Quote:
Originally posted by [Labret]
Where is your God now?
In the old Testament when bad things happened to the Israelites, it was seen as Gods punishment for the wicked ways of the Israelites.
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Very thought provoking question. As you know, the Old Testament was reduced into writing 1) several hundred years after the events it claims to describe 2) several different phases [it wasn't written in one book but in differing phases similar to the chronological distance between the Hindu Vedas, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Upanishads] 3) edited mostly by scribes [not rabbis but ordained priests of the Temple]. Based on these facts, the ongoing narrative of the Old Testament sought to explain the rising and falling fortunes of the Jews through their relationship with God. Basically, if some historical event was good ...it was because of man's loyalty to the covenant. If something crappy happened its because the Jews did not stay true to the word.
This rampant historicism [reminiscent of recent Black scholarship's take on US history--rewriting/re explaining the past to pursue today's political goals] all operated from the basic premise that God was eternally present in human affairs. Piss Him off, he punishes you. Love Him and stay loyal to Him and he rewards you. Unfortunately, the reality of history does not follow the scriptural calculus of reward and punishment. Good people get killed. Really crappy things happen to pious and compassionate people. Bad people are not always punished. So the Hellenistic scribes of the Old Testament really painted historical figures as cartoons--the standard model being, King XXXX was faithful to the Law [God] when he ascended the throne, then he fell into wickedness and was destroyed. People are not cartoons--they are an existential and troubled mix of good, bad, and uncertainty. This is what makes them people. That is why relying on the Old Testament either as 1) a historical compass or 2) an accurate compass in appraising people can lead to problems.
Another source of the manipulation of history in the Old Testament was that its editors were always THREATENED. Assyria swallowed the Kingdom of Israel and dispersed/culturally destroyed the 10 northern tribes. Babylon conquered Judah. The Bile was written under intense military and political uncertainty about the continuation of a Jewish state/culture. This affected its writing--the Old Testament focused on the Wrath of God and the Power of the Law against infidels and wrongdoers.
Maybe in light of its waning and precarious political fortunes, the editors of the Old Testament played up the wrathful God theme to at least make themselves feel good about Israel's past military glories [the conquest of Moab, the fall of the Canaanites, the destruction of Amalek, etc]?
Moreover, the Bible was written in historical periods where Jews were outnumbered by differing cultures and differing religious beliefs. Hence, its filled with proscriptions against cultural assimilation [everything from eating shellfish to pork and sex between men were deemed as "abominations"]. Interestingly the practices proscribed were practiced by their neighbors and the once and future rulers of the Eastern Mediterranean--the Greeks and Romans. So, as related in the Old Testament, when Israelite leaders begin to assimilate they are punished either by political misfortune or by disease.
Bottom line: the experience and conception of God has to be personal for it to be real. It cannot be based solely [or as some argue, even partially] on a document that suffers from historical, editorial, and philosophical issues......such as the Old Testament and the whole social complexes built around them.
Interestingly enough, Chinese philosophers [Confucius and Mencius in particular] employ the same historicist approach as the editors of the Old Testament--remake the past to explain the present and provide guidance for the future. Hence, not unlike the Book of Kings, Chinese dynasties are founded by strong and virtuous men only to crumble under the rule of perverted and weak men out of touch with the Mandate of Heaven. Similar historicism....similar impact on moral guidance. The humanity of the actors are stripped out so they can be turned into cartoon models for proper morality [which often upholds moral values at the time of their recharacterization].