Old Testament Summary
While it is generally accepted that statements from past times should not be judged by the standards of the present, this must be put aside when people consider the Bible a template for action and thought in the modern world and work to promote these views in law and education.
The Old Testament is the story of the creation of the world by a God and His subsequent involvement in the lives of His 'chosen people', the Israelites. It describes this God's relationship with Israel's leaders, priests, and prophets; it lists His commandments and decrees; it tells stories of Israel's politics and wars and it is a compilation of religious poetry and sayings.
The God of the Old Testament is undoubtedly fiction, a fiction created by ignorance, fear, nationalism, and superstition. This God rules by fear, demands blind obedience and conformity, and to that end any means is justified. He is an authoritarian, racist, genocidal, homicidal, passive-aggressive, sexist, cruel, blood-thirsty, and spiteful father figure. Although the God of the Old Testament is described as 'merciful, loving, and impartial', there is no evidence of these qualities.
Biblical archaeologists state that many of the stories of the Old Testament, including the story of creation and the story of the flood, are derived from Egyptian and Babylonian mythology. These stories were changed from their original polytheism to monotheism to conform with the 'One God' of the Jews and their traditions and laws. For example: Genesis states that God created both light and vegetation before he created the sun. This impossible order of creation is a near-perfect match with the Egyptian creation story.
The claimed authorship of the Old Testament and its honest translation is highly questionable. The general attributions are difficult if not impossible to verify, and sometimes almost certainly false (Moses as the author of Deuteronomy, Solomon as the author of Song of Solomon and Proverbs, for example). Many of the books claim authorship by authoritative figures from Jewish history, such as Solomon and David, but in most cases this claim is made to enhance the credibility of the work (Ecclesiates, Song of Solomon, Proverbs, Psalms, for example). Some authors seem to be made up (Ezra); many books show evidence of multiple authors (Daniel, Habakkuk, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Judges, Micah, Nahum, and Zechariah), and there are examples of false translation. The original Hebrew source document of the book of Samuel, for example, says that David's brother, Elhanan, killed Goliath, not David, but this was changed, in defiance of the original text, to elevate David, later King David, as a bible hero. Further information on this can be found in the article An Intriguing Book.
The Bible is inconsistent, derivative, often reverse engineered, mythology. It contains only the vaguest outline of historical truth. It contains some wise sayings, some beautiful poetry, and there are also some good moral laws, but the bulk of the Old Testament is so racist and blood-thirsty that these are overwhelmed. The murder of children and the treatment of women in the name of God is especially deplorable. The moral law ‘Thou shalt not kill’ is so swamped by mass murder - by God, under God's explicit instructions, and in the name of God - that it is meaningless.
The attitude of punishment, singular authority, and blind obedience exhibited by the God of the Old Testament has contributed to many of the darkest events in human history. This attitude created the Dark Ages, where civilization collapsed as the Church took control of medicine, education, and science. It created the butchery of the Crusades where Christians and their forces marched into the Middle East. It created the Inquisition with its terror, torture, and plundering. It created the Protestant and Catholic Counter Reformation where Christians slaughtered Christians; and it created the atrocities of the witch hunts with its torture and systematic killing of women.
I wish that more people would take the time to read the Old Testament with an attitude of skeptical scrutiny. In my opinion, when read carefully with an adult mind, it is little more than folk stories, vague history, deplorable cruelty and nonsense. The Old Testament is not the inerrant word of God; it is a very human work, and human common-sense and morality has evolved and advanced and left this manuscript well and truly behind. As Hector Avalos (Emeritus Professor of Biblical History and Archaeology, University of California) says,'There is nothing in the entire book Christians call 'the Bible' that is any more relevant than anything else written in the ancient world'. The Old Testament offers no value to anyone wanting to live an intelligent and ethical life in the modern world.
This Bible Commentary continues with the Apocrypha before moving onto the New Testament.
The books of the Old Testament prophets are not in chronological order. The Old Testament concludes around 400 BCE with the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, with the land of Israel under Persian rule. Between this date and the stories of the New Testament, where Israel is under Roman rule, is a period of about four hundred years. The Apocrypha illuminates Jewish thought during the years between the close of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament. These books can be found in Catholic and Greek Orthodox bibles, but were omitted from Protestant bibles as they were not considered to be divinely inspired.