I am a self-taught philosopher and theologian and I believe that I have reached a novel conclusion about our society and discovered important secrets in the Bible.
When I talk to people about my philosophical conclusions, no one asks me whether I have studied philosophy. It doesn’t matter whether I have or not: the study of philosophy is not a prerequisite for having interesting ideas.
When I talk about my discoveries in the Bible, a lot of people almost immediately claim that to understand the Bible one must have studied theology. This amazes me because the Bible is a book; I have never heard someone saying that one must have studied philology to be able to comment on Don Quixote. When something new is written about Don Quixote, people evaluate whether it makes sense. Therefore, people should evaluate whether what I have to say about the Bible makes sense.
Since the Bible is the most widely read and studied book in all of history, people assume that everything is already known about it. However, everyone is surprised when I tell them that I have discovered that the ages of the patriarchs were not chosen at random, since those of the first seven (from Adam to Enoch) add up to 7 x 7 x 120 (years) – 1.
Enoch’s age, the seventh patriarch, is 365 years, a figure that refers to the number of days in a year, and with the additional day of a leap year we get exactly 7 x 7 x 120. We thus see that there is a reason why, just before the Flood, God said: “Let his days be 120 years.”[1]
The fact that I discovered something that theologians have overlooked shows that it is not at all necessary to have studied theology to understand the Bible.
Like most other people, theologians tend to ignore some ideas in the Bible and misinterpret others. Two examples: the Bible does not tell us that the Forbidden Fruit was an apple; it does tell us that Adam and Eve were vegetarians when they were in Paradise. God said to Adam: “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food”. The Bible therefore associates paradise –harmony on Earth– with following a vegetarian diet and staying away from a Forbidden Fruit.[2]
Studying theology familiarises us with how the Bible has been traditionally interpreted, but does not guarantee a good understanding of it. An example: although the traditional interpretation of the Bible is that Adam and Eve were the first couple on Earth, a far more interesting interpretation is that they were the first couple who stopped living in harmony: Genesis tells us that God created people in his image, male and female he created them, and that before the Flood the sons of God had offspring with the daughters of men.[3]
Another example. Before the flood Yahweh asked Noah to carry in the ark 1 pair of each species of impure animals and 7 pairs of each species of pure animals. Theologians explain that the pure animals are those that Jews can eat and the impure ones those that they cannot. They refer to a text in Leviticus, the third book of the Bible, to explain a story in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. They overlook the fact that these couples had to repopulate the Earth; therefore, impure refers to incestuous and endogamous relationships. So, Jews don’t eat animals that have incestuous relationships.[4]
People also claim that to understand the Bible one must have studied Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Reading these texts in their original language is obviously an advantage because translating a text often involves interpreting it. However, today it is easy to compare different translations and to learn from their differences.
Knowing the original language of the books of the Bible does not guarantee a better understanding; after all, theologians who know Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek have overlooked the fact that that the ages of the first seven patriarchs add up to 7 x 7 x 120 (years) – 1, and that impure refers to incest and inbreeding.
Like theologians, those who know Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek often misinterpret certain words or expressions. When they read in Genesis: “Cain knew his wife, who conceived and gave birth to Enoch” they believe this means that Cain begot Enoch. Since the author of Genesis often uses the verb to engender, one intuits that he had a reason for not doing so when referring to the relationship between Cain and Enoch. He is suggesting that Cain’s wife had Enoch with another man.[5]
Suspecting that Enoch was born from an extramarital affair helps us understand the first two genealogies in the Bible: that from Adam to Noah and that from Cain to Jabal. Since the names Enoch and Lamech appear on both lists, and a similar name for Lamech’s father, Genesis invites us to investigate whether they can refer to the same people. When we do, we discover a family tree with several cases of extramarital affairs, incest and inbreeding.[6]
The genealogies in the Bible hold several secrets. Saint Matthew and Saint Luke offer different lineages for Jesus: while the first says: “… Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, from whom Jesus was born…” the second says: “Jesus was at the beginning, about 30 years old, and he was, as it was believed, the son of Joseph, the son of Heli…”[7]
These two lineages are different for the simple reason that the first is the true lineage, because it is based on the principle ‘father begot son’, while the second is an assumed lineage, because it begins with ‘was believed to be the son of’. Since Saint Matthew says that Jacob begat Joseph and Saint Luke points out that people believed that Joseph’s father was Heli, we can conclude that Jacob begat Joseph from Heli’s wife.
To discover the secrets in the Bible, one must ask all the questions that these stories encourage one to ask. This requires a questioning mind and that cannot be achieved by studying theology. Furthermore, someone who is capable of accepting a doctrine does not have a questioning mind.
The fact that even those who are not interested in the Bible also claim that to understand it one must have studied theology shows that those who promoted this idea were very successful. And who were they, if not the theologians? And for what reasons did they do so, if not to defend their interpretation of the Bible so as not to lose their power over society?
[1] Gn5:3-24 / Gn6:3
[2] Gn1:29 / A comparison of the different versions of the Bible –King James Bible, New International Version, etc. – shows that some mistranslated this verse.
[3] Gn2:27 / Gn6:1-2
[4] Gn7:2-3 7 /Lv11
[5] Gn4:17
[6] Gn4:17-24 / Gn5:3-32
[7] Mt1:16 / Lc3:23
The next 10 articles are:
1 PHILOSOPHY versus THEOLOGY 0 A prejudice
2 PHILOSOPHY versus THEOLOGY 0 Gnosis
3 PHILOSOPHY versus THEOLOGY 0 In the beginning
4 PHILOSOPHY versus THEOLOGY 0 God
5 PHILOSOPHY versus THEOLOGY 0 Adam and Eve
6 PHILOSOPHY versus THEOLOGY 0 The snake
7 PHILOSOPHY versus THEOLOGY 0 Cain and Abel
8 PHILOSOPHY versus THEOLOGY 0 Cain’s descendants
9 PHILOSOPHY versus THEOLOGY 0 The Flood
10 PHILOSOPHY versus THEOLOGY 0 Noah
11 PHILOSOPHY versus THEOLOGY 0 Evil since childhood
This blog translates articles from an original text in English to 12 languages.
Facebook “Secretos en la Biblia” has an original text in Spanish.