I was reading Leviticus 14 this morning. Like the several chapters before this, it gave instructions to the levitical priests (descendants of Levi, but really began with Aaron, Moses' older brother) on the sacrificial and dietary laws, as well as management of skin diseases and household molds. These were written in amazing details (in fact chapters 13 and 14 contained some of the most number of verses in a single chapter!). Now I had been taught that Moses wrote these first five books of the Old Testament (often called the Pentateuch) and I had held these books as authoritative and inerrant etc. There had been many times when I puzzled over the lengthy details of what appeared to be irrelevant and at times absurd rituals. Now I know even Jesus and the apostles had quoted from these writings. What should my attitude be when I spend time reading this, as in letting God speak to me through His Word?
I found this book "Who Wrote the Bible?" by Washington Gladden quite helpful. In chapter II "What did Moses Write?" he helped me put a proper perspective on reading the "Torah" (as the Pentateuch is also called). Basically his conclusions were:
1. The Pentateuch could never have been written by any one man, inspired or otherwise.
2. It is a composite work, in which many hands have been engaged. The production of it extends over many centuries.
3. It contains writings which are as old as the time of Moses, and some that are much older. It is impossible to tell how much of it came from the hand of Moses, but there are considerable portions of it which, although they may have been somewhat modified by later editors, are substantially as he left them.
In terms of answering the question whether Jesus and the apostles also held the same view, he said:
"It is upon this that the advocates of the traditional view of the Old Testament wholly rely. "Christ was authority," they say; "the New Testament writers were inspired; you all admit this; now Christ and the New Testament writers constantly quote the Scriptures of the Old Testament as inspired and as authoritative. Therefore they must be the infallible word of God." To this it is sufficient to reply, Christ and the apostles do quote the Old Testament Scriptures; they find a great treasure of inspired and inspiring truth in them, and so can we; they recognize the fact that they are organically related to that kingdom which Christ came to found, and that they record the earlier stages of that great course of revelation which culminates in Christ; but they nowhere pronounce any of these writings free from error; there is not a hint or suggestion anywhere in the New Testament that any of the writings of the Old Testament are infallible; and Christ himself, as we have seen, clearly warns his disciples that they do not even furnish a safe rule of moral conduct. After this, the attempt to prove the inerrancy of the Old Testament by summoning as witnesses the writers of the New Testament may as well be abandoned."
In my other reading this week, I have been working through slowly these two books:
(1) "Surprised by Hope - Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church" by NT Wright, and
(2) "Triple Jeopardy for the West - Aggressive Secularism, Radical Islamism, and Multiculturalism" by Michael Nazir-Ali
Let me quote just one thing I learned from NT Wright and leave my comments on Nazir-Ali's book to next week:
On God's Future Plan (Part II of Surprised by Hope"), Wright wrote that the two options of the world view - Evolutionary Optimism and Souls in Transit were both not based on scripture. He then argued from scripture that our hope lies on our understanding of the "new creation" - not only a reality for Christ's followers ("Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" 2 Corinthians 5:17) but also a promise of "new heavens and a new earth" in which justice will dwell ("But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells." 2 Peter 3:13). He concluded:
"What I am proposing is that the New Testament image of the future hope of the whole cosmos, grounded in the resurrection of Jesus, gives as coherent a picture as we need or could have of the future that is promised to the whole world, a future in which, under the sovereign and wise rule of the creator God, decay and death will be done away with and a new creation born, to which the present one will stand as mother to child... What creation needs is neither abandonment nor evolution but rather redemption and renewal; and this is both promised and guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. This is what the whole world's waiting for." (page 107)
"I am neither an optimist nor pessimist, Jesus Christ is risen from the dead!" - Bishop Lesslie Newbigin
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