Is the Bible the word of God?

If you have read the other pages on this site, by now you may be asking yourself about the fact that if all this casts doubt on the new testament, what about the old testament, and the teaching of both Jews and Christians that the Bible as we have it,with the books chosen to be in it, is the word of God?

As we have said already: who decided and on what authority?

We have used the old testament as the plumb line to test the new because the writers of the new testament were obviously following on from it.

But is the old testament what we have been lead to think it is?

Is it mostly man's word about God rather than God's word to man?

God may have spoken to the writers, but has he spoken through the writers?

Which, then, are God's laws, and which laws have been added by men? Is that what Jesus was referring to in Matt.23 - all that men had added?

The orthodox Jew will say the first five books, the Torah (teaching) are the work of Moses. He has passed on what was said to him on Sinai as instruction for the nation of Israel. This, together with the oral law that was implied in it, and also passed on, is the word of God to Israel. He would say that gentiles, unless they are drawn to join Israel, and become circumcised and/ or go through the mikveh bath of baptism, do not need to follow it. The laws given to Noah are for the gentiles.

The Jews place the other books in lower regard as profitable for learning.

This would place Moses in sole authority and responsibility for Judaism, rather like Paul is for the Christianity of today.

But did Moses write all of the first five books i.e. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy?

Many scholars do not think so.

There are a number of good reasons for this.

One is that as it is thought that writing using an alphabet evolved later than Moses time (in the case of Hebrew it was a development from the Proto-Canaanite Phoenician language) how would he have written it? Would he have had to use Egyptian hieroglyphics? In what characters would he have supposedly written on the tablets the ten commandments?

The lingua franca of the time was Akkadian- an ancient language from Mesopotamia that was ancestor to most of the languages of the Middle East. The Armana diplomatic letters of the time of the pharaoh Akhenaton (probably 2-3 hundred years after the Exodus) were written in this cuneiform text. But the laws were for Israel only and would have to be something they understood. Or were only the ten words written and then hidden in the ark and the laws remembered as oral law? Ten, being one for each digit, is easy, and all the others hang upon and are expansions of them.

If anything was written down it would need to be rewritten later in the time of the kingdom of David onwards so as to be in the language and writing of the time, when the Hebrew we know now was developed. There would still have been much that was an oral tradition, and the tribes each had their own versions.

When they went down into Egypt they were a large family, but when they came out they were a nation of tribes. These tribes later became competitive and even fought each other. There was later still a north /south divide.

If Moses wrote Genesis from where did he get his information? The tribes, including his own: the Levites, would have their oral traditions passed from father to son about creation and the flood, the call of Abraham, etc.

This is another reason :in the first three chapters of Genesis there are two distinct stories of the creation. The first uses the name "God" - "Elohim" and tells it from the viewpoint of God. The second uses the name "Yahweh" and tells it from the human view. Including both stories gives us more information, but why the different name ; unless they are from different sources? This name of Yahweh is not revealed, apparently, to man until Moses is on Sinai for the first time. (the question then arises - how could Moses write YHWH before the Hebrew alphabet came about?) This could be explained if Moses wrote all this down later, after the second visit to Sinai. But how could he use the tetragrammeton (the four letters YHWH) when they did not then exist?

It is believed that it was the tribe of Judah who used the name of YHWH and the northern tribes used Elohim (possibly because they did not want to pronounce the name of God as orthodox Jews today.)

Another reason is that there are some obvious inserts, such as place names not in existence at the time e.g. Dan in the story of Abraham chasing the kings who had abducted Lot in Genesis ch.14.

Dan is the name of a tribe descended from a son of Abraham's grandson Jacob, and the town was not named after them until they took it after the entry into land hundreds of years later. So this is an addition to explain to the readers later where this was.

Apart from these reasons is another in that there seem to be commentaries in between the stories by a narrator who knew things about the history of Israel that Moses could not. One could argue that these could have been inserted in to the text of Moses, like the names of places were to give explanation. Many scholars believe this commentator wrote the book of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings This person is thought to be a Levitical priest, possibly Jeremiah.

Most controversial of all is that a writer called "P", who was a priest, added the Levitical law later after it was fully developed whilst Israel was living in the land and temple worship in full flow. This contains all pertaining to a priest's work: rituals, times, dates, genealogies, ceremonial law, and laws expanding on the ten commandments. These are mostly in the book we have as Leviticus, but some are in Numbers, and Exodus.

It is thought these books were beginning to be put together in the time of the settled kingdom late in David's reign, but were added to later (Jeremiah being about 500 years later). At this time they would have to translate any texts not in Hebrew.

Some one, called a redactor, made the final collection, probably on the return from the Babylonian exile. This could have been Ezra, who was a priest, like Jeremiah.

The Hebrew text we have today, the Masoretic, "traditional", was produced in 1000AD using the oldest best preserved texts. In 100AD scribes had added the vowel points to help in reading as Hebrew was a dead language, except to the religious community. The texts had been greatly venerated and copied with the greatest care. So the old testament was in the complete form we have now before the new testament was written. The copy of Isaiah found at Qumran in the 1940s, and so dated a couple of hundred years before the new testament, is identical with that in our Bibles.

The Greek translation, called the Septuagint, was made in the period just BC. It was done primarily for the many Jews who had settled in northern Egypt and spoke only Greek. As we have mentioned elsewhere in the section about versions; it differs in some important aspects from the Hebrew version we have today. The translations of the five books of Moses are the only ones approved by Jewish authorities and some of the other books are very badly translated - Isaiah being one of them. Yet old testament quotes in the new testament are all from the Septuagint. The only good thing to be said for it is that it represents an underlying text over 1000 years older than the Masoretic we have today.

So which is right?

This raises the question: why would God allow His word to be changed in translations? The studies elsewhere on this site into other versions shows these changes to be significant in doctrine.

Could it be that much of what we have is not the word of God?

If it is not : what is it?

There is certainly truth contained within it. How do we sift it out?

As convinced fundamentalist Christians we used to think every word in the Bible was the word of God for us. As we were never encouraged to test it and read anything else we did not realise that what it contained was not new and given straight from God to His chosen people uniquely.

