Was Old Testament a fringe idea?

[ambelamba]

Just a hunch, nothing more serious.

Why do I have this feeling that most of OT were not so popular among Israelite over centuries? What if the contents were basically written by extremist, fringe factions among Israelite?

To make it more extreme, is archeology the ONLY reliable way to know what really happened in Canaan and later Israel? What if pretty much most of the OT are very unreliable and even downright deceptive depictions of what really happened? And if so, for what? And if so, what was it like in the life in ancient Israel?

Was this so-called Mosaic Law even strictly enforced at all?

[docyabut2]

I think the OT was of how a god worked in people lives and the consequences , but the NT was of a new hope of how god worked in people lives.

[DeWitz]

The Old Testament (aka "First" Testament," "Prime Testament" or "Hebrew Scriptures") is an amalgamation of primal foundation tales (Creation, The Ark, Tower of Babel), rudimentary history, war tales, poetry, including sexual verse, wisdom literature, psalmody and song, prophecy and mystical writings, all collected over hundreds of years as a compendium--a library if you will--considered to contain the Word of God (God's desire for humanity; God's "plan," the literary witness of God's love for humanity).

People intent on confusing issues can make it seem to say whatever they want.

Religion and faith are, sadly, easy areas of life in which to manipulate people.

[+and-then]

It's difficult for me to grasp how something that appealed only to a fringe group could have survived intact over so many centuries. That is counter-intuitive.

[Davros of Skaro]

Look at what Joseph Smith did.

[Space Commander Travis]

It's difficult for me to grasp how something that appealed only to a fringe group could have survived intact over so many centuries. That is counter-intuitive.

i don't know, "secret" and esoteric knowledge is always jealously guarded, isn't it, circulated only among a few, so they'd naturally take very good care of it and keep it carefully hidden, so I can see how such a thing might survive. Not that I agree with the balloon that Amebelamba is hoisting, just that it could well have done so.