Israeli professor, author repeats call to 'rewrite' the Bible
A controversial Israeli professor is once again calling for a “rewrite” of the Holy Bible.
Yuval Noah Harari, a lecturer at the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and bestselling author of titles including Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, has a new book out in which he questions the process of the canonization of the Bible” and suggests that the “Bible needs a rewrite.”
In an interview with The Globe and Mail earlier this month, Harari, 48, explained why he devoted an entire chapter in Nexus, A Brief History of Information Networks to the process of the canonization of the Bible.
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In the context of examining the transfer of ideas across time and culture throughout human history, Nexus raises doubts about the Bible as a document that was, as the Globe reports “pieced together over a long period of time that ended with the emergence of a canonical work.”
“There is a chapter in the book about the process of the canonization of the Bible,” Harari told the outlet. “... We have texts from the second and third and fourth centuries [Common Era].”
According to the outlet, the book argues that the biblical canon wasn’t determined until the late fourth century with the Councils of Hippo and Carthage.
And as for his claims about the New Testament canon?
Theologians like Bruce M. Metzger, Ph.D., former professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, have long dismissed such arguments and said the official synod decisions were merely recognitions of what was already considered holy writ.
“When, toward the close of the fourth century, church synods and councils began to issue pronouncements concerning the New Testament canon, they were merely ratifying the judgment of individual Christians throughout the church who had come to perceive by intuitive insight the inherent worth of the several books,” Metzer wrote in 2014.
“In the most basic sense neither individuals nor councils created the canon; instead they came to perceive and acknowledge the self-authenticating quality of these writings, which imposed themselves as canonical upon the church.”
In his book You Can Trust the Bible, Erwin Lutzer, senior pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, Illinois, explained that all 27 books in our present canon were written and received by the churches by the end of the first century, even if some of the canonical lists were incomplete.
In addition, every book of the New Testament had been cited as authoritative by some church father, Lutzer said.
"These councils neither added nor subtracted books, but simply approved the list of twenty-seven which had already been recognized by the early church,” said Lutzer. “Given the geographical distances, the limitations of communication, and the diverse backgrounds of the churches, such agreement is remarkable."
Pointing to the rejection of certain books like the Acts of Paul and Thecla, a late second century text which outlines the life of Thecla, a disciple of Paul's, Harari argued that such decisions “shaped Christian attitudes to women down to the present day.”
When asked whether he views himself more as a scientist or a historian, Harari said his work is based on objective evidence.
“If you write the history of the world from your own imagination, it is not history. It is literature,” he said. “When I write about Neanderthals or about the Bible, I have evidence. A 40,000 year-old bone in Spain. A record of the synod meetings.”
Harari — who once compared the LGBT movement with the 19th century emancipation of the Jews and hosts Q&A sessions to offer a “scientific perspective on homosexuality” — also claims Scripture contains “moral mistakes,” including what he claims to be the approval of slavery.
“The other mark of science is the willingness to admit mistakes,” he said. “Religions don’t do that. Once the Bible is canonized, it is deemed to be perfect. And I am not only talking about factual mistakes, but also about moral mistakes.”
He cited the Tenth Commandment against coveting a neighbor’s house, wife or slaves — a commandment which, Harari argued, “implies that God had no problem with slavery, only with coveting someone else’s slaves.
While theologians have debated over the role of slavery in Scripture, Old Testament scholars such as Walter Kaiser have argued that passages such as those found in Exodus 20 are intended not to facilitate but, rather, to mitigate abuse toward slaves.
Other scholars like Joe Sprinkle say the specific legislative stipulations of Exodus 21-23 must be read in light of the larger narrative concerns of Exodus 19-24 and, beyond that, in light of the deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt.
“The Bible needs a rewrite,” he argued.
Harari made a similar claim in June 2023, when he predicted the rapid growth of artificial intelligence would result in a “new Bible.”
“In a few years there might be religions that are actually correct,” he said.
Harari has also advocated for referring to Christianity’s holy book as “just stories.” In an October 2022 column for The Guardian, Harari pointed to how young children in Israel hear about the biblical accounts of the Garden of Eden and Noah’s Ark long before they’re taught about Neanderthals or cave paintings.
“To gain some freedom from these narratives and behave differently we need to understand how they were created and spread in the first place,” Harari wrote. “Otherwise, we will never see them for what they are: just stories.”
He has also described Christians as having “locked themselves inside of a self-reinforcing mythological bubble, never daring to question the factual veracity of the Bible.”
