Reddit reviews The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures

Any standard work on the subject, whether literary or archeological, would point away from the basic framework of your interpretation. (The best evidence, of course, is always the Bible, properly interpreted in its context, itself).

The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts https://www.amazon.com/dp/0195167686/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_TbmWBbGQ5HYF1


The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel (The Biblical Resource Series) https://www.amazon.com/dp/080283972X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_9dmWBbD268FCN

Stories from Ancient Canaan, Second Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/0664232426/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_BemWBb5ADVYJF

The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures https://www.amazon.com/dp/019060865X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_5fmWBb77Z4SP3

The Oxford Handbook of the Abrahamic Religions (Oxford Handbooks) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0198783019/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_KgmWBb7AE7EC5

History of Religious Ideas, Volume 1: From the Stone Age to the Eleusinian Mysteries https://www.amazon.com/dp/0226204014/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_ahmWBb97P6K64

Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide (Harvard University Press Reference Library) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0674015177/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_.hmWBbFMA52Z7

None of these propose an exact duplicate of this simplistic model, but they triangulate to something very similar.

This is a long and complex topic. I would take the time to read: https://bahai-library.com/dibdin_bahai_view_bible and https://bahai-library.com/uhj_old_new_testaments

For purposes of discussion with Christians and some Jews, we generally regard the Bible as part of the sacred record of God's history but not necessarily complete, accurate or reliable from a historical standpoint. In the Baha'i Faith, only the actual, verified Writings of the Bab, Baha'u'llah, and 'Abdu'l-Baha are considered authentic and sacred and only the Words of the Bab and Baha'u'llah are the Word of God. Similarly, we regard only the Qur'an as the authentic revelation of Muhammad and the traditions (hadiths) later reported are given far less weight unless confirmed in the Baha'i Writings. But that reflects the greater documentation and standards of this time and would be unreasonable to apply to a prior age. The following quotes are illuminating:

>The Four Gospels were written after Him [Christ]. John, Luke, Mark and Matthew - these four wrote after Christ what they remembered of His utterances. Baha'u'llah (From a previously untranslated Tablet)
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> Know ye that the Torah is that which was revealed in the Tablets to Moses, may peace be upon Him, or that to which He was bidden. But the stories are historical narratives and were written after Moses, may peace be upon Him. 'Abdu'l-Baha    (From a previously untranslated Tablet)
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>From Shoghi Effendi:
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>...The Bible is not wholly authentic, and in this respect is not to be compared with the Qur'an, and should be wholly subordinated to the authentic writings of Bahá'u'lláh . (28 July 1936 to a National Spiritual Assembly)
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>...we cannot be sure how much or how little of the four Gospels are accurate and include the words of Christ and His undiluted teachings, all we can be sure of, as Bahá'ís, is that what has been quoted by Bahá'u'lláh and the Master must be absolutely authentic. As many times passages in the Gospel of St. John are quoted we may assume that it is his Gospel and much of it accurate. (23 January 1944 to an individual believer)
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>When 'Abdu'l-Bahá states we believe what is in the Bible, He means in substance. Not that we believe every word of it to be taken literally or that every word is the authentic saying of the Prophet. (11 February 1944 to an individual believer)
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>We cannot be sure of the authenticity of any of the phrases in the Old or the New Testament. What we can be sure of is when such references or words are cited or quoted in either the Quran or the Bahá'í writings. (4 July 1947 to an individual believer)
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>We have no way of substantiating the stories of the Old Testament other than references to them in our own teachings, so we cannot say exactly what happened at the battle of Jericho. (25 November 1950 to an individual believer)
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>Except for what has been explained by Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá, we have no way of knowing what various symbolic allusions in the Bible mean. (31 January 1955 to an individual believer) https://bahai-library.com/uhj_old_new_testaments

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>"We sent forth Noah and Abraham, and bestowed on their offspring prophethood and the Scriptures... After them We sent other apostles, and after those Jesus the son of Mary. We gave him the Gospel..."[21] (the Qur'an)
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>"Regard not yourselves as being like unto the people to whom the Qur'an or the Gospel or the other Scriptures of old were given."[22] (The Báb)
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>Manifold are the verses that have been repeatedly revealed in all the heavenly Books and the holy Scriptures,..."[23] (Bahá'u'lláh)
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>"You must know the Old and New Testaments as the Word of God"[24] ('Abdu'l-Bahá)
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>"Surely the Bible is the book of God"[25] ('Abdu'l-Bahá)
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> "...all the Prophets of Israel were centers of inspiration; Christ also was a receiver of inspiration, but what a difference between the inspiration of the Word of God and the revelations of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Elijah!"[33] ('Abdu'l-Bahá)
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> "When 'Abdu'l-Bahá states we believe what is in the Bible, He means in substance. Not that we believe every word of it to be...the authentic saying of the Prophet."[34] (written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi) https://bahai-library.com/dibdin_bahai_view_bible

Mirza 'Abu'l-Fadl, an early Baha'i scholar, expressed a more nuanced position where he acknowledged the lack of historical evidence for the story of Exodus as told and much of the historical portions of the Old Testament as being highly embellished and inaccurate (but based on real people and real events, just not like those told).

> Regarding the Old Testament, Fadl said that it contained two types of teaching: a) revelation from God, such as the 10 commandments of Moses, the Psalms of David and the books of the Prophets, and b) historical information, such as the books Joshua, Samuel, Kings and Chronicles "...which contain no statement, sign or hint of being divine speech and therefore should not be considered as revelation."[17]
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>Concerning the Book of Christ, he wrote that "The Holy Gospels alone contain teachings which can be regarded as the true Words of God; and these teachings do not exceed the contents of a few pages."[18]
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>Mírza Abú'l-Fadl's contributions are original and lucid, and appear to me to be in harmony with the understanding of the Bible which is argued for in the present paper. https://bahai-library.com/dibdin_bahai_view_bible

A number of good academic texts and research has increasingly confirmed his statements in this regard, such as Finkelstein and Silberman, The Bible Unearthed, 2001, Dever, Beyond the Texts, 2016. There is an entire volume of academic research on the Exodus with contributions by numerous scholars in 2015 and Friedman's Exodus is an excellent view that the Exodus story is probably true but reflected the fleeing from Egypt of a much smaller tribe led by Moses that later infiltrated into Israel and whose religion became increasingly adopted in Israel and Judea (which agrees in some ways with Finkelstein).

While studying the Bible I would highly recommend two good academic texts as references: Cooper and Chapman, https://www.amazon.com/Old-Testament-Historical-Introduction-Scriptures/dp/019060865X for the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible; and Bart Ehrman, https://www.amazon.com/New-Testament-Historical-Introduction-Christian/dp/0190909005/ref=dp_ob_title_bk . These are probably the two most recognized texts used in introductory academic courses on Bible history. Cooper is one of the foremost authorities in his field, as is Ehrman. Ehrman is more controversial though because he went to study as an evangelical and left as an agnostic as he was confronted with the evidence of contradictions and factual errors in the texts. Ehrman's text is used by Robert Stockman, the director of the Wilmette Institute, who teaches introduction to the New Testaments as an academic scholar (Ph.D. in sociology/religious studies).