Lou writes:

> Skeptics have come and skeptics have gone for thousands of years, yet the
> Bible remains consistent,  true, and relevant throughout the ages. There
> have been thousands and thousands of discoveries just in the last 100 years,
> especially in archeology, that have verified the veracity of Biblical
> accounts, locations, characters, etc. Much of the diatribe the skeptics of
> 1902 spouted claiming that "modern science" and "critical thinking" have
> disproved the Bible are totally laughable today.

Beginning from this point of view, you may find the following article from
the March 9 NY Times somewhat irritating. A significant number of
Conservative rabbis are now coming to accept the notion that Abraham never
existed. Nor did Moses. Nor were the Hebrews ever held in bondage in Egypt.

If Moses never existed, then the story of the Ten Commandments is certainly
put in doubt as well. Clearly, if Moses never existed, the story regarding
the origination of the Ten Commandments is certainly put in doubt. None of
this means that the Ten Commandments are any less valid of course; it just
means they lack the authority that some people seem to be believe they need.

Wirt Atmar


========================================

March 9, 2002


As Rabbis Face Facts, Bible Tales Are Wilting

By MICHAEL MASSING

Abraham, the Jewish patriarch, probably never existed. Nor did Moses. The
entire Exodus story as recounted in the Bible probably never occurred. The
same is true of the tumbling of the walls of Jericho. And David, far from
being the fearless king who built Jerusalem into a mighty capital, was more
likely a provincial leader whose reputation was later magnified to provide a
rallying point for a fledgling nation.

Such startling propositions -- the product of findings by archaeologists
digging in Israel and its environs over the last 25 years -- have gained wide
acceptance among non-Orthodox rabbis. But there has been no attempt to
disseminate these ideas or to discuss them with the laity -- until now.

The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, which represents the 1.5
million Conservative Jews in the United States, has just issued a new Torah
and commentary, the first for Conservatives in more than 60 years. Called
"Etz Hayim" ("Tree of Life" in Hebrew), it offers an interpretation that
incorporates the latest findings from archaeology, philology, anthropology
and the study of ancient cultures. To the editors who worked on the book, it
represents one of the boldest efforts ever to introduce into the religious
mainstream a view of the Bible as a human rather than divine document.

"When I grew up in Brooklyn, congregants were not sophisticated about
anything," said Rabbi Harold Kushner, the author of "When Bad Things Happen
to Good People" and a co-editor of the new book. "Today, they are very
sophisticated and well read about psychology, literature and history, but
they are locked in a childish version of the Bible."

"Etz Hayim," compiled by David Lieber of the University of Judaism in Los
Angeles, seeks to change that. It offers the standard Hebrew text, a parallel
English translation (edited by Chaim Potok, best known as the author of "The
Chosen"), a page-by-page exegesis, periodic commentaries on Jewish practice
and, at the end, 41 essays by prominent rabbis and scholars on topics ranging
from the Torah scroll and dietary laws to ecology and eschatology.

These essays, perused during uninspired sermons or Torah readings at Sabbath
services, will no doubt surprise many congregants. For instance, an essay on
Ancient Near Eastern Mythology," by Robert Wexler, president of the
University of Judaism in Los Angeles, states that on the basis of modern
scholarship, it seems unlikely that the story of Genesis originated in
Palestine. More likely, Mr. Wexler says, it arose in Mesopotamia, the
influence of which is most apparent in the story of the Flood, which probably
grew out of the periodic overflowing of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The
story of Noah, Mr. Wexler adds, was probably borrowed from the Mesopotamian
epic Gilgamesh.

Equally striking for many readers will be the essay "Biblical Archaeology,"
by Lee I. Levine, a professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. "There
is no reference in Egyptian sources to Israel's sojourn in that country," he
writes, "and the evidence that does exist is negligible and indirect." The
few indirect pieces of evidence, like the use of Egyptian names, he adds,
"are far from adequate to corroborate the historicity of the biblical
account."

Similarly ambiguous, Mr. Levine writes, is the evidence of the conquest and
settlement of Canaan, the ancient name for the area including Israel.
Excavations showing that Jericho was unwalled and uninhabited, he says,
"clearly seem to contradict the violent and complete conquest portrayed in
the Book of Joshua." What's more, he says, there is an "almost total absence
of archaeological evidence" backing up the Bible's grand descriptions of the
Jerusalem of David and Solomon.

The notion that the Bible is not literally true "is more or less settled and
understood among most Conservative rabbis," observed David Wolpe, a rabbi at
Sinai Temple in Los Angeles and a contributor to "Etz Hayim." But some
congregants, he said, "may not like the stark airing of it." Last Passover,
in a sermon to 2,200 congregants at his synagogue, Rabbi Wolpe frankly said
that "virtually every modern archaeologist" agrees "that the way the Bible
describes the Exodus is not the way that it happened, if it happened at all."
The rabbi offered what he called a "litany of disillusion" about the
narrative, including contradictions, improbabilities, chronological lapses
and the absence of corroborating evidence. In fact, he said, archaeologists
digging in the Sinai have "found no trace of the tribes of Israel -- not one
shard of pottery."

