In a previous post, I wrote about my experience growing up believing that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God, and how that shaped my view of the world up until my spiritual awakening in 2020. I focused earlier at how I came to realize the book of Genesis contains two creatin stories, and the post focused primarily upon those stories.
I would like to take a step back now, and focus on the entire first five books of the Bible, called the Pentateuch (Pent-a-Took). For those of you who really don't fancy looking too deeply at the Bible, I'll follow it up with some spiritual lessons I have since learned from Taoism.
The viewpoint that I grew up with is that there was once a real person named Moses. This is believed by Fundamentalists, Orthodox Jews, and a shrinking number of Evangelical Christians, He lived somewhere back in the 4000s B.C. He led his people out of Egypt, but he also organized their culture, instituted a religious system of worship interwoven with the fabric of everyday Israel society, and wrote books that formed the backbone of Israel's religion. These books were Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Moses dies in the final chapters of Deuteronomy, indicating that he may have started writing the book and someone else (perhaps Joshua) finished writing it.
The Fundamentalist viewpoint is also that every word that Moses wrote was inspired by God. This means that it was absolutely inerrant, but also it means that God was really the one speaking, and Moses was the one writing it. While God's words were set down, they were written in Moses' writing style and vernacular.
His document would probably contain the second creation story, the stories of Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and, of course, Moses, the main protagonist in this epoch. Monotheism is the key element in this narrative. Jehovah is the only God to be worshipped, and the organic framework of monotheism is evident. Another theme in this story is the supremacy of Israel above all other nations. While Israel was unfairly enslaved and later became a great nation by the hand of Jehovah, the other nations had arisen through incest, from the usurping Ishmael and Moses' slave Hagar, and from Esau and his pagan brides. These nations were lesser than the Israelite nation, and they would obtain a blessing only through Abraham.
After Solomon's reign, a rebellion against Solomon's son, Rehoboam, resulted in the Kingdom being divided into North and South Israel. In Southern Israel, the Israelite religion continued as it always had, with the Temple being located in Jerusalem. In Northern Israel, the capital was Samaria. The new King, Jeroboam, in order to keep the North Kingdom's culture separate and distinct from Southern Israel, created a different system of religion centered around statues of calves in Bethel and Samaria.
To justify this religion, another revised history of Israel needed to be set forth. This was done, probably in 850 B.C. or so, by some sort of historian in the court of Samaria in North Israel. The author of this document referred to God by the name "Elohim" and so is called the "Elohist," or "E". This author write of Jacon as being chosen over his brother Esau. in this story, Jacob is deceived into marrying Leah instead of Rachel her sister, and he has to work seven more years in order to marry Rachel as well. Leah is the mother of the children who formed Israel's southern tribes, and therefore is described as being not nearly as beautiful as her sister Rachel. Joseph is Rachel's son and the father of the two Northern tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, and therefore he becomes a heroic figure in this narrative.
Certainly, this could not be an accurate, literal history, but rather a tool used to shape the culture of
North Israel. It was a way to explain that the division which caused the separation of the two nations had always existed. E's document pays a lot of attention to shrines in the Northern part of Israel, such as Hebron, Beersheba, and Bethel. It is very much a Northern document.
Assyria conquered Northern Israel around 721 B.C. Those who were not carried away into Assyria and assimilated into their culture probably escaped South into the Southern kingdom. It could be postulated that they brought this E document with them, which was then blended with the J document over time. A hundred years later, during the reign of King Josiah in Southern Israel, a book was discovered in the Temple. The King was told that this was the book of Moses, and it backed the prophetic assertions of Hoseah, Amos, Isaiah, Micah, and Jeremiah. Jeremiah was alive at this time, and this gave him political footing. It also brought about a new patriotism in the nation, and the book was called Deuteronomy (The second giving of the Law). This book was soon merged with the J-E document to form a new work and revise Israelite culture all over again. The author is known as the Deuteronomist, or "D".
In this document, you get a higher picture of the evolving monotheism of Israel. Here, God is heaven, earth, and everything within it. Religious icons and images of God were now forbidden. Religious worship was only allowed at the Temple of Jerusalem, and Passover also could only be celebrated in the capital city.
throughout the world. With them went this J-E-D amalgamated history along with other priestly traditions. They intermarried and lost much of their national identity. The traditions of Israel were kept alive only in the hearts of Israel's descendants. Those who continued to live in the land intermarried with Assyrians who were brought in years before to resettle the land, and they became known as the "Samaritans."
Many of the Psalms were composed during this Babylonian exile period. This was done to keep the spark of Jewish nationalism alive. Ezekial, a captive priest, led the charge against the crises of national identity. Ezra and Nehemiah rose up later to do the same thing. These and others understood that in order for the Jews to retain their national identity, they would need to keep themselves separate from the culture. Two of the traditions of the Jews were used for this purpose: circumcision and Sabbath observance. So, the seven-day creation story was written to put an emphasis on the Sabbath Day in which God rested after creating the world. The first creation story in Genesis 1 may actually be one of the last parts of the Pentateuch written. The Ten Commandments of Exodus 20 are also heavily emphasized.
This group of Priests (P) therefore made a general revision of the Hebrew Pentateuch, and they created Synagogues where the edited J-E-D-P version of Scripture could be taught to the Jewish population all over the world. According to this theory, this J-E-D-P amalgamation of Scripture is the first five books of the Bible that we have today (more or less).
Now, growing up a Fundamentalist, I always knew about the J-E-D-P theory. I was taught that it was categorically untrue. Now with spiritually awakened eyes, I can see it differently. But do I believe it? Well, I can go into detail on that in a later post. I'm finding this post to be way too tedious already.
What I love about Taoism, however, is that there is no necessity to be tied to Scripture. There are Taoist Scriptures, but they are not golden books dropped down from heaven. They are more like books of philosophy written by the ancient sages. You can read them and glean what wisdom that you will, but true meaning is found, not in those books, but within yourself. I have discovered that meditation and going within has done more for me in the last two or three years than a lifetime of Bible reading. As I have come in touch with myself and who I am, I have come in touch with the rest of the world, and it all makes much more sense now.
I will continue looking at the Bible, at Christianity, and Spirituality in later posts, but I will also pause here and there to reflect on other things as well. I thank you again for reading this far. Love and light to all of you.
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