Amedeo

Like others, I cannot point to a single book for Biblical criticism, but a lot has been written, if you just search the internet for "biblical criticism." And you will soon find out that the term "Biblical criticism" is used primarily to mean: a critical analysis of the text of the Bible. This is the kind of analysys that used to go under the heading of philology. especially for textual criticisms of ancient literature works. (This included the exploration of the meaning of certain words, the dating of the manuscript, authorship issues, and so forth). Various rabbi engage in Bible criticism or, specifically, in textual exegesis (explanation or interpretation) for the benefit of the generic believers. To remember: The members of the People (or of the Church) receive the divine word through prophets and teachers (rabbis); they hear and know nothing of themselves. So, what foreigners (Gentiles) say about the texts or the Bible as a whole, is irrelevant to them: reason is unfit to deal with the word of God. So, there is a whole theology about the nature of the Bible and the self-serving abilities of its teachers.

There are also truth criticisms of the Bible -- judicial and historic evaluation of what is written in the Bible, and, of course, the big issue of revealed truth and man-discovered truth, or the issue of faith and reason. Some people identify the Bible with The Book of Truth or, to put it differently: the Bible declares infallible truth, whereas humans without divine aid, babble along, guessing at this or that, without ever attaining certainty. As man is incapable of true knowledge, he, too, is incapable of attaining moral goodness unless he is both informed and aided by God to attain righteouness. (The believers usually believe as firmly in the truthfulness of the Bible as in their own righteousness.)

By doing philology -- by examining the Biblical texts -- I found that the Bible reveals more than it reveals in messages, that it is not a book of truth, that it was composed at some quite specific times and places. I'll deal with this further.

Amedeo

General Remarks about the Nature of the Bible

Oral tales were compiled, edited, and written probably around 650 B.C., during the Babylonian captivity. Other books [chapters] were added later on.

What are the books of the Bible about? They mainly tell tales of creation, dynastic geneaologies of humans, the heroic exploits of the Semites, and collection of religious poems (psalms). They are "chronicles" rather than histories (namely "researches" about peoples, as Herodotus called them). The chronicles in question are fabulous in nature -- with the nature of fables, as they tell of human deeds in conjunction with a god or gods. They are human-divine chronicles.

Fabulous literature is exemplified, in the Gentile world, by Homer's Iliad which, in extent, is a chronicle-monograph (of the last days of Troy) rather than of humanity where, however, the Semites are the major protagonists. And, like the Iliad, the Bible preponderantly narrates the heroic exploits of the Semites. Epic poetry in the Iliad; epic prose in the Bible. Casual remarks about the creative gods in the Iliad; systematic accounts of the creative gods in the Bible. Dynasties of important people of Heroes in the Bible; the same in the Iliad.

The very first story of Man in the Bible places the two offsprings, Cain and Abel, in the context of two simultaneous cultures: agrarian and pastoral. So, in view of true history, the Biblical humans started in the Age of Agriculture, possibly around 4,000 B.C., when agriculture (and much of its aftermath) had already been established among the Gentiles (The Sumerians, since 8,000 B.C, to begin with, and others in the Levant).

Real humans (Homo Sapiens, for instance) had been living since earlier than 100,000 B.C. Since 8,000 B.C. or so, man had entered a new Age. And Gentile man was to enter a new Age around 600 B.C. The Times of the Iliad and of the eartly parts of the Bible belong to the second or the "Heroic" Age. The third Age, or Age of Men, involves superseding the Heroic Age, fabulous or mythical literature, religion, etc. the Semites remained in their Median Age in mind, spirit, and soul.

In its chronology and in the details of its fables, the Bible is radically erroneous (in terms of the Age of Men and REASON and Civility). Its own morality is tribalistic or of no universal import. But the Bible is a great document for ethnologists, for those who study pre-rational peoples.

Primitives had no written language, had nature-gods rather than prophet-gods and ecclesiatical religion, were matriarchial, as mothers were considered the generatos of human. In the Median Age, the seed discovered in agriculture became the life-begetter. Hence fathers became the generators of offsprings and rulers of the household. The Bible is so chauvinistic that all female goddesses were banished; only one reminder remained: The Elohim [the Gods -- imports from the Arab world -- produced Man in their own image: one male and one female.
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In the 18th century, Vico gave names to cycles of human history:
[Primary Age:] Age of [nature] Gods, stone technology, spoken language, etc.
[Median Age:] Age of Heroes [war-lords/aristocrats], in the aftermath of the Agricultural revolution, written language, prophetic religion, etc.
[Last Age:] Age of Men (or Reason or Civility) -- philosophy, beauty-art, civil freedom and jurisprudence, etc.

The second Humanistic Age started, after the Dark Ages [of Gods and Heroes] in the 14th century.
(This happens to be the cyclic history of the Caucasians -- not of all humans.)