A Piercing Light Through the Biblical Fog:: The Bible’s Literary and Theological Inner Core

By John D. Early

The Bible can be a difficult book to read because of an obscuring fog that overhangs much of the biblical text. Many would-be readers have begun with Genesis, but have soon given up the effort. They were confused, frustrated by their inability to follow and understand the narrative. This book is intended to help such readers as well as those thinking of undertaking the task for the first time.
The author is a recognized anthropologist, an ex-Jesuit with a background in theological and biblical studies. He has spent considerable time living with non-literate populations. These experiences made him realize how much of the Bible is a product of non-literate cultures. These insights have been confirmed and expanded by archeological, historical, anthropological, and literary research. Seen from this perspective, most of the Bible consists of theological stories that were later committed to writing rather than a written document of narrative history directly dictated by God. In large part the biblical story is a Jewish Epic with its stages of blessing, tragedy and redemption. It highlights the role of the covenants and the prophets in providing the underlying theological structure of the entire Bible. A brief Introduction in Genesis and the Pauline letters extend the moral lesson of the Epic to all of humanity. The relationship between the literary and theological structures can be diagrammed on a chart that lays out a synthetic view of the entire Bible as well as an outline of this book. Open the front or back covers to view the chart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669860334

John D. Early

John D. Early is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Florida Atlantic University. His educational background includes a Bachelor and a Master of Arts degrees in Social Philosophy from St. Louis University, a Master of Arts in Theology from Woodstock College (a Jesuit Seminary), a Master of Arts in Sociology from Fordham University, and a PhD in Anthropology-Sociology from Harvard University. Dr. Early began his career as priest-anthropologist, although he resigned from the priesthood in 1969. As a member of the Harvard-Chiapas Research Project, he went to Mexico to study the Mayan worldview and its Catholic elements. Seeing the many Mayan infant and child deaths due ultimately to social injustice, his interest turned to demographic research. It was needed to alert the world to the situation and as a basis for planning the Mayan literacy, cooperative, and health programs that he worked with in Guatemala. This led to research on the evolution of human population dynamics, little understood by the developed world. Included were the hunting-gathering Agta in the Philippines, the tribal Yanomami in Brazil, and the Mayan peasants in Mexico and Guatemala. After publishing four books on population dynamics, he returned to his original interest in two later books—religious worldviews and their moral implications for the implementation of social justice. Three of his books have been translated into Spanish for wider international circulation.

Book preview

A PIERCING LIGHT

THROUGH

THE BIBLICAL FOG

The Bible’s Literary and

Theological Inner Core

John D. Early

Copyright © 2023 by John D. Early.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

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without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984,

2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Rev. date: 12/27/2022

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CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

SECTION I

The Slow Birth of The Old Testament Narrative

Chapter 1 The Tribal World Behind the Older Biblical Stories

Chapter 2 The Jewish Oral Tradition

Chapter 3 The Old Testament Narrative: Its Compilation and Interpretation

Chapter 4 Continuing the Compilation of The Old Testament Narrative

Chapter 5 A Chart: Visualizing the Structure of he Bible

SECTION II

The Story of The Moral Will of The Loving God

Part I: Introduction: The Moral Problem of Humanity 37

Chapter 6 Humanity’s Eternal Struggle (#1-#3)

Part II: The Jewish Epic 43

Phase 1: The Jewish Blessing: A Promise of Prosperity in a Promised Land 45

Chapter 7 God’s Promise to The Jewish People

Chapter 8 The Stories About Moses (#5 to #7)

Chapter 9 Initial Attempts to Conquer the Promised Land (#8, #9)

Chapter 10 Continued Attempts to Conquer the Promised Land (#10)

Chapter 11 Fulfillment of the Jewish Blessing: King David (#10, 11)

Phase 2: The Jewish Tragedy: Loss of the Promised Land 75

Chapter 12 Sins of the Jewish Kings; The Babylonian Exile (#11)

Chapter 13 The Post-Exile Period (#11, #12)

Chapter 14 Daniel’s Vision of Redemption

Chapter 15 Questioning the Pattern: The Wisdom Writers

Chapter 16 Hasmonian Sins, Enter The Romans (#13)

Chapter 17 The Roman World That Jesus Will Enter (#13)

Chapter 18 How the Empire Maintained Itself (#13)

Chapter 19 Messianic Hopes and Jewish Resistance (#13)

