August 16th, 2020
I just finished reading the Book of Esther, as well as the books of Nehemiah earlier and Ezra yesterday. Ezra and Nehemiah were originally one book and described the accounts of Jews returning to Jerusalem after being exiled by Nebuchadnezzar. It is my opinion that the events and characters being written are closer to actual historical accounts. It seems that there are fewer supernatural occurrences and direct commands from god. It seems that there are a few transitions in the Bible. The first is the mythical stories of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, Then a transition to the legendary stories of Samual, Kings, and Chronicles through the Books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth and then finally a transition to some first-hand accounts of Ezra and Nehemiah. Esther I think can be thought of as historical fiction, but it would be worth reading more into this. As with most historical accounts, they take place after the fact, and because of hindsight, patterns can emerge such as King A worshipped God and good things happened, therefore the worship of God caused those good things to happen. Likewise, King B did not worship God and bad things happened, therefor not worshiping God caused those Bad things to happen. Also, one can overlay a story of piety or impiety on a King to describe the events that took place. Good things happened, therefore King A must have worshipped God. Likewise, bad things happened, therefore King B must not have worshipped God. I feel that this may have happened to much of the stories of Kings and Chronicles. Why did the Kingdom of Israel fall and not the Kingdom of Judah to the Assyrians? Because all of the Kings of Israel were impious and rejected the Lord. But the Kingdom of Judah is taken by the Babylonians, how did that happen? Because some of the Kings of Judah were impious and it was too late to turn back from their impious ways. I think I can safely say that the Books of First and Second Samual are a legendary historical account of the formation of the Kingdom of Israel. Kings and Chronicles provide more of the history of the Kingdoms in the time leading up to when both kingdoms were conquered and can be thought of as more historical albeit with some embellishment here and there. It also seems that there are fewer direct interventions by God. In the Books of Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah there seem to be less direct quotations by God. It’s hard for me to accept that these divine interventions actually happened. I can see how these stories would be useful for ensuring the national unity of the people of Israel, but even still, the stories that are told involve people not following the Laws of God. It seems to me that the Jewish leadership wanted unity because they saw themselves as God’s chosen people, whereas the normal laypeople were ok with not subscribing to this national identity and would rather assimilate into there non-Jewish neighbors. I don’t know how this all plays out in terms of the history of the Jewish people, but it seems that a lot of bloodshed could have been avoided if the Jewish people simply assimilated into their governing culture. Another thing that I have an issue with is calling the Bible the Word of God. I don’t see it as being the Word of God. Take Esther for instance, God is never mentioned in the book. It seems to be a historical fiction with no divine messages or intervention and yet some of the things I’ve read have stated that God is present throughout the text because of all the coincidences. I think this is just good storytelling that doesn’t need to have anything to do with God. I recently read the introduction to Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and something that was mentioned was the fact that the various coincidences are suggested implied to be through divine intervention. I think it is a decent literary trope to use, but to then ascribe something religious to it just doesn’t make sense to me. I suppose I’ll have a more robust opinion whenever I read Les Miserables and we will just have to wait and find out. In conclusion, The Bible for me is starting to get a little jumbled and confusing, and increasingly I can’t see it as the one and only truth. So far it has been a mythical/legendary/somewhat historical account of the Jewish people, and regardless of whether God exists or not, I can’t find any indication for how I should live my life. Hopefully, the wisdom literature will provide some insights.