the outset—people who worship the god, Yehouah. Ezra says the natives of Judah,who had not been deported, and wanted to help the Persian colonists build the temple—“we seek yourGod, as you”—had been put there by Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, deported in to worship Yehouah!There were also “the rest of the nations whom Ashurbanipal exiled and set in the cities of Samaria, andthe rest of the province ‘Beyond the River’ ”. Ezra was arguing that the Samarians and the Am Ha Eretzwere not proper worshippers of Yehouah—not proper Jews!History tries to show how we got to the present. Modern historians have documentary, scientific andarchaeological skills, but ancient historians had little of it. Ancient historians say as much about theaspirations of their time as the history they are discussing. Authors of the Jewish scriptures were unlikelyto have been members of the society described in these books. They were foreign rulers writing fictionalaccounts of the history of a subject people to shame them before God to behave in ways acceptable tothe God’s choice of king—the Shahanshah. Besides the theme of shame is one of wandering and findinga land—eretz, the “earth”! It is mythology for colonists, linked to the idea of exile. It gave the variousdeportees an identity, an history, a cause, and a warning that it could be easily lost without obedience.
The Truth about the Jewish Scriptures1
Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson,
The Britsh Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt
Given that most of the events described in the bible had taken place many centuriesprior to the time that they were written down, it is extremely difficult to know whenthey are factual historical accounts and when they are partly allegorical. © Dr M D MageeContents Updated: Tuesday, 21 May 2002The Divine CrisisContradictions and UnreasonBiblical ArchaeologyHistorians Resist Polemicists in IsraelCriticizing PostmodernismObjective HistoryBiblical HistoryA Proper Approach to Religious HistoryWellhauseniansCritical DominanceJerusalemBabylonian DeportationCyrus the PersianThe GreeksHellenization in JudaeaAbominationJewish PartiesThe YehudimThe ScripturesThe Practice of HistoryViewpoint or PrejudiceCould this have been?Forged DocumentsAssumptions of Biblical HistoryHistory for the BesottedIs the Bible based on a Historic Kernel?A Summary History of PalestinePrinciples for Proper Research
The Divine Crisis
Just how old is the
Old Testament?
Did the House of David really exist?Is King Solomon a fantasy?If Jesus was a descendant of David and Solomon and they didn’t really exist, how can we know whether Jesus really existed? illiam ! Dever, the former head of the “niversity of #ri$ona’s %ear &astern studiesde’artment answers (uestions like this) Dever, after more than *+ seasons of fieldwork in Israel, - years as director of the #merican ‘ost.graduate researchcenter, has /een a “# ‘rofessor for — years, and was head of the largest graduate’rogram in %ear &astern archaeology in the world) He is a leading s’okesman for #merican and Israeli archaeologists who o”ose what he and others call a 0Divine1risis2 /ecause of 0revisionists2 and their ideological agenda) He, of course, has no0ideological agenda2)
The Truth about the Jewish Scriptures2
ork /egun in the 34+s /y 5homas 5hom’son and John 6an Seters has s’oiled theearlier consensus that the /i/le was historical, and o”osite ‘ositions of 0minimalists2 and maximalists have emerged) 5he minimalists, also called0revisionists2 and 0nihilists2, see minimal historical value in the /i/le, and wouldradically correct Jewish history to dis’ose of early myths that find no /asis in realhistory having left no trace in contem’orary annals and archaeology) 7aximalists,also called 0literalists2, and even 0fundamentalists2, see the /i/le as historical, and would rather revise history to fit the /i/le than do the reverse)7inimalists ask of /i/lical texts8 ho wrote them and why? hose ‘ur’ose did they serve? 5o whom were they addressed? 5he 9atriarchs, 7oses, Joshua and theso.called con(uest, David and Solomon have all /een challenged on the /asis of evidence, or the ‘rofound a/sence of it) %othing distinguishes Israelites from1anaanites, and the history of
Samuel
and
Kings
is /asically fiction, al/eit with 0anoften realistic and accurate setting2)5he crisis has come to a head during the last decade /ecause the 0revisionists2,mainly &uro’ean scholars, argue that the Jewish /i/le was written, almost in itsentirety, much later than traditional scholars acce’t:the /i/le was not writtenduring the Iron #ge ;c -++.<++ =1> when many of its stories are set, /ut in the9ersian ;the fifth century> and Hellenistic ‘eriods ;the third to first century =1>) #ccording to 5homas 5hom’son, of 1o’enhagen, 05he /i/le’s stories are not a/outhistory at all2) #n innocent layman, even one not ‘articularly interested in religion, might wonder why we have to in(uire into the history of Israel) It seems to /e set out in astonishingdetail in the Jewish scri’tures:so well set out, the religious ‘erson might add, thatthey must /e !od’s word@ 5he same layman might have the same thought a/out1hristian origins) 5hey too seem to /e well descri/ed in the
