May 18, 2009, 7:33 am by dc-agape.

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The Last Words of Levi (Part 4)

The final fragments of this Tractate are disorganized and pretty much meaningless.  Maybe to a PhD in history of the Jewish people it might have some meaning, but I will attempt to get as much out of it as I can.  Seven fragments are all that is left of this section.  Basically, they consist of an admonition, of three prophecies, some words on a righteous teacher, and some Levite texts.

The admonition is, of course, sexual in nature.  This portion, basically, makes an admonitions on the sexually immorality of females that have sex outside of marriage.  It claims that their acts will corrupt the reputation of the woman herself, her brothers, and her father.  It goes so far as to claim that her actions will be a disgrace that will never be erased from all generations.  Here we go again, one person actions will punish future generation for eternity.  What a loving YHWH we have!  It just makes you want to follow this monster and praise his monstrosity.

Three prophecies still exist, but one thing must be taken into account…this Tractate was written when the prophecies were taking place.  So they really are not prophecy.  The authors of these Tractates (all the Last Words of…) claim that the true author was the patriarch, but in reality these Tractates are written during the “future” well after the patriarch died.  They have no prophetic ability.  This of course, leads someone of my persuasion (an Atheist) to wonder about all the Books of the Word of God.  Are any of the prophecies written before they occur, or are they taken out of context…like so many from the New Testament? 

The first prophecy is worse than anything you see today.  It claims that Levi’s sons will walk in light to begin with but darkness will grow in their thoughts.  This will lead them to leave the “ways of truth”.  When the darkness completely overtakes them they will be handed over…and that is where the Tractate breaks apart.  We know many times the Israelites were handed over to oppressors, so this prophecy is nothing new.  We know that each time the “prophets” claimed it was because the people had strayed from the ways of YHWH.  At the same time we know that the “oppressors” were powerful kingdoms that took decades, if not centuries, to become as powerful as they were.  We also know that these “oppressors” had to struggle to become the powerhouses that they were.  No supernatural events occurred to make the “oppressors” what they were.  None of the “oppressors” appeared out of the mists, magically created by YHWH to punish his people for their sins.  What is amazing is that the Israelite people banded together and stayed united through each of these events. 

The second “prophecy” is even more vague than the first.  This one claims that tribulation will return.  In this one, the people will be deprived of their possessions and their homes.  Again, these events have nothing supernatural about them.  The authors of the Tractate are using past events to claim their hero is having prophecies.

The third “prophecy” is completely fragmented.  It is the longest of the three, but not one sentence is complete.  If anything it is an opening to the concept of the righteous teacher that will come in the future.  Little else can be gleaned from it.

The next two fragments talk about a great teacher, almost someone like Jesus, but not quite.  The authors do say that this teacher will make atonement for the sins of his generation, but they do not claim that he will be a blood sacrifice.  He will teach all “children of his people” and they will learn from him.  The darkness that covers the world will be removed and the sun will shine again.  But there will be people who speak against him.  While he is in office (yes they believe he will be a leader, not an outcast), many will lie, go astray, and be confounded.  But he will reveal wisdom to some.  This is where the fragment again is lost and the end is unknown.  Who is chosen, why are they chosen, what happens to the great teacher?  These questions are not answered.  You could certainly make a case that this great teacher that is spoken about was Jesus.  But that would be jumping to conclusions that just cannot be justified.  Every generation has been vile and perverse from YHWH perspective.  These authors had another great teacher in mind as well, who came a century before Jesus (one that existed when these Tractates were written).  And the fragments are too incomplete to fully make any decision about their meaning.

The final fragment speaks of a future where the sons of Levi are upright and full of wisdom.  This will happen because they keep the revelations that YHWH has given them.  By keeping them the authors are telling future readers not to change the words of these Tractates, and to study them deeply.  By doing these things, the reader will live in the light of the world and never be disowned.

