Plagiarism: Publishing someone else's writing as your own work without crediting the real author. It's a form of lying. It's stealing, dishonest, deceitful, illegal. Just a whiff of plagiarism sends editors into frenzy and sets lawyers' juices flowing. Plagiarizing will get a writer fired and/or sued, and permanently besmirch his or her professional reputation.
The Bible is full of it!
The authors of parts of the Bible incorporate the writings of other people into their own with nary a nod to the writer who created it.
Matthew and Luke both lifted parts of their Nativity story straight out of Mark.
Jesus did not invent the Golden Rule of Matthew 7:12. Confucius taught it as a well-known Chinese proverb 500 years before Jesus: "What you do not wish for yourself, do not impose on others." A generation before Jesus, Rabbi Hillel, among others, had reworded it as his own teaching.
A major part of what we call the Lord's Prayer may be found in earlier Hebrew ritual prayers known as the Ha-Kaddish.
Substantial chunks of John's Apocalypse — the Book of the Revelation — are lifted bodily from the pseudepigraphical (means "false writing") Book of Enoch, a work circulated some 150 years before John wrote his last book of the Bible. Some 15 such writings are cited verbatim in the New Testament.
There is strong evidence that much of the Bible contains a reworking of pre-existing literary and historical documents. None of the writers ever acknowledged the original authors.
In addition to the substantial amount of plagiarized material, the biblical text has been corrupted by scribal insertions, the practice of copiers of the Bible to improve on the text by changing the wording to read as they thought it should read. But such liberties were usually not identified, and became part of the "divinely inspired" Bible as we know it.
The claim that the Bible is the infallible, inerrant word of God was imposed on it long after it was written, to support church leaders in their struggles to establish their authority. If the "Word of God" agreed with them, clearly their position was the correct one. That corruption of truth and rationality birthed outrages like biblically endorsed racism, slavery, sexism, war, persecution, and torture.
When the documents which ultimately were collected into what we now call the Bible were written, the various cultures held no concept comparable to our idea of plagiarism. In fact, what we now call plagiarism was considered good literary practice. In some cultures it was acceptable, even flattering, to copy the work of "masters." In some cases it was considered more humble than boldly advocating one's own opinions about something.
For example, a student of a renowned teacher would write a document iterating one of his master's major themes, but sign the master's name to it and circulate it as his own. The master's reputation guaranteed a widespread readership. No big deal — certainly not reprehensible or considered even borderline unethical.
It was not until the middle of the 18th century that the morality of plagiarism appeared as a crucial topic in aesthetic criticism and debate.
I do not intend a put down of the Bible or a denigration of its incomparable value as a source of wisdom, truth, and guidance. I do intend a put-down of the way the Bible is misused by many devout but uninformed people and abused by others whose need for control trumps whatever scruples they may have about treating sacred writ with integrity.
In order to believe the Bible is "infallible" or "inerrant," one must believe that 40 individuals wrote 66 totally original documents over a period of 1,500 years under the direct supervision of the supreme deity.
To believe that requires suspension of reason, ignoring the evidence, and a plunge into the treacherous waters of magic, superstition, and pietism run amok.
I've been there, done that. Damn near drowned.
Editor's note: W. Jackson "Jack" Wilson is a psychologist, an Episcopal priest, a sometime academic and a writer living in Colorado. He writes with humor, whimsy, passion and penetrating insight into the human condition. And in Pushkin, Russia, a toilet is named in his honor.
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