The Bible As Literature

 Drake 257

The Leviathan In The Living Room

Before we begin, let us remind ourselves that this is a literature class and that it is being taught at a secular, state-run, academic research institution.  From those facts it follows that we’re here to read the Bible as a text – that is, as a written work – and study and discuss it from an academic perspective, rather than from a religious one. Certainly we are still interested in understanding the Bible as a religious text – it doesn’t make much sense without that context – but we are not here to debate its religious validity, one way or another. 

Why Read, Teach and Study the Bible?

No book has had such a profound influence on English and European literature in general as has the Bible.  The work of Homer and other Greeks come in a close second, and of course we’ll read those as well.  So, if you want to understand so much of what you read, you need to study the Bible, and that's why we're studying it now.

Obviously the Bible has had a profound influence on American and European history and culture, as well.  We can, and perhaps will, examine whether that influence has always been or is largely positive or negative, or the degrees to which that influence should continue, but regardless of your opinions on those values, we all will agree on this: this book has profoundly shaped who we have been and who we are, even if you don't believe a word of it.

Other Inherent Difficulties Reading and Teaching The Bible

Those students who most often wish more time were spent on the Bible are also often those most likely to be upset when we do spend time on the Bible.  Although we read many ancient texts in school, nearly all of which contain divine beings and arguments concerning the origin of life and the boundaries of moral behavior, the Bible is the only ancient book we are likely to read on this campus that some students are likely to take literally and, more importantly and frequently, believe to be the unerring work of a god.

Fortunately, we’re not here to decide, or even discuss, whether or not books we read were written by a god or gods.  It’s an interesting question and one I certainly spend time thinking about and discussing, but not in class. 

This is a fundamental element of all Biblical beliefs: with the exception of the actual Ten Commandments, the Bible itself never claims to be written by God, or a god, and even the New Testament never makes claim to Jesus as its author;  all the books of the Bible – including those held canonical by Catholics, Muslims and Mormons – trace their actual transcription to humans: the words on the page were set down by the human hand.  Certainly all faiths believe different texts were inspired by a god or God – and which texts were or not so inspired, and the nature of that inspiration, is perhaps the clearest means of differentiating the various faiths – but that’s a religious question and as such one that really doesn’t interest us in here:  I guarantee you that we are not in this class to determine the nature of God, and that if we were, we would still fail at that task, in this class.

And So We Begin:

Plot (what happens) and Characters (to whom it happens)

Now we have already discussed a fundamental quality of this text: that is the story of a God revealing Himself to certain people.  Who those certain people are and become in many ways describes the central plot constituting both Testaments, as well as other traditional texts, such as the Koran: in other words, the story is about how that revelation defines a people, and how they go about living in that definition.

As an epic, or even a collection of various epics, there are of course hundreds of subplots in these books, but most all revolve around humans dealing with the consequences of living with this god in their lives.

The central character of this text is God Himself, and the supporting characters are of two types: those he reveals Himself to, as well as their followers, and those he does not reveal Himself to.  In the Hebrew Scriptures (what Christians usually call The Old Testament), God reveals himself, starting with Abraham, to the people who will become known as the Jews or Israelites.  All of the stories in the scriptures describe some combination of the following:

a) Changes in the character of God

b) The personal relationship between certain individuals and this God

c) The social relationships between believers and non-believers.

Given our short period to work with this vast story, as well as the fact that most Americans are used to interpreting this story from a possible ending (Christ and Christian theology), and not the beginning (the mindset and cultural context of the ancient Hebrews) I'll mainly focus on a) how this character changes, or how the Hebrew (and later Christian) perspective changes over 4,000 years.

In more specific terms, the theme of the Hebrew scriptures revolves around the Jews understanding, developing and maintaining their relationship with God.  Over a period of roughly 2,000 years this relationship develops in terms of complexity and depth;  it begins simply enough – with the straightforward observance of certain laws – but develops as its characters are confronted with continuing and perhaps increasing hardship (culminating later in the Holocaust). In this way we could say that the text develops thematically from concrete, ritual observance (with roots in paganism) toward abstraction, compassion and spirituality as the character God makes increasing demands of his people.

In the beginning, God makes certain demands of people and doles out rewards or punishments based on the observance or breaking of these rules.  This relationship is ritualized in a fairly straightforward, pagan manner:  his covenant with Abram is based on the correct observance of a ritual – circumcision – for exchange for an earthly reward:  fertility and then land.  Note that from the beginning these earliest rituals also share with paganism an emphasis on sexuality and fertility.  The sexual practices may differ from their Sumerian counterparts, but they share the same motivation, process and value.  Right behaviors lead to worldly treasure.

This relationship takes its first major step in another direction with The Book of Job.

The Evolution Of God

Another way to approach this central theme would be to look at the changes in God’s character as He develops from being a kind of “person” into being The One, the Platonic "First Principle", an Eternal , Universal Truth or Essence. In the earlier books of the scriptures, beginning with Genesis, we see Him as a “Him”, as containing all the elements of a being: he speaks, he sees, he makes choices, he acts, he communicates directly with others (Adam, Abraham, Moses) through language.  He has emotion: his actions are caused by anger, jealousy, love etc. He competes with other gods, implying that these other gods actually exist.

Such a god, and such a relationship with this god, are manifestly material: one worldly action (ritual, observance of rules of behavior) produces a worldly result.

As we mentioned above, with Job we find this less true:  God is still presented as a being, communicating through language with other beings, even negotiating with them, observing etc.  But with Job we learn that ritual observance is not enough, and the relationship is developing beyond a simple economic exchange of behavior for tangible reward.

This is the radical break Judaism (and its following traditions) makes with ancient religion: a sense that the Jews are not convening with one of many gods, who happens to inhabit a given geographical space, but rather that they are attempting to understand the very nature of the one and only God, a break from ritualized material exchange toward purely spiritualized emotional understanding, or “faith”.

Setting (where it happens)
In terms of earthly setting, geography plays a fairly key role in these books.  One need only utter the word “Jerusalem” to point out how central geography still is to understanding the scriptures: for over 3,000 years and at this very moment, different faiths have and are still fighting a war to claim Jerusalem as their own.

Setting plays a different role in the different faith traditions.
In the Hebrew scriptures, Israel itself is itself the worldly center of the plot’s conflict and resolution; that is, the Hebrew scriptures’ plot revolves around God promising a specific geographical space (Israel) to a group of nomadic tribes in exchange for their worship of him.

In the simplest of terms, when the Hebrews honor their covenant with God he rewards them with control of “Israel”.  When they fail this covenant they are banished from this land, either, early on, to Babylon or Egypt or, in the Diaspora, throughout the Roman Empire.   Most of the Hebrew scriptures are set in Israel, Babylon or Egypt; if the scriptures were written as a video game, the goal of the game would be to keep the Hebrews in, and ideally in control of, Israel.

One of the key plot elements -- and the key change I mentioned above -- revolves around the spreading influence and manifestation of this God, as he is revealed to his believers not to be a typical, geographically-localized pagan divinity, but to be an all encompassing, total, One, universal God.