It is a shame that such documents were not kept by the ruling religious leaders.  Obviously other documents (the Old Testament) were more to the liking of the leading religious leaders of the time.  But reading these fragments only makes an Atheist wonder.  How much of the Old Testament was identical to these Tractates?  How many of the Books of the Old Testament were written after the events they “prophesied”?  How many were written to encourage a small group of people to stay firm in their beliefs?  Were any of them truly inspired by YHWH or were they just documents that unified a people, and got those people through the hard times of oppression and gave them hope of a better future?

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May 16, 2009, 9:19 am by dc-agape.

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The Last Words of Levi (Part 3)

I will cover two sections of this Tractate in this post.  The first one is about the life of Levi.  He speaks of his children, his murderous actions in Shechem, and his final age at death.  The second one is about seeking wisdom.  Not wisdom from YHWH, but wisdom from reading and writing.  In fact, in this entire post, YHWH is not present, not even when his children are born.  This is quite a telling point to an Atheist. Shouldn’t the high priest of YHWH praise YHWH for every event in his life?

The first event in Levi’s life that can be linked to the Bible is the story of how he murdered the entire town of Shechem for revenge.  This occurred when he was 18 years old.  One year later he became the priest of YHWH.  Joseph was still around at that point, but was only 10 years old.  Yet we know from the birth files that

From this section a time line can be created from the events in the Word of God and the events recorded in this Tractate.  The second event that can be linked to the Bible is that Levi was 25 years old when Joseph was sold into slavery.  Joseph was ~17 years old when this occurred. The Tractate claims that Levi was 118 years old when Joseph died.  Since the Bible tells us that Joseph died when he was 110 years old (Gen 50:22) this would make Levi eight years older than Joseph.  Three years later, Levi married the daughter of his mother’s brother.  In other words, his first cousin!  Through this marriage he has four children.  The oldest son, being Gershom, was born to him when he was 30.  Four years later, his second son was born to him, Kohath.  Here again, the second son would inherit everything from the father.  Gershom was evil and did not become the high priest that was Kohath who inherited the position.  It took another six years for his third son to be born, Merari.  The Tractate says that this son was dying when he was born, yet later says that Merari had two sons.  24 years later he had a daughter, who he named Jochebed. 

Now things get interesting.  Levi gives his daughter Jochebed to his son Kohath as a wife!  So not only do we have first cousins marrying in this Tractate but we have sibling marriage.  This is what the “Defenders of Biblical Marriage” want?  This was acceptable to YHWH?  In the book of Leviticus two verses condemn this practice (Lev 18:6 and Lev 18:9).  I guess it was tougher to find appropriate wives when the clan was so small. 

Here the Tractate and the Word of God also disagree.  The Tractate claims that the descendants of Gershom would be homeless.  Yet in Joshua 21:33 the Gershomite tribe inherited 13 towns.  That does not sound like being homeless to me!

The second section is about gaining wisdom.  First he tells his sons this:

4Q213 col E 14-16 Whoever sows goodness will reap goodness; but whoever sows evil, his seed will return to him.

Pretty good advice and YHWH is not involved!  Levi continues to encourage his sons to learn and teach writing, discipline, and wisdom.  I wish that the Religious Right, here in the US, would reflect on this subject more!  Our students are some of the least bright in the world!

30 million people in the US are below basic reading skills!  And only 28 million are proficient.  This is hideous results.  Worse is that it has not changed in a decade!

Levi ends this section with a warning or promise.  No one can take away wisdom, they can steal all your property, take you as slaves and take your land, but they can never take away your learning.  He also promises that people will come from all around to listen to the wisdom that his sons will learn.  Good advice, I wish the citizens of the US would take some of this to heart.  It even comes from a religious document, shouldn’t they listen to this? 

Both graphs come from National Center of Educational Statistics.

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May 15, 2009, 7:58 am by dc-agape.

