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Doctrine of Discovery Papal Bull of Pope Alexander VI

Pope Francis visited Canada this past week to apologize for the Church’s role in Canada’s Residential Boarding schools.

During the visit, demonstrators brought up the concept of the doctrine of discovery, and in particular a singular document issued by Pope Alexander the 6th in 1493, the following year of Columbus’s discovery of America, in which he grants allegedly the holder of the bull, mainly the king of Castile, another name for Spain, the right, according to the indigenous and other demonstrators, which was subsequently used to justify colonialism, and European expansion.

Given that it seems to us that no one bothers to fact check any of the claims and out of fear of being singled out by somewhat unstable personalities or special interests with strategic plans which include how to quash opposition, and knowing the contents of the document, we thought it important to publish the translation of the document so that the readers may judge for themselves.

100 leagues = 483kms. Fyi

Pope Alexander VI’s Demarcation Bull, May 4, 1493. (The Gilder Lehrman Collection, GLC04093)

Alexander, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the illustrious sovereigns, our very dear son in Christ, Ferdinand, king, and our very dear daughter in Christ, Isabella, queen of Castile, Leon, Aragon, Sicily, and Granada, health and apostolic benediction. Among other works well pleasing to the Divine Majesty and cherished of our heart, this assuredly ranks highest, that in our times especially the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and be everywhere increased and spread, that the health of souls be cared for and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith itself. Wherefore inas- much as by the favor of divine clemency, we, though of insufficient merits, have been called to this Holy See of Peter, recognizing that as true Catholic kings and princes, such as we have known you always to be, and as your illustrious deeds already known to almost the whole world declare, you not only eagerly desire but with every effort, zeal, and diligence, without regard to hardships, expenses, dangers, with the shedding even of your blood, are laboring to that end; recognizing also that you have long since dedicated to this purpose your whole soul and all your endeavors–as witnessed in these times with so much glory to the Divine Name in your recovery of the kingdom of Granada from the yoke of the Saracens–we therefore are rightly led, and hold it as our duty, to grant you even of our own accord and in your favor those things whereby with effort each day more hearty you may be enabled for the honor of God himself and the spread of the Christian rule to carry forward your holy and praiseworthy purpose so pleasing to immortal God.

We have indeed learned that you, who for a long time had intended to seek out and discover certain islands and mainlands remote and unknown and not hitherto discovered by others, to the end that you might bring to the worship of our Redeemer and the profession of the Catholic faith their residents and inhabitants, having been up to the present time greatly engaged in the siege and recovery of the kingdom itself of Granada were unable to accomplish this holy and praiseworthy purpose; but the said kingdom having at length been regained, as was pleasing to the Lord, you, with the wish to fulfill your desire, chose our beloved son, Christopher Columbus, a man assuredly worthy and of the highest recommendations and fitted for so great an undertaking, whom you furnished with ships and men equipped for like designs, not without the greatest hardships, dangers, and expenses, to make diligent quest for these remote and unknown mainlands and islands through the sea, where hitherto no one had sailed; and they at length, with divine aid and with the utmost diligence sailing in the ocean sea, discovered certain very remote islands and even mainlands that hitherto had not been discovered by others; wherein dwell very many peoples living in peace, and, as reported, going unclothed, and not eating flesh. Moreover, as your aforesaid envoys are of opinion, these very peoples living in the said islands and countries believe in one God, the Creator in heaven, and seem sufficiently disposed to embrace the Catholic faith and be trained in good morals. And it is hoped that, were they instructed, the name of the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, would easily be introduced into the said countries and islands. Also, on one of the chief of these aforesaid islands the said Christopher has already caused to be put together and built a fortress fairly equipped, wherein he has stationed as garrison certain Christians, companions of his, who are to make search for other remote and unknown islands and mainlands. In the islands and countries already discovered are found gold, spices, and very many other precious things of divers kinds and qualities. Wherefore, as becomes Catholic kings and princes, after earnest consideration of all matters, especially of the rise and spread of the Catholic faith, as was the fashion of your ancestors, kings of renowned memory, you have purposed with the favor of divine clemency to bring under your sway the said mainlands and islands with their residents and inhabitants and to bring them to the Catholic faith.

