Killing Goliath

MAKING GOD'S WORD
Part 3

The story of David and Goliath is a favorite among many Christians, and it's easy to see why. In it we see David, a young shepherd boy, fearlessly take on a warrior renowned for his giant stature, and emerge victorious, bringing glory to his people and his god. As a kid, this story was important to me; it reminded me that if God was with me, I didn't have to be afraid of even the biggest of bullies.

As I began to study the Bible academically, I realized that some of the details I found most inspiring in the story of David and Goliath weren't necessarily well grounded in history. Was David really a mere shepherd boy? Was Goliath really 9.5 feet tall? Was David really the one who killed him? It is this story that I now turn to as my second example of biblical editing, addressing these questions and their corresponding layers of editing along the way.

The Creations of the Cosmos

MAKING GOD'S WORD
Part 2

We don't need to look far for our first instance of biblical editing, which can be found in the very first chapters of the first book of the Bible: Genesis. In Genesis 1 and 2, we see two different accounts of the creation of the world and of humankind. As has been shown previously on this blog (see "Adam and Steve"), these two accounts contradict one another, and are generally thought to have been originally two separate stories that were eventually compiled into a single book (Genesis). This means that Genesis was not written by a single author, but rather is the product of multiple unknown authors, which was put together by an unidentified editor or series of editors.

This article will look at the two contradictory stories of creation found in Genesis 1 and 2. Since Genesis is part of the Torah (the first 5 books of the Bible, sometimes referred to as the Pentateuch), I will start by briefly presenting some of the prominent views in academia on how the Torah came to be composed as we have it today, and will then analyze the two creation myths within Genesis, noting instances of contradictions between the texts as well as significant differences in content.^[1]

MAKING GOD'S WORD

Part 1

Growing up in a Christian home, I believed that the Bible was made up of God's very words, and as such was perfect and sacred in every way. Yet at the same time, I knew the Bible was actually written by humans, not God. Being the inquisitive kid that I was, I often tried to imagine how this transfer of information between God and humanity worked. Did God speak from Heaven with a booming voice, telling the authors what to write down? Or did God speak in the authors' hearts to instruct them on exactly what to say, and the authors, being especially righteous, just had a good ear for hearing God's voice within them (which unfortunately I never had)? Or did the authors merely write these works themselves through their own will, and the Holy Spirit was just working in them to produce inspired scripture without them even knowing it?

In my adult life my religious views changed, but my inquisitive nature never did, and I am still interested in understanding how the Bible came to be written as we have it today. But even setting aside unanswerable questions regarding the inspiration of the Bible, I have realized the simple question "how was the Bible written?" is even more complicated than I could have thought. Not only do we not know who originally wrote most of the Bible, there is also substantial evidence that much of it has been anonymously edited for centuries after its original texts had been written.