#2562 - Dan McClellan

Dan McClellan argues that biblical texts are best understood in their historical settings, including the purposes of their authors, rather than treated as a single, consistent voice. A replica jar fragment associated with Kuntillet Ajrud, dated to about 800 BCE, invokes “Adonai of Shomron,” or “Jehovah of Samaria,” and his Asherah; most scholars understand this as referring to Israel’s God and a wife, Asherah. McClellan also sees a likely textual relationship between the Moses story and the Sargon of Akkad story, which share the motif of a baby set adrift. The earliest known Akkadian version may date to the ninth or eighth century BCE, around the period when the Moses and Exodus traditions were taking shape.

McClellan places biblical writing within a changing landscape of languages and religious traditions. Alphabetic-script historical prose is not attested before the mid-ninth century BCE, while some biblical poems may date to around 1000 BCE. He dates Genesis broadly to the eighth through fifth centuries BCE and says its creation account is more closely connected to traditions circulating in Babylon around 600 BCE than to direct borrowing from much older Sumerian sources. The 1929 discovery of Ugarit yielded about 1,000 texts that illuminate Israelite traditions; an Ugaritic account of Baal defeating the sea monster Lotan shares wording and imagery with Isaiah’s description of Leviathan, likely reflecting a circulating poetic tradition rather than direct quotation.

Archaeology also complicates the biblical picture of worship centralized in Jerusalem. Eighth-century BCE Arad had an Israelite temple with a standing stone, altar, inscriptions referring to the house of Adonai, and incense altars; residue testing found three kinds of cannabis on one altar. Tel Motza, a temple site near Jerusalem, provides further evidence of worship outside the capital. Some scholars interpret Deuteronomy’s centralization rules as a Jerusalem king’s effort to close other temples while retaining his own. McClellan says Genesis’s flood story may have been added in the sixth or fifth century BCE, though its entry into the text is unknown; a proposed mismatch with Genesis 4’s surviving family lines is suggestive, not conclusive.

The gospels, McClellan says, were written after Jesus’ death for literary audiences and to address followers’ experiences. He dates Mark probably to 69–71 CE, Matthew about five to ten years later, Luke at least five to ten years after Matthew, and John after Luke. New Testament writers could use language and actions associated with Greco-Roman emperors and god-men to present Jesus as superior to them. Paul’s undisputed letters anticipate Jesus’ imminent return and favor celibacy, while later letters attributed to Paul reflect the delay of the Parousia and encourage having children. Scholars widely agree that 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus were not written by Paul; their dating is generally late first or early second century, possibly decades after his death.

McClellan describes 1 Enoch as a collection of traditions, not a continuous narrative, and says it offers an influential account in which wicked divine beings contribute to human evil. He sees it as an early source for ideas resembling heaven and hell, while the New Testament contains inconsistent ideas about post-mortem punishment, including annihilation, temporary torment, and eternal torment. Later Christian teaching systematized these differences. He argues that the idea that Adam and Eve’s disobedience brought evil into the world is chiefly a Christian interpretation; some earlier Jewish traditions instead blamed divine beings whose actions led to violence and the flood. The Ethiopian Bible preserves the complete 1 Enoch, but calling it the earliest Bible is misleading: its manuscripts are valuable for Ethiopian Christianity, not especially useful for reconstructing the earliest biblical text.

Textual evidence, McClellan emphasizes, supports reconstructing the earliest recoverable stage of a text, not certainty about an original. About 16 verses commonly printed in the King James Version are omitted from modern translations because they were likely added later; Mark 16:9–20 is one widely recognized example. The Dead Sea Scrolls clarified readings and revealed the contents of a paragraph whose existence was already known. Survival itself shapes the evidence: the Romans destroyed Qumran around 68 CE, and tombs or sites destroyed by fire are especially likely to preserve material that archaeologists can later find.

McClellan’s work combines biblical studies with the cognitive science of religion, and he cautions that translation tools cannot replace knowledge of ancient Hebrew and Greek. He says intuitive perception and social identity make objective interpretation difficult, while harmonizing contradictions can create a second-order narrative that is treated as authoritative. Religious monitoring and group rituals can encourage shared rules and trust, but empathy may remain bounded by the group and make mistreatment of outsiders easier to justify. He keeps his personal faith private and reads biblical criticism of public piety as a demand to prioritize justice, mercy, and righteousness over displays of devotion.