Excerpt

Excerpted from the Introduction:

After reading this book, you will be knowledgeable in basic biblical themes and will be able to develop answers that work for you. You will be able to develop answers that fit comfortably within your beliefs, while allowing you to understand those that may be more fundamentalistic. This book will help ease the fear that can be present when those of us who dont interpret the Bible literally are around those that do. You no longer have to remain quiet because you feel inadequate. You can offer your children (or provide yourself) helpful, positive guidance, even though our society is becoming more polarized by the rhetoric of the Religious Right masquerading as political initiatives.

I believe biblical wisdom and truth do help me actually live a fuller day-to-day life, but I also do not read or interpret the Bible literally. To understand my position, it is important to truly appreciate whats in the Biblenamely, to see down-to-earth people who came to know, believe, and trust in a Supreme Being. I believe real flesh and blood people wrote the Bible in response to their very real history. Some of them overreacted, while some of them misinterpreted events. Still others chastised or corrected them. I can relate to all that and so I tell you some of my story in the hope that it will help you relate to these Biblical authors as well.

The down-to-earth people who wrote these Biblical texts had a sense of God that was a knowing/believing/trusting consistent with their understanding of the way the world worked. It was also consistent, from their anthropomorphic point of view, with the way God should work. They told their story the way they saw it, using language familiar to them. As I tell you of the reality of a spiritual presence in my life during my journey to sobriety, I think youll come to understand it is very difficult to verbalize spiritual realities. Consequently, well journey through the background of the Bible from the standpoint of its history and how it was written and, within that history, meet the principal sources or authors of scriptural writings and understand the principal conflicts or tensions that influenced what they wrote.

This is not a book written for academicians, although I have done significant research. For a book this size to cover the massive scope of history involved, I provide only general descriptions. I am certain that knowledgeable scholars will wince as they read how, from their points of view, I have summarized, oversimplified, and determined what to highlight. But I didnt write this book for them.

Part 1

Part 1 discusses the development of the Old Testament, briefly tracing the history of Israel and the sources that formed the Old Testament from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (the Patriarchs, circa 1700 B.C.E.) to the start of the initial millennium of the Common Era. Besides the basic elements of who did what to whom and why, we will explore the continual tension that existed between the priestly class of Israel and the prophets: the priestly class wanted to codify or institutionalize a form of national righteous or moral behavior; the prophets kept insisting they were on the wrong track. Also, we will get to know the people behind the principal sources of the Old Testament writingswho they were and what they were trying to communicate.

Part 2

Part 2 continues this thread with a discussion of Jesus and the New Testament. Part 2 could also be titled: How Christianity and the New Testament Grew and Matured. Here you will begin to understand why the letters, Gospels, and other writings that make up the New Testament are in the Bible as well as why other writings are not in the Bible. This is a very important issue because I believe some of the ideas and concepts that didnt make it in the New Testament should have. What we can learn about Jesus from the early Jewish Christians of the Jesus Movements, who were pretty much out of the loop in the formation of the early Church, is terribly relevant today. The theology of freedom worked out by the Apostle Paul, and generally misunderstood by later Biblical writers, isnt the only theological platform available to us. Jesus of Nazareth repeated (and lived!) the messages of the Old Testament prophets. However, much of his message dissolved as the organizational aspects of the emerging Church began making the same kinds of mistakes made by Israels priestly class during Old Testament times.

If you want to skip around

I believe the Old Testament is fascinating, but I understand not everyone shares this fascination. If you are not particularly interested in the development of the Old Testament, I would recommend you read the Introduction to Part 1 followed by Chapter 1, the section about the Patriarchs in Chapter 2, and Chapter 5. Of course, since it is a high-level overview, the design of the book is that you read it from cover to cover. Following this initial reading, you can concentrate on those sections that have sparked your interest, using the Notes at the end of each chapter as well as the Bibliography as a guide for further, more in-depth reading.

A potential path

I believe it will make a significant difference if people begin to say, This is the path I have chosen in order to know and experience God, as I understand God rather than This is the only path to God.

Enjoy.

Think.

Grow.

And

Walk with God, as you understand God, in a manner that disciplines you to see the love of God in others and allows others to see the love of God in you. This will bring peace on earth as well as a personal peace to youa peace such as the world cannot give.

Donald L. ODell

2006