Secret History #17: Literary Genesis

Today we discuss the Bible, the most influential book in human history, and explore why the Jewish people are so creative. The most creative people in the world today are Jews. In the past 200 years, three extremely influential individuals—Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Albert Einstein—were all Jews. So why are Jews so creative? The answer is the Bible.

The Birth of a Nation: Israel's Formation

Let me provide some background as to how the nation of Israel was first formed. During the Bronze Age, the Middle East was the center of the world. You had Egypt, the Levant, Anatolia to the north, Minoan Greece across the Aegean, and Mesopotamia.

The center of the world really is the Levant. At this time in history, the Levant, also called Canaan, was essentially a colony of Egypt. The thing about the Egyptians is they didn't like to go outside of Egypt. So, in order to control this strategically important colony, they used mercenaries from abroad, many of whom were Greek.

At the same time, there was a lot of religious strife in Egypt, and many of the priests who lost out in these struggles were exiled to the Levant. So you also had Egyptian priests, the local hill people of Canaan who lived in the hills and farmed, and nomadic pastoralists. Because this place was a center of trade, you had bandits, traders, and people who raised livestock. The Levant was a multicultural melting pot with lots of different groups of people. At this time in history, there was no concept of nation, race, or ethnicity; it was very common for people to intermix.

Then, the Bronze Age Collapse happened. This meant a surge of refugees coming from North and Western Europe, overwhelming the former empires. Minoan Greece was destroyed, the Hittite empire of Anatolia was destroyed, and the Sea Peoples were attacking Egypt. But Egypt was strong enough to resist the attack. The Egyptians told the Sea Peoples, "Don't attack us. We'll settle you somewhere else. We'll give you land." And so they were put in the Levant. These people are called the Philistines, and they're in the Bible.

The problem was that there were already people in the Levant, and the Philistines were a threat. So these other groups—the mercenaries, the Egyptian priests, the hill people, the nomads—were forced to come together in a new alliance to fend off the Philistines. This grouping of people would give us a new nation called Israel.

At first, they had to elect a king to unite them against the Philistines, and they elected a king called Saul. Saul was the first king of Israel. He had a mercenary named David. It's very common in history for mercenaries to rebel against their king and become king themselves, and that's what David did. But now that David was king, he had three major problems:

1. Legitimacy: Why are you king? We elected Saul, but you stole the throne from him.
2. Unity: Israel at this time was a diverse coalition. How do you unite these people?
3. Differentiation: Why are we different from the Egyptians, the Anatolians, the Mesopotamians, or the Philistines?

To solve these problems, David introduced three major innovations that would forever change human history.

The first was the introduction of a patron god named Yahweh. David said, "Yahweh is our God, and our God is better than the other gods." The Bible tries to explain who Yahweh is and convince everyone that Yahweh is a superior god to every other god that came before him.

The second was the centralization of religion in a temple. David said, "If Yahweh is our God and he's the best God, we need a house for him. We're going to build a temple in Jerusalem, and that's where he will live." By doing this, David centralized the religion and gave jobs to the Egyptian priests, who would now be his main political allies.

The third thing he did, of course, was to sponsor and initiate the Bible. The Bible comes from the fact that the Israelite people needed to create a mythology that explained why they were one family, why they were different from others, and why they were actually better than other people. The Bible succeeds because of its great storytelling.

Genesis: The Origins of Creativity and Free Will

The Bible begins with Genesis, which means "birth" or "the beginning." In the beginning, God creates the universe and discovers that he's lonely. It's not very interesting. So, he creates man, Adam. But then he thinks that Adam might be lonely as well, so he creates Eve.

Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Man was created to farm this garden paradise called Eden; he's basically a servant. In the center of the garden are two trees: the tree of life, which grants immortality, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which grants the ability to learn.

Let me explain. Imagine there's a wall in front of me. I walk, I hit the wall, and it hurts. But if I don't know that hurting is bad, I keep hitting the wall and hurting myself because I don't know what's good and what's bad. But if I know what is good and bad, I know I should not hit the wall. I now have the capacity to learn, and over a lifetime, I will learn a lot. This is the secret of creativity. What's really important about this idea is that you need to make a mistake for you to know what is good and evil.

This is why school is stupid. In school, we tell you, "There's a wall, don't touch it because you will hurt yourself." You don't touch it, you don't hurt yourself, but you never learn for yourself. When you hit the wall, you are able to reflect and understand how the world works. The secret to creativity is trying for yourself and learning for yourself what is good and evil.

