Textual Interpretation and Change

Michael Satlow’s main focus in the first part of his book How the Bible Became Holy is on how the authority and meaning of the Biblical texts has changed.  The authority that the Pentateuch has gleaned through history was not always a given.  The text of the books has changed and been edited by many scribes, writing and rewriting the words.  In particular, the book of Deuteronomy was created by the rewriting of the Covenant Code (pg 44). While the Covenant Code and Deuteronomy have remained clearly separate in history, there is no way of knowing how much other books may have been changed before they reached the form that is accessible today.

Not only are the words themselves changed, but the interpretations have been thoroughly shifted.  Throughout these first five chapters, Satlow will give a textual example, and then follow it up with the different interpretations that the example has come to receive.  In particular, Ezra’s and Nehemiah’s dislike of ‘intermarriage’ has often been interpreted very differently than what Ezra initially meant.  “Since the Holocaust, Jews have framed the argument against intermarriage in terms of survival of the people” (p 81). This is not an unreasonable interpretation, but it is not what was concerning Ezra or Nehemiah.  They were more focused on Jewish men’s “holy seed,” and how it could be polluted by intermingling with outside women.

Satlow focuses upon the changes in interpretations and changes in content that have occurred through the creation and existence of the texts of the Bible, and how they have come to be accepted as authorities for religious belief.  While the interpretations are often understandable, and the changes inevitable (such as meaning being lost in translation), Satlow brings into focus how important it is to look back at the meanings that the text initially had.