The Hebrew Bible

Two ideas about the Hebrew Bible get summed up by Arnold Jacob Wolf. This summary is in an article about the Jewish Theological Seminary in America.

The profound question for the Seminary, one that lay underneath more obvious conflicts and that pervades all modern rabbinic (perhaps also Christian) schools of theology, is the conflict between Wissenschaft and Torah or, as University departments of theology often put it, between Scripture and the scientific study of ancient sources. Is the Torah the Word of God or is it a series of historically embedded documents of a given time and place, to be studied like any other ancient text, with neither prejudice nor preference (Wolf).

Wissenschaft is a German word that means "science" in English. Thus, the debate about the Hebrew Bible between liberals and conservatives can be seen in a formula: Liberal = Science. Conservative = Theology.

For most people, science and theology do not mix. Also, the liberal (scientific) poin

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bs is that good behavior is the way to God. Also, the son should stay with women who have good behavior and who fear God (Pro. 31.30). Ecclesiastes is another book of wisdom in the Bible. This book is also by the "son of David, king in Jerusalem" (Eccl. 1.1). That "Speaker" seems to be Solomon. Ecclesiastes is different from Proverbs. That is because it does not deal mainly with good behavior. It deals mainly with the meaning of life. That is obvious right away: I, the Speaker . . . in wisdom I applied my mind to study and explore all that is done under heaven. It is a sorry business the God has given men man to busy themselves with (Eccl. 1:13). In Proverbs, wisdom comes from God: "Put all your trust in the Lord and do not rely on your own understanding" (Pro. 3.5). And wisdom gets a reward: "In my hands are riches and honour, boundless wealth and the rewards of virtue. My harvest is better than gold, fine gold" (Pro. 8.18-19). In Ecclesiastes, wisdom is that life is sad, and wisdom is hard to find. First, what is sad: "For in much wisdom is much vexation, and the more a man knows, the more he has to suffer" (1.18). Next, what is hard: "God has so ordered it that man should not be able to discover what is happening here under
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Approximate Word count = 3090
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

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