Careful Bible Study Shows It’s Not a Divinely Inspired Book

If it is, god must have had a lot of really bad days
 

Especially among evangelical and fundamentalist Christians, this remains a deeply cherished claim: that the Bible is true and trustworthy because it was dictated by god. In Caravaggio’s 1602 painting, an angel directs the hand of Matthew as he writes his gospel. But even the most pious conservative Christians must have their doubts when they come across Bible verses that are alarming, cruel, barbaric. Clergy and theologians—who have perfected the art of making excuses—try to rush to the rescue. Careful Bible study by the curious faithful is probably their biggest fear.
 
 

These defenders of the faith must be distressed by the growing chorus of scholars, devout and secular, who have candidly pointed out just how badly the Bible has gotten things wrong. Dan Barker’s 2016 book, God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction comes to mind especially—and folks who take its message to heart are probably relieved by the words in all fiction. Another classic also comes to mind, Steve Wells’ 2013 book, Drunk with Blood: God’s Killings in the Bible. Devout readers who come across the texts described by Barker and Wells—and who are not alarmed or offended—must have their critical thinking skills turned off. Just a casual reading of the Bible, either the Old or New Testament, is enough to make any church-goer wonder, “What is going on here? Why do our clergy fail to mention these bad things from the pulpit?” 
 
In an article I published here last November, I discussed David Fitzgerald’s toolkit for dismantling Christianity, with my focus on Book 1 of his series Playing God: An Evolutionary History of World Religion. That volume is titled: The Evolution of God & The Gods of Monotheism. Volume II is titled, Judaism and Christianity. Here Fitzgerald takes the reader on an adventure through both the Old and New Testaments. 
 
For many centuries, of course, the stories in these scriptures were taken seriously; they were considered history. But as scholars mastered the art of writing authentic history, it became clear the traditional scriptures don’t measure up. Here’s a reality that demonstrates this point. Look at biographies or histories written during the last several decades: the end matter of these books commonly consists of extensive footnotes, sources, bibliographies. The authors were on the hunt, in libraries and archives, where they found the data for writing authentic history. They needed documents that were contemporaneous with events described. 
 
It's probable that devout folks who commit to reading the Bible—maybe on the chapter-per-day plan—don’t pause to think too much about the tedious material they encounter in the Old Testament especially (they may have much the same response to the letters of Paul in the New Testament). Nor to they realize how much scholarly study and debate have been devoted to the tedious material they’ve had to plow through. 
 
But if they are looking for guidance on these studies and debates, Fitzgerald’s Volume II is a valuable, honest resource. This is one of his key observations:
 
“Part of the reason for the overall recent collapse in scholarly trust in the Bible as history is the increasing awareness among historians that the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament masquerades as a venerable and ancient book, in the service of a newly-minted theology posing as a venerable and ancient religion. Just like Yahweh himself, Yahwehism is a new religion built out of ancient pieces of older gods and religious traditions.” (p. 44, Kindle) 
 
On pages 38-40, Kindle, he provides a chart with two columns, titled, “Biblical History” and “Actual History”. It’s worth close study.
 
It’s not hard for any modern reader to figure out that the first eleven chapters of Genesis cannot be taken seriously as history, as Fitzgerald notes: “It seems painfully, boringly obvious to point out that the opening stories of Genesis are pure myths; today even most Christians often seem content to take them with a grain of salt. Still, it will come as a surprise to most people that these stories came into the Jewish scriptures so much later than previously thought, and that all of them have a Babylonian origin.” (p. 59, Kindle)
 
Fitzgerald’s major focus in his discussion of the Old Testament is the context, the extensive historical (and non-historical) background of the documents that made it into this scripture. He discusses the folklore account of the Exodus from Egypt, the chaotic period of the Judges—and the lack of solid information upon which to evaluate the famous stories of Saul, David and Solomon. Curious lay readers—those who are willing to apply critical thinking to what they find in the vast sweep of the Old Testament—can benefit greatly from this book. Especially since Fitzgerald’s writing style is easily accessible, with humor and wit thrown into the mix.  
 