The reaction to the rabbi's talk ranged from admiration at his courage to
dismay at his timing to anger at his audacity. Reported in Jewish
publications around the world, the sermon brought him a flood of letters
accusing him of undermining the most fundamental teachings of Judaism. But he
also received many messages of support. "I can't tell you how many rabbis
called me, e- mailed me and wrote me, saying, `God bless you for saying what
we all believe,' " Rabbi Wolpe said. He attributes the "explosion" set off by
his sermon to "the reluctance of rabbis to say what they really believe."

Before the introduction of "Etz Hayim," the Conservative movement relied on
the Torah commentary of Joseph Hertz, the chief rabbi of the British
Commonwealth. By 1936, when it was issued, the Hebrew Bible had come under
intense scrutiny from scholars like Julius Wellhausen of Germany, who raised
many questions about the text's authorship and accuracy. Hertz, working in an
era of rampant anti-Semitism and of Christian efforts to demonstrate the
inferiority of the "Old" Testament to the "New," dismissed all doubts about
the integrity of the text.

Maintaining that no people would have invented for themselves so
"disgraceful" a past as that of being slaves in a foreign land, he wrote that
"of all Oriental chronicles, it is only the Biblical annals that deserve the
name of history."

The Hertz approach had little competition until 1981, when the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations, the official arm of Reform Judaism, published
its own Torah commentary. Edited by Rabbi Gunther Plaut, it took note of the
growing body of archaeological and textual evidence that called the accuracy
of the biblical account into question. The "tales" of Genesis, it flatly
stated, were a mix of "myth, legend, distant memory and search for origins,
bound together by the strands of a central theological concept." But Exodus,
it insisted, belonged in "the realm of history." While there are scholars who
consider the Exodus story to be "folk tales," the commentary observed, "this
is a minority view."

Twenty years later, the weight of scholarly evidence questioning the Exodus
narrative had become so great that the minority view had become the majority
one.

Not among Orthodox Jews, however. They continue to regard the Torah as the
divine and immutable word of God. Their most widely used Torah commentary,
known as the Stone Edition (1993), declares in its introduction "that every
letter and word of the Torah was given to Moses by God."

Lawrence Schiffman, a professor at New York University and an Orthodox Jew,
said that "Etz Hayim" goes so far in accepting modern scholarship that,
without realizing it, it ends up being in "nihilistic opposition" to what
Conservative Jews stand for. He noted, however, that most of the questions
about the Bible's accuracy had been tucked away discreetly in the back. "The
average synagogue-goer is never going to look there," he said.

Even some Conservative rabbis feel uncomfortable with the depth of the
doubting. "I think the basic historicity of the text is valid and
verifiable," said Susan Grossman, the rabbi of Beth Shalom Congregation in
Columbia, Md., and a co-editor of "Etz Hayim." As for the mounting
archaeological evidence suggesting the contrary, Rabbi Grossman said:
"There's no evidence that it didn't happen. Most of the `evidence' is
evidence from silence."

"The real issue for me is the eternal truths that are in the text," she
added. "How do we apply this hallowed text to the 21st century?" One way, she
said, is to make it more relevant to women. Rabbi Grossman is one of many
women who worked on "Etz Hayim," in an effort to temper the Bible's heavily
patriarchal orientation and make the text more palatable to modern readers.
For example, the passage in Genesis that describes how the aged Sarah laughed
upon hearing God say that she would bear a son is traditionally interpreted
as a laugh of incredulity. In its commentary, however, "Etz Hayim" suggests
that her laughter "may not be a response to the far- fetched notion of
pregnancy at an advanced age, but the laughter of delight at the prospect of
two elderly people resuming marital intimacy."

In a project of such complexity, there were inevitably many points of
disagreement. But Rabbi Kushner says the only one that eluded resolution
concerned Leviticus 18:22: "Do not lie with a male as one lies with a woman;
it is an abhorrence." "We couldn't come to a formulation that we could all be
comfortable with," the rabbi said. "Some people felt that homosexuality is
wrong. We weren't prepared to embrace that as the Conservative position. But
at the same time we couldn't say this is a mentality that has been disproved
by contemporary biology, for not everyone was prepared to go along with
that." Ultimately, the editors settled on an anodyne compromise, noting that
the Torah's prohibitions on homosexual relations "have engendered
considerable debate" and that Conservative synagogues should "welcome gay and
lesbian congregants in all congregational activities."

Since the fall, when "Etz Hayim" was issued, more than 100,000 copies have
been sold. Eventually, it is expected to become the standard Bible in the
nation's 760 Conservative synagogues.

Mark S. Smith, a professor of Bible and Near Eastern Studies at New York
University, noted that the Hertz commentary had lasted 65 years. "That's
incredible," he said. "If `Etz Hayim' isn't around for 50 years or more, I'd
be surprised."

Its longevity, however, may depend on the pace of archaeological discovery.

=======================================

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *