Jews, Myth and History: A Critical Exploration of Contemporary Jewish Belief and Its Origins

Society has always been threatened by those who presume to know the truth for us all. This threat has never been more keenly felt than it is today. After considering both religious belief and atheism, Jews, Myth and History encourages a quest for answers and discourages the belief that any of us possesses the whole truth. With clarity, information and deep probing it leads us towards increased awareness and tolerance, and towards finding our own path through the minefield of competing claims. In this book, Alan Silver takes a broad look at Jewish origins, belief and practice. He considers the role of myth and history in producing the Bible s epic story of the Jewish people, and compares this with what the flood of scholarship since the Enlightenment has revealed. He explains that the Bible is not, and was never intended to be, a history book and that reading it correctly means that it still can speak to us in the twenty-first century.