We began by identifying, as a group, some evidence from Genesis 6 – 9 that there are two stories of the Flood intertwined. The group noted that the number of animals taken into the ark was 2 in one account, and 7 clean with 2 unclean in the second account. Also, one author seemed to be more detail-oriented than the other, putting in a lot of information about dates and ages and names. There was also some discussion of 40 days vs. 150 days of flood – with a questioning of whether that was really two separate accounts, or a statement of 40 days of rain followed by 150 days of flood-stage waters.
The Documentary Hypothesis
I used those discoveries and the story of the Flood to demonstrate the difference between the writing styles of the two authors, known in academic circles as “J” and “P.”
J is the Yahwist, so called because he refers to God by His proper name, Yahweh. (Because this distinct strand was first identified in Germany, where Yahweh is written Jahveh, it became known as the J strand rather than the Y strand.) J was written about 950 years B.C. by an author who was in or close to the royal court of King Solomon, the son of the nation’s founder, David. It is celebratory in character and has a very optomistic view about the future of the then-new Israelite nation.
P is the Priestly account. It was written around 550 years before Christ by members of the priestly class who lived about 400 years after the first account was penned. During those 400 years, the nation of Israel had been through a lot of tragedy. The tribe of Judah, from which sprang King David and the royal house, had behaved so lordly toward the other tribes that those tribes mounted a revolt. Civil war resulted, leading to the partition of Israel into the north (called Israel) and the south (called Judah).
In 722, the north, Israel, the break-away province, was destroyed by invading armies. The south, where the royal house continued, said that was God’s punishment for withdrawing from the kingdom God had established.
However, around 620 the southern nation was also destroyed, and the leaders were led captive to a P.O.W. camp outside Babylon. That was the beginning of the so-called Babylonian Captivity, or the Exile, which lasted 80 years. It wiped out the royal succession, and led to the rise of the authority of the priestly class.
The priests interpreted the destruction of God’s earthly kingdom – the Davidic nation – as God’s punishment for turning away from obedience to God. To restore the nation, they said, the people needed to undergo a spiritual renaissance. And from that perspective, they went back over the stories and traditions of Israel, adding material to emphasize the ritual and legal requirements God had for His people.
The second Flood story is one outcome of that reworking of the old national epic. It is more sober and introspective than the first account; but also less literate. When read on its own, it comes across as dry, redundant, and tedious. Sentences tend to be terse and staccato in nature, which is strongly contrasted to the J version’s flowing, more literate style.
However, it also comes across as more ethical than the first account. The second account focuses on human responsibility and accountability to God, as a counterbalance to the first story’s assumption that the nation – and especially the House of David – could do no wrong; that whatever they did, God would approve because God had declared David His son and the Israelites His people.
Why does it matter that we discover and explore the separate strands in the Bible?
When we separate out these two accounts, and consider their perspectives, we can see a message directed right at us, today. One theme running through the Bible is found in the hard lesson learned by the Israelites, that when they turn away from God the nation falls apart; and when they return to spiritual discipline, the nation is restored.
The early nation thought they could do and be anything and God would come along behind them and approve and sustain them because, after all, they were God’s chosen people! The priests reflected back on that attitude, 400 years later, and observed that it doesn’t work like that. When God’s people turn away from obedience to God, God not only does not follow but uses other nations to “chastize” His people. God’s purpose is not to punish, but to put a brick wall in front of His people, in order that they might bloody their noses, turn around, and head back toward God’s realm.
That’s what we were talking about in the story of the Fall. When we disobey God we cannot remain in Life. We cannot remain in the Garden. But rather, Death becomes dominant, and with it we experience personal and social decay, confusion, violence, disorder, and tragedy. However, when we stop trying to be our own gods, and allow God to be God for us, then our chaos begins to straighten itself out, and Life (unity, harmony, delight, fulfillment) begins to reassert itself in our personal and corporate lives.
The two versions of the Flood story are making that same point in their own ways. They are each a pole in that lesson. When we separate them out, we can discover their respective perspectives, understand the role they play in God’s Word to us, and see ourselves in the continuum between the poles so that we can move closer to God, and therefore closer to Life.
For the class, I provided the two stories, separated out in parallel columns, so we could read each account independent of the other to more easily see the differences in writing style, vocabulary, tone, and concern. You can access that document in the Supplement to this post.
My purpose in dealing with Noah’s Flood in this way was to continue some themes I’ve introduced before. I want to demonstrate that the Bible is not a unified, integrated, single-source document. Rather, it is made up of a number of strands, written over about 1000 years, by a variety of very faithful people who are trying to say something about who God has shown Himself to be.
The value of knowing that is to open our eyes. When we are looking for differences of perspective – when we don’t expect the Bible to speak with one voice – we start to notice things we haven’t seen before. For example, one class member acknowledged that she had never realized that Noah had released a raven in addition to the dove. She had simply never noticed.
Similarly, a person who has followed this class only online sent me an email in which she said she had read the whole Bible twice before this, and only on this third reading of the story of the Flood picked up evidence of two accounts. “You see what you expect to see,” she said. And that’s the point: I want to show you that the Bible is more than you have seen it to be – so it is worth your time to read it again, as if for the first time. Read it more closely, looking for things you haven’t previously expected to see. Because what you will see will have less to do with finding different voices (in the end that’s not the most important lesson) than with discovering new insights about who God is and what God wants from us.
In fact, the Bible presented to us in Sunday School classes was overly simplified – as it must be for children. But because most adult Christians have not looked very carefully at the Bible (if they’ve looked at all) since reaching adulthood, their perspective on God, the Bible, and the Christian life has not had a chance to mature.
Join the conversation to find your purpose in life
Plus, when we discover that the Bible is a conversation conducted by faithful people discussing who God is and what God wants, we learn that we are also invited to join that conversation. To do so, we need to enter into the Bible, to listen to the similarities and differences in what the various strands of biblical perspective are saying, and to respond and react to those differences and similarities. By listening to those who have come before us, and by adding our voices to the conversation about God, we are transformed in our minds, which – Paul said – is the purpose of faith in Christ.
I believe that the Bible is the Word of God. It is a Word that God has spoken through faithful believers who have written, read, reflected upon, and edited the books we now know as Scripture. Their work spans more than 1000 years, reflects the cultural perspective of multiple societies, and incorporates the insights of dozens – perhaps hundreds - of people. That is, it is bigger than any person, time period, place, or culture. It has become universally transcendent, and so it is alien to any human viewpoint. Everyone who takes up the study of the Bible, looking for what it has to say that is not consistent with what they expect (and want) it to say, will be challenged by its message – challenged to change and grow, and in the process to become more like the men and women God would have us be.
And you know what? As we wrestle with what God is actually saying to us, we come alive! And the life of faith comes alive. And we become more certain of what God wants us, individually, to do – why God has made us the way we are. In a word, we discover our purpose in life.
In the end, that’s why it really matters. We all want to know why we are here. Seeing ourselves in God’s Word can give us the answer we yearn for.
Next
In our next session, we will look at the story of The Tower of Babel.
That’s the last myth in our program, so we are at the end of this series. I imagine we’ll finish on the 23rd of February, though we might go to March 9th.
Read Genesis 10 & 11. Notice the two genealogies framing the story. And notice that the first sentence of chapter 12 begins the history of God calling the Hebrew people to be His special people in the world. As of Genesis 12 the Bible is no longer in mythological territory.
