I have coffee and cake, and am settled down to read The Consuming Fire by Liane M. Feldman. My PhD supervisor recommended it, and I’m really enjoying it—so am recommending it to you. I will share what I have read so far, and then you can borrow/buy a copy and read the rest yourself. I suggest you read it with your ‘thinking-hat’ on (it’s hard to escape my past life as a primary school teacher). There may be bits you disagree with. But that should be true of everything you read—never accept what someone says without thinking about it for yourself.

Even the physical form of the book is enjoyable. It has a classy cover in black and white (unlike most theology books, which are either overly jazzy or artistically unpleasant). It’s a good size—not too heavy with decent sized print (again, not a given with theological books. Sometimes I think people publish books that are purposefully unpleasant to read, almost as if they are challenging anyone to actually enjoy them!)

The content of the book is about the Hebrew Canon/Old Testament (obviously, as that’s my area of study) and it’s looking at what is called the ‘priestly writing’. To understand this, you need to know a little about who wrote the first five books of the Old Testament/Hebrew Canon—the part called ‘the Pentateuch’ (‘pent’ because there’s five books, not sure where the ‘teuch’ bit comes from, so do tell if you know). There are probably five books because at one time they were written on scrolls, and the length of a scroll was limited (if they were too long they ripped) so the very long narrative of the Pentateuch was split into sections, and written on five scrolls.

Anyway, for centuries, people studying them thought they were written by Moses (even though the narrative of the death of Moses and beyond is contained in them). Then in the middle ages, scholars decided that actually, the styles of writing, and the fact that there were different accounts of the same event, and facts that contradicted each other, probably meant that there had been several texts, written by different authors, that had all been put together at a later date. They gave the different types of writing labels: P (because it seemed like priests had written them—lots of religious details); J (because God was called ‘YHWH’ and they were German, so wrote YHWH with a ‘J’); D (because Deuteronomy had a style all of its own, and was mainly about the failure of the Israelites and how they were punished); E (because God was called ‘Elohim’). This idea, of four authors, lasted for another few centuries.

More recently, after lots of debate by scholars (who like to challenge each other’s assumptions) they have decided that actually, it is unlikely that there were definitely four authors. May have been more, may have been less. However, they are all agreed (which is rare) that there was certainly a ‘priestly’ writer (or writers). Some texts have a distinct style (in the Hebrew) and can be lumped together as coming from one text (even if it evolved over time).

Back to The Consuming Fire—this book takes just the texts thought to be ‘priestly’ texts, and has put them all together. Mrs Feldman says that at one time they existed as a single text, so we should read them now as a single text. She also changes the language a little (I especially like this bit!) as she wants her translation to reflect how we think today. (She speaks American I think, but we will forgive her that.) So she has avoided ‘biblical’ language (the language that only appears in the Bible today). Things like ‘hardened his heart’—who actually says that today? Or ‘bloodguilt’? (We say ‘he has blood on his hands’ which means the same thing, and its easier for us to understand the concept.) Mrs Feldman has tried to write a translation that we understand—though not one that we can relate to. The concepts within the text are ancient ones, we do not consider women to be ‘contaminated’ after childbirth, for example. It is an ancient text, and we should read it as an ancient text, but this translation allows us insight into how those ancient people thought. Mrs Feldman has also (another thing I like) been honest about the words that we don’t understand, and has stated this in her translation. Sometimes, we don’t know what the Hebrew meant, and rather than writing a possible translation (which readers then accept as ‘truth’ because ‘it’s in the Bible, isn’t it!’) she has been clear that actually, we don’t have a clue.

What is the point of this, you may be wondering? Well, I think if we try to understand what those ancient authors were trying to communicate, if we read texts in the correct context, we will understand it better. If we think about why some of the details are there, we may begin to understand how they are relevant for us. I doubt any of you, when you read about the dimensions of the temple, think ‘It’s great I know these numbers and measurements, because now I can build my own temple on the playing field next to the scout’s hut!’ So why are they there? What were the priestly writers trying to say? What was their point?

Now, my final note before you make a drink and add the book to your Christmas list—does all this talk about multiple authors mean the Bible can’t be trusted? Does examining a text in detail, taking it apart, thinking about what the author intended—well, does all that take away its authority? Does it reduce the Bible to just another ancient text? I think not. I believe the Bible, especially the Old Testament/Hebrew Canon, has great authority. I believe that we meet God there, and meeting with God changes us. For me, the text was inspired by God, and he uses it today to teach us truth. I don’t think that having several authors means God wasn’t able to inspire what was written, or what was edited, or what was preserved and translated. We don’t have to pretend it isn’t an ancient text. We don’t have to pretend we understand all of it. We don’t have to pretend that every single dot and dash and comma has existed throughout history until it landed in your shiny English version. God can, and has, worked through different people in different eras. If we let him, God can still change us through our reading of the text—no matter how many people were involved in its writing, editing, translation, copying.

Time to stop writing now, and read to learn more. Hope you have a great day.

Take care.
Love, Anne x