Witness/insight claims of the authors of the Bible

[The Grand Nudger]

Cool. Fair enough... I know content can be informative of author as well, but I was hoping to start at the top of the root as it were... if that makes sense; dismiss that which can be dismissed easily without much further inquiry, and then what remains, analyze more thoroughly, but always working outwards from source as highest priority to content as lowest priority. A bit like how I do my tidying (KonMari if you've ever heard of that)... discard everything unless it gives you 'joy'... so drill down to what's important in your life and get rid of everything else.

So have you done a lot of this then? Taken a reductionistic/reverse engineering approach to the Bible?

The trouble in that approach is that what you deem easily dismissable may be the most informative part.  When it comes to myth and legend, the content often is the root.  Early efforts at anthropology failed so often on those grounds that it became methodological to dispense with the notion that the observer could reliably determine what was and was not easily dismissable.  

Have I done alot of it?  As a lifelong hobby and interest, sure.  Read alot of books, took some courses, married an anthropologist with a big mouth.  I'm definitely not the guy to write a treatise on the subject, just knowledgeable enough to understand and appreciate the field. Some fairly elaborate mythologies have a solid foundation in known events and cultural practices. On their own, they seem like easily dismissable things.....did the gods really come down in celestial craft and bestow gifts on the people of Tana? Nope. Did the navy use their islands as refueling depots...sure did.