SECRET ORIGINS OF THE BIBLE.

green hardbound 8vo. 8º (octavo). dustwrapper in protective plastic book jacket cover. fine cond. binding square & tight. covers clean. tiny ding in bottom of front cover. edges clean. contents free of markings. dustwrapper in fine cond. not worn or torn or price clipped. nice clean copy. no library markings or store stamps, no stickers or bookplates, no names, no inking , no underlining, no remainder markings etc ~. 2nd printing. iii+468p. 29 b&w figures. 2 tables. 7 b&w maps. bibliography. 3 indices. bibliography. index. religion. mythology. folklore. ancient literature. ancient history. archaeology. biblical studies. theology. ~It is surprising that a book as widely explained as the Bible can still hold secrets. Many intelligent and otherwise well informed readers will find much of the material in this book new and quite startling, although Bible scholars, and anyone who has even an amateur background in comparative mythology, will be familiar with it. Callahan fills the gap left by many Bible interpreters who examine only those Bible verses which can be made to support their personal or political views. But the world needs a broader understanding of its sacred texts, particularly when selective interpretation of the Bible is used to fuel extremism, and when interpreting Bible verses out of the context in which they were written intrudes on rational solutions for modern problems. Callahan uses comparative mythology to demonstrate how Bible stories that do not make much sense on the surface can be understood on deeper levels when their mythic content is revealed. He uses literary analysis, history, and archeological comparisons to expand our understanding of the purpose these stories served for those who originally wrote them. Callahan subjects biblical narratives to each the following questions: 1) Is the narrative literally true based on history, archaeology and science? 2) Are there internal inconsistencies, anachronisms, or other clues that invalidate the narrative if it is to be considered historical or to be taken literally? 3) Is the reasoning behind the narrative and the ethical beliefs derived from it based on a world view foreign to our own sense of ethics? 4) Is there a mythic meaning to the narrative that is quite different from what a literal interpretation of the narrative might imply? 5) What social or political stance do believers derive from the biblical narrative, and how valid is their use of the Bible to back up their personal and political positions? Secret Origins Of the Bible covers many issues from both the familiar and the more obscure chapters of the Bible: Is there historical evidence for the Exodus Of Joshua's conquest of Canaan? What contributions did the mythology of ancient Egypt and other surrounding cultures make to modern Christianity? How did the religion of ancient Israel, before the Exile, differ from today's ethics~based monotheism? Bible stories are examined that suggest that along with Yahweh, the Israelites worshiped and acknowledged other deities, such as Chemosh and Azazel, and that their primitive polytheistic religion included worship of a goddess who was the consort of Yahweh, some form of tree worship, ecstatic trances, fortune telling, human sacrifice, a cult of the dead, and solar worship. Why is so much material in the Bible repetitive and even contradictory? How linguistic analysis of Biblical names reveals their original hidden meanings. How were tales from rival sources altered toward more masculine outlook? What do anachronisms and other incompatibilities in both time and culture reveal about the historicity of the stories of the biblical patriarchs? What is the evidence that the biblical stories of the creation, the race of giants, the flood, and the tower of Babel were independently derived from earlier tales told by the Sumerians and preIsraelite Semitic peoples? What ancient mythic themes influenced the Nativity, Passion, and Resurrection narratives.…