The Bible: A Cultural Myth

As an atheist I think the bible is fictitious. Fictitious because the bible describes a spiritual side to reality which does not exit and does not accurately describe historical occurrences (as far as I know). However, I would proclaim that the bible is ‘based on a true story’. That true story is a tale of a culture and of history. The Old Testament describes many things like the tower of Babel which can be defended as historically existing. However, the Old Testament was passed down via word of mouth for thousands of years and the stories are exaggerated and warped versions loosely based on the true tale. The Hebrews originated from nomadic tribes of which many were enslaved to different cultures or merchants and saw much of Mesopotamia and northern Egypt. Many historians think when the Hebrews arrived in Babylon the great tower already lay in ruins. Babylon was the trading hub of Mesopotamia so many cultures and many languages came together there. Hence the Hebrews witnessed diverse languages and remnants of a great tower. Over generations they formed the tale which wound up in the bible to explain the tower of Babel. In my opinion a majority of the Old Testament is composed in similar fashion. There are also tales such as the great flood, which seem to be based on other myths, in this case The Epic of Gilgamesh.

The bible is a novel text for portraying a cultures world view and assimilation of ideas from other interacting, ancient cultures. Reading through the bible we can see a progression of the Israelites’ culture. Their way of life, laws, morals, and world view are all catalogued by the bible. Studying the personality of God in the bible reveals a change in the Israelites’ attitude and morality. The bible starts with a jealous, powerful, spiteful god. His morals seem backwards to the modern Western world, but coincide with the older eye for an eye philosophy. Many of God’s punishments are stoning to death. The early God does not appear omniscient and behaves like an emotionally unstable pre-teen. As the bible progresses we see God slowly change into a more forgiving, caring entity. In the New Testament the Israelites in ancient Rome have a different sense of justice and morality than their Hebrew ancestors. God begins to encompass the idea loving one another and being humane instead of being obsessed with rules involving worshiping himself. As man’s morality and culture changed so did their description of God. A long essay could be written on this topic, but the important point is that God changes and does so due to changing cultures. If God was perfect, omniscient, omnipotent, and helped dictate the bible he would be a stable character and would have a static morality – likely not mirroring that of his followers. Instead we see an embodiment of cultural values that changes through the exaggerated collection of tales we call the bible.

I am not aware of any other text which provides such a detailed an interesting view of the dynamic nature of human culture. If one were to follow up the bible with current religious writings he would find God has again changed his morality and his personality. Interesting.