Hence, heartily commending in the Lord this your holy and praiseworthy purpose, and desirous that it be duly accomplished, and that the name of our Savior be carried into those regions, we exhort you very earnestly in the Lord and by your reception of holy baptism, whereby you are bound to our apostolic commands, and by the bowels of the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, enjoy strictly, that inasmuch as with eager zeal for the true faith you design to equip and despatch this expedition, you purpose also, as is your duty, to lead the peoples dwelling in those islands and countries to embrace the Christian religion; nor at any time let dangers or hardships deter you therefrom, with the stout hope and trust in your hearts that Almighty God will further your undertakings. And, in order that you may enter upon so great an undertaking with greater readiness and heartiness endowed with benefit of our apostolic favor, we, of our own accord, not at your instance nor the request of anyone else in your regard, but out of our own sole largess and certain knowledge and out of the fullness of our apostolic power, by the authority of Almighty God conferred upon us in blessed Peter and of the vicarship of Jesus Christ, which we hold on earth, do by tenor of these presents, should any of said islands have been found by your envoys and captains, give, grant, and assign to you and your heirs and successors, kings of Castile and Leon, forever, together with all their dominions, cities, camps, places, and villages, and all rights, jurisdictions, and appurtenances, all islands and mainlands found and to be found, discovered and to be discovered towards the west and south, by drawing and establishing a line from the Arctic pole, namely the north, to the Antarctic pole, namely the south, no matter whether the said mainlands and islands are found and to be found in the direction of India or towards any other quarter, the said line to be distant one hundred leagues towards the west and south from any of the islands commonly known as the Azores and Cape Verde. With this proviso however that none of the islands and mainlands, found and to be found, discovered and to be discovered, beyond that said line towards the west and south, be in the actual possession of any Christian king or prince up to the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ just past from which the present year one thousand four hundred ninety-three begins. And we make, appoint, and depute you and your said heirs and successors lords of them with full and free power, authority, and jurisdiction of every kind; with this proviso however, that by this our gift, grant, and assignment no right acquired by any Christian prince, who may be in actual possesssion of said islands and mainlands prior to the said birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ, is hereby to be understood to be withdrawn or taking away.

Moreover we command you in virtue of holy obedience that, employing all due diligence in the premises, as you also promise–nor do we doubt your compliance therein in accordance with your loyalty and royal greatness of spirit–you should appoint to the aforesaid mainlands and islands worthy, God- fearing, learned, skilled, and expeienced men, in order to instruct the aforesaid inhabitants and residents in the Catholic faith and train them in good morals. Furthermore, under penalty of excommunication “late sententie” to be incurred “ipso facto,” should anyone thus contravene, we strictly forbid all persons of whatsoever rank, even imperial and royal, or of whatsoever estate, degree, order, or condition, to dare without your special permit or that of your aforesaid heirs and successors, to go for the purpose of trade or any other reason to the islands or mainlands, found and to be found, discovered and to be discovered, towards the west and south, by drawing and establishing a line from the Arctic pole to the Antarctic pole, no matter whether the mainlands and islands, found and to be found, lie in the direction of India or toward any other quarter whatsoever, the said line to be distant one hundred leagues towards the west and south, as is aforesaid, from any of the islands commonly known as the Azores and Cape Verde; apostolic constitutions and ordinances and other decrees whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding. We trust in Him from whom empires and governments and all good things proceed, that, should you, with the Lord’s guidance, pursue this holy and praiseworthy undertaking, in a short while your hardships and endeavors will attain the most felicitious result, to the happiness and glory of all Christendom. But inasmuch as it would be difficult to have these present letters sent to all places where desirable, we wish, and with similar accord and knowledge do decree, that to? copies of them, signed by the hand of a public notary commissioned therefor, and sealed with the seal of any ecclesiastical officer or ecclesiastical court, the same respect is to be shown in court and outside as well as anywhere else as would be given to these presents should they thus be exhibited or shown. Let no one, therefore, infringe, or with rash boldness contravene, this our recommendation, exhortation, requisition, gift, grant, assignment, constitution, deputation, decree, mandate, prohibition, and will. Should anyone presume to attempt this, be it known to him that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul.

Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s, in the year of the incarnation of our Lord one thousand four hundred and ninety-three, the fourth of May, and the first year of our pontificate.