One must never question it and seeming anomalies could be explained away. Yet, some how, often these explanations did not satisfy and one just pushed the questions to the back of the mind.

If we had heard of the other creation and flood stories that were similar but with some variation; we thought they were merely confirming the truth of the Bible. We never thought that these earlier accounts were the "originals" and had been passed on down and modified with time to appear as we have them in our Bibles.

For instance: the fullest account of the Gilgamesh epic which is among the clay tablets found in the library of Ashurbanipal who reigned during 668-627BC in Nineveh, Assyria. Other incomplete tablets have been found which show that the story goes back to over 2,000 BC.

Tablets 1X and X and X1 tell how Gilgamesh went on a dangerous journey to find Ziusudra (Utnapishtim in Assyrian/Babylonian), the survivor of the great flood who took gold and silver, and the seed of animals and craftsmen's children into an ark, to learn from him how to escape death. Utnapishtim told him the story of the flood and where to find the plant that gave eternal youth. But after Gilgamesh had got it the plant was snatched away by a serpent.(Compare with Genesis ch 3 and 6.)

The similarities to the stories in Genesis seem to show that Abraham brought these with him on leaving the area in the time of the writing of the earlier tablets.

Work being done by Walter Pitman and Bill Ryan from the university of Columbia in the Black sea is suggesting that the great flood occurred there in 5,500BC when the bridge of land across the Bosphorus collapsed, filling a smaller fresh water lake and overrunning the land around together with the low land settlements, and making a large sea. The people escaped in boats to higher ground such as the mountains of Ararat to the east.

If this is the origin of the flood story we have then Utnapishtim is Noah. It means that Abraham was not alive to speak with Shem, the son of Noah, but only descendants many generations later. If the date for Abraham we have is approximately right he lived as long after the flood as he lived before the end of old testament times.

The stories had plenty of time to evolve before the family of Jacob went down to Egypt, where they had influence from the versions there of the Asherah tree that gave eternal life and made you like a god.

There are many similarities in texts from Sumer, and later from Assyria/Babylonia and Egypt that show these earlier ideas were carried on into our Bibles.

For example the Hermetica texts from Egypt speak of the end of the world in these terms : the earth will be shaken and the stars fall from their positions in the sky. God will cleanse the world from evil by water-floods and fire, war and pestilence. This will be the birth of the new cosmos." Compare this with passages in Isaiah ch. 60 onwards and Revelation ch. 6

Another connection with Revelation (ch.13) is the practise in Egypt (and Cambodia) of a ritual performed on a statue of a dead person of touching the eyes and mouth to make the statue come alive.

Many ancient civilisations had two sacred stones that gave answers e.g. Egypt and Greece. Pairs of sacred stones called "betyls" were carried in a box, or ark, by nomadic Arab tribes before Islam arrived.

Sometimes these stones were meteorites and so had fallen from heaven.

In Sumerian and Assyria/Babylonian mythology the gods fought over, and stole from each other, the tablets of destiny. Whoever had possession of them had great power: whatever they said was law was so and came into being. (Compare with the tablets on which the law was written and placed in the ark by Moses in Exodus and carried into battle by the Israelites in the conquest of the land in Joshua).

Also the texts spoke of trying to get the bread of eternal life and the water of life.

A Sumerian text says: Enmerka and Lord of Aratta said that "once upon a time, the whole universe, the people in unison, to Enlil in one tongue gave praise." (Compare with Genesis ch.11.)

The god, Enlil, was responsible for the flood, and he had created mankind.

The god, Marduk was also involved in the flood, and said he would not kill people that way again. (Compare with Genesis ch.6 and 7.)

There were scorpion demons to guard the entrance to the underworld. (Compare this with Revelation ch.9)

There was a stairway to heaven from the underworld. (see Genesis where Jacob dreams of a ladder between earth and heaven.)

The Sumerians believed in many gods, which had human emotions. These gods controlled the past and the future and had told them everything they needed to know.

One of the main gods, Enlil, was a god of place - he lived in a particular city.

By 2500BC the Sumerians had progressed into believing everyone had a personal god. Individuals had a personal covenant with their god and every adult male and every patriarchal head of family had a personal god.

They believed that the bad things that happened came because you had angered your god, even floods. Babies suffered because they, too, had inborn sin. One Sumerian wrote " When one suffers it is best not to curse the gods, but to glorify them, and to appeal to them, and to wait patiently for their deliverance."

In Sumer the priests became the most powerful land owners, and separated from the common people. Later, when the laws were made for the Levites they were not allowed to own more than a small amount of land sufficient for their flocks. (Numbers 18 v20 and 35 v 27.) The percentage of produce given to them was to be ten in Israel - in Egypt it was twenty.

In Sumerian society a woman had no rights. The men totally dominated. There were no laws to protect her. This was not the case in Egypt. In Israeli law a woman could inherit - see Zelophahad's daughters in Numbers 18 and 36. There were many laws to protect her sexually, and from being sold into temple prostitution - see laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy 23 v 17.

The Sumerians made slaves of each other as well as those they took from other nations. The Israelites were not to make slaves of each other - one could be a servant and had the choice to go free after 7 years. (Lev. 25 v 39-40). They were not to oppress the aliens living among them, because they had experienced that in Egypt. (Ex. 23 v 9)

The Sumerians had a complex system of taxes and lending rates. The Israelites were not to lend to each other and charge interest. (Deut. 23 v 19 & 20)

The similarities of the creation and flood stories and the "lady of the rib" are discussed elsewhere.

If Abraham brought these stories with him then the people descended from him kept them very well without absorbing anything from the Canaanites among whom they lived. The Canaanites had gods with names that are words in Hebrew e.g. Yam (sea), Shamesh (sun),Baal (lord), El (god). But the Canaanite stories are different. For instance : their creation story involves an egg which produces earth and heaven.

The Hittites, who lived to the north in what is modern Turkey, had different stories about creation too. But they did have the tablets of destiny as part of their mythology.

