The bible is somewhere around 2000 years old, has about 39 different authors who contributed, and about 66 different books written. They are more or less understood under the lenses of history, society, economics, politics, philosophy, theology. This leaves the bible with a variety of interpretation(s). Complicating a whole set of axioms, premises, and conclusions. One interpretation, I feel, can better capture and understand the biblical context is, psychology. I argue that by diagonising the panoramic characters as having qualities of mental disorder we can easily reach to a better conclusion to understanding the bible and those who spread it. As Claudius Ptolemaeus says, " A good principle is to explain the phenomena by the simplest hypothesis possible."
First we need to understand the "spiritual phenomenon" that many of the characters expirience in the bible have, are nothing more than manifestations of schizophrenia. But what is schizophrenia?
Behaviors that are early warning signs of schizophrenia include:
1)Hearing or seeing something that isn’t there
2)A constant feeling of being watched
3)Peculiar or nonsensical way of speaking or writing
4)Strange body positioning
5)Feeling indifferent to very important situations
6)Deterioration of academic or work performance
7)A change in personal hygiene and appearance
8)A change in personality
9)Increasing withdrawal from social situations
10)Irrational, angry or fearful response to loved ones
11)Inability to sleep or concentrate
12)Inappropriate or bizarre behavior
13)Extreme preoccupation with religion or the occult
The American Psychiatric Publishing updated a 5th installment in which they added a new symptom threshold in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (or DSM-5) where having two symptoms; not one anymore, can declare you schizophrenic.
Now that we have an understanding of schizophrenia, lets apply it to the characters in the bible. Shall we?
Ezekiel
When I first researched about Ezekiel, some of the passages that I read through were profoundly disturbing and disgusting. I don't know how to classify Ezekiel's schizophrenia, other than having the regular symptons of: bizarre behavior, body positions, and hearing voices that are not there. In the Siege of Jerusalem, Chapter 4, we see Ezekiel do what many would consider strange. Just read:
5“I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin. So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the people of Israel.
6 “After you have finished this, lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the sin of the people of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year. 8 I will tie you up with ropes so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have finished the days of your siege.
12 "Eat the food as you would a loaf of barley bread; bake it in the sight of the people, using human excrement for fuel.” 13 The Lord said, “In this way the people of Israel will eat defiled food among the nations where I will drive them.”
14 Then I said, “Not so, Sovereign Lord! I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have never eaten anything found dead or torn by wild animals. No impure meat has ever entered my mouth.”
15 “Very well,” he said, “I will let you bake your bread over cow dung instead of human excrement.”
So basically, Ezekiel, creates a miniteur size Jerusalem with blocks of clay. He is left to lay on his left side for 390 days and on his right side for 40 days while bonded on the floor. Paint that image in your head.
Mind you while being tide up....
And to top it off, the food that is created in this miniteur world is fueled by none other than human shit. Imagine cooking with human shit? I mean come on, charcoal and wood would have been a better albeit tastier option.
But hey Ezekiel was holy, so lets decide to cook with cow shit better.
The fuel part was extremely odd. If you were poor, fire was an important resource to have/ create; failure to create/have would starve and kill you. The authors of the bible could have at least given it some mythic value. In Feudal Times, the commons was an important asset to the paupers. Why? Well, the commons was a forest where people can collect firewood to cook their meals. This is why Shakespeare would aways write of people having dreams in a forest, given it was a functional role in feudalism. In the Ezekiel's book, cooking with shit is not a healthy function of society.
Moses
As a child, I remember watching Christian cartoons depicting certain stories in the bible. One of my favorite episodes was when they went over the book of exodus. I like the overtones of rebellion, plagues, and death that ran down the Egyptian kingdom. But never did I make the connection, that Moses's revolution would bring a new kind of oppresive regime. In Mt. Sinai, Chapter 19, many people remember the story of when Moses went to talk to god. And only HE could enter into the Mountain. As the bible states,
"12 Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain is to be put to death. 13 They are to be stoned or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on them. No person or animal shall be permitted to live."
Dam, Moses and God, why are yall such vindictive, childish characters?
In the Golden Calf, Chapter 32, Moses receives the 10 commandments from god. On his descend down the Mountain, he was met with "pagans" instead of followers of Christ. Who do you think Moses transmits this information to?
27 Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’” 28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. 29 Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the Lord today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”
Holy fucking shit, this is not what the cartoon showed me. This contradicts basic tenets of the ommandments....Thou shall not kill....ring a bell anyone? But, hey if can justify the murdering of 3000 people because 1)a voice in your head told you so and 2)your "followers" couldn't wait any longer, then so be it, I see that happen alot in our criminal justice system. So why not Moses?