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Various Quotes Confirming Fallacy of Religion

The following quotes are from writers throughout the ages, church fathers, rabbis, ministers and theologians, in which they admit to the trick of religion or which suggest their collusion to put forward a deceptive system for purposes of social and political control.

“I find no other means to prove myself to be impudent with success, and happily a fool, than by my contempt of shame ; as for instance, I maintain that the Son of God was born ; why am I not ashamed of maintaining such a thing ? Why? But ‘because it is of itself a shameful thing. I maintain that the Son of God died ; well, that is wholly credible, because it is monstrously absurd, — I maintain that after having been buried, he rose again; and this I take to be absolutely true, because it was manifestly impossible.”

(Tertullian, Quoted by Kev. R. Taylor, Diegesis, p. 45.)

“O Lord, I never spake a true word in my life, but I have always lived in dissimulation, and affirmed a lie for the truth to all men, and no man contradicted me, but all gave credit to my words.”

Hermes, mentioned by St. Paul (Rom. xvi, 14)

“For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I judged as a sinner?”

(Rom. iii, 7.)

“That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, but not understand.”

Mark 4:12

“A little jargon is all that is necessary to impose upon the people. The less they know the more they admire. Our forefathers and doctors have often said, not what they thought, but what circumstances and necessity dictated.”

Bishop Gregory Nazianzen to St. Jerome

“The people are desirous to be deceived; there is no acting otherwise with them. For my own part, to myself I shall always be a philosopher, but in dealing with the mass of mankind, I shall be a priest.”

Bishop Synesius, born in Gyrene, Africa, in the fourth century

The Book on the Creation (Bereishit/Genesis), when taken according to the letter, gives the most extravagant notions of the Deity. Whoever, therefore, should perceive their true meaning ought to take care not to divulge it. It is difficult for any one, either from the text itself, or from lights elsewhere afforded, to keep off from a good guess at what it means; but then he ought to say nothing about it.”

Rabbi Moses Maimonides RAMBAM, “Guide to the Perplexed”

To preserve equilibrium, the majority of men must be fools, and only the minority sensible, for the economy of society demands a coordination of manual labor and mental direction. Those who execute the manual labor, — building houses, tilling the ground, weaving cloth, — are subservient to those who direct the affairs of State. The laborer is a living tool.”

Rev S. Baring-Gold, 1870
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Hebrew Mythology Preface

OR, THE RATIONALE OF THE BIBLE WHEREIN IT IS SHOWN THAT THE HOLY SCRIPTURES TREAT OF NATURAL PHENOMENA ONLY.

BY

MILTON WOOLLEY, M. D.

“When we shall be able to bring into Semitic Studies the same liberty of scientific criticism which is conceded to Aryan Studies, we shall have a Semitic Mythology. — DeGubernatis’ Zoological Mythology, Vol. ii, p. 412.

ILLUSTRATED

New York : THE TRUTH SEEKER COMPANY,

28 LAFAYETTE PLACE.

Copyrighted, 1888,

BY

The Truth Seeker Co.

PREFACE

HUMAN nature in every age and country is very much the same; though modified to some extent by the circumstances of time, place and degree of civilization. Hence the general resemblance of all the cosmogonies or creations found in the various mythologies of the world — the Hebrew not excepted. Impressed by these sentiments, I became strongly convinced that all were framed, in all their details, on the same general plan. Accordingly, nearly seven years ago, when turned of my sixtieth year, I began the study of the Hebrew language in order to discover, if possible, the lost key, by whose aid I might recover the rich treasure so long locked up from public view. My endeavor was, as I believe, crowned with a success as complete as one could desire — a success amounting in fact to actual demonstration, as many, if not most of my readers will come to see and acknowledge.

The labor of the study and composition of my work, though difficult, long and tedious, was one of love — of love, first, because of the intellectual enjoyment experienced in this most varied and interesting study of man’s nature and motives — and second, because of the prospective good which may accrue, as the result of my investigations, to my fellow-citizens throughout the world. That the foundation of my system is stable, and able to resist any attack of criticism, I do not entertain a doubt, as its truth is based on my philological analysis of the word Elohim, and also on any amount of corroborative evidence. On this score, I may defy the assaults of criticism. Among the details of my expose, there may be, and doubtless are, some errors, or what may be deemed such. These may furnish food for the small critic.

