Scripture and Israeli Secular Culture 309One who reads the Bible as a human document will discern the Bible’s lack
of unity, along with its many layers, the stages in their development, and
the growth of ideas that they document. Take, for example, biblical law. Th e
Bible’s law code is not monolithic; it was not all handed to Moses on Mt. Si-
nai but refl ects progressive developments and adaptations to the demands
of reality. Th e law of the remission of debts (Deuteronomy 15:1 – 11), for in-
stance, was created due to the diffi culties that were caused by shmita, the
Sabbatical Year law (Exodus 23:10 – 13): in a year during which one is for-
bidden to cultivate the land, there is no source of income to pay debts. Th e
law forbidding the admission of Ammonites and Moabites into the con-
gregation of Israel (Deuteronomy 23:4) also became untenable in the face
of widespread marriages to foreign women. In the end, in the Mishnah,
the law was amended, following the path taken in the book of Ruth, which
legitimized marriage to Ammonite and Moabite women who accepted Is-
rael’s God: “Th e (male) Ammonite or (male) Moabite are forbidden eter-
nally but their women are allowed immediately” (Mishnah Yebamoth 8.3).
Biblical literature grew from a constant, tension-fi lled dialogue between
various social and ideological circles. Many of the Bible’s writings interpret
other biblical writings that preceded them in order to adapt them and make
them acceptable to the contemporary time and religious world.23 Of the
more famous of these cases of inner-biblical interpretation is the book of
Chronicles. Written in the days of the return to Zion from Babylonian ex-
ile, Chronicles retells the history of the kingship period that was recorded
in Samuel and Kings, thereby reshaping the past according to the attitudes
of its time. Th e Bible is therefore a mirror to a vibrant and busy ideological,
religious life, to a constant reconsideration of fundamental questions con-
cerning the individual, the nation, and the world. It reveals how adaptation
and development of ideas could occur while nonetheless holding on to the
essence: that which is beyond time and place.
Readers not fearful of the collapse of the Bible’s supposed unity, who are
able to grapple with the variety of ideas and worldviews expressed in it, will
hear not only the loud rush of the central currents of biblical thought but
also the fl owing of smaller rivulets that run quietly, the voices of divergent
traditions — such as that which tells how the Israelites practiced idolatry
up until the land of Israel was conquered (Joshua 24:14) or another that
recounts the giving of the Torah in Shechem (ibid., vv. 25 – 26). Indeed,
distance allows us to draw closer, close enough to distinguish the mosaic
stones that constitute the enormous picture. Sensitivity to this intellectual
wealth, to the dialogue and tensions within the Bible, proves how similar