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Midrash in Matthew When the Freethought Mecca touched on the issue of Midrash in the Qur'an, we neglected to mention that Muslim objections often included similar questions about the Bible. This article seeks to thoroughly demonstrate how a theory of Midrash in the gospels is also quite plausible. Are the gospels biographies containing literal history? Or are they simply part of a creative literary genre? [Go to the essay] The Exegetical Anarchy An explanation of how rather strong interpretations of the philosophy of language can be used to demonstrate the absurdity of the concept of God's word in written form. In our article on hermeneutics we explained how modern literary criticism of the Bible can be applied to Islamic texts. Completing the circle, this article has been influenced by John Wansbrough's extreme skepticism of the reliability of Islamic texts. Though the arguments focus almost exclusively on the Bible, these arguments could apply to any other sacred text. [Go to the essay] Women and Rape in the Scriptures It seems that the ancient Hebrews had a thing for stories about the rape and degradation of local women. This sort of story repeats itself numerous times in the Bible. Some of these stories are explored here, showing the similarities between variants of what is essentially the same legend. [Go to the essay] Variants of Genesis This essay takes a look at seven variants of the book of Genesis, taken mostly from the scholarship of Dr. Menachem Cohen from Bar-Ilan University in Israel. 105 verses from Genesis are cited, giving us 109 different variations. [Go to the essay] A Critical Approach to the Gospels An introduction to criticism of the Gospels. Learn why the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament are not biographies, nor are they any sort of proof of Jesus' alleged existence. [Go to the essay] Folklore of the Ancient Hebrews This article takes a look into the books of Judges and Genesis, and touches on how the exact same story is repeated in both books, with slighlty different contexts. This is a sign that the Bible is indeed a work of multiple hands, and that these stories are nothing more than popular traditions floating around among the Hebrew tribal nomads. [Go to the essay] |