My foundation, then, being established, its superstructure, if at all damaged, may be readily repaired. I trust, however, that my exposition will prove in the main correct. The person who shall attempt its overthrow will, of course, first undertake to do away with my analysis of the word Elohim, and so upset the rules of the Hebrew language. His next care should be to account for the uniform ease and facility with which my system proceeds to unravel each and all, even to the most difficult, problems of the Old Testament; none being omitted because of their intricacy. Thus he will find plenty of work, — more perhaps than he bargained for, or can hope to execute.

Science is ever progressive, and but for theology, would become more general among the people, much to the advantage of all. As the case now stands, the very poor, except occasionally individual of indomitable will (and of such come the most useful of every age and country), are completely shut off from science. The middle, but not wealthy, class are obliged to spend all they can spare in church-going, to find themselves at the end of a long life, as ignorant, almost, as at its beginning. Only the wealthy can afford to give their offspring a classical and scientific education. For this inequality of condition, a remedy should be provided. If knowledge is desirable and useful, as most people allow, its benefits should extend as far as possible to all. How may this be done? Let the same amount of money, and time, and assiduity, now spent in churchgoing, in reading and commenting on the myths of the Bible, be spent in seeking out and cultivating the improvement of the poor and middle classes — in teaching them science, which they can understand, thus elevating them in their own estimation, and we shall have done for them and ourselves a lasting benefit; we shall have made them more intelligent, more industrious, more useful and better citizens — rendered their homes more desirable, their families happier, and the world altogether better. The gag-shop, the brothel, and all the paraphernalia therewith connected, would be cast aside, and crime of every description would quickly reach its minimum. Yes, let our churches be turned into halls of science, our preachers into teachers of the same, with apparatus for its illustration, and people of all classes would flock thither, eager to possess themselves of knowledge, — eager to join themselves in one universal brotherhood.

Ah! then we would have more teachers and fewer priests; more educated, and fewer ignorant; more books, and less whiskey; more sober, and fewer drunken; more moral, and fewer criminal — in fine, more of everything conducive to the ease, comfort, and enjoyment of the whole people, and less of misery, disease, and premature death.

Milton Woolley, Streator, January 23, 1877.

CONTENTS

Introduction. 

Chapter I. Creation,

II. Adam and Eve,

III. Cain and Abel,

IV. Flood,

V. Tower of Babel,

VI. Abram and Sarai,

VII. Isaac and Rebekah, 

VIII. Jacob and Rachel,

IX. Jacob and his Sons, 

X. The Exodus,

XI. Sanctifying the Ftrst-born,

XII. Israel’s Wanderings,

XIII. Joshua, 

XIV. Judges,

XV. Ruth, –

XVI. Samuel, 

XVII. David, 

XVIII. Solomon,

XIX. Elijah — Elisha,

XX. Jehoshaphat — Zedekiah,

XXI. Ezra, 

XXII. Nehemiah,

XXIII. Esther,

XXIV. Job, 

XXV. Psalms, 

XXVI. Isaiah,

XXVII. Daniel, 

XXVITI. Jonah

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Who are the Hebrews?

It may surprise you to learn that there was no such language in the ancient world called Hebrew. The Canaanites, from whom Jews emerge at least in some number, spoke a language called Canaanite, Canaan, Qana’an, or by the Greeks, Phoenician.

In fact, the Torah itself tells us that the language it is written in is called SFT QNN or the language of Canaan. The word Ivrit, for Hebrew, is never used.

The idea of “Paleo-Hebrew” is nonsense. It is a complete mythical construction. Paleo-Hebrew is nothing more than the Phoenician alphabet. Almost everything we have from Judea, including the inscription of “YHWH and his Asherah” from the 9th or 8th c BCE is written in the Phoenician script in a lnaguage called Canaan or Phoenician, which is what Hebrew is. Not SIMILAR, but SAME.

