Where Man Meets the Divine: The Partially Divinely-Inspired Model of Torah

Overview: An approach that reconciles both faith and critical scholarship, bridging somewhere in the middle of a divinely-inspired Torah and a man-made Torah.

Torah min hashamayim – the term used to describe this basic Orthodox principle of faith that Torah is the absolute Word of God. Many have taken this so literally to the point that they believed every word was said from God to Moses and that we can even learn laws from each and every word in Torah, well beyond what is implied from the simple intention of the Torah’s text.^[1] Others take it to mean that the content of the Torah is from God yet written in the regular language of man, perhaps in Moses’ own words.^[2] In this article we will present a modern approach to torah min hashamayim, one that attempts to reconcile faith with modern scholarship and archeological findings.^[3]

We have argued for a divinely-inspired Torah based on the Covenant in “The Torah: Divinely-Inspired or Man-Made.” Yet, despite this divine nature, we have also discussed the human elements of the Torah, written in human language and containing possible narratival additions.^[4] What we are to now propose is a far more radical approach, an approach foreign to Orthodox perspectives and one that would be regarded as heretical by some people.^[5] Yet despite that, we need to examine the evidence wherever it takes us and if there’s a possibility for this model to be true, then the least we can do is present it as a possibility.

This model is a very dangerous model – in terms of belief; one that could make the divine system of Torah appear to be broken entirely. Yet despite the dangers, we shouldn’t exclude this possible model just because it doesn’t fit with our religious sensibilities. If this model is true, we can still rebuild a faithful religious framework and we will do so in this article.

What the Covenant tells us

We have argued extensively (here) for the divinity in the Deuteronomistic Covenant between God and His people Israel. We have seen the Covenant play out in history and even repeat itself, indicating a likely divine role. What would that tell us? At the maximum it tells us that the entire Torah is divinely-inspired and given directly from God. At the minimum it tells us that at least part of the Torah Law was given by God and that there is a unique relationship between the Jews and God, and that we are to serve our true God YHWH and not the foreign gods of other religions.

It’s easy and simplistic to take the extreme fundamentalist view that everything in Torah is directly from God. That approach would really make it easy to believe and appeals to much of our religious sensibilities. Yet despite being so tempting, there are clear flaws in the extreme approach as we will now point out.

What critical scholarship tells us

Critical scholarship often speculates, coming to conclusions much faster than the evidence tells us to (and The Rational Believer has many articles addressing those topics^[6]). Yet overall critical scholarship has made a strong case in identifying the sources of much of Torah’s narratives and laws. These recent findings in archaeology and science have revealed things to us that our ancestors wouldn’t have known. We therefore have a responsibility to amend our beliefs according to what the evidence suggests we do – even though our great Jewish scholars of the past thought differently based on the limited and primitive science they had at their disposal.

We will not go through each case in great detail but we will give an overall line of reasoning to support this model of a man-made torah min hashamayim. We will show how the Torah borrows from other Ancient Near East myths and adopts laws from the great civilizations of old. Of course there are often answers to these parallels (as discussed in “Was Torah Influenced by Surrounding Cultures”^[7]), yet these answers aren’t satisfying for many people and this alternative model can therefore assist in explaining why the Torah borrowed from other human documents of the time.

The Creation story of Genesis 1 parallels the Babylonian mythological tale of Enuma Elish: the flood story, that of Sumer’s Gilgamesh Epic. That is besides the scientific unlikelihood of a Great Flood and a 6-day Creation. The story of Moses’ birth in Exodus 2 parallels the birth stories of other great leaders in the Ancient Near East, such as the birth of Sargon of Akkad and of Horus of Egypt.

There are several anachronisms in Torah, suggesting that an author other than Moses (or God) wrote parts of the Torah (see here). There are also parts that seem to be a deliberate attempt to appear prophetical despite being written after the fulfilment of those “prophecies.” Examples include the Blessings of Jacob (in Genesis 49) and of Moses (in Deut. 34). These blessings, portrayed as prophecies of Jacob and Moses of what will happen in the future, describe the geographical situation of the Monarchical period in Judea and Israel as well as the financial classes of the tribes at that time. While I do believe in the concept of prophecy (see here), my first impression is that these specific alleged prophecies are actually written by much later scribes. Had it been actual prophecies, the content of the prophecies seems rather odd. Rather than conveying the entire future history of the Israelites, the chapter speaks exclusively of the Monarchical period of ancient Israel and ends there. There is no mention of the fate of most the Ten Tribes or the Second Temple era’s geography. This would suggest that these verses were written sometime during the Monarchical period and were thus unaware of later history. Similarly, since it was written during the Monarchical period, the author wouldn’t be aware that the kingship was to cease among Judah after the Babylonian invasion in the 6th century BCE which is why the author assumes that the Judean kingship will last forever.[8]

Besides all those narratival issues in Torah, there are the laws portrayed as coming from God, despite being almost exact copies of ancient Near Eastern laws that preceded Torah (for the religious response, see here and here). Most of Exodus 21 and 22 are strikingly identical, in both content and writing, to the famous Code of Hammurabi of ancient Babylon as well as parts of the Eshnunna laws.^[9] The sacrificial system, described throughout Leviticus, parallels the sacrificial system of the Ancient Near East religions. Similarly, rituals like circumcision and the menstrual taboo are found all throughout civilizations that preceded Torah.

