The Fiction Behind the Faith: Why the ancient Israelis created a history (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781977290144)

The stories in the Old Testament, such as Creation, the Global Flood, the enslavement of the Jews in Egypt, the Ten Plagues on Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the conquest of the Promised Land by Joshua, are myths. They never happened. We know that for several reasons. They claim God dictated them to Moses at Mt. Sinai, but they're full of demonstrable errors that God wouldn't have made. Next, the Pentateuch describes Israeli history from the 20th century BCE, but that's at least seven centuries before they evolved as a people.

Why then were these myths created? In 722 BCE, the ten Israelite tribes in northern Canaan were conquered by the Assyrians, and in 586 BCE, the last two tribes in the south were conquered by the Babylonians. At that point, they had lost everything: their freedom, their land and their temple. They struggled to survive as a people and a religion. Their response was revolutionary. They created a past. They compiled stories that purport to describe their history. This fictitious history was created for a strategic purpose. The stories present a warrior god whose victories range from defeating the Egyptians to conquering the tribes in the Promised Land, and, by implication, he could return to free them. This god did everything for the Israelis, from freeing them from slavery to feeding them manna for 40 years in the desert. For people struggling to survive, these stories were a lifeline. They showed how people in crisis created a past to secure a future. Its success in doing so is undeniable.

This book is a bold, evidence-driven investigation into these stories, drawing on archaeology, history, and rhetorical analysis. Its thorough approach aims to uncover the truth behind these myths, encouraging readers to trust the scholarly effort to understand their origins and purpose.