Do not be deceived:
Bad company corrupts good morals.
—1 Corinthians 15:33
The label “religion” often carries baggage; therefore, the texts of each religion bear the weight of humanity’s actions that have snowballed over time, well after these ancient stories were actually written down. I think the primary reason it took me so long to crack open these books was the stigma surrounding “religion,” even though I had little grasp of what each text actually said.
If these stories were separated from the Biblical canon, for example, and stood alone on a bookshelf labeled “Humanities Myths & Origin Stories,” I might have picked them up sooner. If the back sleeve of a book called Genesis read something like, “Follow mankind’s evolution through ancient Israel’s origin story. From the time a great deity molded man out of clay and breathed life into his lungs, to a brother sold into slavery who rises up to become the governor of Egypt, this riveting series of tales tracks early humans through the trials and tribulations of founding civilization in the cradle of life,” that might have piqued my interest while browsing through bookstores for Joseph Campbell-type literature.
I was completely taken aback by what I found in the first book of the Bible. I had no idea it was filled with stories of rape, incest, murder, and betrayal. I had no idea what to expect, but it sure wasn’t a bunch of tales of lies, deceit, and chaos.
Imagine perusing another bookshelf labeled “Most Popular Short Stories of All Time” and reading a summary of Job that says, “Explore one of literature’s most confounding mysteries in a tale that explores why bad things happen to good people. Witness an innocent man endure the worst of tragedies, one after another, all to settle a wager between Satan and God.” Would you be more intrigued if you didn’t have to flip through much of a leather-bound Bible to get there? If so, I’d encourage anyone to put aside the labels of “religion” and just read these stories as best sellers passed down throughout the generations.