The Israelites seem to have been most influenced by the Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian and Egyptian stories. This is to be expected as these are countries where they had lived.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead speaks of "not dying a second time" (compare with Revelation) and the Earth springing from a watery abyss (compare Genesis ch. 1). Osiris rules the region of the dead where his son, Horus, sits on the throne of the Dweller in the fiery lake.(Compare with Rev. ch.15 and 20)

The hymn to Aten found amongst the Tel Armana letters in Egypt and written over 1000BC in praise to the sun resembles closely Psalm 104 which is a praise to God for His creation. The Pharaoh who built Tel Armana as his capital worshipped only one god, represented by the sun.

Egyptian temple layout is exactly like the layout of the tabernacle/temple of the Israelites. The priesthood functioned in a similar way, and they carried effigies of the gods in arks on poles. The big difference for Israel was they were not to have graven images.

The first kings of Egypt were gods. Osiris and Isis had a son called Horus whose brother wanted to kill him to get the throne. Isis hid Horus in the reeds of the Nile, and when he was grown he killed his evil brother and became the first divine king of the nation of Egypt.

This resembles a story about Sargon I; who was the first ruler of Sumer - the earliest recorded kingdom and before the time we believe Abraham was there.

His mother was a temple prostitute. She hid him in a boat made of reeds and floated him on the river. He was found by court officials and brought up to be a powerful leader, despite his humble origins. He was not of the race of Sumer but an Akkadian, yet made this a great nation until it was overrun by the Amorites round about 2000BC. (This may have been why Abraham left because the Amorites " had no religion, ate raw meat, and had no respect for their dead" according to Sumerian literature.)

This story is repeated in Egypt in that Horus, son of Osiris and Isis, who was preserved in the same way and founded the nation of Egypt.

Now we come to Moses. His mother hid him in a reed boat, probably where she knew the current of the Nile would take him to the spot where Pharaoh's daughter bathed, and she would think of this as a divine sign for this child. Did Moses' mother make use of the legends that saved the founder of Abraham's nation and her people, and of Egypt, too, to save her child and her nation?

Moses was of humble origin, but grew up in the royal household and thus, because the monarchy and the priesthood were closely connected, he would be initiated into all the secrets of the priests/magicians. He became a powerful man. According to Josephus he was a great general and led a victorious attack upon Ethiopia and married an Ethiopian princess. (Antiquity c.x. sections 1 and 2.)

The killing of someone else who was an important Egyptian caused him to have to leave. Was this seen as the beginning of his bid for the throne as a another "Horus"? Was Pharaoh afraid Moses and the Israelites would take over as the Hyksos from Canaan had done earlier? Before this the Israelites may have just worked on building projects, but now they would be enslaved under heavy oppression.

When the situation with the Israelites became intolerable did Aaron contact Moses in exile saying "come back we need you, the Pharaoh you fear is dead." ? Aaron went to meet Moses, so he knew he was coming.

Moses now called upon all he knew and had learned in both Egypt and Midian to enable him to bring out the Israelites and also found a nation. The way the court functioned, magic, how to organise large numbers of people, how to live in the desert, how to govern, what laws were needed: all came from his experiences in his long life.

It is easier to know what may have been brought from Egypt than Midian. The Midianites came from the union of Abraham and Keturah. They lived in the lands to the south of the promised land. Moses spent time with Jethro (or Raguel, or Hobab - his other aliases!) Jethro was Moses' father in law, but also was a priest. Of what religion? Had the Midianites kept the faith of Abraham more pure than the people descended from Abraham who had lived under the Egyptians for hundreds of years?

If you explore the texts from Egypt many interesting parallels emerge.

The plans for Egyptian temples were said to have fallen from heaven - the temple having been reborn on earth from its place in the heavens. (This is like the kabbalist idea that everything, including the temple and Jerusalem is just a mirror of what is in heavenly places. See "Revelation".)

The Egyptians are shown carrying shrines on poles through rings in a procession of priests around it as Israel marched through the desert (see Numbers ch. 1-3 and Ex. Ch. 25 v 13-15 & 27v 6). These shrines had a crown round the top (compare with the crown to be put round the table of shewbread and the table for the altar of incense in Exodus in ch. 25 v 11 and24 & 30 v 3)

Creatures like the cherubim accompanied the arks. These arks contained emblems of life and objects purified with anointing oil. Also the princes of the royal family walk with the procession carrying religious objects. No priest entered a temple wearing wool - it had to be linen.. A nation of royal priests would live for ever see Ex. 19.

The goddess Thmei was worshipped as the double form of truth and justice. Is this the origin of the Urim and Thummim used in Israel to make decisions? Thummim in Hebrew is a pleural form and can mean "twins", or complete, perfect, integrity, or truth. It was of sapphire and studded with various other coloured stones, as was the image of the goddess Thmei. This made it flash with various lights. Urim means lights. The supreme judge in Egypt wore an image of the goddess Thmei round his neck. Compare this with the high priest of Israel, Aaron, in Ex. 28v 30 entering the Holy Place wearing the Urim and Thummim to make decisions.

One important difference is that women took part in these rituals - not so for Israel.

The king was also the high priest. When Israel had kings the roles were separate until the time of the Hasmoneans.

In Karnak temple in Luxor, Egypt, the visitor is told the layout represents a river running through the city of god from the mountain where is his throne. This god is creator and sustainer of life and father of all. He is lord of heaven.(Compare with Revelation 21 & 22)

Thoth, from whom some Pharaohs derived their name Tutmosis (did Moses drop the Tut?), was the god of science and wisdom. He was the keeper of the knowledge that opens the door to immortality. He was supposed to have written the Book of the Dead, which was a guide to getting through to eternal life, with " his own fingers". The tablets with the ten commandments on were said in Exodus to have been written by the finger of God. These books of Thoth were known well into the 4^th century AD and so were known to Christian writers.

