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Blogging the Bible

A Harvard-educated reformed Jew grapples with the Old Testament.

Slate editor David Plotz was desperately bored at his cousin's bat mitzvah three years ago. Not expecting much, he opened a copy of the Torah and landed on the story of how Dinah's brothers avenged her rape. "I was like, 'This is in Genesis?' I'm a relatively well-read and well-educated person, yet I still seemed to have missed the fundamental work of Western civilization," he said.

Plotz began blogging through the Bible for Slate, writings that Jews, evangelicals, and finally a publisher latched on to. He spoke with Christianity Today online editor Sarah Pulliam before Good Book (Harper) was released.

What were your expectations going into blogging the Bible?

I expected the Old Testament to be boring, and it turned out to be much, much more fascinating. I was mostly struck by the way stories that tended to be peaceful and most forgiving make it into popular culture. There's more ambiguity and unpleasantness [in Bible stories] that haven't seeped into popular culture. Take the story of Jacob and Esau. I thought Esau was the bad brother and Jacob was the good brother, and no! Jacob is this kind of con-artist sleazeball who is a lot smarter than Esau, and Esau is the one who is forgiving, just, and good. Why do we cherish the one brother and not the other?

Also, when you read the Bible casually, it seems much harder to read than if you kind of read it consistently. When you read it you just dip into it, the language is tricky. These stories don't follow logically. But then when you start to get into the rhythm, it becomes much, much easier to read. This is sort of my exhortation to people who want to read the Bible: It starts out quite hard and then it gets significantly easier once you've you know, been doing it for a few chapters or a few days.

What kind of response did you get after you started blogging?

Most of the response was from really smart Christians and Jews who were biblically literate who liked the idea of an amateur taking this on. I was reading much more like an evangelical Christian than a Jew actually. Jews don't read it alone in a way that a lot of Christians do.

Did you look at the cultural context in which the Bible was written?

I wanted to really take the text on its own terms. I was reading it in translation, so it's not strictly on its own terms anyway, but I wanted to say, "How does this thing hold up raw without trying to make excuses for it or to explain around it?" I didn't want to spend a lot of time trying to contextualize it, forgive it, and make excuses for it. I wanted to say, "Here is this incredible book—let's see what it says."

You say you started as an agnostic. Have your religious views changed by reading the Bible?

I guess I'm one of these agnostics who is becoming closer to atheism now because I am so upset by the picture of the God there. I am so disturbed by the God that I found there. The most disturbing part of this whole journey for me was, how do I as a Jew cling to a God who seems to be so unmerciful so much of the time and so cruel so much of the time? That's very troubling. Do I want such a God to exist? I don't know that I do.

As Jews, we don't have the comfort of the New Testament to fall back on.

You wrote in your conclusion, 'I am a Jew I don't and can't believe that Jesus died for my sins.' Christians will say, 'Of course you can.'

I certainly have had many Christians of whom I have loved who have told me that. I just know it's not a need that I have. I can live a good and happy life without finding the comfort of that I know that other people do find. I guess my emotional and intellectual and theological state doesn't have the urgency which might make me perceptive to having a Jesus-like figure. There's not a yearning in me that is unmet.


From Issue:
April 2009, Vol. 53, No. 4
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Comments

Displaying 1–3 of 19 comments

David MORGAN

January 14, 2013  3:45pm

Thought your article was right on point. I often say that we all have different opinions about politics and religion and it's hard to get people to agree on anything. But one thing I think people would agree with that the world would be a far better place if people were just more kind to one another. You never know the impact of a kind gesture; a kind word or just a kind smile will have on someone. God Bless you in your ministry, David Morgan Scourby Audio Bible app http://www.scourby.com

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Brian Piltin

March 07, 2009  10:12am

The God of the OT and the God of the NT are the same God. You will certainly find the God of the OT disturbing if you don't completely understand the utterly evil nature of the people that God was dealing with in. You would almost think Him cruel to use the Israelites to bring about the destruction of the surrounding civilizations, but God's hands were in essence "tied behind His back" in the sense that the surrounding civilizations were evil and void of any desire to live by God's commands. God used the Israelites to "preserve" a portion of humanity so that the entire world was not in a sense lost in Godless behavior. You can liken it to having a severe infection and needing to amputate the offending limb. Obviously these people would have been spared along with the Israelites if there was any other way. One mistake we make in reading the OT is believing that humans are not deserving of death, which as Christians, we have accepted as truth. Trust in God that He knows what He is doing.

TAChaney

March 06, 2009  3:38pm

This is why what the NT says about Jesus is so important. If it were not for him and his work on the cross, we would face the terrible and frightening wrath of a God of holiness. Jonjackson asks, “Where is Jesus, whose sacrifice is an atonement for the whole world?” S/he seems to reflect the theology of universalism that all people are saved by the work of Christ and yet this is not what we have seen here. SOME will experience God’s wrath. SOME will experience Jesus’ own anger. This is not TAChaney, but Scripture that makes these points. Jonjackson goes on to ask, “Where is the God who desires that all be save [sic]? Where is grace in this schema?” God does indeed desire that all be saved, but all are not automatically saved by the work of Christ, they must accept him by faith. Grace appears right here in that God desires men to be saved (to receive the opposite of the destiny they deserve) due to his love for man, and provides Christ so that man CAN be saved, but he does not force it.

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