You may have heard my riff about the Bible – namely, that even if you accept the religious framework of the book, you have to acknowledge that human beings who write things down always have their own filter. I saw this again and again as a reporter, and I don’t think it’s possible to write without some kind of bias.
The Bible
They’re gonna correct mistakes in the Bible? You mean the one where they printed ink on the paper so you can’t use it to roll joints?
I await the day.
Isaac Asimov’s Guide to the Bible is the only book I’ve read about the Bible that makes sense. He brings archaeology and history to bear in discussing its contents. He said the Bible was only written down in the 6th century BCE, when the Jews returned to Israel from the Babylonian exile. Before that it was all stories passed down by word of mouth, which left room for a lot of error.
Asimov said that many of the books were written as warnings to the powerful. The writers would pretend that some prophet in the past had written the warnings, so that the present day writers wouldn’t be squashed by those same powerful people.
So much for prophets–their prophecies were created after the events had already taken place.
Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com