#57 – Origin and evolution of the Old Testament

Dr. Peter Enns gives us the first in this new “Origin and evolution of …” series of episodes.

This week, we’re starting in a whole new direction.  Well, two different directions, actually.

One theme that we’ll be pursuing we’ve entitled “The origin and evolution of …” series of episodes.  You’d probably expect that we’ll fill that blank with things that fall inside the scientific realm. Material things like: “The origin and evolution of life.”  Of humans.  Of the universe.  And you’d be right in that.  We will look at those things, and others.

But we’ll also look at the origin and evolution of things that fall more within the theological realm.  The origin and evolution of the Bible.  Of our concept of the afterlife … of God!?  Or, at least, of our understanding of God.  These too have all been evolving over the past many centuries, and often in response to science.

Today, we’re going to look at the origin and evolution of … the Jewish Bible.  Our “Old Testament”.  And we’re going to get none other than Dr. Pete Enns to tell us his understanding of that origin and evolution.  We’re guessing that many of our listeners will be hearing this perspective for the first time.  But hearing this, from a world-class expert, might help you over some serious speedbumps in your faith journey.  It certainly did that for me.

We’ll hear that the Bible was not dropped out of heaven or whispered into the ears of individual authors (you probably knew that already … but did you have a coherent alternative explanation of where/how it did come?).  Instead, it was written, and re-written, and revised, and re-revised by teams of authors over the course of many, many centuries.  Yes: re-written and re-revised.  And not just by the individual authors, but by multiple teams of editors who worked on the texts centuries after the authors had died. Those later editorial teams took the liberty of not just changing words, but even deleting whole sections, and inserting entirely new ones.  Sometimes in response to things they’d learned from other cultures. A perfect example of this would be their understanding of the human soul and the afterlife, which we talked about previously in episodes #6, #7, and #8. Those editors could be just as divinely inspired in what they did, as the authors writing the first drafts of the text. And the life experiences which shaped those authors and editors  — as well as the cultural zeitgeists which informed their thinking — would also be part of that divine inspiration process.

Learning about these things over the past 5 or 10 years has given me a new understanding of the Bible.  I no longer see it like the “User’s Manual” for a car, written by the Manufacturer [God] to the User [us] to help them [us] know how to use the Product [us].  Instead, I now see it more like a diary or a notebook, written by humans who captured their thoughts, experiences, the lessons they’d learned, and their personal growth on a subject that was incredibly important to them: God. 

As always, tell us what you think …

For more about Dr. Pete Enns, go to https://peteenns.com/ and Bible for Normal People Podcast

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