Bible vs. Zohar

[Zman084]

Hi,

An ex-Catholic told me the Bible is not inspired because there are stories in different mythologies that parallel some of the Biblical stories (such as the flood account). He even went so far to say that the Bible (as well as all other “mythologies”) are based on the Zohar, which is the oldest religious/mythological book. How do I respond to him?

Zach

 

[VociMike]

The Christian answer (and Jewish answer, I suspect) is that since we have been made to seek God, it is only natural that this component of our nature would have found false outlets (false religions) until God’s full revelation was given to us.

To give an analogy, it has been observed that babies in the womb sometimes suck their thumbs. Now, this is only a precursor of the true lifegiving activity of sucking at the mother’s breast. It is a “misguided” and premature outlet of a true and good part of our nature, which only finds it fulfillment later when the baby uses that same instinct to feed itself. But nobody would argue that the baby feeding itself was somehow just a meaningless imitation of that earlier, “more real” sucking of its thumb.

(I just made up that analogy, but I think it’s pretty good! )

 

[Contarini]

Hi,

An ex-Catholic told me the Bible is not inspired because there are stories in different mythologies that parallel some of the Biblical stories (such as the flood account). He even went so far to say that the Bible (as well as all other “mythologies”) are based on the Zohar, which is the oldest religious/mythological book. How do I respond to him?

Zach

That’s nonsense. The Zohar *claims *to be the record of conversations among ancient rabbis (more or less contemporary with the New Testament and early Christianity, I think). Of course it claims to be the record of a more ancient wisdom, but the ostensible authorship is later than the OT and perhaps also the NT (certainly not significantly older). However, I suspect that the only major religious group who would believe this are the Hasidim, if even they do. Scholars outside the particular faith communities that rely on the Zohar (not many except for the Hasidim these days, though at one time Kabbalism was mainstream Judaism) are pretty confident that the text was written in the Middle Ages–around the 13th century I think (I should know, since I’m teaching about this stuff on Monday!)–by a guy named Moses de Leon. So your friend is way out in left field on this one.

Edwin