If one takes the Book of Daniel out of the Old Testament, a much clearer view of the prophets of Israel becomes visible. Daniel, written during the time of the Maccabees and not during the Persian period, as it pretends to be, really doesn’t fit. The fact is the Book of Daniel should be in the Apocrypha, not in the Old Testament, but that would upset those people who like to predict the end of the world by quoting from this source.
The prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures are not religious versions of Drew Pearson or Jeane Dixon. They do not predict future events. Prophets are those who are in touch with values, truth, perhaps we could call it God, and who thus see the issues of life more deeply than other people see them. Perhaps they are the ones who, by standing on the shoulders of others, can perceive future trends and speak to them before others see them developing.
When one initiates a series of columns on the origins of the Bible and how it came to be written, there are inevitably times when there are transitions. They are not the most exciting part of the story, but they are essential if one is going to hear the story in its entirety. We come to such a transition part of the story in this column. Let me set the stage.
The Bible began to be written, relatively speaking, only a short time ago. When one considers the fact that the universe is some 13.7 billion years old and the birth of the planet Earth can be reliably dated between four and a half and five billion years ago, the beginning of Bible writing near 1000BC is very recent.
“Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind: It is an abomination (Lev.18: 22 KJV).”
“If a man also lie with mankind as …
Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not …