The God of Criticism

If you read about a character who visited friends one day and stormed in like a thundercloud the next, who visited unexpectedly and shared a meal but then withdrew into a closed palace, who blew smoke from his nostrils and then spoke with magnificent gentleness and compassion, you’d be inclined to think: What an interesting, varied, complex, volatile, unpredictable character! You’d be inclined to find the character interesting.

Not critical scholars. They read about Yahweh majestically speaking a world into being and then about Yahweh coming close enough to breathe into Adam’s nostrils, and say: Different sources! Different character! The people who told stories of God visiting Abram must have had very different beliefs from the people who approached the temple with terror.

Critical scholarship breaks the God of Scripture into small scraps, and in so doing they accomplish the near-miraculous: They make Yahweh boring.