What this is also saying is that these two things together—creativity plus immortality—allow you to become God. If you can live forever while always learning, eventually you will absorb all the knowledge of the universe, which is what God is. You can also argue that's why he created us. Once you are perfection, once you learn everything, you're no longer capable of making mistakes or learning for yourself. So what you do is you teach students, or you get students to learn for themselves, and that way your knowledge expands. It's a really important idea that men and women were created to be part of the creative process. That's why God created us.

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

What's amazing about the Bible is that it is poetry. Like all poetry, its meaning is very complicated; there are multiple layers. "You shall die" could mean the fruit is poisonous. But it could also be interpreted as a punishment: "If you eat it, I will have to kill you." This ambiguity is what makes the story so amazing. It is uncertain to us what the true meaning is, and therefore we have to keep thinking about it, discussing it, and finding out for ourselves. At different stages of our lives, our understanding may be different.

What's also interesting is that God draws attention to one tree but not the other. There are two trees, immortality and learning, but God only says, "Hey, there's a tree of learning. Don't touch that." Our attention is now focused on this one tree. Think of a metaphor. Let's say we go to an amusement park. You're my kids, and I say to you, "You can ride any ride you want, but there's a ride called the Dragon Roller Coaster. Do not ride that, or you will die." What do you do? You ride that stupid thing.

It's a really strange setup where God, who knows everything, draws our attention to the one thing that he's afraid of. It's almost like he's pushing us towards that tree. If you talk to children, you'll know that if you warn them not to do something, they'll go and do it.

So, what's going on here? The nature of God is up for debate. You can say that God is being dishonest. Another possibility is that he's just stupid; he doesn't really understand how humans work. He created humans but doesn't appreciate that, having given us free choice, we would disobey him. Another possibility, which can also be true, is that it's all part of his plan. If he truly wants us to understand free choice and be creative, then he needs to allow us to make our own mistakes. Therefore, he's sort of setting us up, provoking us into making a mistake. It's only a few words, but it's so complex—an entire universe unto itself.

The Creation of Woman and the First Decision

This is the story of God creating woman, Eve.

So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.” Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.

You can make the argument that man is superior because man came first. But you can also make the argument that woman is superior because woman is made of higher quality material. Woman is made of flesh; man is made out of dust. This is an almost revolutionary conception. You would think that in this world, men are at the top, but the Bible is telling us that women are made of higher quality material. That's why we think the person who wrote this was actually a woman. As you read the Bible more and more, you will discover that the genius who first wrote it was, in fact, a woman. And that's revolutionary.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

This is really interesting. The serpent chooses to talk to the woman, not the man. The woman is making this decision by herself. The serpent says, "Hey, why don't you judge for yourself whether the food is good or not?" The woman looks at the food and says, "I judge for myself it is good." This is revolutionary—the woman is making the decisions. You would think that once the serpent said this to her, she would go to her husband and say, "Hey Adam, the serpent said this, what do you think?" But the woman is like, "No, I can see for myself what is true." She eats the fruit by herself and then tells her husband to eat the fruit as well, and the husband follows. This tells us that the real hero of the story is actually the woman.

A God of Forgiveness and Self-Reflection

They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”

At this point in the story, we can expect God to kill Adam and Eve. His words were, "If you eat from that fruit, you will surely die." Even though the fruit wasn't poisonous, God still has a duty to kill them. If we were in the Iliad, Adam and Eve would surely have died because the Greek gods are vengeful and wrathful. But not this God. Yahweh is different.

The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the LORD God made for the man and for his wife garments of skins, and clothed them.

Instead of being angry at Adam and Eve, he offers them a present. Why? One possibility is that God himself recognizes, "I made a mistake here. I shouldn't have drawn attention to this fruit. Therefore, it's my fault." This is a god that's capable of self-reflection and forgiveness. This is revolutionary. Gods at this time are vengeful and wrathful; you must obey them or they will strike you down. But this God is like, "Listen, you should not have eaten that fruit, but it was my fault as well, so I forgive you." Another possibility is that this is what God wanted all along. We know this because the man honors his wife with the name Eve, "the mother of all living." You are the true goddess.

