Reasonable Thoughts on Religion, Science, Skepticism, and Atheism

by VorJack

In my last post, I wrote about one of the ways that the ancient Jews interpreted their scriptures: by finding hidden meanings within the text that were relevant to their current situations. This was usually done in the service of some exiting belief, i.e. That a certain person was the messiah or that the end times were upon us. Obviously, when you approach interpretation like that, it is going to have an effect on how you write your own works of holy lore.

Advancing by Looking Backwards

Pullquote: So one part of Genesis has been rewritten to provide comfort and offer the hope of eventual salvation.

What do you do when you’ve found a new interpretation of an existing text and want to pass it on? One way was to actually rewrite and expand on the story that you’re interpreting in such a way as to bring your interpretation out front. This process is sometimes called haggada (though this word also refers to a specific text).

One of the clearest examples of this practice is actually the Book of the Watchers in 1st Enoch, which I wrote about previously. The author of this story has expanded on a small section of Genesis and crafted a story of fallen angels who are making war, intermarrying with the humans and generally corrupting everyone.

The purpose of the story becomes clear when you understand that it was most likely written during or shortly after the period of turbulence following the death of Alexander the Great. Called the Wars of the Diadochi, or “Successors”, the period was roughly forty years in which Alexander’s generals fought for control over the lands he had conquered. During the first twenty years of the wars, Palestine and the surrounding region changed hands seven times.

In the story, the fallen angels are probably an analogy for the foreign invaders who are bringing both violence and Greek culture to the country. But, as the story makes clear, God has already heard the cries of the suffering, and already passed judgment on those that do harm to his chosen people. So one part of Genesis has been rewritten to provide comfort and offer the hope of eventual salvation.

Synthesis

Pullquote: Sometimes a older passage can be rewritten by weaving into another story, producing a synthesis of the two.

By piggybacking on existing scriptures, these rewritings could hope to attain a level of authority. And, in fact, we do find evidence that early Christians accepted some of the writings. Paul mentions the tradition that the Torah was given by angels (Gal. 3:19), which we find in the Book of Jubilees, which rewrites much of Genesis and Exodus. The Epistle of James speaks of the patience of Job (James 5:11), which works a lot better if he were referring to the later Testament of Job rather than the earlier canonical work.

So early Christians were reading these works and presumably accepted some of them, as well as the methods that produced them. This is important, since haggada can go to another level. Sometimes an older passage can be rewritten by weaving into another story, producing a synthesis of the two.

The most famous example of this is the story of the seven brothers found in 2nd Maccabees. The stories concern seven brothers and their mother, who are all ordered to eat pork by the King, Antiochus, who is attempting to forcibly Hellenize the country. The family refuses, and Antiochus has them tortured and killed.

The way that the story is written deliberately evokes the Suffering Servant passages of Isaiah (Isaiah 52-53). Words and phrases are selected from the prophetic text in order to reinterpret Isaiah’s Suffering Servant figure in light of the suffering of the Jews under Antiochus. However, the end result is a sort of hypertext which makes reference to earlier scripture, and as a result is essentially constructed of these references.

Wagging the Dog

Pullquote: And so the “argument from prophecy” is not so much a failure as far too simplistic.

The story in 2nd Maccabees is presumably based broadly on historical events: Antichous had Jews tortured and executed for refusing to follow his orders. However, this specific story is constructed with references to other scriptures in a way that reinterprets the older scriptures.

One could look at 2nd Maccabees and talk about all the prophecies it “fulfills,” but this would miss the point. Parts of Isaiah and Deuteronomy are being deliberately worked into the text by the author in order to tie the story to the older works and make the meaning clear. The events they depict probably never occurred in history.

And so when we look at a section of Christian scripture like the Passion Narrative in Mark, we have to ask, “Is this a historical account of real events that were foretold the Hebrew Testament, or is the author of the Gospel deliberately evoking those passages in order to explain the meaning of Jesus?”

And so the “argument from prophecy” is not so much a failure as far too simplistic. First – as I wrote last time – each individual interpretation is subjective and usually only accepted by those who share the interpreter’s preconceptions. Second, because the events on the story that supposedly fulfill a prophecy may have been written into the narrative specifically to evoke that prophecy.