A Most Peculiar Book: the Inherent Strangeness of the Bible by Kristin Swenson

August 11, 2021

A Most Peculiar Book: the Inherent Strangeness of the Bible by Kristin Swenson

Hundreds of millions of Christians and Jews revere the Bible as the authoritative text on their religions, often viewing it as the final word on morality, law, and other matters. The Bible affects the lives of the religious and the non-religious around the world. Too many people have a simplistic understanding of the Bible and reduce it to commonly known stories (like Noah or Job) or the prophecies in The Revelations, without ever having actually read the Bible.

The Bible is actually a very weird book. There are disturbing stories that are glossed over by the clergy (like one story where God supposedly instructs a Jewish king to send his army out to slaughter all the pregnant women and their unborn babies), messed up decisions and extreme punishments attributed to God, multiple and often contradictory accounts of battles and the actions of kings, and God being really pissed off with the human race most of the time, while also having time to meddle in day-to-day events.

Part of the weirdness of the Bible comes from having so many authors from such a long historical period, and in fact, not even knowing who those authors were. Many of the accounts in the Bible were recorded long after the fact. Like many writers, the authors of the Bible often wrote their accounts to flatter whoever was king at the time (e.g., Shakespeare wrote his plays so that the Tudors were cast in a favorable light). Finally, the Bible was compiled by a bunch of old guys who got together to decide what was part of the canon and what wasn't - tell me they didn't have their own agendas.

One year, I decided that I wanted to read the entire Bible. I had a lot of time on my hands since I was waiting for a hip replacement. I got a study Bible that guided the readings to that the reader can complete reading the Bible in one year. While doing the readings, I noticed some of the things that Swenson points out.

A very interesting if unorthodox look at the Bible. Fundamentalist Christians and Orthodox Jews will probably be offended, and I'm sure this book will end up on the banned books list at some point, but it's entertaining and enlightening for the rest of us.