Ivrit for the language and Ivrim for the people is a word that describes a region of the world in the ancient times called Iberian Albania, Iberia, Iveria or Colchis or Kolkhis. It is the region of the modern day nations of Georgia and Armenia, on the Black Sea, and in fact the ancient kingdom of Kartvili, Georgia, was called Iveria. As the people from this part of the world migrate West into Europe, they take their ancient placenames with them, and so today, the term Iberia is most commonly associated with Portugal and Spain, on the Westernmost part of Europe. “Albania” is most commonly understood to be the European nation in Southeastern Europe, on the Adriatic. But both terms were most commonly used in the ancient world to refer to this area on the Black Sea, today we would call it Caucuses.

Immediately south of this region is Northern Iraq, in the ancient world called Chaldea or Babylonian Chaldea. We know by tradition that the Jews are said to be from Chaldea, i.e. Abraham certainly, that the Samaritans, also from here, are from the neighbouring region of Cuthi. Both of this is mentioned in the Tanakh.

Additional to the etymological evidence, however, is an attestation we can find in Herodotos, which in combination with the themes chosen for the Biblical story of Exodus, how the Hebrews were once slaves in the land of Egypt, provides for curious documentary evidence. Herodotos writes (in Historiae, II, 104:1-3 — Legrand = F1R):

( 1 ) For it is plain to see that the Colchians are Egyptians; and this that I say I myself noted before I heard it from others. When I began to think on this matter, I inquired of both peoples; and the Colchians remembered the Egyptians better than the Egyptians remembered the Colchians; (2) the Egyptians said that they held the Colchians to be part of Sesostris’ army. I myself guessed it to be so, partly because they are dark-skinned and wooly-haired; though that indeed goes for nothing, seeing that other peoples, too, are such; but my better proof was that the Colchians and Egyptians and Ethiopians are the only nations that have from the first practised circumcision. (3) The Phoenicians and the Syrians of Palestine acknowledge of themselves that they learnt the custom from the Egyptians, and the Syrians of the valleys of the Thermodon and the Parthenius, as well as their neighbours the Macrones, say that they learnt it lately from the Colchians. (trans. A. D . Godley, LC)

Therefore, the term “Hebrew” is likely synonymous with the term Cholchian as it is used by Herodotos. It is a later creation, and refers to people who were believed to have had a connection to the Jews and Egyptians (i.e. Semitic) and is therefore likely a term that had been initially applied by the Europeans as the Jews (Yehudi, language is Yehudith – a term Torah does use a few times) in reference to their then geographic location in the Caucuses) rather than their ethnicity or religion.

In many European languages, the word for “Jew” is not “Jehudi” or “Yehudi”, but “Yevrey,” or “Evrey,” or “Iberey” – as in Iberian Albania, or Iverian.

One therefore begins understanding the continual piling on of mistaken, anachronistic and proxy concepts and terms, and their inclusion into the culture, such that what may be a very recent phenomenon, begins being understood as somehow ancient or fundamental to the religion. Thus we have the Haredi Jews in Israel wearing Shabbat hats made of fur and long black coats in the middle of the desert – a custom they developed (and still cling on to like dear life as if it was something from Moses) in the middle ages Poland.

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Hegelian Truths

Becoming a profound thinker requires an understanding of Hegelian dialectics

The most profound thinker of our present age is in my view Slavoj Žižek, Slovenian philosopher and Director of the Birbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London. He demonstrates in much of his work how popular understandings of various topics suffer from a mistaken subject-object interplay, and resolves the conflict by an application of Hegelian dialectical reasoning. Below follows some examples of this approach and from this I hope you can begin thinking more broadly and apply the method to various dynamics in your life. Fundamentally, the error in our thinking begins when we fail to note our own bias, and present the topic in a manner that is beneficial to ourselves, rather than by beginning by a challenge to our own ego-driven profilic view. Profilicity is a concept created by the German philosopher Hans-Georg Meuller of the University of Macau. Zizek and Meuller approach their work from a similar epistemological angle:

Hegelian dialectics are briefly the interplay of the opposites of everything, since the subject (person) defines himself and his existence in contrast or differentiation, but communicates about the topic in a way that is beneficial to them – in essence profiling the truth, what Zizek would call ideology, as an objective truth.

Example 1: Homelessness

Homelessness is often said to be a problem of poverty. The idea is that if the person had money by which to pay for housing, and a job to support themselves, they would live in a home and be like everyone else.

Why, then, is homelessness only a feature of modern urbanized cities, and specially those in the West, rather than a feature universally of all human societies?