The initiate had to learn all they contained and be prepared to state the 42 negative confessions (or declarations of innocence) to gain eternal life. If after declaring these his heart balanced with the feather of truth he lived for ever, if he failed he then went to the second death, which was annihilation. Compare with the second death in Revelation - the only place in either Christian, or the Hebrew literature we have, where it is mentioned. In fact Christianity is more like the Egyptian religion in its obsession with afterlife. Nowhere in Hebrew literature we have is eternal life promised if we keep the law. "Eternal" is used only of God. Life comes as a blessing in this life and long life and staying in the land promised if keeping to worshipping the one God and honouring your father and mother (keeping to their religion?) The phrase "live for ever " is used in Genesis 3 and "everlasting life" in Daniel 12 v 2 (which is greatly influenced by Babylonia). "Eternal life" is used exclusively in the new testament only.

It is very interesting that the 42 negative confessions contain "I have not cursed the god." "I have not lied," "I have not stolen", "I have not born false witness"," I have not killed", "I have not lain with a married woman", and by implication some are about not coveting the property of others, and not hurting others to cause pain or weeping (which could cover respect for parents, although in the ten words for the Israelites respect for parents is connected with living long in the land as though its about remembering their ancestors and following their God..)

What they do not contain is the prohibition against having more than one god, or graven images, or breaking the Shabbat. These are what were to be peculiar to Israel.

So, when Moses was on Sinai was he seeking God to know what to keep from Egypt and what to leave behind?

Are the laws the distillation from Egypt and Midian? Is it a call to return to the one true God and remember in Shabbat that He is Creator and they were slaves but are now free to have a day off? Is it also a call to stop being obsessed with death and the afterlife and to live life here in obedience to a God who longs to bless in this life?

It is a call to seek God Himself, and not eternal life as the priority.

From Sumer, through Abraham to Midian, and Egypt, and Moses and Israel, God has spoken, but mankind only gets some of it right!

The time Moses spent in Midian with his father in law Raguel or Reuel ("friend of God" as was Abraham) or Jethro (means "the same") is often over looked. The Midianites were descended from Abraham through his wife Keturah. Reuel was a priest. Perhaps he taught Moses about the promises made to his ancestor Abraham that the people would come out of slavery after 400 years. This was the time for the promises to begin to be fulfilled. When Jethro (Reuel) sees Moses return with the people he rejoices to see that the God of Israel is greater than the other gods.

Reuel would also have received the creation and flood stories from his ancestors. These versions would have been put with those preserved in Egypt by the tribes.

The Bible we have is not a unique revelation of God's word to a particular people. It brings together much from a previous, much older relationship, and preserves truth like a seed within its chaff. Our problem is winnowing out the truth. As Christians we did not read enough of other cultures and civilisations to be able to realise this.

There is much evidence now that there was a much older, and world wide civilisation that was destroyed by a cataclysmic flood, and who were great astronomers. This astronomy was a part of their religion. It enabled them to build huge temples and pyramids in the pattern of the stars to bring the heavens down onto the earth. The purpose of this was to gain immortality by the initiate becoming a star god. These are found in Egypt, Mexico, Cambodia and elsewhere all over the world, built on sites where there have been such temples and pyramids for many thousands of years, back before the civilisations we know of that go back 3000 years (Indian, Egyptian, Sumerian, Chinese etc.), possibly as far back as 10,000 years BC to the end of the last ice age.

Many of the civilisations believed in a messiah figure who was a hero coming as a god incarnate to rescue at a time of great destruction. He survives the flood together with his family and animals.

Is "being in the kingdom of heaven" the same as the initiate "grasping the heavens" to gain eternal life? Grasping the heavens was understanding what was the path of the star patterns and its significance. For the Egyptians it was the soul traversing the star path through to the Duat, which lay in the region of Sirius, the star who was Isis, and Orion, the star who was Osiris. The soul then becomes a star too. Compare with Num. 42v 17 " star out of Jacob", Revelations ch.2,8,&9 and Rev. 12, and Daniel 8 v 10 " and some of the stars to ground", Gen. 37 v9 in Joseph's dream of the sun moon and stars bowing to him and Rev. 12, Job 38 v 7 " and the morning stars sang together" and Daniel ch. 12 v3 " they shall shine as the stars."

There are so many parallel thoughts in both the old and new testaments with these ancient religions. But the sun, moon and stars were given as signs (Genesis 1) and must not be worshipped by the Israelites. (Deut. 4v 19); although the gentiles may worship them

Circumcision was practised in Egypt. There is a papyrus dated to the 6^th dynasty in Saqqara showing boys of about 12 being circumcised. Also there is evidence from mummies of Pharaohs examined that they were circumcised.

Abraham went down into Egypt because of a famine (recorded in Exodus chapter 12) and some time after he returned to Canaan the covenant of circumcision is given as a sign between God and the descendants of Abraham, but to be done in future on the eighth day (ch. 17). This is far better, as the child bleeds very little on that day after birth, and does not remember the pain.

The Egyptians believed that a person had a Ka, a double, or guardian angel, which was independent of him. This sounds very much like Acts ch. 12v 15 where the disciples say when the servant girl says she has seen Peter, who they believe to be in prison.. "it must be his angel."

Jesus also used similar ideas such as getting into the kingdom by force (Matt 11v 12); as the initiate had to struggle to grasp the path to the Duat. He also said one would be judged on the words they spoke; which had to be his words, (John ch.12 v 47 - 49) just as the initiate had to say the right words in the hall of Double Truth at his judgement where not only his moral life but his knowledge of the cosmos was assessed. The double truths are, it seems, to have lived a moral life and be able to confess so, and to possess the right knowledge, and be able to speak it..

That the Bible contains the words of men, both good and bad, and the recorded actions of the good and the bad we all know. What is difficult to assess is what are the words of God and which are the words of men.

What about the so-called Bible codes, where the patterns of Hebrew letters present other hidden information? Probably this is a phenomenon that can happen in any text, but due to the way Hebrew is written it produces more examples. This is the view of most mathematicians and experts on text. So this does not prove the Bible is the divinely inspired word of God dictated directly onto the page befor

Is the Bible the word of God?

If you have read the other pages on this site, by now you may be asking yourself about the fact that if all this casts doubt on the new testament, what about the old testament, and the teaching of both Jews and Christians that the Bible as we have it,with the books chosen to be in it, is the word of God?

As we have said already: who decided and on what authority?

We have used the old testament as the plumb line to test the new because the writers of the new testament were obviously following on from it.

