Holy Writ as Oral Lit: The Bible as Folklore

by Alan Dundes

With great reverence for the Bible, Dundes offers a new and exciting way to resolve some of the mysteries and contradictions that evolved during the Bible's pre-written legacy and that persists today. Using his expert knowledge of folklore, Dundes unearths and contracts multiple versions of nearly every major biblical event, including the creation of women, the flood, the ten commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord's Prayer, and the inscription on the Cross.

Genres: Religion, Folklore, Philosophy, Nonfiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 14, 1999

About the author

Alan Dundes was a folklorist at the University of California, Berkeley. His work was said to have been central to establishing the study of folklore as an academic discipline. He wrote 12 books, both academic and popular, and edited or co-wrote two dozen more. One of his most notable articles was called "Seeing is Believing" in which he indicated that Americans value the sense of sight more than the other senses.

Reviews

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Folklore is, first of all, not a synonym for error or fallacy, as in the common phrase "That's just folklore."'

Too bad. The schadenfruende in me was hoping this book would say the bible was fallacious. All in all though, this was a fairly interesting read and all the more believable in its points because it takes such a measured, academic approach.

I came upon this book by watching a very low budget documentary I probably would not recommend (The God That Wasn't There) that featured this author as an expert. The man was charming and intelligent so I figured I'd give the book a shot. I also appreciated the title. Unfortunately, the most interesting thing that he said in the film was not a part of this book (i.e. if you take the 23 most common characteristics between mythological heroes, Jesus is #3, matching 19 of the 23 characteristics! These characteristics include: father is god, born of a virgin, little or no mention of adolescence, experiences real or symbolic death (ON A HILL or MOUNTAIN mind you) and returns... If you think about the story of Hercules it hits on a lot of those. FYI: Some of the criteria Jesus didn't meet was raised in a foreign country by adoptive parents.)

So what is this book about? Basically it makes a very convincing case that the bible is folklore in the sense that it is written down oral tradition; it is a collection of stories that differ from most texts or other medias (notably video) in that non-biblical literature and video are fixed and unchanging. A movie will always be the same as will The Scarlet Letter. However, when reading the bible you may find subtle differences in the tellings of (to name a few): the creation of the universe, the sequence of Eve's creation in relation to Adam and the animals of the world, how many blind men Jesus healed, how many people migrated in such and such exodus, who begat whom, who was one of moses father-in-laws, and even who spurred on a certain census taking. Check this out:

'...both versions begin with King David receiving a request to carry out a census of Israel, but the request comes from two very different sources:

And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go number Israel and Judah (2 Sa. 24:1)

And SATAN stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. (1 Chron. 21:1)

It would be a mistake to claim that the difference of just one name in this case constitutes only a trivial variation. There is surely a world of difference between God and the devil!'

I'd say so Alan!

And so forth and so on the author details hundreds of lines from the bible in rapid succession to support his thesis. To be more specific, the examples he provides exhibit variation among the same stories/events by number, sequence of events, and/or the names of those involved.

Pretty interesting in idea but I did only give this book 3 stars after all. The reason is that this book is an academic endeavor. It's little more than a 2 page description of folklore, 100 pages of example after example (some of them very dry) and then a very brief, measured, not very opinionated 2 page conclusion.

So what did I find most interesting? Aside from the above variation between God and the devil, there was an interesting discussion of the ten commandments in which if you counted the "Shall nots" in the Exodus version and also counted what Jesus stated was the first commandment ('The first commandment of all is... The Lord our God is one Lord' (Mark12:28-29)) there are TWELVE commandments. Did not know that!

Also very interesting: there is a point in the bible where Jesus is getting smacked by servants before his death. His back is turned and they are taunting him by asking him who is hitting them, as surely the son of God would know. It turns out that this event/story was likely inspired by a game children played where one has to guess who hit/touched them and you switch spots if you guess right. The cool thing is this game still exists today.

Well I'll be darned! Pretty interesting stuff.

But what does it all mean as a whole? Unfortunately, the folklorist author doesn't go to deep into the implications other than that biblical historians won't get so upset with variation in the bible if they embrace his thesis. I don't know any biblical historians so that doesn't melt my butter. Here's a good snippet from the conclusion and then my final thought:

'If I wanted to encapsulate my argument in the form of a syllogism, I might propose the following:
1) Folklore is characterized by multiple existence and variation.
2) The Bible is permeated by multicple existence and variation.
3) The Bible is folklore
What are the implications of this conclusion? First of all, I believe Jesus would have understood my argument. Why do I think so? The Pharisees and the Sadducees tried to tempt Jesus into showing them "a sign from Heaven" (Matt, 16:1). Jesus responded by citing a weather superstition... [cognate with what we have today]: "Red sky at night, sailors' (shepards') delight... Jesus himself recognized that the item was already traditional at that time... he realized that oral tradition was a source of folk knowledge. The acknowledgment of Jesus of oral tradition is also signaled by his repeated use of such introductory formulas as "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time" (Matt. 5:21, 27, 33) and "Ye have heard that it hath been said" (Matt. 5:38, 43).

