In this year’s Easter festival we like to republish an article on the deeper historical questions that Walter Johannes Stein had in connection to the Old and New Testament. A scientific mind usually smiles about the seeming errors and misconceptions of the Bible. Stein disagrees and gives examples as to why.
The starting point of the article is a lecture Stein gave at the University where he himself was learning as a young student in Mathematics at the University of Vienna between 1909 and 1914. The title was ‘Christ as the central point of World-History’. He states that of the 2000 lectures he had given in Vienna between 1918 and 1938, none were attended by so many people. It shows the inherent interest people seem to have in this subject. But how can people with a ‘modern’ scientific mind find access to the Bible?
Stein gives a possibility, we think. His underlying claim is that “Every line in the Bible can be vindicated at the forum of all sciences.”
He explains that some of the errors and misconceptions of the Bible can be traced back to not contextualizing or not using all available sciences to examine the facts. For example, misconceptions about the Creation or about the biblical chronology are due to different systems of years that are being used. In another example, Stein shows how the separation into the two sexes from the rib of Adam can, from the right point of view, be recognized in the birth every child.
As a theme that is so strongly connected to the Eastern time, we hope that you, as our readers, will find in it an opportunity for further research and questions. We hope you had a good Easter time.
The Editors
Please find the article here.
Edit#1: We thank a very alert blogger for pointing out to some (obvious) mistakes in the text.