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The Firstborn Of God. Resolving The Contradictions In The Bible.
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TITLE (EDIT)
The Firstborn Of God. Resolving The Contradictions In The Bible. |
DESCRIPTION
"The Firstborn of God. Resolving the Contradictions in the Bible" is a controversial study that challenges accepted orthodox interpretation. Evans has for the last fourteen years researched and studied not only the Bible, but the Nag Hammadi Texts including the Gospel of Thomas and The Dead Sea Scrolls.
She advocates that the Bible has two threads running through it from Genesis to Revelation and that these two threads advocate two completely different religious, social, economic and political philosophies. Evans proposes that these two threads start with the creation stories, where in Genesis 1, male and female, in fact the whole human race is created in the image of God and as such have everlasting life. She believes that politically this translates into democracy. Whereas in Genesis 2, one male is created and a female is made from his rib in order to serve him and both are denied the tree of everlasting life. Politcally, she believes this this translates into an autocracy.The author proposes that we must make a choice between the two and that the choice that we make will determine how we interpret the rest of the Bible.
Evans bases the premise for her choices and conclusions on the fundamentals of democracy being equality, a justice of liberty and self-empowerment, choices and conclusions that more often than not overturn accepted orthodox faith and belief; though she does substantiate her arguments through quotes from the Bible as well as from the Gnostic Scriptures and the Dead Sea Scrolls.The author believes that in order to arrive at a workable religious framework for the 21st century, it is for us to question, that we must make a choice between the two threads that she clearly lays out in the beginning of her book, in order to find the answers that we are looking for.
[999 words] |
TITLE KEYWORD
Spiritual |
AUTHOR
Gail Evans |
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
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[January 2001] |
The Firstborn Of God. Resolving The Contradictions In The Bible.
Gail Evans
Throughout history our religious beliefs have been instrumental in shaping our social and political structures.Whether we are devout or not, the fundamental philosophies of any given religion will dictate the way in which we interact with each other on a mental, social and political level. The Western world is no exception and has based its theology on a text known as "The Bible." But what is "The Bible?" Is it a collection of scrolls written by a group of old men? Or is it the word of God as so many claim it to be?
If the Bible really is the word of God, then it should follow that the chapters and verses will be clear cut, easily understood and lack ambiguity. But this is not the case.The Bible is ambiguous and many of its texts contradict each other which in turn implies that the scribes who wrote them had differing views on the divine word of God. Interpret the Bible one way and you get Ecclesiastes 5:3:
"For a dream cometh through the multitude of business:....."
Interpret it another way and you get Job 33:15 & 16:
"In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; Then he openeth the ears of men and sealeth their instruction."
Ecclesiastes regards dreams as nonsense and suggests that we pay little attention to them. Job, on the other hand, regards dreams as the vehicle through which God communicates with people. Such contradictions suggest that the Bible is not so much the hard and fast word of God, but a collection of scrolls, written by various people, who had opposing views on our relationship with the Supreme Being.
For the last two thousand years the Bible has been taken at face value and these contradictions accepted on faith. Perhaps this is due to an innate fear deep within the psyche that forbids us to question the texts in an academic or even logical way. We have this fear even though the contradictions leave democratic societies in a quandary. Do we accept Judaic/Christian theology on faith even though some of its precepts defy all logic? Or do we give the Bible a miss altogether? If theology advocates a certain philosophy, eg: sexual discrimination as advocated by Canon law which bases it's principles on the epistles of Paul and the words of Peter:
"Man only is created in the image of God, not women: therefore women shall serve him and be his hand-maid."
While our social norms advocate another, being equality between the sexes, then this poses a problem and results in a huge disparity between our social and religious ethics.If our religious philosophy advocates servitude and slavery without due recourse to the law and basic human rights, 1 Peter 2:18 & 19:
"Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to thefroward.For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief and suffering wrongfully."
While our economic reforms stipulate the just and fair treatment of employees, then this results in a huge disparity between our economic and religious ethics.I believe that it is time to challenge the texts, confront the contradictions and attempt to make sense of the Bible so that our rich religious heritage can provide a sound framework on which to ground our psychological, social and political philosophies in the future.
Societies today are a far cry from the Hebrew herdsmen who crossed into Canaan and polygamy no longer forms part of our family structures. Draconian states no longer hold sway as they did when the masses in Palestine were suppressed and finally massacred under the Roman Empire's sword. We are very different from the men and women in the Middle Ages who were burnt at the stake for daring to question the status quo or disagree with Roman Catholic doctrine. Today we cherish our hard won freedom and this in turn should enable us to use our greatest gift, the ability to think for ourselves rather than becoming brainwashed by one fundamentalistic ideology or another. By so doing, we can make up our own minds as to the validity and/or significance of a given text and we should have the right to accept or reject what the scribes wrote long ago. To quote from Qumram Text 4Q416,418, fragment 10, column 2, lines 15 &16:
" ..in the abundance of your (15)intellectual potential, investigate the Mystery of Existence."