But is the old testament what we have been lead to think it is?

Is it mostly man's word about God rather than God's word to man?

God may have spoken to the writers, but has he spoken through the writers?

Which, then, are God's laws, and which laws have been added by men? Is that what Jesus was referring to in Matt.23 - all that men had added?

The orthodox Jew will say the first five books, the Torah (teaching) are the work of Moses. He has passed on what was said to him on Sinai as instruction for the nation of Israel. This, together with the oral law that was implied in it, and also passed on, is the word of God to Israel. He would say that gentiles, unless they are drawn to join Israel, and become circumcised and/ or go through the mikveh bath of baptism, do not need to follow it. The laws given to Noah are for the gentiles.

The Jews place the other books in lower regard as profitable for learning.

This would place Moses in sole authority and responsibility for Judaism, rather like Paul is for the Christianity of today.

But did Moses write all of the first five books i.e. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy?

Many scholars do not think so.

There are a number of good reasons for this.

One is that as it is thought that writing using an alphabet evolved later than Moses time (in the case of Hebrew it was a development from the Proto-Canaanite Phoenician language) how would he have written it? Would he have had to use Egyptian hieroglyphics? In what characters would he have supposedly written on the tablets the ten commandments?

The lingua franca of the time was Akkadian- an ancient language from Mesopotamia that was ancestor to most of the languages of the Middle East. The Armana diplomatic letters of the time of the pharaoh Akhenaton (probably 2-3 hundred years after the Exodus) were written in this cuneiform text. But the laws were for Israel only and would have to be something they understood. Or were only the ten words written and then hidden in the ark and the laws remembered as oral law? Ten, being one for each digit, is easy, and all the others hang upon and are expansions of them.

If anything was written down it would need to be rewritten later in the time of the kingdom of David onwards so as to be in the language and writing of the time, when the Hebrew we know now was developed. There would still have been much that was an oral tradition, and the tribes each had their own versions.

When they went down into Egypt they were a large family, but when they came out they were a nation of tribes. These tribes later became competitive and even fought each other. There was later still a north /south divide.

If Moses wrote Genesis from where did he get his information? The tribes, including his own: the Levites, would have their oral traditions passed from father to son about creation and the flood, the call of Abraham, etc.

This is another reason :in the first three chapters of Genesis there are two distinct stories of the creation. The first uses the name "God" - "Elohim" and tells it from the viewpoint of God. The second uses the name "Yahweh" and tells it from the human view. Including both stories gives us more information, but why the different name ; unless they are from different sources? This name of Yahweh is not revealed, apparently, to man until Moses is on Sinai for the first time. (the question then arises - how could Moses write YHWH before the Hebrew alphabet came about?) This could be explained if Moses wrote all this down later, after the second visit to Sinai. But how could he use the tetragrammeton (the four letters YHWH) when they did not then exist?

It is believed that it was the tribe of Judah who used the name of YHWH and the northern tribes used Elohim (possibly because they did not want to pronounce the name of God as orthodox Jews today.)

Another reason is that there are some obvious inserts, such as place names not in existence at the time e.g. Dan in the story of Abraham chasing the kings who had abducted Lot in Genesis ch.14.

Dan is the name of a tribe descended from a son of Abraham's grandson Jacob, and the town was not named after them until they took it after the entry into land hundreds of years later. So this is an addition to explain to the readers later where this was.

Apart from these reasons is another in that there seem to be commentaries in between the stories by a narrator who knew things about the history of Israel that Moses could not. One could argue that these could have been inserted in to the text of Moses, like the names of places were to give explanation. Many scholars believe this commentator wrote the book of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings This person is thought to be a Levitical priest, possibly Jeremiah.

Most controversial of all is that a writer called "P", who was a priest, added the Levitical law later after it was fully developed whilst Israel was living in the land and temple worship in full flow. This contains all pertaining to a priest's work: rituals, times, dates, genealogies, ceremonial law, and laws expanding on the ten commandments. These are mostly in the book we have as Leviticus, but some are in Numbers, and Exodus.

It is thought these books were beginning to be put together in the time of the settled kingdom late in David's reign, but were added to later (Jeremiah being about 500 years later). At this time they would have to translate any texts not in Hebrew.

Some one, called a redactor, made the final collection, probably on the return from the Babylonian exile. This could have been Ezra, who was a priest, like Jeremiah.

The Hebrew text we have today, the Masoretic, "traditional", was produced in 1000AD using the oldest best preserved texts. In 100AD scribes had added the vowel points to help in reading as Hebrew was a dead language, except to the religious community. The texts had been greatly venerated and copied with the greatest care. So the old testament was in the complete form we have now before the new testament was written. The copy of Isaiah found at Qumran in the 1940s, and so dated a couple of hundred years before the new testament, is identical with that in our Bibles.

The Greek translation, called the Septuagint, was made in the period just BC. It was done primarily for the many Jews who had settled in northern Egypt and spoke only Greek. As we have mentioned elsewhere in the section about versions; it differs in some important aspects from the Hebrew version we have today. The translations of the five books of Moses are the only ones approved by Jewish authorities and some of the other books are very badly translated - Isaiah being one of them. Yet old testament quotes in the new testament are all from the Septuagint. The only good thing to be said for it is that it represents an underlying text over 1000 years older than the Masoretic we have today.

So which is right?

This raises the question: why would God allow His word to be changed in translations? The studies elsewhere on this site into other versions shows these changes to be significant in doctrine.

Could it be that much of what we have is not the word of God?

If it is not : what is it?

There is certainly truth contained within it. How do we sift it out?

As convinced fundamentalist Christians we used to think every word in the Bible was the word of God for us. As we were never encouraged to test it and read anything else we did not realise that what it contained was not new and given straight from God to His chosen people uniquely.

One must never question it and seeming anomalies could be explained away. Yet, some how, often these explanations did not satisfy and one just pushed the questions to the back of the mind.

If we had heard of the other creation and flood stories that were similar but with some variation; we thought they were merely confirming the truth of the Bible. We never thought that these earlier accounts were the "originals" and had been passed on down and modified with time to appear as we have them in our Bibles.

