The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible: A Review

One of the premier resources on the Internet for biblical criticism is The Skeptics Annotated Bible. This website was put together by author Steve Wells, who decided to start the project a year after walking away from the Roman Catholic faith. (He tells some of his personal story in an interview on the Friendly Atheist Podcast. Wells did this, in his words, after quitting seminary and having never even read the Bible. 

This popular website is a widely-trusted resource for skeptics and atheists everywhere. Speaking about the print version, new atheist Sam Harris comments: “Finally, Wells has published his famous online resource in book form. This volume belongs in every thinking person’s library—and in every hotel room in America…” Then again, Sam Harris isn’t exactly the most intelligent critic of Christianity. Other reviews of the book on Amazon.com written by atheists—atheists, mind you—describe the book as juvenile, non-scholarly, disorganized, poorly-researched, intellectually dishonest, and lacking quality. One atheist reviewer said it was a childish and even useless book that deliberately misinterpreted the Bible. Ouch. 

While those who know very little about Christianity may see it as a superlative source for understanding the Bible’s many alleged errors and contradictions, anyone who knows anything about Scripture will see Well’s work as the product of a biblical ignoramus who, again, openly confesses to never having read the Bible or studied it in depth before he began the project.

Some of the clearest examples of the author’s biblical illiteracy appear in the website section devoted to what he considers “absurd passages” of the Bible. We’re going to look at a few here. 

“Gird up the loins of your mind” (1 Peter 1:13). I presume the “absurdity” has something to do with “loins,” which is rather childish. “Bind up the loins” is a well-known Semitic idiom describing the act of tucking a longer outer garment into the belt around one’s waist to permit greater freedom of movement. A modern equivalent would be “roll up your sleeves.” Modern translations render this phrase “preparing your minds for action” (ESV), accurately conveying what Peter was trying to get across. “‘He rested.’ Even God gets tired sometimes” (Genesis 2:2). The Hebrew word here means “to cease” or “to desist.” But you’d have to check the Hebrew to see that. Or look it up in a commentary. Or just Google it. “Refreshing the bowels of the saints in the Lord” (Philemon 7, 12, 20). If you have the same sense of humor as a sixth-grade boy, I can see how this would qualify as an “absurdity.” But if you understand the ancient usage of the phrase, in which the “bowels” were considered the seat of emotion, you’d know better (it gives an ancient take on things like having butterflies when you’re nervous, getting a sinking feeling in your stomach when experiencing an unpleasant surprise, etc.). This is why more modern translations use our Western equivalent to this word, “heart”—which isn’t really accurate, but it conveys what the ancient writers intended.“A bishop must be … the husband of one wife.” Apparently it’s OK for laymen to have several” (1 Timothy 3:2). This is a pretty basic Bible mistake. Most scholars understand this passage as referring to the husband’s fidelity to his wife—in other words, a “one-woman man”—because husbands at the time were notoriously unfaithful. Another possible but less likely interpretation is that an elder must be married, and then only once. It says nothing about allowing anyone else to have multiple wives, which is typically portrayed negatively in Scripture. But you’d need to read the Bible to know that. “Saved people smell good to God” (2 Corinthians 2:15). Paul says that he is an “aroma of Christ to God.” It’s clear that he’s using a figure of speech. We have similar phrases in English, such as saying that someone with a pleasant personality is like a “breath of fresh air” or that someone else with a rotten temperament “stinks.” “Paul establishes his own cult (Christianity) by telling others to follow him” (1 Corinthians 4:16). The KJV has, “I beseech you, be ye followers of me.” In Elizabethan English, the word “follow” is used much the same way today. It can mean “to go after,” but it can also mean “to imitate.” The latter is what Paul means. This is obvious when looking at the Greek term he uses (mimētai, singular mimētēs), which means “imitator.” Paul is not setting himself up as a cult leader but rather using himself as an example of Christian conduct (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:1). “One of them … fell down on his face” (Luke 17:15-16). I’m not sure why this was listed as an absurdity. The English idiom “fall on one’s face” means to make a blunder or fail miserably. It can also be taken literally and brings to mind one of those epic fail videos where some skateboarder faceplants while trying to do a stunt. The biblical usage of the phrase means to bow down or fall to one’s knees as a sign of honor and respect.“When Solomon was annointed (sic) king the people sang and shouted so loudly that it caused an earthquake!” (1 Kings 1:39-40). If you decide to interpret everything in the Bible hyper-literally, this is the kind of silly interpretation you create. Most people with a high school diploma understand that the Bible uses hyperbole at times. This is one of them. 

The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible is a dumpster fire of biblical criticism. It’s filled with strawmen and breathtaking examples of biblical ignorance. In many places, the author simply doesn’t seem to understand that terms in the King James no longer mean the same thing that they do today (cf. Mark 5:30), that the Bible contains idiomatic expressions that cannot be understood literally (cf. Matthew 20:15), or that the biblical authors could be sarcastic (2 Corinthians 11:8). 

While there are some vigorous challenges to the Christian faith that have been produced by non-believers, the Skeptic’s Annotated Bible is not one of them.