In this modern age we wonder why people worship idols. We wonder why in ancient times they worshipped idols too and did the ancient Hebrews create their God Yahweh out of a need for an all-powerful deity to look over their tribe of nomads. In Dan Hillel’s book, “The Natural History of the Bible” he explores this idea by taking us back in time to what it was really like living in the middle east for a group of wandering people searching for a meaning of what and why things were happening.
In regard to idols or gods or God let’s take a closer look. It was different then and takes putting yourself into that time. Suppose you are living along the Nile or in the Fertile Crescent formed by the Tigris and Euphrates. Every year the Nile overflows its banks bringing a gift of silt to the soil and you can easily farm. This year and the next the Nile fails to deliver and you search for a reason. Did I or my village to something to displease whatever gods or goddesses are responsible for this bounty? What happened? Today we can turn on channel 7 and weatherman Garth Brooks can explain to us that the Monsoon rains from Asia are diminished this year and that they failed to reach the Ethiopian Highlands meaning the Nile will be decreased. In the Tigris and Euphrates area hydrologists have determined that the snowpack in the mountains has simply not produced the expected result and we are in for a drought. Meteorologist? Hydrologist? No the local god is upset because we did not sacrifice something precious enough to keep him/her happy. Perhaps a firstborn child will do the trick.
People may have traveled to a few surrounding villages during their lifetime but Ethiopian Highlands? What is that? And the monsoon is totally out of their knowledge. Dan Hillel puts us in this place and lets us feel the people’s confusion. Perhaps we need a new God to aid us. Well we think have they no geography books to tell them? Well no aside from a few scrolls owned by the village elders (and that is doubtful) they have stories. Remember when we talk of written manuscripts we really do mean WRITTEN. Any records of stories had to be written by hand possibly on lambskin. Paper made out of papyrus was a later Egyptian invention. It takes a lot of work to make paper and was precious.
From our modern position we are amazed at some of the Gods they created. Why worship the sun? It is a ball of fire 96 million miles away and earth circles it along with other planets in a universe of undetermined extension which is billions of years old. Well we know that but to ancient people it was this ball of light which arose in the morning, traveled across the sky and disappeared during the night. What caused this miracle entity? Was it the chariot of a God drawn by horses or was it itself a God? Various theories and various explanations. Well until Galileo invented the telescope we didn’t know that much about it either but we had adopted the God of the Hebrews so we knew it couldn’t be a God but we thought and some still think of God as being up there. Our Bible filled with ancient tales still talks of the Tower of Babel (Babylon?) where man tried to build a tower so tall it could reach to God and God disrupted the endeavor by making the builders speak different languages so they couldn’t co-operate (there were no Pentecostals back then to communicate in tongues to help them <G>).
So stories were told by word of mouth. In the movie “The Inn of the Sixth Happiness” missionary Glades Ailsworth travels to China to be a missionary at a young age. She joins another missionary who is an older woman who owns an inn. As a way of attracting people to stay at the inn they hire a Chinese man who is a story teller to entertain the guests. He tells them a story about how Noah and Jesus were friends in the old days. When she attempts to correct him he replies, “Back then people grew to be very very old and who knows whether or not they knew each other?” Some are tales spread around campfires and when things were eventually written down it was after the writing and language had been coordinated. This also was not an easy process. Story telling was how Homer recited the Iliad and the Odyssey which were originally designed for oral transmission by a story teller. In fact for a long time writing of sacred stories was forbidden by religion (possibly as a result of the story tellers being afraid they might be out of a job and so stating it was against God’s law).
Part of the Bible also seems to be part National Enquirer where the actual writers relate conversations they could not have overheard and insights they would have been unaware of unless the writer was a fly on the wall with mind reading capabilities. If a modern writer discusses Saul’s daughters reaction to David dancing naked before the ark as it entered Jerusalem as “From that day she hardened her heart.” We would want to know how he knew that beyond speculation.
So what was involved in being a nomad? Packing and unpacking tents and supplies? Carrying water across the desert in animal skins because while there were some clay pots animal skins were more common (remember the admonition, “Don’t put new wine into old skins.”) Traveling with maybe 250,000 people for 40 years wandering around Sinai? Why haven’t archaeologists found ancient campsites? That is a lot of people. Did no one in Egypt think to write down, “Last Tuesday the Egyptian army drowned.” or “Life was a lot easier before all of those slaves left.” Now you say to yourself what would a bunch of nomads leave as archaeological evidence? Well campsites while blown away with the wind would have left the bones of slaughtered animals. That many people eat a lot of animals. True according to the story God fed them with Manna but remember “Man cannot live by bread alone.” And there would certainly be evidence. Israeli archaeologists have been searching for evidence ever since they conquered Sinai and in fact when they found a jar with an inscription mentioning “David” it made major headlines. They would love to find more proof that they were given the land by God.
What politics were going around in surrounding countries leading to being defeated and captured? Who were the Philistines? The Assyrians? The Babylonians? What myths and stories might have been picked up from these countries? Contrary to some beliefs life does not exist in a vacuum and outside influences are important. What was the job of prophets in the society?
For these and many more insights into how life was lived back then I highly recommend “The Natural History of the Bible”. It is available on amazon.com which is how I got my copy and a happy exploration of the ancient world will be open to you.
REVIEW FROM AMAZON.COM
Traversing river valleys, steppes, deserts, rain-fed forests, farmlands, and seacoasts, the early Israelites experienced all the contrasting ecological domains of the ancient Near East. As they grew from a nomadic clan to become a nation-state in Canaan, they interacted with indigenous societies of the region, absorbed selective elements of their cultures, and integrated them into a radically new culture of their own. Daniel Hillel reveals the interplay between the culture of the Israelites and the environments within which it evolved. More than just affecting their material existence, the region's ecology influenced their views of creation and the creator, their conception of humanity's role on Earth, their own distinctive identity and destiny, and their ethics.
In The Natural History of the Bible, Hillel shows how the eclectic experiences of the Israelites shaped their perception of the overarching unity governing nature's varied manifestations. Where other societies idolized disparate and capricious forces of nature, the Israelites discerned essential harmony and higher moral purpose. Inspired by visionary prophets, they looked to a singular, omnipresent, omnipotent force of nature mandating justice and compassion in human affairs. Monotheism was promoted as state policy and centralized in the Temple of Jerusalem. After it was destroyed and the people were exiled, a collection of scrolls distilling the nation's memories and spiritual quest served as the focus of faith in its stead.
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