A Heterogeneous Bible

To follow up on a previous essay:

The Bible consists of 66 books, many of which contradict the others, and that is just fine, since the Bible is a library of human writings rather than a coherent Book written by God. I cannot emphasize enough how important, and how liberating, it is to realize this.

Bart Ehrman, in his book God’s Problem, points out another way in which the Bible is incoherent. One of the most fundamental questions of religion is, why do people suffer? If God were in control and were like a superintending Father, then only bad people would suffer. Nobody except the seriously deluded has ever believed this to be the case. When a tower fell and killed people, Jesus’ disciples asked him whose fault it was. Jesus (always wiser than his disciples and, now, than his readers) said it wasn’t anybody’s fault, and you better watch out in case something like that happens to you.

The Bible, as it turns out, answers the question about why innocent people suffer while evil people prosper. Matter of fact, it gives several, contradictory answers. The book of Job implies that suffering is meant to test us, and, moreover, that Job should be ashamed for having asked why he was suffering. The prophets proclaimed that the suffering would be temporary, and that God would establish his kingdom on Earth, bringing the powerful evil people down into the dust. Early Christians believed the same thing, only that the kingdom would be in heaven.

And then there is Ecclesiastes, which says that there is no reason. For both the good and the evil, “Time and chance happen to them all.”

To force this heterogeneous Bible into homogeneity requires a theological blanching and scraping and mushing that ruins its literary quality. It is the most widely-read set of books in human history. And, if you haven’t read it, you’re missing something, because it contains some of the greatest literature in history. Please, you Bible Thumpers, don’t put it through a meat grinder. Let it speak for itself in all its shocking literary heterogeneity. Don’t worry about whether Samson or Balaam are going to hell or not, or whether God really wanted Jacob to trick his father and steal the birthright from his brother. Don’t try to “figure out” the book of Daniel. Just read it. Maybe it will give you some ideas that will help you figure out God for yourself.