For instance: the fullest account of the Gilgamesh epic which is among the clay tablets found in the library of Ashurbanipal who reigned during 668-627BC in Nineveh, Assyria. Other incomplete tablets have been found which show that the story goes back to over 2,000 BC.

Tablets 1X and X and X1 tell how Gilgamesh went on a dangerous journey to find Ziusudra (Utnapishtim in Assyrian/Babylonian), the survivor of the great flood who took gold and silver, and the seed of animals and craftsmen's children into an ark, to learn from him how to escape death. Utnapishtim told him the story of the flood and where to find the plant that gave eternal youth. But after Gilgamesh had got it the plant was snatched away by a serpent.(Compare with Genesis ch 3 and 6.)

The similarities to the stories in Genesis seem to show that Abraham brought these with him on leaving the area in the time of the writing of the earlier tablets.

Work being done by Walter Pitman and Bill Ryan from the university of Columbia in the Black sea is suggesting that the great flood occurred there in 5,500BC when the bridge of land across the Bosphorus collapsed, filling a smaller fresh water lake and overrunning the land around together with the low land settlements, and making a large sea. The people escaped in boats to higher ground such as the mountains of Ararat to the east.

If this is the origin of the flood story we have then Utnapishtim is Noah. It means that Abraham was not alive to speak with Shem, the son of Noah, but only descendants many generations later. If the date for Abraham we have is approximately right he lived as long after the flood as he lived before the end of old testament times.

The stories had plenty of time to evolve before the family of Jacob went down to Egypt, where they had influence from the versions there of the Asherah tree that gave eternal life and made you like a god.

There are many similarities in texts from Sumer, and later from Assyria/Babylonia and Egypt that show these earlier ideas were carried on into our Bibles.

For example the Hermetica texts from Egypt speak of the end of the world in these terms : the earth will be shaken and the stars fall from their positions in the sky. God will cleanse the world from evil by water-floods and fire, war and pestilence. This will be the birth of the new cosmos." Compare this with passages in Isaiah ch. 60 onwards and Revelation ch. 6

Another connection with Revelation (ch.13) is the practise in Egypt (and Cambodia) of a ritual performed on a statue of a dead person of touching the eyes and mouth to make the statue come alive.

Many ancient civilisations had two sacred stones that gave answers e.g. Egypt and Greece. Pairs of sacred stones called "betyls" were carried in a box, or ark, by nomadic Arab tribes before Islam arrived.

Sometimes these stones were meteorites and so had fallen from heaven.

In Sumerian and Assyria/Babylonian mythology the gods fought over, and stole from each other, the tablets of destiny. Whoever had possession of them had great power: whatever they said was law was so and came into being. (Compare with the tablets on which the law was written and placed in the ark by Moses in Exodus and carried into battle by the Israelites in the conquest of the land in Joshua).

Also the texts spoke of trying to get the bread of eternal life and the water of life.

A Sumerian text says: Enmerka and Lord of Aratta said that "once upon a time, the whole universe, the people in unison, to Enlil in one tongue gave praise." (Compare with Genesis ch.11.)

The god, Enlil, was responsible for the flood, and he had created mankind.

The god, Marduk was also involved in the flood, and said he would not kill people that way again. (Compare with Genesis ch.6 and 7.)

There were scorpion demons to guard the entrance to the underworld. (Compare this with Revelation ch.9)

There was a stairway to heaven from the underworld. (see Genesis where Jacob dreams of a ladder between earth and heaven.)

The Sumerians believed in many gods, which had human emotions. These gods controlled the past and the future and had told them everything they needed to know.

One of the main gods, Enlil, was a god of place - he lived in a particular city.

By 2500BC the Sumerians had progressed into believing everyone had a personal god. Individuals had a personal covenant with their god and every adult male and every patriarchal head of family had a personal god.

They believed that the bad things that happened came because you had angered your god, even floods. Babies suffered because they, too, had inborn sin. One Sumerian wrote " When one suffers it is best not to curse the gods, but to glorify them, and to appeal to them, and to wait patiently for their deliverance."

In Sumer the priests became the most powerful land owners, and separated from the common people. Later, when the laws were made for the Levites they were not allowed to own more than a small amount of land sufficient for their flocks. (Numbers 18 v20 and 35 v 27.) The percentage of produce given to them was to be ten in Israel - in Egypt it was twenty.

In Sumerian society a woman had no rights. The men totally dominated. There were no laws to protect her. This was not the case in Egypt. In Israeli law a woman could inherit - see Zelophahad's daughters in Numbers 18 and 36. There were many laws to protect her sexually, and from being sold into temple prostitution - see laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy 23 v 17.

The Sumerians made slaves of each other as well as those they took from other nations.

The Israelites were not to make slaves of each other - one could be a servant and had the choice to go free after 7 years. (Lev. 25 v 39-40). They were not to oppress the aliens living among them, because they had experienced that in Egypt. (Ex. 23 v 9)

The Sumerians had a complex system of taxes and lending rates. The Israelites were not to lend to each other and charge interest. (Deut. 23 v 19 & 20)

The similarities of the creation and flood stories and the "lady of the rib" are discussed elsewhere.

If Abraham brought these stories with him then the people descended from him kept them very well without absorbing anything from the Canaanites among whom they lived. The Canaanites had gods with names that are words in Hebrew e.g. Yam (sea), Shamesh (sun),Baal (lord), El (god). But the Canaanite stories are different. For instance : their creation story involves an egg which produces earth and heaven.

The Hittites, who lived to the north in what is modern Turkey, had different stories about creation too. But they did have the tablets of destiny as part of their mythology.

The Israelites seem to have been most influenced by the Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian and Egyptian stories. This is to be expected as these are countries where they had lived.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead speaks of "not dying a second time" (compare with Revelation) and the Earth springing from a watery abyss (compare Genesis ch. 1). Osiris rules the region of the dead where his son, Horus, sits on the throne of the Dweller in the fiery lake.(Compare with Rev. ch.15 and 20)

The hymn to Aten found amongst the Tel Armana letters in Egypt and written over 1000BC in praise to the sun resembles closely Psalm 104 which is a praise to God for His creation. The Pharaoh who built Tel Armana as his capital worshipped only one god, represented by the sun.