In other words, contrary to orthodox belief, I believe that it is for us to question, it is for us to undo the tangled rope of contradiction in the Bible in order to arrive at a workable religious philosophy that is not only pertinent to the modern world, but applicable for all time.
Throughout my efforts to try to resolve the contradictions, I have found that the Bible, rather than being one coherent and continuous belief system, contains two different stories, two different philosophies on life. A person or philosophy that is damned in one particular text is lauded in the next which in turn creates a contradiction. In order to resolve these contradictory beliefs, I have used the premise: democracy, equality, a justice of liberty and self empowerment in order to sift the chaff from the wheat. Only by using such a yard stick, can these ancient texts become coherent and the Bible "jig saw puzzle" falls into place.
Should you not agree with the doctrines of democracy, equality, a justice of liberty under the law and self empowerment, then in many instances you may find my conclusions to be sacrilegious. If, however, you do judge the world by these standards, and as I have stipulated, you can accept that our religious beliefs shape our social and political structures, then I hope that you will find my interpretations enlightening in the face of a new world order that desperately needs a revised religious epistemology to support it.
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READER'S REVIEWS (5)
DISCLAIMER: STORYMANIA DOES NOT PROVIDE AND IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR REVIEWS. ALL REVIEWS ARE PROVIDED BY NON-ASSOCIATED VISITORS, REGARDLESS OF THE WAY THEY CALL THEMSELVES.
"999 words, huh? Flip that over and you get the point of this exercize in faith." -- Danny Gonzales, Whittier, CA, USA.
"I think Danny Gonzalez could very well be right, but I'm going to give the author a little credit. I believe I understand what she's getting at, seeing if we can detect hidden meanings and messages in her work, just like the original priests and prophets did with their's, thereby making the two testaments the confusing, contradictory pieces they are today (Am I right so far?). The Bible has been my heretical battleground for 23 years now, and I gladly tell you why. As some know, EC Allen is only my pen name, which sounds better than my real one Jerry George. Since I am a George, I am decended from St. George, thus a heretical version of the Bible, both new and old testament has been carefully handed down to me. It would take too long to go into here, but know that I whole-heartedly agree the KJ version is the disaster that occured when the original founders of the Christian church tried slamming together the stories and ideals of all the multitude of Christian sects that were out there. And if you need an example of how right I am, just look at how great that worked, since it unraveled back into a bunch of different little Christian sects, Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, Catholics, etc., ad infinitum..." -- EC Allen.
"I'm far from a Biblical scholar, but I had a problem with the beginning of your second paragraph. "If the Bible is the word of God, .... it should follow that the chapters and verses should be clear cut and easily understood." God is far from clear cut, and it is arrogant to think that He could be easily understood by us, so why should we think that His word would be simple? The problem is not so much that the Bible is full of contradictions. The problem is the men who choose to interpret the words to suit their own philosophies, their own morality or lack of it, as well as their other social and political views. There are many clear cut interpretations of morality in the Bible. Yet, men refuse to acknowledge their validity, citing arguments that the Bible was written by men who misinterpreted or distorted the word of a holy man, who wasn't really God anyway. For example, there are several references in the Bible to homosexual behavior, denouncing it, and clearly defining it as sinful, abhorrent, and against the will of God. Yet, this scripture is challenged, even by some members of the clergy. These deviant interpretations are the bases that get our society and our lives headed in the wrong direction. That's why so many people love to say "different strokes." Thinking this way, there is no behavior that is sinful, as long as we don't harm anyone. What we often fail to realize, is that the greatest harm is done to ourselves and our souls. I talked to a man who was dying. He never believed in religion or God. On his death bed, he said, "Priest? Who needs a Priest? There's no God." His daughter said, "I hope you're right." " -- D Koss.
"Dear Danny Gonzales, You were the one that flipped it. Your choice. Gail Evans" -- Gail Evans.
"Gail, you sound like a hard-line feminist. First of all, men and women were never equal and never meant to be so. Creating man and woman in His image has little to do with democracy, as you put it, or any other political connotation for that matter. People may be treated equally (by God), but this does not make them equal to each other. As for democracy, do you think Jesus believed in it? Was he elected by his apostles? " -- Richard, OH.
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COPYRIGHT NOTICE
© 2000 Gail Evans |
STORYMANIA PUBLICATION DATE
January 2001 |
NUMBER OF TIMES TITLE VIEWED
2164
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