A controversial Israeli professor is once again calling for a “rewrite” of the Holy Bible. Yuval Noah Harari, a lecturer at the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and bestselling author of titles including Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, has a new book out in which he questions the process of the canonization of the Bible” and suggests that the “Bible needs a rewrite.”
In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Harari, 48, explained why he devoted an entire chapter in Nexus, A Brief History of Information Networks to the process of the canonization of the Bible. In the context of examining the transfer of ideas across time and culture throughout human history, Nexus raises doubts about the Bible as a document that was, as the Globe reports “pieced together over a long period of time that ended with the emergence of a canonical work.”
“There is a chapter in the book about the process of the canonization of the Bible,” Harari told the outlet. “... We have texts from the second and third and fourth centuries [Common Era].” According to the outlet, the book argues that the biblical canon wasn’t determined until the late fourth century with the Councils of Hippo and Carthage.
Pointing to the rejection of certain books like the Acts of Paul and Thecla, a late second century text which outlines the life of Thecla, a disciple of Paul’s, Harari argued that such decisions “shaped Christian attitudes to women down to the present day.” When asked whether he views himself more as a scientist or a historian, Harari said his work is based on objective evidence. “If you write the history of the world from your own imagination, it is not history. It is literature,” he said. “When I write about Neanderthals or about the Bible, I have evidence. A 40,000 year-old bone in Spain. A record of the synod meetings.”
Harari — who once compared the LGBT movement with the 19th century emancipation of the Jews and hosts Q&A sessions to offer a “scientific perspective on homosexuality” — also claims Scripture contains “moral mistakes,” including what he claims to be the approval of slavery. “The other mark of science is the willingness to admit mistakes,” he said. “Religions don’t do that. Once the Bible is canonized, it is deemed to be perfect. And I am not only talking about factual mistakes, but also about moral mistakes.” “The Bible needs a rewrite,” he argued.
Harari made a similar claim in June 2023, when he predicted the rapid growth of artificial intelligence would result in a “new Bible.” “In a few years there might be religions that are actually correct,” he said. Harari has also advocated for referring to Christianity’s holy book as “just stories.” In an October 2022 column for The Guardian, Harari pointed to how young children in Israel hear about the biblical accounts of the Garden of Eden and Noah’s Ark long before they’re taught about Neanderthals or cave paintings. “To gain some freedom from these narratives and behave differently we need to understand how they were created and spread in the first place,” Harari wrote. “Otherwise, we will never see them for what they are: just stories.” He has also described Christians as having “locked themselves inside of a self-reinforcing mythological bubble, never daring to question the factual veracity of the Bible.”
Biblical Connection: Isaiah 40:8 states “The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.”
PRAY: Pray the people who reject the Word of God will see the error in their ways and accept God’s Word as the truth.