A 600-page biblical commentary with advice, such as "Do not marry the widow of those whom you've assassinated," is very important advice to heed -- at least, according to Cindy Gommel. Recognizing the relevance of such a work from the Enlightenment in today's scholarly community, Gommel joined others from the Religious Studies Department yesterday to discuss Voltaire's opinions about the Bible -- a mere fraction of her dissertation topic. "He was clearly a rational thinker out to prove that the Bible was... fabrication and should be done away with," Gommel declared of Voltaire as she stood before a group of Penn's most prestigious religious scholars. And that was exactly the point -- the Religious Studies graduate group holds a colloquium every Wednesday in order to "socialize everyone" within the department, said Robert Kraft, the graduate chair of the Religious Studies graduate group. In her discussion, Gommel explained that Voltaire "was interested in debunking the Bible entirely." With his mission in hand, and only two years before his death, Voltaire sought to do away with the Bible in intellectual Europe. Although his book was titled The Bible Finally Explained by Several Almaners for his Majesty the King of Prussia, his work, ironically, did little or no explaining at all, Gommel pointed out. In fact, the irony is that Voltaire wrote his book like a "regular Biblical commentary," but actually satirized the very foundations of the Bible itself. Gommel noted that "while doing this, he brings in all the voices in this discourse -- the orthodox, the church father, the naturalists" and more, which only further ridiculed the fact that so many people would talk about a book that was so absurd to Voltaire. In fact, many today might be disappointed to know that Voltaire considered the Bible nothing more than "a tissue of lies." Furthermore, Gommel said that he blamed the Jews for the ridiculousness of the Bible. It seems peculiar that "Voltaire, the champion of tolerance, is virulently anti-Semitic," Gommel said. Voltaire sarcastically declared that the Jews must have been great used-clothes salesmen since their shoes lasted for 40 years in the desert before arriving in the Promised Land -- of which Voltaire asks, "Where's the milk and honey?" In short, Gommel asserted that Voltaire's goal was to "let the Bible fall apart on its own." To add to the excitement of her study and investigation, Gommel was actually working with a copy of the text signed by Voltaire himself. After her speech, a question-and-answer discussion forum opened up, and books that were centuries old were passed around the room. Overall, Kraft said that the colloquium was successful in accomplishing its goal because "it went well and engendered discussion."
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