God still has to punish them for their disobedience. He punishes the man by making him toil for food as a farmer. He punishes the woman by making childbirth painful. He punishes the serpent by making him slither on the ground. But then, God throws Adam and Eve out of the garden.

Then the LORD God said, “See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.

Most people think this is a bad thing, but you can also interpret it as a good thing. God chose to make us creative without the possibility of living forever. Why? Because without the concept of death, you cannot be truly creative. First of all, if you think you're going to live forever, you're not motivated to do anything or make the most of your life. Also, if you live forever, your children and grandchildren cannot be creative. For humans to be creative as a species, death must be an inevitability.

You can say that God doesn't really know what he's doing; it's his first time having children and he's making a lot of mistakes. But you can also say that it's all part of his plan. His plan is to make us creative, because that is what's divine.

Cain and Abel: A God of Compromise

Now that Adam and Eve are outside the Garden of Eden, they have children named Cain and Abel. Cain is a farmer and Abel is a shepherd.

In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

This is a very common thing in this world: you have to make sacrifices to the gods, and the gods will favor you if the offerings are good. But Cain gets really angry and kills his brother. The Lord gets angry and says, "What have you done? Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground... you shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth."

At this time, God should just kill Cain—an eye for an eye. But God doesn't do that. He banishes him. Cain says, "My punishment is greater than I can bear! ...I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me." People will know I've left my community, assume I must have done something wrong, and kill me.

And the LORD said to him, “Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.” And the LORD put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the LORD, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

This is a god of forgiveness, reconciliation, compromise, and debate. Cain says, "Your punishment is unfair." Most gods would be like, "Screw you, I can do whatever I want." But this God is like, "You know what? You make a good point. I have reflected. I recognize that I shouldn't have said that your brother's better than you. I recognize this is partly my fault. So as a compromise, I will protect you." This is a revolutionary idea, written 3,000 years ago. Remember, in the Iliad, the major problem is one of forgiveness. In the Bible, this is a god of forgiveness. He's not perfect, and what he's telling us is that perfection is not a possibility. What we should all try to do is reflect and improve ourselves.

This is a theme throughout the Bible. As humanity continues to develop, God looks down and says, "You know what? I designed these humans to be creative, but they're killing and enslaving each other. This is stupid. I need to start over." So he creates a flood. But there's one noble person, Noah, whom he tells to build an ark and save himself. After the flood, God looks down at Noah and says:

“I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

This is God saying, "Oops, I made a mistake again." He didn't like the evil that humans were creating, but he realizes that if he gives them free will—if they have the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil—then some of them are going to make mistakes. This is something he has to put up with. He promises humanity, "I will never do this again. If you guys do evil, you're going to have to solve this problem yourself."

The Abrahamic Covenant: A Friendship with God

Humanity is rebuilt and, of course, humans go back to being evil. So God decides he needs to build a nation that will be the best nation, a great example to everyone. This nation he will call Israel. He looks around the earth and discovers a man named Abraham, who is the patriarch of the nation of Israel, and also the patriarch of the religions of Christianity and Islam. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are considered the Abrahamic faiths because they all see Abraham as their forefather.

Yahweh says to Abraham, "I will make a covenant with you, a contract where I will favor you, but you must swear loyalty to me and worship me only." What's interesting is the relationship between Abraham and Yahweh. You would think Abraham would just be a slave and a servant, but that's not what happens.

God promised not to destroy the earth, but he decides some places, like Sodom and Gomorrah, are so evil he needs to destroy them to teach everyone a lesson. Abraham is shocked by this and pleads with Yahweh to change his mind.

Then Abraham came near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked!”

A mortal is telling a god, "You're making a mistake." And not only that, but Yahweh is like, "Yeah, I think you're right." God says, "If I find in Sodom fifty righteous, then I will forgive the whole place for their sake."

At this point, you would think Abraham would be satisfied, but he keeps arguing. He says, what if there are only 45? God agrees. Abraham keeps going, on and on, until they get to ten. "For the sake of ten I will not destroy it," Yahweh promises.

In other words, their relationship is not master-servant; it's more like friend-friend. A friend is honest with you and tries to get you to be better. Abraham is saying to Yahweh, "I know you're a virtuous god, but sometimes you make mistakes, so it's important for me to argue with you."

That's why Judaism is such a powerful religion. The basis of Judaism is debate and questions. Why are Jews so creative? It's this simple: Jews are encouraged to debate each other to figure out what is truly right. There is no absolute truth; it's always a process of asking questions, open debate, and self-reflection.