Abraham
Abraham's schizophrenic episode is probably the most fucked up I have ever read. I do not know who the hell God is, but he plays some sick, saddistic jokes on people. In Abraham Is Tested, Chapter 22, god's loyalty is tested on Abraham, when god requested him to kill his only beloved son as sacrifice.
Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. 2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. 12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
In Abraham's schizophrenic episode, towards the end, God does not repear; but a angel of his legion stops him from committing the act. This is probably one of the few times when another character in his schizophrenic reality is introduced. It is always easily an episode with god and the schizophrenically diseased. The angel however, symbolizes the pure dark-comical side God has, to not have the decency to tell you himself, but send a soldier to do it.
Les not forget the poor lad as well? I can only imagine what he was feeling while all of this was happening. Seeing his father react in a"demonic" way, where he committed what he was told to do: to have that boy killed. Must look pretty scary from that angle. But again, a mental disorder nonetheless.
Saul
Saul or Paul, however you wanna call them is fascinating because it is one of the few instances where light is a predicate to epilepsy--or the introduction of a new disease in the narrative. In Saul's Conversion he gets hit by a bright light and visions of a godlike figure emerge. The godlike figure demands him to change his political and religious views about him. Hence's Sauls Conversion chapter title.
As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.”
However, what Saul is experiencing is a photosensitive seizure--not an episode with God. See when he drops to the floor after experiecing "lights" his visual stimuli is exposed, causing him to act convulsively. That is not "normal" behaviours.
It's funny however, how Paul speaks about Jesus as if he met him physically. In reality, there is never once where Jesus presents himself to Paul, in fact they are all visions that Paul is having:
23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Paul's vision of the euchartic ritual is profoundly cryptic. But exemplifies the tell tell signs of someone who is experiencing a mixture of epilectic seizures and schizophrenia.
Jesus of Nazareth
Okay, Jesus was probably the highest volatile than the others. He experienced anger problems, non-sensical speaking, indifferent response from loved ones. The first example is little known or at least, never architects of the bible never wanted to present this side of Jesus of Nazareth.
In Infancy Gospel of Thomas,
4 Later he was going through the village again when a boy ran and bumped him on the shoulder. Jesus got angry and said to him, "You won't continue your journey." (2)And all of a sudden, he fell down and died. (3)Some people saw what had happened and said, "Where has this boy come from? Everything he says happens instantly!" (4)The parents of the dead boy came to Joseph and blamed him saying, "Because you have such a boy, you can't live with us in the village, or else teach him to bless and not curse. He's killing our children!"
He kills a kid for having shoved his shoulder. Even the town villagers don't want anything to do with the uncontralable lad. However, his anger is not a byproduct of maturity, but a brain disorder.
In Jesus heals a Possessed-Man,
3 This man lived in the burial caves and could no longer be restrained, even with a chain. 4 Whenever he was put into chains and shackles—as he often was—he snapped the chains from his wrists and smashed the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Day and night he wandered among the burial caves and in the hills, howling and cutting himself with sharp stones. 6 When Jesus was still some distance away, the man saw him, ran to meet him, and bowed low before him. 7 With a shriek, he screamed, “Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In the name of God, I beg you, don’t torture me!” 8 For Jesus had already said to the spirit, “Come out of the man, you evil spirit.” 9 Then Jesus demanded, “What is your name?” And he replied, “My name is Legion, because there are many of us inside this man.” 10 Then the evil spirits begged him again and again not to send them to some distant place. 11 There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside nearby. 12 “Send us into those pigs,” the spirits begged. “Let us enter them.”
In Jesus Accused by His Family and by Teachers of the Law,
20 Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. 21 When his family[b] heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” 22 And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”
31 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”33 “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. 34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
The most logical and empirically driven conclusion would be to diagnose the characters as having mental disorders. It simplifies and better elaborates some of the scenarios presented in the narrative. It gives an aha moment! Further, it doesn't belittle the characters that many fundamentalist and conservatives are fearful about. A disorder is a disorder, simply calling it something else doesn't change what it is(i.e religious revelations, spiritual talk). Understanding their cognitive disorder and applying it to what was told in the story, we see that Jesus and many other characters lived very extreme and complicated lives. While some parts were beautiful, others were darn right dark. After all doesn't it makes sense that the religious zealotry would be better examined under the context of mental disorders?