Phase 3: The Jewish Redemption: An Interior Covenant 127

Chapter 20 The Announcement and Birth of the Jewish Messiah (#13)

Chapter 21 Jesus and His Messianic Mission: An Interior Covenant (#14)

Chapter 22 Methods of Teaching the Interior Covenant (#14)

Chapter 23 The Understanding of Jesus’ Message

Chapter 24 Jesus and the Sins of Hypocritical Religion (#14)

Chapter 25 Salvation: The Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension (#14)

Chapter 26 Pentecost, Early Ministry, Book of Revelation (#15)

Part III: Humanity’s Redemption 167

Chapter 27 The Interior Covenant: Peter and Paul Clarify Its Requirements (#16)

Chapter 28 Paul’s Universal Theology (#16)

Chapter 29 The Second Coming of Jesus, The Final Judgment, Eternity (#16)

Appendix

The Final Take-Away

There are map references in many of the chapters for those who may wish to consult biblical atlases or internet maps to help understand the settings of biblical events.

PREFACE

This book is intended to help those who wish to read the Bible, either for the first time or for another attempt by the many who may have started to read it but stopped; frustrated by an obscuring fog that rises from much of the biblical text. It can be a difficult book to read. When one considers that the Bible began its existence centuries ago as oral stories for illiterate people; that they lived in a tribal culture distinctly different from contemporary culture; that we no longer have the original transcriptions of the oral stories when they were transferred to writing; that their original languages can be difficult to translate into English and other modern languages—all this and more create a fog that overhangs the biblical text obscuring its meaning. Finally the various books of the Bible never had a manuscript editor who attempted to make a readable narrative from its disjointed text. All this is compounded by Its many pages that take a considerable amount of time to read. It is not surprising that many contemporary readers lose their way in the fog, turn back, and may never open its cover again.

Before attempting to read the Bible, we suggest that you read this book first. If you do, you will have a piercing light to find your way through the fog— an understanding of the basic theological and literary structures that underlie the fog Contributing to this understanding are the findings in recent years of archeology, anthropology, literary and historical analyses. Some Christians and Jews have been upset by these findings. In this book I have tried to summarize this material and at the same time tried to show that they help us to better understand the basic message of the Bible rather than being a threat to it. You will also read a selection of important biblical texts in the context of their cultural backgrounds. Then if you can, read the Bible itself. You will be able to read it more rapidly without sacrificing any understanding of its basic message

The reasons for reading the Bible can be many. It may be curiosity. You may have seen references in books or heard sermons about the Bible, but only opened it to look at the family genealogy often pasted in the front. Or you may have selectively read certain passages you found meaningful, but never explored the Bible and understood it as the unified work that it is. Or your interest may be intellectual—a wish to understand its role in the Judeo-Christian contribution to Western culture. Maybe your interest goes beyond curiosity, to a search for meaning in your life. A person cannot endure life’s rigors without some meaning. Perhaps you have experimented with some current life styles or immersed yourself in YouTube to find a guru who could give meaningful direction to your life. If these failed, you may have decided to turn to the Bible that for generations was seen as the source of values that oriented human lives. Maybe it has something to say in spite of being ‘old’. The Bible faces the basic questions of the human condition. For this reason it has been a source of values for many religious groups.

Maybe you lack the time needed to read the Bible. The twenty-four hours of an ordinary day are scarcely enough to take care of your daily needs The pressures of family and work crowd out potential reading time. A firm resolve to make time in spite of these problems is needed. Perhaps the recent development of ‘distance working’ will be a solution for some.

I hope you find this book helpful.

John D. Early

Tallahassee, Florida

2022

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am indebted to the many scholars who have contributed to my understanding of the Bible. Their efforts appear on every page of this book. Since this is not a scholarly treatise, I have not acknowledged them in the text. It would introduce clutter and be a distraction for the type of reader for whom this book is intended. In the presentation I have used disputed interpretations without indicating that they are disputed. Further reading of biblical commentaries will introduce the reader to the many controversies surrounding almost every part of the Bible.

I am also indebted to friends who read preliminary versions of the manuscript and made helpful suggestions—Sherwood De Forest, Ricardo Falla, Karen Gelhardt, James Mondloch, Elizabeth Nick, Gary Stilwell and Eugene Saycich. Rob Gelhardt did the graphic.

