Getting into the issues¶

Introduction¶

In these Deeper topic pages we go beyond the matters covered in the Basics section. Getting more technical, these pages aim to introduce to you the main questions concerning the authenticity of the text, its history and its interpretation.

I should note that these pages are the opinionated views of one person (see About the Author). You might think me very biased, to which I can only respond, yes but so is everybody else. I try my best to be fair to the evidence, however, and I am willing to be proved wrong. I provide some references and bibliography at the end of each page.

The topical pages are divided into three areas, reflecting different ways in which the Bible can be studied and used. All three are really historical in nature, and so these sections are structured as a return journey - firstly back into the Bible's past, then forwards in time again, to examine the ways it has been interpreted since its writing.

The Text¶

The first step is to follow in more detail how the actual text of the Bible reached us.

Now, of course, you can find it in a myriad versions, online, in print, anywhere. All of these copies, digital or physical, have been translated from documents preserved from antiquity, written in various ancient languages (Hebrew and Greek for the most part).

The text we are interested in is that source text from which the modern translation is made. Since the exact wording of ancient sources tends to differ (all documents were hand-copied and errors were inevitable), it is something of a task to establish what the original written form of any narrative might have been. As with other ancient documents, historical experts examine sometimes fragmentary finds to establish what can be known of the textual history.

The Bible World¶

The search for the earliest written surviving records only takes us so far. The oldest complete Bibles in the Jewish and Christian traditions date from some centuries after their original committal to paper (or parchment!).

So we must go further back, and find out what we can about the world which produced the Bible. Who wrote it? What do we know about the period apart from what is in the Bible? To what extent does it reflect knowledge of identifiable persons or events, and what relationship does its narrative have to the history of its times?

With the texts in mind, we want to weigh up whether the accounts they contain do or don't match up to real-world history. Is it historical? Does it matter? What changes if any of these events did or didn't take place?

The trouble is, if we use the Bible as a source for its own history, we can end up constructing a rather imaginary Biblical History which is in fact a fable. Astonishingly, until relatively recently this was what academic history did, accepting the results of Biblical scholars and their speculative theories of society in various past ages in the land of Canaan.

But it does make a useful source for several of the historical periods it covers. We must be aware of its nature as propaganda, and would like to understand the social realities of its composition, editing and use. Unfortunately this is hampered by the fact that the Bible itself is our main or only potential source for significant parts of its story.

Interpretation¶

This section of the Topics pages will consider how the Bible has been interpreted through time.

Having completed the two stages above, first recovering the text as far as possible, then considering the period and any problems with historical reliability, we are in a position to make an informed reading of biblical texts.

Having done this, we can try to interpret it. But this section is deliberately not developed yet, because we have only just begun the reading. If you're following this site, I suggest you turn instead to the Reading Guide, where we are looking book by book at what is in the Bible.