From what I understand, the Bible is suppossed to be a collection of works inspired by God. I’m sure there must be variations on that.
Beyond a theological explanation, what is a good secular reason for the existence of this book? The only thing I have heard is that it was used to control the populace. That’s probably true, but it seems the rulers of that time used Christianity as a means of control only after it became popular. So, what would motivate someone to write these things, excepting divine influence? Is it a work of fiction, or does it reference verifiable events in human history?
You want to know the secular reason why a religious book was written?
When you get the answer to that, please let me know the non-sports reason that baseball is played and the non-economic reason that we have a stock market.
According to Isaac Asimov in Asimov’s Guide To The Bible one compelling reason was to hold the Hebrew captives together as a unified group during the Babylonian Exile.
The captives’ leaders, Asimov says, knew that previous captives from the Northern Kingdom had been assimilated and disappeared as a separate ethnic group when taken captive by the Assyrians.
In order to prevent this, they collected all of the tribal legends and then put it in writing so that they could have a common historical record and a clear message about Jaweh and thus help to keep their separate identity as “Jaweh’s Chosen People.”
I thought the bible was written, started at least, when the Babylonians deported the Jews. They were afraid that, living amongst other peoples, they would forget their stories.
People just kept adding and editing after that, until it was decided it was enough.
Then some more came along and a whole new series was added, until it was again decided that now it was enough
Then someone else started again… up unto the point where an angel revealed the last two golden tablets.
If you’re one of those heathen types (like me) who buy into the Documentary Hypothesis, then the so-called Book of J came first. I’ve often wondered if J was written as a religious text. One could (and, I think, some people have) argue otherwise. See the books Who Wrote the Bible? or The Book of J for popular intros to this, and some speculation. It could have been the work of someone simply setting down the history and stories of their people, and it was taken as a given that the God of their people played an active role. It’s the later additions and incorporated commentaries, along with accretions like Proverbs and the Prophets that give it the strong religious character.
I am not an Atheist, but if I were I would say something like,
“God is such a necesary concept for primitive cultures that there came a time that someone needed to invent him. At that time the Bible was written so that the people who invented him can get their stories straight.”
As a Roman Catholic, i would say this,
“Before the church collected the books that would become the Bible, they were the written history that gave testiment to the being of God and his relationship to his people. The bible completes this history by adding the testimony to the life of the Son of God, Jesus Christ and his followers. It is a book of wisdom and experience passed down thru the generations so that those who would can have a connection with those who have past.”
