The Bible Skeptic

What is the "Old Testament"?

The "Old Testament" is the Christian term given to the first number of books in the Christian Bible. These books were originally written in Hebrew (with some small portions written in Aramaic), translated into Greek before the turn of the Common Era [1] and into nearly every language on earth from thenceforward. The Christian Bible also includes the "New Testament"; a collection of books recounting the life and significance of the central character of Christian faith: Jesus who is known to believers as the "Christ". The "Old Testament" contains the books of the Jewish faith from which Christianity was born and these books are still used to this day by Jewish believers. However, the books included in the Christian "Old Testament" and the Jewish version of this collection differ to a certain extent. There are even different versions of the Christian "Old Testament", generally divided between the Protestant and the Catholic versions. The "Old Testament" is called the "Hebrew Bible", or "Tanak" [2] in the Jewish community. While the collection of books is very similar in both the Christian Old Testament and the Hebrew Bible, there are some significant differences as well. For one, the total number of books contained in the Christian Old Testament is greater than the number of books in the Hebrew Bible (the Hebrew Bible contains 24 books [3] while Protestant Christians count 39 and Catholic Christians 46 [4] in their respective "Old Testaments"). In addition, book placement differs between the "Old Testament" and the Hebrew Bible. [5] Regardless of the differences, however, believers in both Christianity and Judaism revere the books that make up their respective bibles.

The stories of the Old Testament [6] claim to recount, in a more or less linear fashion, the history of the nation of Israel; a small country along the Mediterranean coast in the Near East. While filled with miraculous stories of giants, parting seas, man-swallowing fish and multi-dimensional beings, many people throughout history have nonetheless believed that the Old Testament is an accurate written account of past events. In December of 2003, respected scholar and author Kenneth A. Kitchen [7] published a book titled, On the Reliability of the Old Testament, seeking to confirm these long-standing beliefs. His book outlines the stories of the Old Testament thus,

Anyone who opens and reads the books of the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, will find the essence of a fairly continuous story, from the world’s beginnings and earliest humanity down briefly to a man, Abra(ha)m, founding "patriarch," from whose descendants there came a family, then a group of clans under the name Israel. He had moved from Mesopotamia (now Iraq) via north Syria into Palestine or Canaan, we are told; and his grandson and family came down to Egypt, staying there for generations, until (under a pharaoh’s oppression) they escaped to Sinai, had a covenant and laws with their deity as their ruler, and moved on via what is now Transjordan back into Canaan. A checkered phase of settlement culminated in a local monarchy; David and Solomon are reputed to have subdued their neighbors, holding a brief "empire" (tenth century B.C.), until this was lost and the realm split into two rival petty kingdoms of Israel (in the north) and Judah (in the south). These lasted until Assyria destroyed Israel by 722 and Neo-Babylon destroyed Judah by 586, with much of their populations exiled into Mesopotamia. When Persia took over Babylon, then some of the captive Judeans (henceforth termed "Jews") were allowed back to Palestine [the name later given to the region by the Romans] to renew their small community there during the fifth century, while others stayed on in both Babylonia and Egypt. The library of writings that contains this narrative thread also includes versions of the laws and covenant reputedly enacted at Mount Sinai, and renewals in Moab and Canaan. To which must be added the writings in the names of various spokesmen or "prophets" who sought to call their people back to loyalty to their own god YHWH; the Psalms, or Hebrew hymns and prayers; and various forms of "wisdom writing," whether instructional or discussive.

That sums up baldly the basic narrative that runs through the Hebrew Bible, and other features included with it. Broadly, from Abram the patriarch down to such as Ezra and Nehemiah who guided the Jerusalem community in the fifth century, as given, the entire history (if such it be) does not precede circa 2000 B.C., running down to circa 400 B.C. (pp. 1-2)

In his book, Kitchen attempts to place the events of the Old Testament stories into the historical context in which they were written. As noted, the books include the entire history of the Israelite community, extending even as far back as the creation of the universe. The stories quickly progress to the first family that begins the Israelite nation and then takes the reader through the various ups and downs the community faced as outlined in the quote above.