Egyptian temple layout is exactly like the layout of the tabernacle/temple of the Israelites. The priesthood functioned in a similar way, and they carried effigies of the gods in arks on poles. The big difference for Israel was they were not to have graven images.

The first kings of Egypt were gods. Osiris and Isis had a son called Horus whose brother wanted to kill him to get the throne. Isis hid Horus in the reeds of the Nile, and when he was grown he killed his evil brother and became the first divine king of the nation of Egypt.

This resembles a story about Sargon I; who was the first ruler of Sumer - the earliest recorded kingdom and before the time we believe Abraham was there.

His mother was a temple prostitute. She hid him in a boat made of reeds and floated him on the river. He was found by court officials and brought up to be a powerful leader, despite his humble origins. He was not of the race of Sumer but an Akkadian, yet made this a great nation until it was overrun by the Amorites round about 2000BC. (This may have been why Abraham left because the Amorites " had no religion, ate raw meat, and had no respect for their dead" according to Sumerian literature.)

This story is repeated in Egypt in that Horus, son of Osiris and Isis, who was preserved in the same way and founded the nation of Egypt.

Now we come to Moses. His mother hid him in a reed boat, probably where she knew the current of the Nile would take him to the spot where Pharaoh's daughter bathed, and she would think of this as a divine sign for this child. Did Moses' mother make use of the legends that saved the founder of Abraham's nation and her people, and of Egypt, too, to save her child and her nation?

Moses was of humble origin, but grew up in the royal household and thus, because the monarchy and the priesthood were closely connected, he would be initiated into all the secrets of the priests/magicians. He became a powerful man. According to Josephus he was a great general and led a victorious attack upon Ethiopia and married an Ethiopian princess. (Antiquity c.x. sections 1 and 2.)

The killing of someone else who was an important Egyptian caused him to have to leave. Was this seen as the beginning of his bid for the throne as a another "Horus"? Was Pharaoh afraid Moses and the Israelites would take over as the Hyksos from Canaan had done earlier? Before this the Israelites may have just worked on building projects, but now they would be enslaved under heavy oppression.

When the situation with the Israelites became intolerable did Aaron contact Moses in exile saying "come back we need you, the Pharaoh you fear is dead." ? Aaron went to meet Moses, so he knew he was coming.

Moses now called upon all he knew and had learned in both Egypt and Midian to enable him to bring out the Israelites and also found a nation. The way the court functioned, magic, how to organise large numbers of people, how to live in the desert, how to govern, what laws were needed: all came from his experiences in his long life.

It is easier to know what may have been brought from Egypt than Midian. The Midianites came from the union of Abraham and Keturah. They lived in the lands to the south of the promised land. Moses spent time with Jethro (or Raguel, or Hobab - his other aliases!) Jethro was Moses' father in law, but also was a priest. Of what religion? Had the Midianites kept the faith of Abraham more pure than the people descended from Abraham who had lived under the Egyptians for hundreds of years?

If you explore the texts from Egypt many interesting parallels emerge.

The plans for Egyptian temples were said to have fallen from heaven - the temple having been reborn on earth from its place in the heavens. (This is like the kabbalist idea that everything, including the temple and Jerusalem is just a mirror of what is in heavenly places. See "Revelation".)

The Egyptians are shown carrying shrines on poles through rings in a procession of priests around it as Israel marched through the desert (see Numbers ch. 1-3 and Ex. Ch. 25 v 13-15 & 27v 6). These shrines had a crown round the top (compare with the crown to be put round the table of shewbread and the table for the altar of incense in Exodus in ch. 25 v 11 and24 & 30 v 3)

Creatures like the cherubim accompanied the arks. These arks contained emblems of life and objects purified with anointing oil. Also the princes of the royal family walk with the procession carrying religious objects. No priest entered a temple wearing wool - it had to be linen.. A nation of royal priests would live for ever see Ex. 19.

The goddess Thmei was worshipped as the double form of truth and justice. Is this the origin of the Urim and Thummim used in Israel to make decisions? Thummim in Hebrew is a pleural form and can mean "twins", or complete, perfect, integrity, or truth. It was of sapphire and studded with various other coloured stones, as was the image of the goddess Thmei. This made it flash with various lights. Urim means lights. The supreme judge in Egypt wore an image of the goddess Thmei round his neck. Compare this with the high priest of Israel, Aaron, in Ex. 28v 30 entering the Holy Place wearing the Urim and Thummim to make decisions.

One important difference is that women took part in these rituals - not so for Israel.

The king was also the high priest. When Israel had kings the roles were separate until the time of the Hasmoneans.

In Karnak temple in Luxor, Egypt, the visitor is told the layout represents a river running through the city of god from the mountain where is his throne. This god is creator and sustainer of life and father of all. He is lord of heaven.(Compare with Revelation 21 & 22)

Thoth, from whom some Pharaohs derived their name Tutmosis (did Moses drop the Tut?), was the god of science and wisdom. He was the keeper of the knowledge that opens the door to immortality. He was supposed to have written the Book of the Dead, which was a guide to getting through to eternal life, with " his own fingers". The tablets with the ten commandments on were said in Exodus to have been written by the finger of God. These books of Thoth were known well into the 4th century AD and so were known to Christian writers.

The initiate had to learn all they contained and be prepared to state the 42 negative confessions (or declarations of innocence) to gain eternal life. If after declaring these his heart balanced with the feather of truth he lived for ever, if he failed he then went to the second death, which was annihilation. Compare with the second death in Revelation - the only place in either Christian, or the Hebrew literature we have, where it is mentioned. In fact Christianity is more like the Egyptian religion in its obsession with afterlife. Nowhere in Hebrew literature we have is eternal life promised if we keep the law. "Eternal" is used only of God. Life comes as a blessing in this life and long life and staying in the land promised if keeping to worshipping the one God and honouring your father and mother (keeping to their religion?) The phrase "live for ever " is used in Genesis 3 and "everlasting life" in Daniel 12 v 2 (which is greatly influenced by Babylonia). "Eternal life" is used exclusively in the new testament only.

