Reading the Bible Critically and Religiously: Interview with Dr. Marc Zvi Brettler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\" Brigham Young University\u2019s Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship continues to offer impressive contributions in the field of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidbokovoy\/2014\/10\/reading-the-bible-critically-and-religiously-interview-with-dr-marc-zvi-brettler\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reading the Bible Critically and Religiously: Interview with Dr. Marc Zvi Brettler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\" Brigham Young University\u2019s Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship continues to offer impressive contributions in the field of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidbokovoy\/2014\/10\/reading-the-bible-critically-and-religiously-interview-with-dr-marc-zvi-brettler\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"When Gods Were Men\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-21T15:56:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-10-21T16:03:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.brandeis.edu\/departments\/nejs\/faculty\/images\/brettler%20image.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Bokovoy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Bokovoy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidbokovoy\/2014\/10\/reading-the-bible-critically-and-religiously-interview-with-dr-marc-zvi-brettler\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidbokovoy\/2014\/10\/reading-the-bible-critically-and-religiously-interview-with-dr-marc-zvi-brettler\/\",\"name\":\"Reading the Bible Critically and Religiously: Interview with Dr. Marc Zvi Brettler\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidbokovoy\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-21T15:56:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-10-21T16:03:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidbokovoy\/#\/schema\/person\/be4af727e31eddd1dfc276404bd032a9\"},\"description\":\" Brigham Young University\u2019s Neal A. 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{"id":592,"date":"2014-10-21T09:56:04","date_gmt":"2014-10-21T15:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidbokovoy\/?p=592"},"modified":"2014-10-21T10:03:22","modified_gmt":"2014-10-21T16:03:22","slug":"reading-the-bible-critically-and-religiously-interview-with-dr-marc-zvi-brettler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidbokovoy\/2014\/10\/reading-the-bible-critically-and-religiously-interview-with-dr-marc-zvi-brettler\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading the Bible Critically and Religiously: Interview with Dr. Marc Zvi Brettler"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brigham Young University\u2019s Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship <\/a>continues to offer impressive contributions in the field of Religious Studies. \u00a0I highly recommend listening to their\u00a0 recent podcast<\/a> interview with biblical scholar Marc Zvi Brettler. \u00a0Dr. Brettler is the Dora Golding Professor of Biblical Studies at Brandeis University. \u00a0Blair Hodges, the Institute\u2019s public communications specialist and acquisitions and development editor, conducts the interview. Hodges does an excellent job formulating thoughtful questions on the topic of approaching the Bible as both believer and critical scholar. \u00a0The entire interview is well-worth listening to. It\u2019s an incredibly thoughtful discussion on a variety of issues.<\/p>\n

I believe one of the highlights was Dr. Brettler\u2019s response to Blair\u2019s question concerning source criticism that draws upon an analogy articulated by British social anthropologist, Edmund Leach. \u00a0Leach famously criticized the pursuit of biblical source criticism as an impossible effort that by analogy amounts to an unsuccessful attempt at \u201cunscrambling the omelet.\u201d Dr. Brettler\u2019s response to this critique is well-worth noting. \u00a0He explains that from his perspective, when he looks critically at the Hebrew Bible, Brettler does not see an omelet at all. Instead, a more appropriate metaphor for what Dr. Brettler\u2019s sees would be \u201ceggs over easy.\u201d \u00a0In other words, unlike an omelet, Brettler still sees in the Bible the white, the yolk, etc., which can be dissected from its source.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s true that documentary sources in the Pentateuch have been mixed together, they\u2019re not blended in the way an omelet combines separate elements. Granted, there are editorial insertions, and redactional deletions in the biblical omelet. But we can still extract the Priestly source, the Yahwistic thread, the Elohist document from Genesis, for instance, since these various parts more or less still appear upon the proverbial plate.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the discussion focuses upon the topic explored in the book The Bible and the Believer: How to Read the Bible Critically and Religiously<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0Hodges questions and Brettler\u2019s thoughtful responses present a podcast on this important subject that I would strongly encourage religious readers of the Bible to carefully consider.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"