Do We Know the Bible?

Mordecai Schreiber

Posted on my blog 9/10/09

For centuries, biblical scholarship in all languages has been producing a mighty avalanche of articles, books, commentaries and endless theories about nearly every word in the Bible. I myself have now spent a lifetime reading the Bible and studying the work of countless scholars in several languages. As a native of the land that gave birth to the biblical prophets, the Bible has been the backbone of my native Hebrew language, my culture, and my beliefs. Later on, as a student at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio, I was exposed by my professors to three theories about the provenance of the Bible: (a) it is the word of God; (b) it is the word of human authors; (c) it is the word of divinely inspired human authors. At least one of my professors believed in (a) and some in (b). The official belief of my school, however, was (c).

        My father, a man of little formal learning but great intuition who had deep respect for scholarship, used to tell me that in the Bible one can find an argument for and against just about anything. All my life I have been aware of the complexities of biblical ideas and the difficulties of the biblical text. But I have always enjoyed the challenge of struggling with biblical questions as I continued to find inspiration and solace in certain texts such as the 23rd Psalm. As literature, I consider the Bible unsurpassed.

        About three years ago I felt an urge to undertake an in-depth study of the prophet Jeremiah. Since a very young age, Jeremiah has been my hero because he predicted the return to Zion which occurred a second time in my own lifetime. It was quite clear to me I was not going to find much to say about this prophet that was new and fresh. But I was going to try nonetheless. To my surprise, I began to discover themes and ideas in his book I never knew were there. I was humbled by my discoveries. I realized that despite all the mountains of scholarship we continue to know very little about the Bible.

        Since its inception, the Bible has always been a “work in progress.” In Judaism, it became known as the “written law” and was expanded by the “oral law,” namely, the Talmud as well as all subsequent commentaries. In Christianity, it became the “Old Testament,”providing the foundation for the New Testament. In Islam, it gave birth to the Qur’an. In world literature, it became an unending source of ideas, stories, and beliefs to this day. It continues to be the most influential book ever written, despite all its many detractors.

        But do we really know the Bible? 

        I believe this question ought to be juxtaposed with the question “do we know God.” It is generally agreed that we don’t really know God, and after centuries of scholarship we don’t really know the Bible. Perhaps there lies the greatness of this text. Its message and its layers of meaning are inexhaustible. Every new generation is bound to find new meaning in it. In the final analysis, biblical scholarship is our puny human effort to know the unknown. This does not mean we must desist from engaging in it. To the contrary, those of us who feel compelled to do it must do it. But we must ever be cognizant of our enormous limitations, and always approach it with humility and, yes, reverence.

        I would very much like to receive your reaction to my observations.

COMMENTS

As a child I had the strange notion I was only going to live to 67. I think it was because Joseph Conrad lived to 67, and to me that was the right age for a writer to die. Which means that as a child I already knew I was going to be a writer, and as I am turning 70 I have just retired from my several endeavors and have been dedicating myself exclusively to being a writer.

What I couldn't know years ago is that the reality and the concept of age were going to change radically in my lifetime. When Conrad died nearly a century ago people in their 60s behaved like old men and women. Today they behave like 40 some year olds. So here I am, almost 70, and it occurs to me that I have a choice: I can think and behave like an old man or like a young man. Well, let's think about it for a moment. I am in good health. I swim, I bike and I pump iron on a regular basis. I travel, snorkel, and do what most people in their 30s and 40s do. I no longer have to work for a living, and I can dedicate myself to what I like to do. So why in the world would I think and behave like an old man?

I hope what is happening to me is also happening to many people of my generation, and will happen to many more of my children's and grandchildren's generation. We can look back on a lifetime of work and accomplishments, and yet we can also plan for the new phase of our life, a time when we can clearly choose how we feel about ourselves and try to behave accordingly. We are the first generation in the history of the world that can be young at 70, and it seems to me it is expected of us to act accordingly.