It is very interesting that the 42 negative confessions contain "I have not cursed the god." "I have not lied," "I have not stolen", "I have not born false witness"," I have not killed", "I have not lain with a married woman", and by implication some are about not coveting the property of others, and not hurting others to cause pain or weeping (which could cover respect for parents, although in the ten words for the Israelites respect for parents is connected with living long in the land as though its about remembering their ancestors and following their God..)

What they do not contain is the prohibition against having more than one god, or graven images, or breaking the Shabbat. These are what were to be peculiar to Israel.

So, when Moses was on Sinai was he seeking God to know what to keep from Egypt and what to leave behind?

Are the laws the distillation from Egypt and Midian? Is it a call to return to the one true God and remember in Shabbat that He is Creator and they were slaves but are now free to have a day off? Is it also a call to stop being obsessed with death and the afterlife and to live life here in obedience to a God who longs to bless in this life?

It is a call to seek God Himself, and not eternal life as the priority.

From Sumer, through Abraham to Midian, and Egypt, and Moses and Israel, God has spoken, but mankind only gets some of it right!

The time Moses spent in Midian with his father in law Raguel or Reuel ("friend of God" as was Abraham) or Jethro (means "the same") is often over looked. The Midianites were descended from Abraham through his wife Keturah. Reuel was a priest. Perhaps he taught Moses about the promises made to his ancestor Abraham that the people would come out of slavery after 400 years. This was the time for the promises to begin to be fulfilled. When Jethro (Reuel) sees Moses return with the people he rejoices to see that the God of Israel is greater than the other gods.

Reuel would also have received the creation and flood stories from his ancestors. These versions would have been put with those preserved in Egypt by the tribes.

The Bible we have is not a unique revelation of God's word to a particular people. It brings together much from a previous, much older relationship, and preserves truth like a seed within its chaff. Our problem is winnowing out the truth. As Christians we did not read enough of other cultures and civilisations to be able to realise this.

There is much evidence now that there was a much older, and world wide civilisation that was destroyed by a cataclysmic flood, and who were great astronomers. This astronomy was a part of their religion. It enabled them to build huge temples and pyramids in the pattern of the stars to bring the heavens down onto the earth. The purpose of this was to gain immortality by the initiate becoming a star god. These are found in Egypt, Mexico, Cambodia and elsewhere all over the world, built on sites where there have been such temples and pyramids for many thousands of years, back before the civilisations we know of that go back 3000 years (Indian, Egyptian, Sumerian, Chinese etc.), possibly as far back as 10,000 years BC to the end of the last ice age.

Many of the civilisations believed in a messiah figure who was a hero coming as a god incarnate to rescue at a time of great destruction. He survives the flood together with his family and animals.

Is "being in the kingdom of heaven" the same as the initiate "grasping the heavens" to gain eternal life? Grasping the heavens was understanding what was the path of the star patterns and its significance. For the Egyptians it was the soul traversing the star path through to the Duat, which lay in the region of Sirius, the star who was Isis, and Orion, the star who was Osiris. The soul then becomes a star too. Compare with Num. 42v 17 " star out of Jacob", Revelations ch.2,8,&9 and Rev. 12, and Daniel 8 v 10 " and some of the stars to ground", Gen. 37 v9 in Joseph's dream of the sun moon and stars bowing to him and Rev. 12, Job 38 v 7 " and the morning stars sang together" and Daniel ch. 12 v3 " they shall shine as the stars."

There are so many parallel thoughts in both the old and new testaments with these ancient religions. But the sun, moon and stars were given as signs (Genesis 1) and must not be worshipped by the Israelites. (Deut. 4v 19); although the gentiles may worship them

Circumcision was practised in Egypt. There is a papyrus dated to the 6th dynasty in Saqqara showing boys of about 12 being circumcised. Also there is evidence from mummies of Pharaohs examined that they were circumcised.

Abraham went down into Egypt because of a famine (recorded in Exodus chapter 12) and some time after he returned to Canaan the covenant of circumcision is given as a sign between God and the descendants of Abraham, but to be done in future on the eighth day (ch. 17). This is far better, as the child bleeds very little on that day after birth, and does not remember the pain.

The Egyptians believed that a person had a Ka, a double, or guardian angel, which was independent of him. This sounds very much like Acts ch. 12v 15 where the disciples say when the servant girl says she has seen Peter, who they believe to be in prison.. "it must be his angel."

Jesus also used similar ideas such as getting into the kingdom by force (Matt 11v 12); as the initiate had to struggle to grasp the path to the Duat. He also said one would be judged on the words they spoke; which had to be his words, (John ch.12 v 47 - 49) just as the initiate had to say the right words in the hall of Double Truth at his judgement where not only his moral life but his knowledge of the cosmos was assessed. The double truths are, it seems, to have lived a moral life and be able to confess so, and to possess the right knowledge, and be able to speak it..

That the Bible contains the words of men, both good and bad, and the recorded actions of the good and the bad we all know. What is difficult to assess is what are the words of God and which are the words of men.

What about the so-called Bible codes, where the patterns of Hebrew letters present other hidden information? Probably this is a phenomenon that can happen in any text, but due to the way Hebrew is written it produces more examples. This is the view of most mathematicians and experts on text. So this does not prove the Bible is the divinely inspired word of God dictated directly onto the page before us.

We have to be able to sift what is the word of God to us from all this.

We must discern what was for Israel as a nation, and what is good guidance for gentiles to follow.

We have to realise what has been imported from Sumer and Egypt to understand the old testament and to know what was in the Dead Sea scrolls and other religions, such as Mithraism, to understand what has been the influences on the new testament.

It seems much has been adopted and adapted from other cultures, but because the Jews did not see everything staying the same as it had always been, as other cultures did, they changed things for the better.

A good example is the food laws. Clean and unclean food and not eating meat with blood in it began with the Jews. Jews today attribute their ability to survive through terrible times partly to their diet. The unclean meat came mostly from high in the food chain, with clean animals being herbivores. Today we are only beginning to understand the good in these things practised thousands of years ago.

next section : The Seed in the Chaff