Alas, devout Christian readers will be distressed by his critical analysis of the New Testament. But that’s one of the consequences of critical thinking—and why the clergy usually don’t encourage it. Few laypeople are aware of the turmoil in academic Jesus studies in recent years. This field suffers from the lack of contemporaneous documentation for the life of Jesus. Yes, we have the four canonical gospels, but these were written decades after the supposed time of Jesus. The authors never cite their precise sources, that is, exactly where they got their information. Fitzgerald sums up the problem:
 
“Increasingly, it’s become obvious that all the so-called ‘biographical’ information sources for our ‘real Jesus’ boil down to Christian writings fully dependent upon our four canonical gospels—and in turn, these four have shown they are not based on any oral traditions or eyewitness reports, but are entirely literary constructions, and all appear to ultimately derive from a single text: a Greek book entitled The Good News of Jesus Christ, Son of God, which we know better as Mark’s Gospel.” (p. 217, Kindle) 
 
Conservative scholars will protest the claim that the gospels are not based on oral tradition or eyewitness reports. That is how they attempt to cling to their cherished Jesus in the gospels. But the blunt fact remains that the gospel authors do not name their sources—they do not identify the eyewitnesses—and how reliable is oral tradition if stories of Jesus had been retold dozens or hundreds of times before the gospel authors heard them for the first time? 
 
Moreover, Matthew, Luke, and John apparently wrote their gospels because they didn’t think Mark had done such a good job of it. Careful readers will be shocked if they read Mark, then John: their portrayals of Jesus are so different. And it’s very hard to defend any claim that Mark’s author qualified as a historian. 
 
Fitzgerald states the case well: “Mark’s entire Gospel is a treasure trove of symbolic, rather than historical, meaning, with parts created by borrowing from the Old Testament, the Homeric epics, and the letters of Paul. From start to finish, this is allegory, not history.” (page 217, Kindle)
 
For more on this, see especially Richard Carrier’s July 2024 article, All the Fantastical Things in the Gospel according to Mark.
 
Then there’s the problem of the apostle Paul, which Fitzgerald also addresses. Clergy divert attention from this problem by quoting Paul to their advantage, e.g., I Corinthians 13:4-7: “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
 
This was Paul in a good mood, but he was a rogue apostle who apparently never met Jesus, and distanced himself from those who had supposedly known Jesus. He boasted that all his information about Jesus came from his visions. Anyone who studies the genuine letters of Paul in the New Testament can grasp how and why he qualifies as a rogue apostle—and as a cult fanatic. As Fitzgerald states the case:
 
“At the end of the day, there is a real Paul: it’s just the one we don’t like: The bitchy, peevish, Paul that isn’t crazy about women and constantly swears that he’s not lying. All of which means Paul is only half-mythical—there’s the real, disappointing and all-too-human Paul from his genuine letters, and the legendary Super-Paul invented for the book of Acts.” (p. 265, Kindle)
 
One of the reasons that Christianity has shattered into thousands of different, bickering brands is that the New Testament itself preserves so many conflicting theologies. Thus devout believers pick and choose what they want to take seriously, and they’re not bothered that other Christians are adamantly opposed to their theological choices. And they can’t be bothered to engage in serious, critical study of the gospels—and discover the turmoil in Jesus studies. Moreover, apologists are committed to ignoring what has been revealed by Bible scholars who are not restrained by doctrine. In short, there’s a bitter war under way, as Fitzgerald has stated:
 
“But while believers may feel under siege in all other fields of history, in the rarified world of biblical studies, Christian presuppositions, biases and above all, theological (and their accompanying financial) interests still hold sway, making life very hard for any scholars whose findings threaten Christian doctrine.”  (p. 243, Kindle)
 
This book is well footnoted, pointing to so many resources available for further study. And be sure to check out Fitzgerald’s earlier books that cover the staggering problems that devout defenders of the faith have to deal with. Especially:
 
·      Nailed: Ten Christian Myths That Show Jesus Never Existed at All (2019)
·      Jesus: Mything in Action, Vol. I (2017)
·      Jesus: Mything in Action, Vol. II (2017)
·      Jesus: Mything in Action, Vol. III (2017)
 
 
David Madison was a pastor in the Methodist Church for nine years, and has a PhD in Biblical Studies from Boston University. He is the author of Ten Tough Problems in Christian Thought and Belief: a Minister-Turned-Atheist Shows Why You Should Ditch the Faith, now being reissued in several volumes:
·      Guessing About God (2023),
·   Ten Things Christians Wish Jesus Hadn’t Taught: And Other Reasons to Question His Words (2021). The Spanish translation of this book is also available. 
·     Everything You Need to Know About Prayer But May Not Want to Admit (2025)
 
His YouTube channel is here. At the invitation of John Loftus, he has written for the Debunking Christianity Blog since 2016.
 
The Cure-for-Christianity Library©, now with more than 500 titles, is here. A brief video explanation of the Library is here.