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The Last Words of Levi (Part 2)

This part of the Last Words of Levi is about proper priestly lifestyles and blood sacrifices.  Now that is a neat combination of topics, right?  First, Isaac teaches about the proper etiquette for a priest.  Second, Isaac teaches about cleanliness.  Third, Isaac teaches how to blood sacrifice to YHWH.  Most of this section is about the sacrifice.

The proper lifestyle is simple, carefully avoid all ritual impurities.  That’s it; there is no more information than that.  But the second one, this is the one that today’s priest seem to not be able to follow.  Levi must, and all priest of YHWH, must avoid impure lewdness and improper sexual acts.  He goes on to say that marrying outside the clan is identical to marrying a harlot!  But do notice that priest of YHWH are to marry.  Celibacy is not the proper etiquette for the priesthood.

The second lesson deals with cleanliness.  A priest must bathe before entering the house of YHWH, and then were the appropriate clothing.  After that, one must was their hands and feet.  Each time something is placed on the altar, be it wood, animal parts, flour, oil, wine, or incense the priest must again wash their hands and feet.  And especially, no blood on the garments!

Interestingly, Isaac has three special commands about the wood used to burn the blood offering.  First, it cannot have any defect and definitely no worms.  Second the wood used can only come from 12 trees: cedar, juniper, mastic, pine, small pine, aduna, cypress, thekaka, bay, tamarisk, myrtle, or camel’s thorn.  Third, as soon as the fire begins to burn, the alter must be sprinkled with blood.  But no blood can be on the priest before starting the actual sacrifice, so the priest must wash hand and feet again. 

The lesson about the actually blood sacrifice is very specific.  The order of body parts is important.  That order is: the head, the fat, the neck, the forefeet, the breast and sides, the thigh and lower spine, ending with the feet and entrails.  But if you thought that was all there was to it, you would be wrong.  This is only the start. 

For each animal sacrificed there is a special amount of wood, salt, flour with oil, wine, and incense.  The best part is that the person requesting the offering must provide the proper amounts of each ingredient!

The table below is the total cost of each sacrifice to the person wanting YHWH forgiveness for their transgressions (in present day US dollars):

Isaac goes on to lay great praise on Levi for becoming the priest for the family.  He continues to warn about proper bathing and washing of hands and feet.  But then he gets even more esoteric: the priest cannot eat any cooked animal until the blood is buried.  This is because the soul of the animal is contained in the blood and also because the Book of Noah tells priest to do this.  Isaac ends these lessons with much praise to the one who massacred the entire city of Shechem.  Isaac goes so far as to claim that Levi is his beloved son, dear to Jacob and holy to YHWH.  Isaac ends with the claim that Levi is the dearest child of Jacob. 

I guess somewhere in all this Joseph and Judah are forgotten.  Since there is no doubt that at Jacob’s death bed he felt that Joseph and Judah were the most important (Gen 49:1-28).  To an Atheist, the price required to be forgiven by YHWH is extreme…especially when you think that these sacrifices have to take place numerous time per week for each family member.  But even more devious is that all the sacrificial animals are food for the priests!  What a racket. 

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May 14, 2009, 7:48 am by dc-agape.

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The Last Words of Levi (Part 1)

The Last Words of Levi is rather long and will take four posts to finish.  The opening post will be about his prayer to YHWH, his massacre in Shechem, his first and second visions, and how he goes to meet his grandfather Isaac.  Isaac’s teachings will be the second post.  Levi’s words to his children will be the third post.  The fourth post will consist of numerous fragments that consist of the virtues of wisdom and a future great priest.

What consists of the beginning of this Tractate is how Levi prepares himself to pray.  He purifies himself and his cloths.  He raises his head to heaven, and spreads his hands and fingers in a proper fashion for talking to YHWH’s angels.  The rest of the prayer is identical to what you have heard in church’s around the world (maybe synagogues and masques, as well).  YHWH give this, WHYH give me that, WHYH remember so-and-so, WHYH don’t hurt me, YHWH don’t leave me, and YHWH look after me in all my actions.  I guess this is pretty standard stuff for the usual prayer. 