The biblical quotations are from the New International Version (NIV) available at the extremely helpful website, https://www.biblica.com/resources/niv-audio-bible-listen-online-for-free/-. Their menus provide immediate access to any book and chapter. At this site you can listen to a dramatic reading of the text, an oral experience similar to that experienced for centuries by many of the Bible’s recipients—the illiterate of both town and country.

INTRODUCTION

What is The Bible? Why was it Written?

The Bible is a long and complicated book whose stories originated between two and unknown thousands of years ago against the background of Near Eastern culture. It begins with a problem whose solution will be its overwhelming concern.

The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. (Genesis 6:5)

Given this moral weakness of humanity, the Bible describes the moral will of a loving God to redeem humanity from the sinful consequences of this weakness. This redemptive, salvific effort is gradually revealed in a series of stories about covenants between God and the Jewish people; stories about sin, redemption-salvation enabling humanity to attain the original purpose for which they were created.

Why Were Stories Chosen for the Revelation of God’s Moral Will?

For any audience regardless of age, social or cultural background, the story is the most appropriate literary form to attract their attention, hold their interest and most importantly, burrow the point of the story into their memories. From a child’s frequent request, Tell me a story to the adult craving for a good book, movie, song, or play; the story is the form of expression universally sought for its power of communication. Stories were also chosen because of their special appeal to the majority of their intended listeners – illiterate folk who were typical of most of the world’s population at that time and until recent times. In numerous regions it was against the law to teach literacy to the lower classes. In their limited circumstances, the oral story was their intellectual lifeblood, their storehouse of knowledge.

Where Are the Stories Found?

In contemporary culture those stories that were recorded are told in the books that make up the Bible. Because of religious differences between Jews and Christians, and additional ones among Christians, there is no agreement about what books or documents should be included in the Bible. Each religious group makes its own decision. Over time, three compilations have emerged as the most used editions—the Jewish Bible, the Catholic-Orthodox Bible and the Protestant Bible. (Orthodox means the Eastern Christian Churches such as Greek, Russian and other Orthodox denominations that separated from Rome in 1054).

The Catholic-Orthodox list is the most inclusive. It represents the books gradually recognized by early Christianity. The Jewish Bible is the shortest because the Jewish community does not accept Jesus as the Messiah. Consequently it rejects the New Testament. In the Old Testament it rejects any document that was not originally written in Hebrew—the few originally written in Greek. The Protestant Bible accepts the Jewish Old Testament list as well as those written in Greek. It rejects the letter of Janes in the New Testament. Subsequently it was recognized that these rejected books were important historical works. A new category, the Apocrypha, was created for them. It is usually omitted in Protestant Bibles published by various Protestant denominations, but often included as a separate section in editions from non-sectarian publishers. Although the Catholic-Orthodox versions are substantially the same, some Orthodox denominations have added some minor Old Testament documents to their lists.

For the purpose here, we have chosen to use the Catholic-Orthodox listing. It contains more books than the other versions and therefore tells more of the sacred narrative. Below is a listing of these documents. If a document of the Catholic-Orthodox Old Testament is not included in the Jewish Bible, it has a (J) beside it. If a portion of the Catholic-Orthodox version is classified as Apocrypha, it has an (A) beside it. Other religious groups have their own lists. Not considered here are exclusions of sections within a book rather than the whole book.

In speaking and writing about the Bible, the word ‘testament’ was first chosen as the English word to express the difference between its two main sections. It established a precedent that has been followed ever since. Its primary meaning is a will, a type of covenant specifying what is to done after one’s death. ‘Covenant’ better expresses the content of the various books in the context of Jewish culture.

The Old Covenant (Testament)

Documents Relating the Salvation Narrative

Genesis – Exodus – Leviticus – Numbers – Deuteronomy (these five books together are called the Torah or the Pentateuch) – Joshua – Judges – Ruth – 1,2 Samuel – 1,2 Kings – 1,2 Chronicles – Ezra – Nehemiah – Tobit (J, A) – Judith (J, A) – Esther (A) – 1,2 Maccabees (J, A)

(The books from Joshua to Nehemiah are sometimes incorrectly called ‘the historical books’.)

The Prophets Apply the Message of the Covenants

1,2,3 Isaiah* – Jeremiah –– Ezekiel – Daniel – Hosea – Joel – Amos – Obadiah – Jonah – Micah – Nahum – Habakkuk – Zephaniah – Malachi

(* Most scholars agree that Isaiah contains the oracles of three different prophets who lived before, during and after the Exile. 1 Isaiah includes verses 1–39; 2 Isaiah verses 40–55; 3 Isaiah verses 56–66.)

