Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Steve Brailsford <Steve.Brailsford AT seagatesoftware.com>]

> I am looking for understanding rather than trying to condemn.  I had a
> Prof. in my Ph.D. program say that it is because "that's what their
> training is in."  I find that a really weak rationalization.  People
> change fields all the time. I want to be clear that I am NOT NOT NOT
> calling anyone a hypocrite or attacking their character.  I just don't
> get why someone who is not sympathetic to the text's 
> perspective, given
> that these are avowedly religious texts, would spend time on them. 
> Presumably, if one is an atheist, you don't expect any 
> interpretation of
> the text to be valuable because that would require their God to exist,
> n'est pas?  And of course, you don't need my permission to study the
> Scriptures of Israel :-).
> 
I too have been wondering the same thing, and can only come to the
conclusion, from their writings, that they are trying to claim the
exact opposite.  That the Biblical writings prove their world view,
that there is not a God and therefore hope to dissuade those who believe
into their own views.  I'm not saying that is a bad thing to do, for we 
do the same thing.  We try to convince others by our writings that what
we believe is true.  Take a paper on Astro-Physics.  The author wants to
convert others to their view of stellar formation, or whatever.  But without
a belief in what you are espousing, why write about it?

The historical Jewish view would affirm the conservative positions regarding

authorship, but the interpretation of how you define Messiah, i.e. Holy One 
of Israel, would differ.  We all read everyday using our beliefs and are
mindful of he beliefs of the writers we read.  Take even the newspapers.
There
not always one way to view the 'facts' of a story.  The writer wants to find
an 'angle' to make it interesting.  Some have recently been found to have
made
up entire stories to make it interesting.

Why study ancient texts?  To try and imagine what it was like to live in
that time.
We love stories.  We love Shakespeare's plays.  Why?  It's the stories of
people
and places who lived in very different times and conditions.  Another reason
is to
prove our view as truth.  We take the various flood accounts and say that
proves
there was a world-wide flood as the Bible claims.  We wouldn't need to do
this
if there wasn't anyone writing the opposite view.  So, we need these
critical
thinkers to make us work harder.


Steve Brailsford
Seagate Software
steve.brailsford AT seagatesoftware.com
(407) 531-7543