The first vision of Levi is also standard stuff.  After visiting his father and going to Abel-Main Levi has a vision (as he is about to fall asleep).  In the vision, he sees a mountain under him that reaches heaven.  All that is left of this vision is that the gates open and an angel greets him.  So I guess before Peter was born, some lowly angel was responsible for welcoming souls into heaven.

The next section brags about how he went against his brother’s and father’s will when he massacred the entire city of Shechem.  There is not much to say about this section.  He agrees that the men of Shechem were asked to perform circumcision by his father and brothers.  The twist comes when it seems that all his other brothers “chickened out” from partaking of the massacre.  For while reading this passage it would seem that all the brothers went to Shechem, with plans to kill everyone there.  Yet, in fact, it would almost seem that Judah and Reuben may have been the ones to tell Levi and Simeon to perform the vile act.  Oddly, the penalty for sex outside of marriage in future generations is much less severe.  Not even leaving the Book of Exodus we have these verses:

Exodus 22:16-17 If a man seduces a virgin who is neither pledged to be married and sleeps with her, he must pay the bride-pride, and she shall be his wife.  If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he must still pay the bride-price for the virgins.

Why do I have the feeling that massacring an entire city is not paying a bride-price, especially when the man involved is also murdered?  And yet somehow this event shows Levi’s devotion to YHWH.

Levi’s second vision is so vague it is worse than any of the soothsayers of today.  He promises that times of strife and times of peace will come.  He promises that times of rest and times sleep will evade the future generations.  He promises that sometime there will be food and other times there will not be enough food.  But Levi decides not to tell anyone about this vision, until his dying last words.

The last section I will cover in this post is quite interesting.  Both Isaac and Jacob make Levi the head of the priesthood.  The reason for this choice is unclear.  But it is of interest because Isaac died when Joseph was 27 years old, this incident occurred while Joseph was still a slave in Egypt.  The other interesting thing about this passage is that after the instillation of Levi as the head priest, the entire family returned to Abraham’s palace!  Did you know that Abraham had a palace?  This is definitely something that the Word of God does not tell you about the first family before the seven year famine.  I wonder who built the “palace”, how long it took and how large it was.

As with many of the Dead Sea Scrolls, when I read them I see how the immutable Word of God is added upon by future generations to make the stories more palatable.  They are also rewritten to show favoritism to specific groups.  As an Atheist, this makes complete sense.  Since there is no YHWH, the Word of God is open to interpretation and can be changed to fit the needs and desires of the individual or the group. 

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May 12, 2009, 8:39 am by dc-agape.

The Vision of Amram

The next “Last Words of…” will be from Amram.  You might be wondering who this person is, and if you follow the birth of Moses very closely you might even have a chance of remembering him.  He was the eldest son of Kohath and only mentioned in the Word of God as that and the father of Moses.  He took no actions within the history of the Jewish people, yet his clan, the Amramites, is mentioned many times.  Oddly, Amram is only mentioned twice in the Book of Exodus (Exodus 6:18-20).    So I can treat this as an opening to the book of Exodus.

Even though this Tractate in principle follows the Last Words of Levi and the Last Words of Kohath I would rather leave the Last Words of Levi to the end of this series.  All three Tractates are fragmentary, but the Last Words of Levi is the longest and most complex.  Many fragments exist, with many special topics; this may take more than one post.

The opening verses from this Tractate conflict with the Word of God.  In Exodus 12:40 the Israelites spent 430 years in Egypt.  Yet the opening claims that Amram lived for 136 years and died in the 152 year of the Israelite presence in Egypt.  So that would make Moses at least 294 years old when he freed the Israelites from slavery!  Yet in Deut 34:7 Moses died at the age of 120 years.  This Tractate puts the entire Book of Exodus into question.  Which document is telling the truth?  Is either document correct?

