The Bible

Abraham, Moses and many other prominent figures of the Old Testament probably never existed as portrayed. Especially David. He was probably a provincial leader whose reputation was overblown by spin doctors. The story of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt didn’t happen and the walls of Jericho never came tumbling down, according to archaeologists who have searched in Israel for decades. The theories have gained acceptance among non-Orthodox rabbis. “Etz Hayim” (Tree of Life), a new Torah and commentary published at the dawn of the 21st century, represents the latest findings from archaeology, philology, anthropology and the study of ancient cultures. The idea is to deal with the reality that the Bible is a human document rather than divine.

The evolutionary knowledge and objective of the Old Testament has enabled Jews and the state of Israel to survive centuries of political, religious and military persecution. Israel is the 100th smallest country with less than 1/1,000th of the world’s population. It has been engaged in several wars with an implacable enemy that seeks its destruction. Its economy is continuously strained by having to spend more per capita on its own protection than any country on earth. But it can lay claim to the following: the cell phone was developed by Israelis working in the Israeli branch of Motorola; most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel; the Pentium MMX chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel; both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and the Centrino processor were entirely designed, developed and produced in Israel; voice mail technology was developed in Israel; both Microsoft and Cisco systems built their only non-U.S. R&D facilities in Israel; the technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.

Israel has the fourth-largest air force in the world ─ after the U.S., Russia and China. In addition to a large variety of other aircraft, Israel has an aerial arsenal of more than 250 F-16s. That is the largest fleet of F-16 aircraft outside the U.S.

U.S. officials now look to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats; Israel’s $10-billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbours combined. Israel has the world’s highest percentage of home computers; Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world; Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin ─ 109 per 10,000 people ─ and has one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed. Israel designed the airline industry’s most impenetrable flight security. Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more remarkable because this was achieved in an area considered mainly desert. Israel has more museums per capita than any other country. Relative to population, Israel is the largest immigrant absorbing nation on earth. Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East. The per capita income in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the U.K. ─ When it comes to the number of Nobel Peace Prizes won by Israel compared to the Arab World ─ like 80 to one. Pro rata for population, Israel is making a greater contribution to humanity than any other nation on earth.

Isn’t it time the Koran and New Testament were updated and treated as human, rather than divine, documents so that the lives and living standards of people who live by their dictates were improved as well?