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Since before the Yom Kippur War I have adventurously navigated the Hebrew Bible and Hebrew undercurrents of the New Testament.
This is not a well-charted sea of endeavor, and to sail these waters requires steeled determination, born of faith. Journeys often demand daily weathering of unsympathetic headwinds, bow-shots from mainland warships, and recruiting attempts by cultic pirates flying self-made colors. But once in a while you discover small coastal villages where knowledge of and love for that vast ocean of wonder are treasured, and the residents understand your longing for true country: HaAretz. My explorations have been far-ranging, ongoing and existential. In the process of searching, I’ve taken courses at synagogues, colleges and seminaries, and eventually earned a masters degree in Biblical Studies from Pepperdine University in California. My thesis there focused on the heavenly council in the Hebrew Bible, Jewish literature, and the book of Revelation. Later, I taught adult education classes on the Hebrew Bible, Jewish Apocalyptic, and the Dead Sea Scrolls at Mercer County College in New Jersey. For nine years, I published a short “exploration journal” entitled Yashar, which included articles similar to what you find on this website. (In Hebrew yashar means straight, upright, or honest. God is straight with us; let's be straight with one another and upright before Him.) My purpose for this website is educational. It points out certain overlooked, forgotten, or ignored elements of the Bible. The site is history and language focused, as well as “theological.” My interest is in the contents and message of the Bible, before the emergence and evolution of Rabbinic Judaism and Catholic/Orthodox Christianity. I’m an Originalist. That is, I believe in and promote a reading of the Bible as it was written. Yes, it is a living document — it breathes the mind of God. But its truth and revelaton and authority do not change, for God does not change, regardless of human ethical whimsy. To discover (or rediscover) the Original, we need an objective but humble attitude toward the Scriptures. We need fair tools to examine them. Some of these come from the accumulated experience of biblical historians and interpreters. There is value in formal, academic or scientific study of Scripture. It helps distinguish between the actual contents of the Bible and any evolutions within the different religious traditions. It also helps identify anti-Bible agendas held by secular scholars.
Yet a scientific approach to the Bible is only a tool, and it’s a dangerous one. By itself, human rationality, without the guiding Mind of God, bows a knee to no one — not even to the rational mind itself. A Spirit-less, materialistic, scholarly mindset will eventually empty everything of truth, meaning, and purpose for living. In time it will nurture hordes of destroying angels who lead people to Sheolish darkness. I don’t share the unbelief and anti-faith animus of some biblical scholars, whether they’re Gentile or Jewish. Many of them have bowed to intellectual bullying inside the Academy. To avoid ridicule and have a viable career, they must daily validate their capitulation to Enlightenment lordship over the Bible. Yet at many schools, the newest loyalty test is to affirm Post-Modernist — anarchist — ideologies, in which all knowledge (gained in the Enlightenment) is discarded as untrustworthy, since there is no longer any knowable truth. Under either totalitarian academic regime, a number of Bible scholars have become cynical Deconstructionists who seek to undermine the credibility of Scripture. Some seek to destroy the faith of the pure-hearted who accept it as divine revelation. Not a few, I believe, are consumed with nihilistic revenge over their own lost faith. When I discuss God, he is not to me a cadaver who must submit to my academy-honed scalpel and over whose probed remains I proudly claim special knowledge of his innard workings. Rather, I keep in mind:
to the humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at My word. (Isaiah 66:2) Nor do I share the hubris of those Jewish and Christian traditions that convey an attitude of ownership over the Bible. There is an imperialism that presumes everyone must enter the sacred pages only through the interpretive gates of their rabbis, college of cardinals, seminary professors, or self-anointed prophets. These watchmen set up fences around Torah or the Gospel: multi-generational fences of meticulous observance or codes of belief that aren’t imposed or articulated in Scripture. Many human fences keep sheep in and God out. I’m not about building fences that restrict access to Him. The works on this site are not overtly devotional. Close readers, however, may gain devotional insights. The late Oxford and Cambridge don C. S. Lewis once wrote, Devotion is best raised when we intend something else. At least that is my experience. Sit down to meditate devotionally on a single verse, and nothing happens. Hammer your way through a continued argument, just as you would in a profane writer, and the heart will sometimes sing unbidden. (The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Vol. 2, Letter of 4 April 1934)So, while my originalist articles strive to be historically and linguistically accurate, they are also meant to be faithful to the content and spirit of Scripture — not assault it. The Word is, as Yeshua said, “Spirit and Life.” I take his words seriously. If you wish, email me: Paul Sumner
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