The Bible is fun! But, alas, no one cares. Also, evil in 1575 Seville

Where are you? I've now been blogging religiously for a couple of weeks, and I'm still eagerly and impatiently looking for an uptick in the number of visitors. Where are you people? I need fans.

I was hoping to find some comment on last week's parsha, but '0 comments' it remains, day after day. The sort of anomalies discussed (see the entry for this past Friday) are what make the Torah (and the rest of the Hebrew Bible) the incredibly fascinating 25 century old puzzle it is.

As many of you know, we can find examples of contradiction, doublets (two versions of the same story), triplets, and transmission mistakes in practically every portion of the Torah. None of the questions I raise are new, and many of these issues have been remarked upon by commentators through the ages (but secularly only over the past 2 centuries). Yet relatively few people know or are interested in the subject. Why has the remarkable topic of secular biblical research remained obscure? Why do people know so little of the work of biblical critics since the enlightenment?

Devout believers for the most part, and with a few exceptions, are certainly uninterested. These issues scare them. So how might many of them they explain these biblical mistakes and contradictions? Simple: 'There is no contradiction or mistake, and it's arrogant and rude to even consider that mistakes may exist in God's handiwork. It's that you don't understand. If you want understand, go ask a brilliant rabbi who'll have all the (appropriate) answers. But whatever you do, do not dare draw any conclusions yourself! The Rabbi will provide them for you.'

And 95% of everyone else, including supposedly educated Ivy Leaguers? They'd say something like: 'Bible? God? history? Judaism? Criticism? What's that? And oh yeah, who cares? Whatever.'

I don't think I exaggerate here.

Its also interesting how many highly educated secular people who do have an interest in Judaism don't ever think of investigating the bible with a critical eye, which is the most interesting way of exploring it. It doesn't occur to them to ask: Why was it written this way? Why was this particular story inserted here? Why would later writers and editors allow contradictions and mistakes to remain? I'm getting ahead of myself: they wouldn't think of the existence of writers or editors, and they simply aren't aware of the incredible research done and insight gained in the area of critical Biblical scholarship by many intellectual giants over the past 200 years to this very day.

I suppose, and its been remarked on elsewhere, many secular people who one would expect to exhibit secular curiosity are really attempting to escape the rational, and are searching for some form spirituality. They just assume without question that there's some vague 'divinity' attached to the Bible in some undefined way, whatever that may mean, and they don't know how to think about what that may (or may not) mean.

On this day in the life of the Jews: In 1575, the so-called Auto de Fe, or Act of Faith, took place in Seville. This was the solemn proclamation and execution of Inquisition sentences against heretics, many of whom were marrano (hidden Jews). Considering spilled blood much too messy, Spaniards and Portuguese preferred execution by fire, which took place at the Quamadero ('place of burning). Please note that not everyone was burned alive, since formal confession and repentance (An Iberian Christian form of tshuva) secured strangulation before burning. It appears that gathering at the fiery spectacle at the Quamadero was a fashionable pastime. YS"V.

Next, a reflection on the substituting of stark black and white for pastels in the Bible.