1. The Bible: Faith & History
1) Who wrote the bible?
2) Is it historical or mythical?
3) Is it a primary source?
4) Consider the following statements:
“The Bible does not have to be literally true in every detail to be true in other senses.”
“Ancient texts are very hard to read unless we know something about the world they were written in and for.”
“The Bible is a synthesis of history and literature, sometimes in harmony and sometimes in tension, but utterly inseparable.”
Time magazine (Dec. 18, 1995)

2. Who wrote the Torah (Pentateuch)?
1) Why do most biblical scholars think that Moses is NOT the author of the Torah?
Third-person accounts
Unlikely statements by Moses
Report of Moses’ death
Geographical references later than Moses’ lifetime
Other information from after Moses’ lifetime
“There never arose another prophet in Israel like Moses” [Deut 34]
2) What alternative explanation has been offered to answer the question? Explain [1 page, due Friday]
Moses (1515)

3. Why do we need to know how & why the Bible came about to interpret it?
No original manuscripts
Copied by handwriting over centuries
Translation & re-translation
Incorporation of marginal comments
Folklore & legends of ancient civilizations
Transmitted by oral tradition before written
Not intended as modern history or science
Wide range of authors, forms, & periods
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Complex product of evolution & change

4. If Moses didn’t write the Five Books of Moses, then who did?
Types of evidence supporting the documentary hypothesis:
1) Variations in the divine names in Genesis
2) Secondary variations in diction and in style
3) Parallel or duplicate accounts (doublets)
4) Continuity of the various sources
5) Political assumptions implicit in the text
6) Interests of the author(s)
In the 18th century, three investigators (Witter, Astruc & Eichhorn) concluded that doublets in the Torah were written by two different authors. A doublet is a story that is described twice, as in:
the two creation stories in Genesis
two descriptions of the covenant between God & Abraham
two stories about Noah & the Flood
two versions of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20 & Deuteronomy 5)

5. The Bible & Interpretation
Mainstream Christianity
Conservative Liberal
 literalist/history moral/religious
 inerrant symbolic/mythical
Academic biblical scholars
Maximalists Minimalists
 NOT inerrant/literalist imaginative fiction
core stories about actual events all stories mythic
later books have more history no early stories factual

6. Moses & The Exodus: Hollywood & History
Hebrew scribes: writing stories about their ancestors while living in exile in Babylon (“Babylonian Captivity”)
Key questions: What had the Hebrews done to lose God’s favor? How could they make things right with God?
MOSES: “Burning Bush”
“Contest with Pharaoh”
“Exodus”
“The Covenant”
How does the movie, The Ten Commandments (1956) interpret these stories?
How does it reflect the times in which it was made?

7. Myth & History What are the main differences between myth & history?
QUESTIONS:
Is the Bible/Trojan War mythical? Is the Bible/Trojan War historical?
Are the stories of the Bible/Trojan War fact or fiction?
Who wrote these stories? For what purposes?
What do these stories tell us about the societies/civilizations that told them?

8. Hebrew Bible & The Iliad
Torah (Pentateuch) The Iliad
oral tradition before written same
reflect multiple periods/contexts same
mixture of myth & history same
important cultural/literary source same
God’s relations with humans same
What are the significant differences between the Bible & the Iliad?
Why have these works been so enormously influential in Western civilization?
Why is it important to know something about the Bible, even if you are NOT Jewish or Christian?