As mentioned, people throughout history have believed in the literal truth of the stories told in the Old Testament. Until relatively recently, few challenged the history relayed in those first books of the Bible. However, as noted in Kitchen’s book, the authenticity of those stories have come under closer scrutiny in the modern era and some who have studied the stories have even concluded that much of the Old Testament is pious fiction, created centuries after the supposed "historical facts" given in the text. Such critics are termed "minimalists" and, as Kitchen describes, maintain that "the constituent writings in the Hebrew Bible [are] exclusively the product of a group of Jewish literary romantics of the fourth-third centuries B.C.; and [are] thus truly a late Perso-Hellenistic product" (p. 449). These critics dismiss "virtually the whole of it [the Old Testament] as pure fiction, as an attempt by the puny Jewish community of Palestine to write themselves an imaginary past large, as a form of national propaganda." (p. 2) Kitchen’s book proposes to be "a quest into finding out what may be authentic (or otherwise) in the content and formats of the books of the Hebrew Bible." (p. 3) He challenges the conclusions of the minimalists and scours the vast tapestry of the ancient past in his quest to discover the historical nuggets of truth that may be contained in the Old Testament. Of course, Kitchen is not the first or the only person who disagrees with the "minimalists" and many others have challenged their conclusions.

To what extent Kitchen and others who join him succeed in uncovering these nuggets of synchronicity between the Old Testament stories and recoverable history (in its archaeological forms) is for the individual reader of these attempts to decide. But, of course, to satisfy his stated goal Kitchen necessarily looks at all the potentially positive correlations between historical claims in the Old Testament and those verifiable moments in history in his own book. What Kitchen does, not only in his own effort but reflected in the efforts of those I've encountered who think similarly, is avoid the potential failures in these correlations between biblical claims and what we know about the history of Isreal. What do these potential failures mean, even if they do not in the end substantiate the minimalist’s conclusions? Would it really matter if a handful of historical errors exist in the Hebrew text? If some historical claims in the Old Testament can be verified with careful archaeology and scholarship and other such claims shown to be false, would such discrepancies matter? And to whom would such problems in the text matter? And to whom would they not? The answer, obviously, is found in my Introduction. Biblical discrepancies and contradictions matter a great deal to a number of believers who claim that the Old Testament stories of Israel's history are to be believed in whole, because those stories are the product of divine, infallible, inspiration. So, are there any problems between biblical claims and what we can know of ancient history? I believe there are; and the following articles in this section will detail these problems.

NOTES

1. The designations "CE" and "BCE" in my writing have been traditionally rendered, and are more recognizable, as "AD" and "BC." "AD" is an abbreviation for the Latin Anno Domini which means "in the year of our Lord (Jesus Christ)." "BC" is an abbreviation for "Before Christ." Most scholars today have abandoned this older dating system in favor of the "CE" and "BCE" designates. "CE" stands for "Common Era" and "BCE" stands for "Before [the] Common Era." These new abbreviations were introduced as a recognition that not everyone involved in historical research is a member of the Christian religion. The new abbreviations refer to a "common" calendar, the Gregorian, used by most of the Western (and in many parts of the Eastern) world. I follow that designation in my articles. Return to text

2. "Tanak" is the English translation of the Hebrew TN"K. This is the name Jewish believers give to the collection of books known to Christians as the "Old Testament." Not actually a name, however, TN"K is actually an acronym. The Hebrew Bible, or Tanak, is divided in Judaism into three distinct parts: the Torah (or Law), the Nevi’im (or Prophets) and the Ketuvim (or Writings). From these names comes the acronym TN"K or Tanak. Each of these "parts" contains a series of books from the Hebrew Scriptures. For example, the Torah (or Law) contains all the books from Genesis through Deuteronomy. Return to text

3. The Hebrew Bible combines "The Twelve" minor prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi) into one book while the Christian "Old Testament" numbers these books separately. Return to text

4. Catholic Bibles contain a collection of books known as Deuterocanonical Scripture, consisting of Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, the Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, and Baruch.Return to text

5. For example, Ruth follows Judges in the "Old Testament," but in the Hebrew Scriptures Ruth is found as part of the Writings, in the third portion of the collection, following the Song of Solomon.Return to text

6. In general, I will try to use the term "Old Testament" throughout my articles. However, since this is not the only way to name the books that make up the Hebrew text, I will occasionally use a variety of other titles (e.g. Hebrew Scriptures, Hebrew Bible, Bible [when referring to both the Old and New Testaments of the Christian canon], Tanak). In addition, when referring to the first five books of the Old Testament [Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy], I may use the terms Pentateuch, Torah or Books of Moses. Return to text

7. Kenneth Kitchen is Personal and Brunner Professor Emeritus of Egyptology and Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Archaeology, Classics, and Oriental Studies, University of Liverpool, England. Return to text

SOURCES

Kitchen, Kenneth A. (2003) On the Reliability of the Old Testament. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.