Policeman: You cannot stay here. This is a city park. (THESIS)

Homeless man: But I have nowhere else to go. (ANTITHESIS)

Homelessness is a problem of disconnection, alienation, and social exclusion, not poverty. Even if the homeless man had money to pay for a home, and a job, he may still have “nowhere else to go,” except his home. That is a problem of disconnection from human community, and the home-lessness is only a symptom. Humans live in communities of other humans, not as individual agents in proximity to other humans (neoliberal capitalism). (SYNTHESIS)

Example 2: Grieving for Loved Ones who died

Relative: I loved him so much. I grieve for him. (THESIS)

Person: But he is no longer in pain and is no longer suffering. You however are suffering, because you have lost the utility of that person, and no longer have them in your life to help you, listen to you, or do what they used to do for you. Therefore your grief is a combination of fear and a sense of losing something that benefited you, not a grief for the loss of the life or the ending of suffering for your relative. (ANTITHESIS)

We grieve not for the person who died, but for ourselves. We grieve that *we* will no longer have the person in our lives, which is a selfish impulse, not one about the deceased relative. (SYNTHESIS)

Example 3: Human Sexuality

Person 1: Human females are attracted to the highest status males – by securing a mate who is wealthy and high status, the female secures the necessary provisions for her offspring. Therefore, human males must achieve and seek prominence and wealth to be attractive to females. (THESIS)

Person 2: Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein were very high status males, were very rich, and yet they had to resort to rape and drugging women in order to have sex. Meanwhile, a visit to any school at the end of the day will show men who work as plumbers, and drivers and construction workers picking up their children from school. (ANTITHESIS)

Humans tell stories to ourselves to obtain a meaningful life. But the truth lies in the external experience of what we do, not what we believe or say. We explain all aspects of life in a manner that is rational, what the Frankfurt school called “Dialectics of Enlightenment.” But often, these stories are created due to an aversion to confront the aspects of our existence we would rather not accept as true: our animal nature that is driven by cosmetics of external appearance. (SYNTHESIS)

Example 4: Abortion

Pro-Life/Anti-abortionist: I oppose abortion because I care about the life of the unborn children.

Abortionist: How could you possibly care about the life of all of the unborn children, given that you will not know any of them even if they were born. There are children dying right now all over the world, and you could probably help many of them by donating just a little money, and yet you do not. Therefore, you do not actually care about the child, you care because the act attacks a precept of your world-view that you treasure: that every mother loves her children more than anything else in the world. (ANTITHESIS)

Humans do not perceive the world as it is exactly since it is too complex and there are too many variables. Therefore we form cultural views which are usually taught to us about what is true and what is false and then act in the world according to those axiomatic principles. One of those principles is that of the mother who is all self-sacrificing and all-loving. It is a form of dogma, and myth. Plenty of mothers murder their own children, many mothers are cruel to their children, and many mothers abort their children. Therefore the opposition to abortion is actually acting out against an attack on a dearly loved axiomatic ideological premise which is rooted in cultural mythology, as the acceptance that not all mothers are universally loving would require the subject to embrace the possibility that their own mother didn’t love them. (SYNTHESIS)

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“Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible” by Russell Gmirkin

New York–London: Routledge, 2016

I recently came upon this work available in parts for free online, and the author’s own summary of the work:

Abstract

Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible compares the ancient law collections of the Ancient Near East, the Greeks and the Pentateuch to determine the legal antecedents for the biblical laws. Constitutional features in biblical law are shown to contain striking agreement with those found at Athens and described in Plato’s Laws of ca. 350 BCE. Similarly, biblical statutes contain many striking parallels with Athenian laws, and specifically with those found in Plato’s Laws. The literary structure and legal force of biblical law collections are also shown to correspond closely with Greek rather than Ancient Near Eastern law collections. The Pentateuchal presentation of legal content within a narrative context is also found in a variety of Greek literary forms, especially Greek foundation stories, which closely conform in outline to the biblical story of the exodus, wilderness wanderings, and conquest of the Promised land under Moses and Joshua. The legal and narrative content of the Pentateuch thus reflect substantial Greek influences, especially from Plato’s Laws. Finally, this book argues that the creation of the Hebrew Bible took place according to the program for creating a national ethical literature found in Plato’s Laws, reinforcing the importance of this specific text to the authors of the Torah and Hebrew Bible in the early Hellenistic Era.

