Friday, November 11, 2005

Some views on the Tanakh

My view of the תנ״ך (Tanakh, or the Old Testament, The Torah, Nevi'im and Ketuvin) is one that some may consider unorthodox, or blasphemous (note the fact that I am an atheist). First of all, I do not accept the existence of Abraham, and I greatly question the existence of Moses. However, I find it very possible that there was indeed a minor exodus from Egypt, and the Egyptians did not want to record it, so it is lost form the records. I believe that the magnitude of the exodus has been exaggerated by “J”, or whoever wrote the bible, or my history itself. Yet as time progressed in the bible, I begin to believe what happened more and more. For example, I do believe in the bible (as history!) from around the time of Saul. I would like to accredit King David with authorship of the psalms, but I do not know if I am ready to grant him that. I believe in the existence of Solomon, and I believe that the prophets existed. In fact, I believe that the prophets existed so much that I call them the first philosophers, and not the Greeks. However, Greek philosophy basically a separate entity from Judaism, but I find it difficult to believe that there was no Jewish influence in Asia Minor, where the first philosopher came from. However, Thales still has the same respect as he did before I nominated the prophets to be the first “lovers of wisdom”, but I believe the Prophets of the Bible should be studied with philosophy.

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