1) The Bible text being criticized in your “Bible criticism” class is a book which I criticize too! Firstly, it is probably an inaccurate translation. Secondly, and more importantly, the ones who teach these classes most certainly have an inaccurate understanding of the Bible in the first place. They view the bible as a “history book,” and therefore have (often preconceived) notions that at best it was written by a human with divine inspirations, and at worst, it was written by many men without any inspiration at all. Based on these notions, they go about “proving” that this “history” book has serious errors and therefore couldn’t be of Divine origin – or even factual! They analyze the book from the “human” standpoint, and since this book has serious human errors, they conclude that it can’t be Divine! This is ironic, if not foolish, as we will soon demonstrate.

While history books look to give a clear and accurate recording of a particular era in history, the Torah, when dealing with historical events, looks to convey the eternal message to be gleaned from this story

Therefore, the reason this book doesn’t seem to give clear accounts of history (or history in its clearest account), and the reason why the books seems (to the human reader and writer) to have “errors” is precisely because it is NOT a “history” book, and it was NOT created by humans!

Anyone who views this book as a history text created by humans SHOULD indeed have a lot of criticism on this book. This type of study would be an anomaly similar to trying to prove or disprove a medical book by using legal terminology and arguments.

[Incidentally, since this book is for instruction and guidance, a basic Talmudic principle is that not all its stories are written in chronological order. Rather the Torah presents stories in the manner which will best convey the timeless message it wishes to impart. This is also why it only records certain stories, and certain aspects of certain stories, while other stories, or other parts of the stories which it does record, are omitted.]

It also must be noted that any question which your professor broaches in this class is either a) based on a misunderstanding of the original context. Or, if it is a valid question, b) it has already been asked, and an answer has been provided, at least once in the thousands and thousands of pages of Jewish literature. Challenge your professor to be fair and balanced by providing the questions as well as the traditional answers!

I also learned, from personal experience, that professors don’t always know what they are talking about. Yes, they are wise and erudite, they have studied much, they hold esteemed positions, and they stand behind the podium—

But, despite (and perhaps because of) their knowledge and position, they often say things that are simply inaccurate; yet every one accepts their words as absolute truth simply by virtue of who is saying them. It is ironic that the very teachers who teach others not to accept anything as truth by virtue of who said it, but to examine and cross-examine everything (as you are doing in your bible class), often rely on being heard and believed by virtue of who they are!

It is ironic that the very teachers who teach others not to accept anything as truth by virtue of who said it, often rely on being heard and believed by virtue of who they are!

The TA instructed the students to share with me what they had learned thus far. A central theme to what they all had to say was that it was forbidden according to Jewish law to paint a portrait of a person. This is what their professor, who is an “expert” on the subject, told them. This wasn’t a side issue, but an important part of the class from which they derived other information and theories. For example, this was used to explain why there were no great Jewish artists for periods of history, but rather Jews always had to get non-Jews to paint the portraits, since the Jews themselves were prohibited to do so.

I listened. And then came my turn to speak. Everyone in the room could not believe the first sentence I said: “According to Jewish law, painting the portrait of a person poses no problem!”

I then quoted the sources and explained how they had erred. But the details are not the point. The point is this: the teacher was basing an entire course on flawed information; and those students were sucking it up as if they were hearing it from G-d Himself!

I would like to conclude with one thought: You say you are taking a “required class on biblical criticism” I don’t know who “requires” it, but it is very questionable if Judaism allows it. Not because there are no answers to the questions; but because Judaism is concerned that you won’t know the answers and could be lead astray from your Eternal Heritage, the divine truth and guide to life called the Torah.