But it gets better!  We know that Amram marries his Jochebed, aunt (Exodus 6:20), but here we have the story of how Amram gives Miriam (his daughter) to Uzziel (his brother).  So at least within the Tribe of Levi, the one’s set aside to be spiritual leaders this is Traditional Biblical Marriage.  We are supposed to marry our aunts and our nieces!  Now isn’t that a conundrum for those who take the Word of God literally!  Not only do we know that genetically this is has horrific consequences but the Word of God itself contradicts this concept in Lev 18:12-13.

The next section is where Amram prophecies about Moses’ (using the name Malachijah) and Aaron’s calling by the Angel of YHWH.  Not in the sense that they will, together, free the people of Israel from Egypt, but that only they have a special calling.  The next section explains why this text does not see the Israelite’s presence in Egypt as slavery.

Kohath, Jochebed, Amram and many other Israelites left Egypt to bury their ancestors in Hebron.  To say the least, slaves would not be allowed to travel back to their homelands to treat their dead in such respectful ways.  So in this story of Exodus, slavery was not part of the history of Israel!  This section goes on to describe the war between Egypt, Philistine, and Canaan.  Since Hebron is in Canaan this is more proof that the Israelites were not slaves to the Egyptians.  As this story goes the Egyptians lost the war and Amram was not able to return to Egypt and his wife for 41 years, even though he desired to return to the land of his slavery?

The beginning of the vision of Amram starts with his seeing two “angels”.  He discovers that he must choose between which one of the two angels will have authority over him.  One angel is hostile, frightening, and very dark.  The other was pleasant, and smiling.  Guess which one Amram chooses?  Here the evil Angel is called Malki-Resha while the good Angel is called, of all things, Melchizedek!  Malki-Resha only appears in the Dead Sea Scrolls.  No other religion or sect of Judaism recognizes this being.  Later in this section of the Tractate, we discover that, as you can already imagine, Malki-Resha is the evil angel and Melchizedek is the good angel. 

A conversation begins between Amram and Melchizedek.  This conversation is about the choices that future generation will have to make and the consequences of those choices.  As can be imagined, those who choice to be ruled by Melchizedek become children of the light and will live for eternity.  On the other hand those who choice to be ruled by Malki-Resha will be children of darkness and will be destined to destruction.  Notice that the evil children of darkness will not suffer for eternity, no they will be destroyed!  Hell still does not exist in this Jewish sect.

The conversation turns towards Aaron and Moses.  A promise is made that Moses (and/or Aaron) will become holy priests.  Along with this will come YHWH’s favor and all future generations will exalt him as a priest over everyone in the world.  It’s a shame that prophecy didn’t happen.  I guess some of YHWH promises just never happen!

The Vision of Amram ends when he returns to his wife-aunt and tells his entire family what he has learned.  It’s a pretty ending to a pretty story, but can we take any of it as “truth”.  It contradicts the Word of God in many ways: the Israelite slavery, the time spent in Egypt, and the marriage laws.  But it was obviously an important Tractate to the Dead Sea Scroll sect of Judaism.  Or was this just one of their entertaining books of legend and fiction that had no spiritually meaning?  But if that is the case, which books of the Old Testament may also have been stories of legends and entertaining fiction that have since become indomitable “Words of God”?

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May 10, 2009, 9:52 am by dc-agape.

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The next “Last Words of…” will be from Kohath.  You might be wondering who this person is, and only if you are a true Biblical Scholar would you even have a chance of remembering him.  He was the eldest son of Levi and only mentioned in the Word of God as that.  He took no actions within the history of the Jewish people, yet his clan, the Kohathites, are mentioned many times.  Oddly, the Kohathites did inherit land and cities.  And I had always been taught that the Levites were scattered amongst all the tribes of Israel. 

Even though this Tractate in principle follows the Last Words of Levi and is itself followed by the Vision of Amram (the son of Kohath and the father of Moses), I would rather leave the Last Words of Levi to the end of this series.  All three Tractates are fragmentary, but the Last Words of Levi is the longest and most complex.  Of the Last Words of Kohath, three sections survive: a blessing and two commandments.

