To the editor:

Dianne Hofmann writes that the Bible contains contradictions, and that this does not mean that it’s entirely false. Indeed, the Bible is replete with inconsistencies, large and small. This raises the difficulty of deciding what in these ancient writings is true, partly true or completely untrue. It also makes us wonder what is meant when some call the Bible the inerrant word of an all-knowing, truthful deity. Not small obstacles, these.

Helpfully there is much research, of which Hofmann seems unaware, showing the Bible is a very human collection of folklore, myth, rumor, speculation, propaganda and even a bit of real history. Therefore, the unknown authors of the Gospels need not have been crazy or liars – they may simply have been offering new twists on good old stories everyone knew to be recycled from earlier religions, or they may have been honestly confused. Of course, they could still be dishonest or deluded, or divinely inspired but inept copyists, but we have no final way to decide that – do we? This is where the believer makes his so-called “leap of faith” and where the skeptic balks. I hope curious readers will gather impartial, well-researched scholarship before settling their opinions and not judge the Bible’s credibility based on impassioned letters to this paper, nor on selected apologetics from evangelical sources.

Bruce S. Springsteen,

Lawrence