A look at the Holy Book series

By Candace R. Kwiatek, Jewish Family Identity Forum, The Dayton Jewish Observer

Check out recent news reports and you’ll find that the Bible is a popular subject. North Korea publicly executes citizens for possessing a Bible. Ancient inscriptions suggest Hebrew was spoken 3,000 years ago. A new mobile app puts the Bible in the hands of millions. Robotic technology unearths evidence for the Flood. The new bestseller in Norway is the Bible.

In an increasingly secular Western society, it’s no surprise that the Bible is the most controversial literary work, as reported by listverse.com.

But a bigger puzzle is: what is it that keeps the Bible in the news regularly and maintains its status as a bestseller?

After decades of teaching, reading, and writing, I have concluded that three basic questions fuel its fame.

Is the Bible true?
Siblings fight. Idol-worship is rampant. Children leave home. Favoritism leads to disaster. Leadership is fraught with difficulties. War is sometimes necessary. Character alone determines the worthy and legitimate leader. Liberty is freedom with obligation. Rulers must adhere to the law. If these biblical notions (along with thousands of others) correspond to reality, then the Bible must be true.

With its origins in Old English meaning “trusty, faithful,” even earlier definitions of “steady, firm,” and a predominance of synonyms that suggest validity — including authentic, honest, and genuine — the word truth as a characterization of the Bible is difficult to deny.

However, in today’s scientific age, truth has been limited to factual, as if truth can only be found in the scientific, in measurable details. So the underlying question for many becomes: is the Bible factual?

The problem with the factual approach is that it presumes the Bible to be a scientific textbook. Questions like, “How could Abraham have traveled in a camel caravan,” “How could two million Jews wander through the wilderness during the Exodus,” and “How could the universe be created in six days” dominate these discussions, missing the whole point of the text.

That’s like asking if the very hungry caterpillar in Eric Carle’s classic would really eat an ice cream cone or a pickle, if the court trial in Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities is an accurate account, or why the little prince in Antoine de St.-Exupery’s novel calls his planet an asteroid. These factual details don’t address the meaning, the truth of the tales.

Yet, numerous scientific disciplines continue to engage with the Bible, including archaeology, anthropology, astronomy, biology, and history, testing the factual validity of the text.

Not infrequently, intriguing new discoveries suggest an amazing correspondence with biblical details.

Just one example is the domestication of the camel — long thought to be anachronistic in the Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph stories — now conclusively dated as far back as the third millennium B.C.E. in the Middle East, before the era of the forefathers.

Is the Bible divine?
The truth versus fact approach to the Bible highlights two different views about the text itself.

The traditional view is that the Torah — the first five biblical books — is divine or divinely inspired, while the liberal view is that the text is man-made.

Both groups regard the remaining books of the Hebrew Bible, from Joshua onward, as man-made.

Those who subscribe to a divine origin approach the text with the express purpose of understanding God’s relationship with and message to humanity in general and to the Jewish people in particular.

The result is an extensive and ongoing body of exegesis in the form of commentary, law, Midrash, Kabalah, storytelling, and the like.

This point of view leads to two critical conclusions: good and evil are objective realities, measured by their harmony or incompatibility with biblical teachings.

The second is that “if there is a difference between my view and that of the text, the text is right and I need to figure out why I am wrong.”

Approaching the text as human in origin leads to very different outcomes. Instead of asking about biblical truths, modern scholars ask about the origin, composition, preservation and transmission of the text, a process known as biblical criticism.

In this view, the Torah is regarded as a culturally-modified assemblage of pre-existing documents and politically-motivated discourses revised and edited by yet other parties with their own agendas.

Its stories are interesting artifacts of a cultural mythology. It’s an appreciable source of ethical and moral values. It’s great literature.

But without a divine origin, its perspectives on good and evil are necessarily subjective, culturally defined norms, meaning there is no absolute good or evil.

The Bible states theft and murder are wrong and children should honor their parents, but different or opposing ideas can be equally valid.

Furthermore, the individual can choose to agree or disagree with the text at will, since its authors are equally human.

Is the Bible relevant?
As the Bible remains the bestselling book, the question of whether it is relevant —deserving of consideration or worthy of raising in the context of discussion — seems to be answered.

It is unquestionably included in the canon of wisdom literature. It is the inspiration for sermons, text studies, college and online courses, scholarly pursuits, publishing houses, and even creative apps.

But is relevance enough? Do we ever go beyond the aphorisms, study, and discussion?

The Greek learning ideal, Howard Witkin explains in Active Learning: Pirkei Avot 1:4, centers on the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake.

By contrast, the Jewish view is that learning alone is insufficient, for its purpose is to make a better individual and to positively influence the world.

If the Bible is truth and the Bible is relevant, shouldn’t we be doing a better job of putting it into practice? Truth be told, I sometimes think the Enlightenment wasn’t so enlightening after all.

Family Discussion: Look at the weekly Torah portion and discuss its relevance. What biblical truth do you discover? How can you put it into practice?

Literature to share

The Path of Names by Ari Goelman is not your typical heroine at summer camp story. Targeted to the middle-school crowd, Names is a sophisticated tale incorporating camp pranks, Kabalah, mystery, and a bit of the ghostly. For readers looking for an unusual and skillfully-told adventure.

Tevye the Dairyman by Sholem Aleichem is a classic by the notable Jewish Mark Twain. Familiar to most from the musical Fiddler on the Roof, the collection of tales about a turn-of-the-20th century Jewish family of seven daughters living in a Russian shtetl is even better in the written version. A classic of Yiddish literature, many versions include historical background, a Yiddish glossary (some words just can’t be translated into English), and even the Jewish mind-set of the times. It is a must-read, perfect for winter reading.

Candace R. Kwiatek is a writer, educator and consultant in Jewish and secular education. She is a recipient of first-place awards from the American Jewish Press Association for Excellence in Commentary and from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists for Best Religion/Values Coverage.

To read the complete January 2014 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.