July 15, 2009

Philip Davies on Jewish knowledge of the Bible

From an essay by Philip Davies:

. . . A recent National Biblical Literacy Survey in the UK carried out by the Centre for Biblical Literacy Communication at St John’s College, Durham (http://www.dur.ac.uk/codec/about/cblc/) found that as few as 10 per cent of people understood the main characters in the Bible and their relevance. Figures such as Abraham and Joseph were unknown: hardly anyone could name even a few of the Ten Commandments. . . .

I know a lot of secular Jews . . . . Very few of them can demonstrate the degree of ignorance of the Bible that Christians do. For them, being Jewish means knowing the Bible, even if not accepting its religious authority. Secular Jews are nearly all proud to be Jewish and know that their Jewish identity is defined by the Bible. There is no equivalent commitment among Christians because they share no ethnic identity. . . .

(HT:  James Davila)

1 comment:

Anarchist Chossid said...

Most secular Jews unfortunately don't know 1% of what there is to know about their religion. And this is not a figure of speech — I think 1% may be too generous.