The Bible's Literary Genius: Jacob, Rachel, and Leah

Abraham will have a son named Isaac, and Isaac will have two sons, Esau and Jacob. Jacob's name will eventually become Israel. Jacob is the younger son, so you would think Esau would inherit everything. But Jacob and his mother, Rebecca, scheme and steal the birthright from Esau. Now Esau is pissed off, so Jacob has to run away.

What follows next is the greatest love story in the Bible, and you could argue it's the greatest love story in human history. What's amazing is how simple it is, but it's actually a very complex, beautiful, and sophisticated story. Jacob finds safety with a relative, Laban, and offers to work for him.

Laban said to him... “Tell me, what shall your wages be?” Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah’s eyes were lovely, and Rachel was graceful and beautiful. Jacob loved Rachel; so he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.” So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.

He loves her so much that seven years is nothing to him.

Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.” So Laban gathered together all the people of the place, and made a feast. But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob; and he went in to her... When morning came, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?” Laban said, “This is not done in our country—giving the younger before the firstborn. Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.” Jacob did so, and completed her week. Then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as a wife. So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he served Laban for another seven years.

This is a beautiful love story, though it doesn't sound like it. Let's go into its complexity. Clearly, Laban deceived Jacob, but did he mean to in the beginning? The answer is no. Why did he do it? Rachel and Leah are sisters, and they probably hate each other. When Jacob says, "I love Rachel, but not Leah," Leah is now pissed. For seven years, she pestered her father: "Am I not your daughter? Am I not your firstborn? If Jacob marries Rachel, who will ever want to marry me?" Laban is a father and doesn't want to deal with this crap. He knows Jacob loves Rachel, so he knows Jacob will endure another seven years.

But does Rachel love Jacob? Yes, of course. Once Jacob married Leah, Rachel could have said, "Screw this, I'm going to marry someone else." But she didn't. She waited seven years, and you can imagine those were the longest seven years for both of them. Every day, Leah probably taunted Rachel, saying, "See, Jacob doesn't really love you." And Rachel had to endure. That's the power of love—the way they were able to endure all the humiliation just to be together.

This is the great thing about the Bible. The person who wrote this—who was clearly a woman, as only a woman would write stories like this—has both economy and irony. Economy means she is able to convey deep meaning with very few words. In just a couple of paragraphs, she creates an entire universe. We can see the movie play out over 14 years. Irony just means it's funny. I know you're taught the Bible is a religious text, but when it was first conceived, it was meant to be a funny story. This is a story of two sisters who hate each other and are competing for the same guy. And this competition continues.

When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister; and she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” Jacob became very angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” Then she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, that she may bear upon my knees and that I may have children through her.” So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife; and Jacob went in to her. And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son.”

This is a comedy where she's in competition with Leah. Leah has a lot of kids, so Rachel is going to cheat and give her maid to Jacob. Whenever a baby comes, Rachel's like, "It's mine!" This is all just a comedy, meant to be beautiful stories that provoke you into deep reflection. This is why the Jews are so creative. If you look at the media, Hollywood, or academia, the Jews dominate because from the moment they're born, they're born with these stories that force them to think deeply about who they are, what it means to be human, and what life is about.

The Story of David: Propaganda and Truth

In the Bible, God needs a king for Israel and sends the prophet Samuel to the house of Jesse, where he finds David, the youngest boy. He says, "You will be the favored king of Israel." David does wonderful things, like defeating Goliath. But after he kills Goliath, King Saul becomes envious, forcing David to run away. Eventually, Saul is killed, and David becomes king.

This is all propaganda. What really happened is that Saul was king, and David was his very good and popular mercenary. David had a lot of soldiers who followed him, so he killed Saul and became king himself. But now the Bible needs to legitimize David, to tell us that he was not ambitious or ruthless, but that God willed him to be king. This was written by a court historian, a person we call the Yahwist (or J). Her job was to clean up David's image, to tell his story in a way that absolves him of any crimes.

In the story, Saul is dead, but his family is still around and has a general named Abner. After Saul's death, Abner feels slighted by the family and decides to support David. David is, of course, very happy.

Abner came with twenty men to David at Hebron, and David made a feast for Abner and the men who were with him. Abner said to David, “Let me go and rally all Israel to my lord the king, in order that they may make a covenant with you, and that you may reign over all that your heart desires.” So David sent Abner away, and he went in peace.