In the blessing freewill is again destroyed.  This has been a topic that I have covered (as a Biblical Topic) and will continue to bring up whenever the religious texts make it clear that YHWH does not give us freewill.  The authors of the Last Words of Kohath are quite clear:

4Q542 col 1:2-4 For he is the God of the ages, and Lord of everything that is done, and ruler of all people, doing with them whatever he pleases.  May he give you happiness, and to your descendants joy, in the generations of truth forever.

“Doing with them whatever he pleases” makes us out to be YHWH’s puppets.  There is no way around the meaning of this passage.  “Lord of everything that is done” makes it quite clear that YHWH is the instigator of both good and evil.  Both phrases do not have qualifiers; they say exactly what the Levites believed about YHWH.  I am sure that the authors of this Tractate were “heretics” in their time for this concept, just as they would be today: humans do not like to think that a loving all-powerful god is just playing with us.  But it is clear, from so many verses and books, that this is exactly what YHWH does.

The Tractate continues with a commandment to keep their inheritance to themselves.  The meaning of this was to ensure that other cultures did not “water down” the teachings of YHWH.  I do find one section of this quite humorous, for it changes the history of Levi greatly.

4Q542 col 1:7-8 So hold firm to the command of Jacob your ancestor, grasp tightly the judgments of Abraham and the good deeds of Levi and myself, and be holy and pure,

Levi did good deeds?  Truly, what good deeds of Levi?  The only acts we know Levi carried out is the massacre of the town of Shechem (Gen 34:25-31).  Jacob admonishes them for the heinous crime at that time and on his death bed (Gen 49:5-7).  No other deed of Levi are recorded in the Word of God, so what good deeds did Levi do?  Oh yeah, he conspired to kill his brother Joseph (Gen 37:19-35) and lied to Jacob, his father, about the death of Joseph!  Wow, if those are good deeds I never want to see a bad deed.

The Tractate ends with the commandment to guard the sacred writings that Levi gave to Kohath.  Notice, that it is not the sacred writings that YHWH gave to Levi.  This nearly proves that the entire Jewish religion was created by a single person: Levi. 

Of course there are some oddities about this Tractate.  First off, is that the date of its creation is much later than the Torah.  This would imply that Kohath did not write it.  And yet at the same time, it continues the commandment to not intermingle with foreigners.  So what this tells us is that the Israelites were xenophobic for more than 1,000 years.  This is the second oddity.  These were the chosen people of YHWH; their fear of YHWH was greater than their trust in YHWH.  Shouldn’t that tell us something about YHWH?  For centuries he controlled the people of Israel with fear and punishment, love was a missing element in the relationship between Israel and YHWH.  How can the Christians of today claim that YHWH is love: he was an abusive, domineering, overlord for millennia?  He required blood sacrifices to quench his desire for the pleasant aroma of burning flesh?  There can be no doubt that YHWH has evolved just like humans have evolved.

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May 9, 2009, 12:35 pm by dc-agape.

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The Last Words of Joseph is a disappointingly fragmented Tractate.  Very little of it remains.  What does remain is the story of Jacob’s mourning, the price fetched for Joseph, and how magnanimous Joseph was.  These three concepts deliver us a little more info than the Book of Genesis.

We are told that Jacob mourned his son’s “death” for a year.  He also held a “mourning feast”.  The fragments then describe how eighty talents were paid for a slave.  Eighty talents were worth about 125 pounds troy weight of silver (or 46,655 grams of silver worth today, as of this posting, about $22,875.23).  This price is severely different than that of the Book of Genesis (Gen 37:28), where the brothers only received 20 shekels of silver (about 8oz of silver worth $111.19). The editors of my copy of the Dead Sea Scrolls use the Christian “Testament of Joseph” to interpret that this was the payment that the brothers received for selling Joseph.  But the way the fragments are organized it seems more likely to describe a member of the “Mourning feast” purchasing a slave from Jacob.  The Tractate closes with how Joseph chooses not to shame his brothers by announcing that he was a slave.  This last part, of course, does not occur in the Book of Genesis.  Joseph has no choice he is a slave and is sold into slavery to one of the most prominent man in Egypt: the captain of the prison guards, Potiphar.