Poetical Reflections on the Salvation Narrative

The Psalms — The Song of Songs (The Song of Solomon) — Lamentations (Baruch) (J, A)

Documents of Philosophical Reflection and Practical Advice: The Wisdom Writers

Job – Proverbs – Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes) – Wisdom (Wisdom of Solomon) (J, A) – Sirach or Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus) (J, A)

The New Covenant (Testament)

Documents Continuing the Salvation Narrative

Matthew (Mt) – Mark (Mk) – Luke (Lk) – John (Jn) – Acts of the Apostles (Acts)

Letters To Early Jesus Communities With Reflections on the Salvation Narrative

By Paul or his disciples: Romans – 1,2 Corinthians – Galatians – Ephesians – Philippians – Colossians –

1,2 Thessalonians – 1,2 Timothy – Titus – Philemon.

By others: Hebrews – James (A) – 1,2 Peter – 1,2,3 John – Jude – Revelation

Many of the documents (books) carry the names of individuals who may or may not have been the original editors of the oral materials or authors themselves. An individual story may not be limited to a single document, but spread through several different documents. For this reason, this book focuses on the stories themselves rather than the individual documents. The Psalms are not considered for the sake of brevity. However if one has time, a reading of the their poetical and songful commentary on the sacred narrative will deepen its meaning for the reader

The Biblical Fog:

The Preface mentioned that the Bible is not an easy book to read, that there Is a fog that overhangs the text of its more or less seventy documents that makes them difficult to understand. This fog arises from many sources. When many readers encounter the confusion created by this fog, they simply stop reading the Bible and may never open its cover again.

A Constant Source of Fog: Stories Reflect a Different Culture

When a reader opens the Bible, immediately they are attempting to understand documents from a cultural background distinctly different from contemporary culture. An example arises in the very first verses of Genesis. There we find an account of what is often called ‘the creation of the world’ (Genesis 1–2:4). If you read carefully, you will notice that on the first day in verses three to five, God creates light that divides daytime from nighttime. But it is only on the fourth day, in verse 16, that God creates the source of light, the sun! How can there be light without the sun? How can there be three days prior to the sun’s existence when the sun itself is needed to define a day? The Bible never explains the problem but leaves the contemporary reader confused in a patch of fog at the very beginning of the Bible.

Without realizing it, the reader has met a problem that will occur frequently. The reader is trying to understand the biblical text against the background of the reader’s own worldview, contemporary astronomy and cosmology. But the picture of the heavens presented in Genesis is from Near Eastern astronomy as it existed thousands of years ago. Its understanding of the heavenly bodies was very different. ‘Ethnocentrism’ is the term applied to this kind of misunderstanding. It occurs when readers interpret items or events from a distinctly different culture in terms of their own culture. This often happens when attempting to read the Bible since most readers are not familiar with ancient civilizations in general and especially traditional Judaism.

More Fog: A Disjointed Text

In addition to the cultural problems, the text is disjointed in numerous places. In some sections of the Bible it is difficult for a reader to maintain interest because the narrative style is repetitive, boring. This happens when oral presentations with their necessary repetitions and concerns are literally transferred to writing. They leave their footprints in the style of writing.

Another textual problem occurs when there are no transitional phrases or clauses between different sections of the text. They just ‘pop up’ for unknown reasons. This frequently happens when there is a reversal of the chronological sequences. Additional difficulties occur when a single story may be intermingled with other stories and spread in disordered fashion through several books making it difficult to follow the narrative. There may be similar versions of a plot without clarification that it is intended to be the same story with different details or a different story. Although all the stories are linked together making the Bible a unitary work, the linkages and transitions are often not easy to follow or even stated.

The Fog Thickens: Manuscript Problems

Another source of the fog is the absence of the original manuscripts of the biblical texts. The earliest manuscripts available are copies of unknown copies. The earliest copy of the Old Testament dates from 1008 CE when it was made from an unknown copy. This is almost nineteen centuries later than the early Books of Amos and Hosea and twelve centuries later than the Maccabees, the final books of the Old Testament. The gap is smaller for the New Testament but still significant. The earliest manuscript dates from 300–325 CE, over two centuries later than its final book, Revelation.

In these long gaps between the original manuscripts and the first available copies of copies of them, many editors and copyists have made simple copying mistakes. They have also made insertions into the text in an