But then David's general, Joab, arrives. Joab and Abner have a conflict because Abner killed one of Joab's brothers, so Joab wants to kill Abner.

When Joab and all the army that was with him came, it was told Joab, “Abner... came to the king, and he has dismissed him, and he has gone away in peace.” Then Joab went to the king and said, “What have you done? Abner came to you; why did you dismiss him, so that he got away? You know that Abner... came to deceive you, and to learn your comings and goings, and to learn all that you are doing.” When Joab came out from David’s presence, he sent messengers after Abner, and they brought him back from the cistern of Sirah; but David did not know about it.

Joab goes and kills Abner. If you read the story, you think David did nothing wrong. But if you think about it, there are lots of problems. First, Joab the general is rebelling against David. If you're David, who are you more afraid of, Abner or Joab? You're afraid of Joab, because Joab has your army. There's no way David would allow Joab to rebel against him. The only conclusion is that Joab acted with the permission of David. David knew all about this; in fact, he probably ordered Joab to kill Abner.

Why? If you're a king, you're most concerned about loyalty. If Abner betrayed Saul's family, he might betray you as well. This guy needs to be eliminated. Remember, David betrayed Saul, so he's afraid that others will betray him. This story, even though it's a lie, gives us enough clues to construct the truth for ourselves. That's what makes the Bible different from other religious texts. Other religious texts are sayings or truisms, but these are stories—living things that we can reconstruct in our heads. This helps explain why the Jews are such creative people; they grew up in a tradition of stories as opposed to truths.

David, Bathsheba, and Uriah

Now we get to the most famous story of David.

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, “This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her... Then she returned to her house. The woman conceived.

This is a problematic story. First, a woman doesn't just sleep with you because you ask her to. And Bathsheba is married to Uriah the Hittite. Who is Uriah? He's the best soldier in David's army, very popular with the men. So, if you're David, who are you afraid of? You're afraid of Uriah.

Now David has a problem because Bathsheba is pregnant. He needs to fix this, because if Uriah comes back and discovers his wife got pregnant while he was away, he'll know David slept with her. So David sends for Uriah and tells him, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." But Uriah doesn't go. He says to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing."

Now David has a huge problem. So he writes a letter to Joab: "Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die." David orders the assassination of Uriah.

In the Bible, the story is that David fell in love with Bathsheba and his heart took over, leading him to kill Uriah. But what probably happened was the reverse. David became jealous and fearful of Uriah because he was so popular with the soldiers. That's how David got the throne—by betraying Saul. He was afraid Uriah would betray him as well. So he probably ordered the assassination of Uriah to prevent this threat from arising. And what do you do to show you're better than your worst enemy? You marry his wife.

That's the real story. But you can see how the Bible framed it differently. The Bible was written as an apology for David to disguise his crimes. The story of Genesis was written to show that God favors David. Because if David is fallible, what he does that's really important is that he admits his mistakes, reflects, and improves. That's what God does as well. David and God are the same. That's why Yahweh favors David above everyone else. Yahweh is looking for a friend, and David is his best friend because David is most like him.

The prophet Nathan goes to David and tells him a story about a rich man who had many sheep and a poor man who had just one. When a traveler comes, the rich man doesn't want to use his own sheep, so he steals the poor man's sheep. David gets angry and says the man should be killed. And Nathan says to David, "You are the man!"

What Nathan is saying is that David's crime is stealing Bathsheba. But that's not David's crime. David's crime is that he killed Uriah. This is what we call gaslighting. You see how clever this is? The Bible is set up so that you forget David's crime is killing Uriah. You think the real crime is stealing Bathsheba. No, the real crime is murder, not adultery.

The Bible is an apology for David. Because of the nature of Israelite society—a very small community—David couldn't just say, "I'm king, if you disobey me I'll kill you." He had to get everyone to support him. So they had to make up these stories to justify why David is a good person. He couldn't say he didn't do it, because everyone knew he did. So instead, they changed the story. What makes David special is not that he is infallible, but that he is a poet, capable of reflection and forgiveness, which is what Yahweh is.

This is why the Jews are so literary and so creative. They're not great warriors, but they are tremendous intellectuals. This has been true throughout their history. They're capable of deep reflection, open debate, and argumentation. And this is why the Jews are so creative.