THE MANY VOICES OF THE BIBLE

The Bible is a remarkable collection of countless people's perspectives from a broad range of locations over the course of centuries. In this amazing assortment of texts, we see all of these different people -- individuals and groups -- reflecting on who they are, who their God is and how they see the relationships between themselves, their God, their land, their neighbors and more.

Esther J Harmon's excellent article explores the complexities and - yes - contradictions within the text of the book sacred to both Judaism and Christianity.  Harmon writes from a Jewish perspective, but much of what she says applies as well to how Christians read both Hebrew and Christian testaments.

The spectrum of voices in the Bible is astonishing. Writers of biblical texts reflect northern and southern perspectives (Israelite and Judahite); urban and rural; rich and poor; they are priests and poets, shepherds and elite literate professionals in royal scribal circles; people living in Jerusalem and Babylon and Persia and more. It should therefore not surprise us that some of these people differ in how they see the world.

Harmon reminds us far more eloquently than I ever could that humans wrote the texts from differing perspectives, and they did not write as though they were copying dictation from God. 

Some readers will find the acknowledgement of a multiplicity of voices in the Bible objectionable. But these are texts written by human beings with human viewpoints. Attributing perfection to them is idolatry, and God-as-ventriloquist is bad theology. So given that the writers were human, wouldn't we expect a better reflection of reality to come from the collection of a spectrum of voices than from any one person purporting to speak for everyone? And if a person believes God to be behind the process of these many texts being written and preserved and recopied and collected and becoming "The Bible," it should, for such a person, be that much more important to explore the relationship between the writers' perspectives.

As Harmon states, to note the many different voices in the Scriptures is not a matter of looking at the Bible from a liberal or a conservative viewpoint but is rather to study what is actually in the texts, to note what is known of the identity of the persons who wrote the words, and to explore the context in which the words were written.  Do read the entire article.  Esther Harmon is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible, Union Theological Seminary.

Thanks to Patricia on Face book for the link.