New Testament
)5he truth is that religious history is not history) # historian wants to know whatha”ened in history, and why, acce’ting that the natural world was su/Aect to thesame laws then as it is today) 5he religious writer wants to ‘ersuade their readersthat their own religious view’oint is the one to hold and, if they agree, to give themsome moral codes to live /y) In this way they ho’e to control their existence) History is scientific /ut religious history is tendentious) hen history is written for some’ur’ose other than to investigate the ‘ast then it /ecomes historiogra’hy:the art of the monks:’olemic writing disguised as history) 5hat is what the /i/le is)5o ‘ara’hrase a 0revisionist2, 9hili’ B Davies, of Sheffield “niversity, the notion of an 0ancient2 or 0/i/lical2 Israel is a 0modern conce’tion2, ‘er’etuated /y Jewish and1hristian writers for the same theological reasons as the writers and editors of theJewish /i/le) If the revisionists are right, then the Jewish /i/le is a collection of myths, fantastic tales, and late religio.’olitical ‘ro’aganda:a 0’ious fraud2containing little history, and that little is hard to discern among the fiction)
Contradictions and Unreason
If the contention that /i/lical Israel is fiction is extreme, the res’onse to legitimate(uestioning of /i/lical texts is more extreme) illiam ! Dever /lames it all on
The Truth about the Jewish Scriptures3
0’ostmodernism2 or 0’olitical correctness2, and concludes8
Ancient Israel is a fact. That this historical Israel does not correspond in all detailswith the ‘ideal theological Israel’ portrayed in the Hebrew bible is true. In the end,however, that is irrelevant.
Boy 6ince descri/es the article in which this a”ears ;
Save Us from Postmodern Malarkey
,
BAR
–<, -+++> as
One of the most vicious “scholarly” attacks I have ever seen.
9erha’s he has not come across !ary # Bends/urg, an odious 1ornell “niversity /i/licist who seems to think he is at the 0cutting edge of Jewish studies2, as he ‘uts it)Bends/urg thinks /i/lical studies have gone from consensus to crisis) 5he consensus was that the /i/le contains 0relia/le historical information2 that had /een ‘asseddown 0accurately2) #ny contradictions are 0minor ‘ro/lems2 for the /asic storyline is0trustworthy2)5he crisis is 0relativism, ske’ticism, and indeed nihilism2 which now dominates) 05hearm of 7arxism had s’read to /i/lical studies2) Some minimalists 0are driven /y 7arxism and leftist ‘olitics2) Some of them are 0counterculture ‘eo’le, left over fromthe <+s and 4+s, whose 'ersonality includes the (uestioning of authority in allas'ects of their lives2) Some of them are even former evangelical 1hristians who now see the evils of their former ways) So, they are not all /ad, then@ #t this rate, some of them might even /e normal human /eings@Cur /ad.mouthing 0scholar2 admits J #l/right ;the doyen of traditional /i/licists>overstated the case, /ut not too seriously@ His grou’ later would come under attack /y what their detractors would term ‘arallelomania, and some of these great scholarsoften went too far in making connexions /etween the /i/le and the ancient world) =uteven though they made all these errors, at least they were clever@ 7inimalists are nogood at anything, it seems) #nson Bainey of 5el #viv “niversity has noted that 5hom’son, Davies, emche, and hitelam ;minimalist scholars> have never excavated an archaeological site ortranslated an archive of ancient %ear &astern texts, so they are 0untrained2, and’roduce only 0/aseless twaddle2) Bends/urg goes on, 0ith the current grou’ of revisionists, ideology, not o/Aective scholarshi’, governs2) 0If it is not actual 7arxism,it is leftist ‘olitics in general2) hat is more, 0almost without exce’tion, the scholarsof this grou’ are not Jewish@2 5hey 0are driven /y anti.ionism a”roachinganti.Semitism2) 1ornell used to have a good re’utation)It is ‘lain enough that this dee’ thinker slings around every insult he can find in hislimited ‘olitical re’ertory, and only succeeds in ‘ainting 0idiot2 all over himself)Bends/urg sim’ly cannot see the wood for the trees) He is utterly /linded /y his ownrage) He (uotes Bo/ert Earrell on the Danish ‘oem
Beowulf
/ecause 0the fact that aliterary work is a literary work first and foremost, with its own agenda, does notautomatically mean that it lacks any historical value altogether82
Beowulf is a work of heroic history, a poem in which facts and chronology are
The Truth about the Jewish Scriptures4
ABOUT AUTHOR
Michael D Magee
I have retired and am now an author and web author with no constraints on what I think or write so I can afford to speculate–to peer down dangerous dark alleys–more than someone with a career still in mind, without bothering who I might offend, and… more ▾
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