How to interpret and trust the Old Testament

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Buckeye1010

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Hi - I have grown up Catholic and while have expressed doubts I try and look at stuff and make sense of it. I have an issue with the Old Testament…or I should say lots and lots of questions. I don’t understand how for one there seems to be so much authorized killing by God. Also it seems like a lot of the stories are really far fetched almost like Greek mythology…especially Genesis and some of the other ones. It seems to be from days where people were told by God to do this and that, spoke to people (it appears outloud) etc…and now if someone says God spoke to them we wait and see who said it before we believe them or dismiss them as out of touch with reality. Also it seems like a lot of the Old Testament has history in it…but doesn’t necessarily line up with outside sources to point to and validating those accounts are true.

I guess when reading the Old Testament it sounds super far fetched and then when reading the New Testament it sounds more real to me. Is anyone able to help me out with my interpretation and why they are so different…why the OT seems like mythology and far fetched…and why it seems like all this stuff seemed to sort of stop after Jesus.
 
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Looking for something more “solid” that seems to apply to modern times?
See Isaiah 3:17-24 which is a very good description of conditions for Jewish women in WW II slave labor camps.

Instead of a belt, a rope;
Instead of a scent, a stink;
Instead of a dress, a sack;
Instead of a nice hairdo; a shaven scalp;
And brand marks instead of beauty.*

*Note; tattooing is considered a form of branding when it is used for identification.
 
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Buckeye, could we take these issues one by one and try to put them in time and context? That might help to understand and flesh them out a bit more.
 
Buckeye1010 said:
I guess when reading the Old Testament it sounds super far fetched and then when reading the New Testament it sounds more real to me.
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When you read the OT, remember the books were written at different times across a history of many centuries. It’s not like the NT, where all the books were written, from start to finish, within the space of fifty years or so. Moses lived a thousand years before Daniel. You have to make allowance for things like that.
 
Right, I understand that the OT is a much greater time span than the NT…however that doesn’t change my thought that is seems almost mythical vs factual. Would you be able to elaborate more on what you are saying? Is it just the cultural differences in how they write from one time period to another? Is this something where we should look at the OT to more tell embellished stories to get a point across? Thanks
 
Very briefly, your description of “almost mythical” fits the older books of the OT, particularly the first eleven chapters of Genesis, but not so much the later books. Compare, for example, the historical account of how Solomon’s kingdom split into two after his death, the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel. It’s in chapters 10 & 11 of 2 Chronicles. I think you’ll find the narrative is much closer to what we now consider as straightforward history, even though it’s describing events that took place as long ago as the 930s and 920s BC.

And then fast forward another 800 years to chapter 12 of 1 Maccabees, about Jonathan, the second king of Judea in the Hasmonean period. He reigned in the 150s and 140s BC. It’s a wholly different kind of history book, once again.
 
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