Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D
The term “revelation” can be defined as “the divine
disclosure to humans of something regarding the human existence or the world.”
In the ancient Near East, it was commonly believed that gods
verbally communicated with their subjects: Thus, for example, “This is the word
of Ninlil [the goddess] for the king, “Fear not, O Ashurbanipal! Now, as I have
spoken, it will come to pass” (ANET, p.451). Gods also communicated through
dreams: “In my dream, (the goddess) Belet-biri stood by me. She spoke to me as
follows…..” (1)
In biblical times, too, where God appears to the Israelites as
a Father, King, or Creator, “revelations” appear to have taken place in a variety of ways.
They included,
a. Direct Speech, such as: “The Lord said to Abram: Go forth
from your native land…”(Gen.12: 1, all biblical quotes from JPS), or, “The word
of the Lord came to me” (Jer.1:4), even, at times, to animals, “The Lord opened
the ass’s mouth and she said to Balaam” (Num.22:28).
b. Through an angel: “An angel of the Lord appeared to him
(Moses) in a blazing fire out of a bush” (Ex.3: 2), or “The angel of the Lord
said to her: ‘Go back to your mistress, and submit to her harsh treatment”
(Gen. 16:9).
c. Dreams and visions: “When a prophet of the Lord arises
among you, I make Myself known to him in a vision, I speak with him in a dream”
(Num.12:6); or “The hand of the Lord came upon me. He took me out by the spirit
of the Lord and set me down in the valley” (Dan 37: 1).
d. Writing on the wall: “He therefore made the hand appear,
and caused the writing to be inscribed.” (Dan. 5:24).
e. Urim and Thummim: “Inside the breast piece of decision
you shall place the Urim and Thummim so that they are over Aaron’s heart when
he comes before the Lord” (Ex. 28: 30). [We do not know what these objects
were. Many suggest that they were a type of sacred lots used for divination]
Biblical books, containing statements attributed to God, were
written by unknown human authors: The Book of Psalms, attributed to King David,
is a collection of poems/prayers to God. The books of Joshua, Judges , Samuel, Kings
and Chronicles are quasi-historical books but not God’s work. Proverbs and
Ecclesiastes deal with human wisdom. Song of Songs is a book about human love. Each
prophet assumedly wrote his own book. The Book of Esther does not even include
the name of God.
What about the Pentateuch? Even though, just before the
reading of the Torah, the Jewish liturgy
proclaims: “This is the Torah which Moses set before the Children of Israel,
according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses” (Hertz), we really
don’t know who finally put it all together. Nowhere in the Five Books of Moses
is it stated that Moses was the author of the entire Pentateuch. In the
expression “Moses wrote down this Torah” (Deut.31:9), the word “Torah” simply means
“teaching,” namely, general instruction
and not the entire Pentateuch(2). Even the Rabbis had to admit that Moses could
not have been the author of the statement in Deuteronomy, “So Moses, God’s
servant, died there” (34:5). Their answer: Joshua wrote it.
During rabbinic times, the Rabbis were aware of the issue of
authorship of various texts in the Hebrew Bible; hence they presented a list of
authors for each biblical text : e.g., Moses wrote the Pentateuch and the book
of Job (BB 14b). In the medieval period,
divine revelation was generally accepted by many. Yet Maimonides (12th
cent) stated that “when we call the Torah ‘God’s word’ we speak metaphorically.”
But, then, making an exception with regard to Moses, he surprisingly added “We
do not know exactly how it [the Pentateuch] reached us, but only that it came
to us through Moses who acted like a secretary taking dictation” (Helek: San.
Ch.10, No.8).
Today, can we take the concept of revelation literally? If,
so how can we explain the so many internal discrepancies within the biblical
material? For instance, of the two sets of the Decalogue, Ex.20 and Deut. 5,
which is God’s real words? Did God change “his” mind?
In trying to ascertain how the Bible took shape, many Biblical
scholars tell us that the Hebrew Bible is made up of four different literary
strands, JEDP, which were composed by various human authors over a long period
of time. We don’t know exactly when the Hebrew Canon was completed. Some have
argued that the Council of Jamnia finalized the Hebrew Bible in the first cent.
CE., but this theory has been challenged by many critics. Scholars now suggest
dates that vary from the 1st cent. BCE to the 2nd cent.
CE.
From the perspective of Jewish religious naturalism, my
position, we can say that all biblical texts and rabbinic instructions were
written by extraordinary human beings who were inspired by the circumstances
that surrounded them. They were eventually collected as sacred texts for the
larger community to read and study. Instead of “revelation,” most religious
naturalists use the idea of “discovery.”
So, if we want to find out God’s will, they would say, all we need to do
is investigate and study the evidence that is provided to us by nature. Even though,
that is not perfect and always subject to change based on the discovery of new data,
it is, at least, verifiable.
1. Prophets and Prophecy in the ANE, SBL, M. Nissinen, SBL,
2003, p.69.
2. Jeffrey H. Tigay, Deuteronomy, JPS, 1996, 291
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