Let’s face it, the Old Testament can be a tad confusing.
Biblical scholar Prof. David Bokovoy, joins Gina Colvin to discuss the things that are handy to know in order to really appreciate the Old Testament as a sacred text worth reading today!
Link to David’s Book: Authoring the Old Testament
Gina, firstly, I love hearing you speak, that female New Zealand accent, wow, sexy, and of course Thanks for the show. So many fascinating topics to explore in discussing the bible. I hope you have David on again to get deeper into the historical Jesus! Specifically, I have a question about the reference in Isaiah 7:14 which I heard from a orthodox Jewish rabbi has been misinterpreted, misunderstood, and misused by Christians! Is it true that the original Hebrew of Isaiah does not refer to a “virgin” having a son, or child, but a “young woman”? Therefore, Isaiah wasn’t writing about the immaculate conception the gospels portrayed (especially Matthew). Hmmmm, this is a bit of a conundrum.
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This is huge stuff for Christians! If this is true, that certainly knocks the whole doctrine of “the virgin birth of Jesus” out of the park, so to speak! Please let me know what David has to say on this point. I would love to hear someone with the linguistic skills he has to elaborate, clarify, and teach us what Isaiah is saying there. He referred to the “suffering servant” metaphor (the rabbi mentioned that as well), so I am anxiously waiting to hear something on the Isaiah 7:14 passage as well.
Thank you! God bless.
Excellent commentary. I second this.
Can’t wait to listen to this episode.
Could David Bochovy comment to the theory regarding the Torah (or Pentateuch) haven been written by Old Israelite’s as a way of staking claims and right to the land and not being actual or real history but rather a fabrication of history to promote national pride and union of tribe, religion, identity, etc.
I suppose a good place to start is to analyze the wikipedia entries:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_the_Bible#Genesis_creation_narrative
It seems according to Israeli archaeologist Israel Finkelstein in The Bible Unearthed that the Exodus and Conquest did not happen.
You talk about it not being important for churches to be true. What about God being real? Do you think about whether God exists or is that not important to you?