THROUGH THE LENS OF AN ANCIENT YISRA'ELITE BIBLE STUDY

A Christian author urges the faithful to recenter ancient Israelite cultural contexts in this nonfiction book.

“Have you ever wondered why there is sometimes a contrast between what is preached from the pulpit and what is written in the Bible?” Carrasquillo asks in his introduction, conveying his personal feelings of alienation and emptiness regarding a modern Christianity that shoehorns the faith into a “Western perspective.” These feelings of division from mainstream Christianity prompted the author to drop out of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, and spend decades engaging in independent research and biblical studies. Now an ordained minister who facilitates online Bible studies, Carrasquillo makes the case in this work that Christians should set aside their cultural mores and the theologies handed down from preachers who only have a rudimentary understanding of the Bible’s original languages. Basing his analysis on biblical Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, the author offers readers an in-depth exploration of the Bible that urges them to eschew the “tight grip on theology and Biblical interpretation” held by Christian scholars and to approach the Bible from the perspective of the ancient culture that produced its books. Take, for instance, the Genesis creation story, in which God (who’s identified by the Hebrew name Yahweh throughout the work) frequently refers to himself with plural pronouns (“let us make” humanity “in our image”). Christians for centuries have connected these pronouns to the concept of the Trinity, but the author emphasizes that the notion of the Trinity was alien to ancient Hebrews and is better understood within the context of a “divine council” that was commonly accepted among Near Eastern cultures. Carrasquillo, employing an accessible writing style that is never preachy, takes readers back to the historical and literary context of the Bible on topics that include heaven, Passover and the breaking of bread, Gospel parables, and speaking in tongues. With nearly 100 thematic chapters, this is a detailed work that challenges traditional biblical interpretations while emphasizing nuances, complexities, and alternative interpretations. The text includes more than 1,500 endnotes and a 48-page bibliography.

A well-crafted, thorough exploration of the Bible through an ancient lens.