So what does it mean to a layman that the Bible is folklore? Maybe nothing! For me, in my present mindset, this book subtracts from the idea of divine inspiration of the bible, but I'm sure that the implications of it being folklore are vague enough that those with the opposite world view see it as proof of divinity... and we're probably both right. Either way, a little perspective on the bible can't hurt and I think, whatever perspective you may glean, that's the main point. :)

[Mohammad Mandurah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Author starts by identifying and defining “Folklore.” Folklore may exist in oral or written forms. But it is always characterized by its multiple existence and variation. The variations in the folklore may be in one word, a phrase, a name, a date, or in sequence.

The Author asserts that there are a number of myths in Genesis: the creation of humankind and the flood myths, to mention just two. A myth is defined as a “sacred narrative explaining how the world and mankind came to be in their present form”. So, there are myths in the Bible; as well as many other folklore genres such as folktales, legends, proverbs, and curses.

The Author then reports many cases of folkloristic texts in the Bible. Here are examples of these folkloristic texts:

1- The different accounts of the trees in the Garden of Eden with variations that Adam was allowed to eat from every tree, was forbidden to eat from 2 trees, and was forbidden to eat from one tree.

2- The three versions of the story of a man presenting his wife as his sister to protect himself from harm. The first account involved Abraham, Sarah and Pharaoh (Gen. 12:11-13, 15-19.) The second account involved Abraham, Sarah and Abimelech (Gen. 20:2-3, 9, 11, 14.). And the third account involved Isaac, Rebekah and Abimelech (Gen. 26:6-11.)

They are three versions of the same story with nearly identical plot. And the response of the duped person in the different accounts is to say the same phrases (almost). It is the opinion of the Author that the above is not a coincidence; It is folklore!

3- Another name variation concerns the name of King David’s second son. While David was living in Hebron, he had six sons by six different wives. In two versions of a description to his family, two different names were given to his second son.

4- The Ten Commandments. There are several versions of the Ten Commandments. One of them is in Ex. 20, and another complete version is in Deut. 5. The two versions are quite similar to each other with one exception: in the Exodus version, coveting thy neighbor’s house comes before coveting thy neighbor’s wife, whereas the order is reversed in the Deuteronomy version (Ex. 20:17; Deut. 5:21).

The other interesting fact is that there are twelve commandments in the Exodus version, not ten.

The Author summarizes the main conclusions of the study in the following:

1. Folklore is characterized by multiple existence and variation.
2. The Bible is permeated by multiple existence and variation.
3. The Bible is folklore!

[Lorenzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great read for Holy Week.

After watching Brian Flemming's documentary The God Who Wasn't There (2005) and listening to Alan Duarte on how the story of Jesus is so unoriginal and cliché that it follows Lord Raglan's "Hero Pattern," also followed by the story of Oedipus, Romulus, Apollo, Zeus, and even Robin Hood, I decided to take a look at his most popular book Holy Writ as Oral Lit.

In this book, Duarte does not necessarily try to disprove Christianity or the existence of Jesus as a real man. Instead, he argues that the Bible should be treated as folklore based on the fact that folklore "is always in flux, always changing" and that, because "of the factors of multiple existence and variation, no two versions of an item of folklore will be identical." Basically, in folklore the story will remain, but the details will vary. And that is exactly what we find in the Bible.

Now, this is when it gets interesting, because some of the variations seem minor, but others, oh boy. He categorizes these variations in three groups: Variation in Number, Variation in Name, and Variation in Sequence. And continues by providing a ton of examples. Why do Mark and Luke mention thirteen different apostles in total? Did God or the Devil order David to take the census? Where was Jesus really born? Did God tell Noah to take two or seven animals of every kind?

Personally, I was expecting him to go for God's throat. I think that some of the examples are impressive, but I wish he would have spent a little more time explaining them instead of watering them down with a longer list of lukewarm examples. Do we really care whether Bebai had six hundred twenty-two or six hundred and twenty-eight children? Not really. Even so, it is a book worth reading if you are interested in the subject.

