Clara Hanifin Caroline Brady Julia Magnuson Kathryn Meschino TRUTH, FICTION, SCIENCE, & RELIGION “JUST HOW SHOULD WE READ THE BIBLE ANYHOW?”

An interview with Father Leslie Hoppe, O.F.M A brief article discussing the Old Testament, its misconceptions, and ways to better understand its stories. what you don’t know about the old testament could fill a book

 The Old Testament was produced over a thousand years ago  Individual interpretation of the Old Testament using creativity is key to understanding the stories  A reader must try to understand and recreate the world from which the biblical texts emerged in order to realize the view point and ideas of the Old Testament writers  The Old Testament is both a “literary masterpiece” and a “historical reconstruction”  Reading the Old Testament leads to spiritual growth (even if one doesn’t completely understand the text) MAIN IDEAS & KEY FACTS The primary focus of this article is to analyze the Old Testament and discuss ways for individuals to clearly understand its the background and stories.

Some of the most difficult passages to interpret in the Old Testament are the conquest narratives in the Book of Joshua. Father Hoppe feels as though these stories are perfect for explaining the Old Testament, its authors, and its controversies.  The Fall of Jericho  The author of this story did not have an accurate account of the Fall of Jericho. When he witnessed the fallen city and he assumed that the Israelite ancestors came onto the land and destroyed it, when in reality, they were celebrating the city’s fall. By understanding this period of history, a reader would have a clearer view of what was really occurring in this story.  The Creation Story  The Genesis creation story is not scientifically accurate and the story does not explain itself. The author of the account changed the traditional creation story for his audience. It originated from Mesopotamian creation stories and was changed to tell the story in a new way that was more relevant and understandable for everyday people. THESIS AND SUPPORTING DETAILS Because the Old Testament was created over a thousand years ago, Catholics struggle to appreciate its stories, and in order to completely understand them, the reader must reconstruct the time period in which they were written and discover what the text originally meant.

Academic disciplines are the branches of study. The academic disciplines related to the Old Testament include THEOLOGY, HISTORY, and SCIENCE.  THEOLOGY is the reason that there is an Old Testament. Without theology, there would be no need for these religious stories and truths.  HISTORY is the focus of the Old Testament. The book itself is the history of the Israelite people and their journey. Whether or not the Old Testament is factual cannot be determined, so some of the history portrayed is not completely accurate.  SCIENCE is portrayed many times throughout the analyzation of the Old Testament, and is used to back up and contradict other theological and historical truths. ACADEMIC DISCIPLINES Conflicts Between the Academic Disciplines Theology, history, and science all play major roles in understanding the Old Testament, but if each issue is relied upon too heavily, the actual truth of the Old Testament is lost and it becomes extremely difficult to determine what is actually true and what is false. An example of a conflict between theology, history, and science is the Creation Story.  THEOLOGY: the universe was created by God in 7 days  SCIENCE: it is impossible for the world to be created in 7 days  HISTORY: There are no historical proofs of the creation of the universe because there were no people there to witness it. All of these facts are logical, but determining which is true is almost impossible. In this article several different conflicts regarding religion are mentioned. The main topic addressed is whether the Old Testament is actually a truthful recount of the lives and events of the people involved. The conflicts discussed in this article are complicated and it is unsure whether a sure resolution could be found.

Several questions have been raised regarding the book of Genesis in this article. One of them is shown below: Scientifically the stories of the Bible are not accurate. How do the events that occurred in Genesis seem so realistic if they are in fact not scientifically truthful? This question is answerable; the story of Genesis succeeds in trying to convey God as an all-powerful being. The events in this story clearly prove that God is almighty, even though the text itself is not true. THE TRUTH BEHIND GENESIS

According to a survey of ten people, the Bible is both true and false. 50% of the questioned indivuals responded to the question “is the Bible true” with this answer. Of the other 5 people, 30% responded that the Bible is not true, and 20% responded that the Bible is factual. IS THE BIBLE TRUE?

CONCLUSION The topics discussed within this article made us question the scientific truth of the stories of the Genesis and of the Old Testament, and made us think about the deeper meaning of the text in the Bible. We also established that a reader must try to recreate the world from which the biblical texts emerged in order to understand the view point and ideas of the Old Testament writers. By reading the Bible, one becomes closer to God and it becomes easier to relate to its stories, even its meaning isn’t completely clear.