All this, and much more, are indicative of a human hand in the formulation of the Torah Law and Torah narratives. It is natural for human authors to be influenced by surrounding cultures and fashion their religion in a similar yet different manner. They were shaped by the ideals and customs of their society and that is evident in the Torah laws, such as those permitting slavery and killing rebellious children. Again, there are possible answers to these issues, though many people will find them to be apologetical gymnastics rather than reasonable explanations. That is why it is of importance to bring this model of torah min hashamayim as well.

The reconciliation

The approach here is a human-divine mixture in Torah. It is where human meets the divine in attempt to better serve It. Many of the Torah laws were man-made, according to this approach, and were later misunderstood to be laws given from God at Sinai (see Ex. 21:11). Akin to this, is the rabbinic law system of Halacha that is mostly man-made yet portrays itself as the Will of the Lord. God wants us to serve Him – as the Covenant suggests – yet many of the specifics in how we serve Him, such as laws, prayers, and inspiring narratives, are man-made – made in order to create a robust and survivable religion in the service of our God.

This doesn’t mean that all of Torah Law is man-made; it merely means that much of it is. Exactly how much was given from God at Sinai and how much was later developed and incorporated into the Torah’s text is questionable and beyond the point. It’s also possible that the general command to serve God was from God Himself at His revelation at Sinai, and He purposely left all the details for the sages to develop. An analogy is a king who requests a grand banquet from his servants, yet he leaves them the authority to decide on the exact details of what should be on the menu and how to design the banquet room. Thus, God commanded “serve YHWH and no other gods” and the details of how to serve God were left for the sages to develop. Just as the servants will design and decorate based on societal norms and customs, the sages as well developed a beautiful religion – influenced by, though different than, society – in the service of our God.^[10]

The Junk DNA parable

To best bring out this idea, I like to bring a parable from what doctors call “junk DNA.” Our DNA is filled with millions of codes that make up who we are and what we do. But interestingly enough, most of these codes are useless, or junk, serving no purpose. It’s like a computer with millions of codes but only several thousand of them serve a computer function. The vast majority of our DNA are junk DNA, with only a tiny percentage actually bearing a functioning code that makes us who we are.

Scientists are still working on uncovering more about this DNA, but what appears to be is several categories within our DNA. First there is the DNA that makes us the incredible human machines that we are. Despite only being a tiny percentage of our DNA, these codes are enough to make us the sophisticated beings that we are. Some of the DNA seems to serve a purpose but scientists are still trying to figure out what function they play in the human biology. Some of the DNA is just plain-out useless; and others are, in fact, harmful, often causing cancerous growths within the bloodstream.

The comparison is a Judaism diverse with many elements. Some are actually divinely inspired, and some are man-made yet serve us satisfaction and make our society a better place. And some parts are even completely useless. Beyond that, some parts can be harmful – and it is our job to fix those issues. The bottom line, though, is that Judaism as a whole is a very functioning system that at one level or another taps into the divine in a way that no other physical practices can do. In a world void of spirituality, it is wisest to associate ourselves with Judaism that may contain at least bits and parts of spirituality and divinity that are otherwise inaccessible in this world.

The ramifications of this approach

While this approach may seem radical at first from an Orthodox perspective, it may not be that foreign to Orthodox theology after all. This concept is applied on a micro level in traditional Judaism, and here we are merely extending it to the macro level in order to answer many questions on faith. This isn’t to argue that this approach is a traditional Orthodox approach; on the contrary, this approach goes against much of Orthodox dogma. However, a similar idea and a micro level of this idea can be found within the Orthodox theology as we shall now explain.

Traditional Jewish thought pointed out textual corruption in Torah, recognizing that the Torah version we have today is not an exact accurate word-for-word as it was 3,000 years ago.^[11] If we extend this logic from text to law, then we have our new approach to torah min hashamayim.

Traditional Judaism even applies this concept on the macro level when it comes to Halacha. Almost everyone agrees that most of the Oral Law and Halacha were man-made by the sages. They were not prophets conveying God’s Will,^[12] but rather formulating laws that they thought would best keep Judaism alive and enhance the service of YHWH. This is why the Talmud regards these rabbinic-made laws as divinely-inspired, despite their clear human origin.^[13] So if there were a group of scholars in ancient Israel who viewed themselves the same way the sages did in Talmudic times, they may have written down their laws and attributed it to Moses – just as the rabbis in the Talmud did!

This theory begins to get complicated once we bump into the question of legal reform. Should laws such as the ban on homosexuality (Lev. 20:13) be reformed on the assumption that they were man-made laws influenced by a primitive and barbaric society? Should the death penalty of Torah be restricted? These are all great questions that we as a community need to address, and there may not be clear answers just like many things in life. Some might argue that we should adhere to all the Torah’s laws on the possibility of that specific law being from God rather than man-made. Others might counter that we need to be inclusive and accepting, and unless we can know for sure that these specific laws were given from God directly, then we should not mistreat or restrict the natural human expressions of homosexuality or a woman’s role in a marriage, for example.^[14] Ultimately, this is each individual’s choice to make and decide for themselves how to approach the authority of Torah.