Evolution of the story is evident here.  The Jewish sect, that wrote this Tractate, has attempted to increase Joseph’s stature by showing him to be even more magnanimous than the Torah.  And the Christians, using this Tractate, increase the value of Joseph as a slave.  These are small changes and they were obviously not included in the Word of God that we know today, but this evolution does tell us something.  Any story, oral or written, becomes larger and larger than life with the passing of time.  How much of the Torah was treated in the same manner?  How much of the New Testament was treated in the same manner?  And even more important, since we know this…how can we be certain that the Word of God is accurate and valid? 

To an Atheist, what can be seen here is more than enough evidence to put the entire Word of God into question.  It can be said that YHWH has protected the important parts, but which parts are the important parts?  Which parts have been modified by the Traditions of Men?  At this point, anything that may have been the “Truth” is questionable.  As a result, how can we trust any of what is written in a text that has had centuries (even millennia) to be manipulated. 

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May 8, 2009, 9:24 am by dc-agape.

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The Apocryphon of Judah

The title of this Tractate is rather deceiving.  An Apocryphon is usually a book that brings secret teachings to the reader.  It might be that this Tractate is so fragmentary that we have lost the “secret” part.  The only part that has survived is the story of Joseph’s second encounter with his brothers in Egypt (Gen 44:1-45:15).  It is told from the perspective of Judah, the brother that suggested selling him into slavery years before this reunion (Gen 37:26-27). 

In this narration Joseph’s love for Ben-Ami (yes, I am using Rachel’s name for her son instead of Abraham’s choice) is completely absent.  And if we believe that it is written from Judah’s perspective, only Judah receives the greatest expression of brotherly love.  This is in severe contrast to the Book of Genesis.  This Tractate’s purpose was to downplay the importance of the relationship between the brothers of Rachel and to bring importance to the reunion between Joseph and Judah.  If you remember the history of Israel, Judah became an independent kingdom separated from the rest of Israel after the reign of Solomon.  After the Assyrian conquest of Judah both nations were “reunited”.  This Tractate was most likely written to smooth over the differences between the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel.

Looking at it from an Atheist’s perspective, I see how easily religious texts can be “rewritten” for political purposes.  It is true that this particular Tractate did not survive to become part of the Holy Word of God as we know it.  Yet, this Tractate was held in high regard by a particular sect of Israelites.  Somehow this sect could ignore the Torah and allow this Tractate to either supersede or compliment the Book of Genesis.  I wonder what would have happened if the Romans had not destroyed the Temple in 70AD.  Would this Tractate still be circulated?  Would we have a completely different perspective on the Book of Genesis if that were the case?  I ask these questions because the sect that kept this Tractate was dedicated to the survival of the Temple.  When the Temple was destroyed this sect lost any religious power that it held.

When reading the Dead Sea Scrolls, one must keep a few things in mind.  First, the sect that held these Tractates was linked directly to the existence of the Temple.  Second, this sect was of an unknown group.  It was neither part of the Pharisees, Sadducees, or Essenes.  From some of the other writings we know that this sect was much more wide spread than the Essenes, but that it did not accept either the Pharisees or the Sadducees either.  Third, we must understand that, as a result, this Jewish sect interpreted the Torah, the Nevi’im, and Ketuvim differently than the other religious sects of the time.  Which sect was correct?  Which sect truly understood the meaning of the Old Testament?  And, as a result of these last two questions, do we understand the Old Testament correctly?  All of modern day Jewish and Christian faith relies on these questions.  Can we risk being wrong?  Should we risk being wrong?  Or should we recognize that as with most legends from mythology that the Old Testament is just that: mythology!

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