You may also enjoy:
Root of All Evil? (2006), documentary about "the process of non-thinking called faith."

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gave this five stars, but I probably overshot the mark. If I had to rank this book purely on scholarship, I would have put it around 3 stars. So why the 5 stars? Well, I like Alan Dundes and respect him as a scholar and innovator in folklore studies, and so my rating has more to do with the man and his overall work than this particular book. I confess it. It's a biased rating. However, this book raises very interesting issues, demonstrating the multiplicity of specific narratives in the biblical texts (i.e., multiple versions of the same story with often conflicting details), all of which are hallmarks of oral traditions. In other words, he supports the view that the biblical writings began as oral traditions, which were later codified into written texts. He goes on to demonstrate the same process in New Testament writings, as well as the Old Testament narratives. However, I had some serious concerns with his methodology. He always used the English KJV text to illustrate his examples. Without a reference to the original Greek or Hebrew, I wasn't certain if the variant readings actually occurred in the original texts, or if some of the variants might possibly be attributed to translators. In order to trust what he was saying in all the instances, I would really prefer to explore the original texts, as well. Given that this book was involved in close textual analysis, I found the reliance on the English KJV alone was a serious failing.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I also learned about this book through the documentary that can be found on netflix. I've forgotten the name of the documentary but I enjoyed it. The idea that the bible is a collection of folklores intrigued me and so here I am reviewing a book that argues that the bible is indeed a collection of folktales.

This book gives a great argument that the bible is a collection of oral stories. It is nothing more than a book full of folklores. This book is an easy read and keeps you interested in the information. Which is difficult to do for the everyday person.

One of the most interesting things this book showed me was that the things Jesus said on the cross were the first lines in different psalms. That actually shocked me since I was a big christian back in the day and never caught that. But then I guess that fits in perfectly with the question Dundes proposed. Do people who read the bible notice the similar passages? Do they notice the repetitive nature of the bible? Most likely the answer is no.

[Jc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dundes' introduction to reading the judeo-christian bible as a compilation of folklore traditions. One of his theses is that the oral transmission, of both Old and New Test's, continued much later than other scholars claim. He feels that only a short line of written texts need to have existed prior to the codification currently known. Therefore, most variation, repetition, and copying error are due to differences in strains of oral tradition than literary tradition. Also contains a nice discussion of the redundancies that are part of the text.

However, I recommend the book only to students of folklore (STUDENTS of, NOT people who just like to read fairytales, who would just find it boring) and/or students of the bible as literature (NOT "believers" in any conservative sense, who would just find the book annoying and thereby miss the point).

[Sancho · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the book, but it did not really teach me something I did not know already (something that the author's wife feared from the beginning).

However, I think that the work of collecting all this nonsense, repetitions, mistakes, and contradictions in the bible to show that it is indeed a result of oral traditions and folklore, and putting them together for the reader, is remarkable and requires a lot of knowledge about that book, not to mention a lot of attention and memory!

Of course, the fact that the bible is a result of folklore does not strike me at all, it is this blind belief in its words what I find repulsive. And, that MANY of those who see it as infallible, have probably not read it... A quote that summarizes this:

"Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived." Isaac Asimov

[Jorge · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very accessible publication by an author that is best know for his scholarship. I was very happy to see that he was able to forge a work that could easily be understood by the masses. It is not easy for scholars to express themselves in ways that laypersons can grasp. this book was primarily an enlightening diversion. It contained plenty of examples relating to the primary assertion of the book; namely that the Bible started off as a work of oral tradition which was eventually committed to written text. The book was brief, but contains a plethora of citations.

[Stu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. Dundes, usually very erudite, essentially ignores the long history of higher criticism in Biblical studies, including the evolution of the documentary hypotheses on the composition of the Torah and the Gospels. He is certainly correct in indicating the oral sources of scripture, but leaving out this background leaves his analysis woefully incomplete, especially for a senior scholar.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

VERY INTERESTING. ANOTHER WAY TO APPROACH THE BIBLE FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING. THE ROLE OF ORAL TRANSMISSION IS NOT USUALLY GIVEN MUCH PLAY OR CREDENCE, ALTHO' MUCH OF THE BIBLE, BOTH THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES AND THE NEW TESTAMENT, WAS BASED ON ORAL TRADITION. ANOTHER FASCINATING FACET OF BIBLE STUDY.

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

The bigger theme taken on by the book is the way that oral and written transmission interact with one another.

[Melissa Engberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I enjoyed this book enough to give it for stars, I also found it to be rather repetitive. Admittedly, I did not need much convincing that the Xian bible was folklore!