Karen Armstrong traces the beginnings of the Bible from the earliest books of the Old Testament, tales of the gods Yaweh and Elohim, describes the many influences that helped form the sacred texts of the Old and New Testaments, and how the 66 books of the Bible were created, interpreted, and developed into the Holy Book. She also describes the multiple ways in which the Bible has been interpreted over the years, from the ancient reformers who didn't use scripture to conserve their traditions, but to evoke radical change, to the fundamentalists of today who see the Bible as heralding the last days of the world.
What did I learn? Well, to start with, I read the book quickly once, then again more slowly and more intensively. The subtitle describes Armstrong's book as a "biography", and that it is. I decided just to take note of certain things which I found most meaningful to my understanding.
1. The two times the temple of Israel was destroyed was integral to the development of (a) The Torah when Israel was in exile in Babylon in 586 BC, and (b) the advent of Christianity and the gospels when the Romans destroyed the temple in 70 CE.
2. Augustine(c580-662) was the first "born-again" Christian, upon picking up the Bible and reading it. He, although responsible for much of the dogma of the RC Church, also emphasized the need for charity" the Bible was about love, charity was the central principle of Torah and everything else was commentary.
3. The Puritans' arrival in the New World can be seen as an Exodus, similar to the Israelites leaving Egypt. They even called the New World "New Canaan". But the New World also had its slaves:
"although Americans were committed to liberation and freedom, for 200 years there was an enslaved Israel in their midst."
4. Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a monk who, after seeing the whole Bible for the first time, became fascinated with the book, saw it as integral to faith, believed Christ was the central figure of the Bible,became the first "born-again" Christian, challenged the church on the Pope's power to forgive sins, translated the Bible into German, and basically, I think, developed the form of worship used today- scripture, songs, hymns, etc.
5. Spinoza (1632-1677) was a Sephardic Jew who became the pioneer of the historical-critical method :
"the manifest contradictions in the Bible proved that it could not be of divine origin; the idea of revelation was a delusion; and there was no super-natural deity- what we called 'God' who simply nature itself". He was excommunicated, and became the first person in Europe to live successfully beyond the reach of established religion!
6/ The issue of the Bible vs science in creation, the Scopes trial, the contest deciding on the side of rational thought, only made the fundamentalists more vehemently literal in their interpretation of Scripture, and moved them to the far right of the political spectrum, where they have remained.
The Bible is: a subversive document, a spiritual activity, a commentary on the Golden Rule.
KEY TERMS TO REMEMBER:
Apologia: a rational explanation
Dogma: term used by Greek-speaking Christians to describe the hidden, ineffable traditions of the Church, which could only be understood mystically and expressed symbolically.
Exegesis: the art of interpreting and explaining the biblical text.
Gnostic: a redeeming "knowledge"
Hermeneutics: the art of interpretation, especially of scripture.
Midrash: exegesis; interpretation, with connotations of investigation, quest.
Shekhinah: the divine presence on earth.
Talmud: "teaching study"
Torah: "law"
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