Chapter Contents

Chapter 1 (Introduction) surveys modern theories that sought to account for apparent Greek legal and literary influences on biblical writings, such as Greek mercenaries or Phoenician merchants as cultural intermediaries, or a hypothesized common East Mediterranean legal culture in pre-Hellenistic times. Such models overlook the possibility of the biblical authors having had direct access to Greek literature, including legal treatises, in the Hellenistic Era, when the first external evidence of biblical writings appeared. The current study will accordingly take both Greek and Ancient Near Eastern laws fully into account in seeking to identify the antecedents for biblical legal materials.­­­­­

Chapter 2 (Athenian and Pentateuchal Legal Institutions) examines influences from Athens and from Plato’s Laws on governmental institutions in the Pentateuch, such as: the genre of constitutional law, unknown in the Ancient Near East; similar citizenship requirements and enrollment procedures; military organization into ten or twelve civic tribes, brotherhoods, clans and households; land distribution by allotment into tribal territories; identical function of kinship groups in inheritance, levirate marriage, and blood vengeance; deliberative bodies with comparable executive and judicial responsibilities; similar civil and religious magistrates; and similar procedures for the citizen selection, scrutiny and audit of magistrates (including king).

Chapter 3 (Biblical, Ancient Near Eastern and Greek Laws) compares Ancient Near Eastern and Greek influences on Pentateuchal laws, including laws on homicide, assault, theft, marriage, inheritance, sexual offenses, slavery, economic relief, livestock, property crimes, commerce, the military, magic, treason, religion, and ethics. While some Pentateuchal laws derive from Old Babylonian and Assyrian collections, many have striking parallels with Greek and Athenian laws, and especially with Plato’s Laws. These include the prosecution and execution of dangerous animals; slaying a night thief; exile for unintentional homicide; blood avengers; sacrilege as political subversion; military exemptions; commandments on ethics, and others.

Chapter 4 (Greek and Ancient Near Eastern Law Collections) compares Ancient Near Eastern, Greek and biblical law collections as literary forms. It is shown that the biblical law collections correspond to Greek rather than Ancient Near Eastern law collections with respect to sources, purpose, framing structure, divine promulgation, public recitation, ratification, educational utility and prescriptive force. Greek literary antecedents are identified for the Decalogue (the Commandments of the Seven Sages) and for Deuteronomy (Plato’s Laws). The Pentateuch also implemented such innovations from Plato’s Laws as the idea of law as education (“torah” or “teaching”) and the use of persuasive legal introductions (motive clauses).

Chapter 5 (Greek and Biblical Legal Narratives) discusses the integration of legal content with narrative found in both the Pentateuch and Greek writings, but not in the Ancient Near East. Discussions of constitutions and laws appeared in Greek historical narratives, panegyrics, origin and foundation stories, ethnographies, biographies, constitutional histories and philosophical dialogues. The story of Moses closely conforms to the Greek foundation story, in which the expedition leader also created the new colony’s constitution and laws. The changes from patriarchy to constitutional democracy to monarchy and tyranny in Genesis–Kings appear to echo themes in Greek constitutional histories.

Chapter 6 (The Creation of the Hebrew Bible) first discusses Plato’s innovative ideas for a divinely authorized law code and national literature. Plato’s Laws gave detailed instructions for collecting, editing, revising and approving texts under the supervision of the “legislators of the arts” and soliciting new works by storytellers, poets, priests and prose-writers. The Hebrew Bible, it is argued, was created in accordance with the literary program laid out in Plato’s Laws. Plato’s strategies for convincing the citizens their laws and literature were ancient and divine appear to have worked brilliantly in Hellenistic Judea, where the biblical laws and literature of ca. 270 BC were soon enshrined as the ancient ancestral texts of the Jews, a perception that has continued virtually unchallenged down into modern times.

This is essentially the thesis of our video on Plato, which you can see here:

https://youtu.be/6lhmudv1RjQ

We thank the author for his much-needed work and remind the reader of several similar works: “Hebrew is Greek,” by Joseph Yahuda, and Jacob Howland, Plato and the Talmud, Cambridge University Press, 2011.