Human Nature in the Bible

I came upon another interest piquing book on the Sacred Texts website...written in 1922 by William Lyon Phelps. It is called Human Nature in the Bible. In the Introduction it explains about the Bible....

It is a revelation of divinity and of humanity; it contains the loftiest religious aspiration along with a candid representation of all that is earthly, sensual and devilish. I thoroughly believe in a university education for both men and women; but I believe a knowledge of the Bible without a college course is more valuable than a college course without the Bible. For in the Bible we have profound thought beautifully expressed; we have the nature of boys and girls, of men and women, more accurately charted than in the works of any modern novelist or playwright. You can learn more about human nature by reading the Bible than by living in New York.

I haven't read the book cover to cover...of should I say first cyber page to last cyber page...but I've "leafed" through it.  I remember once quite a while ago, Keith and I read through a lot of the Old Testament together.  When we read about Sampson I was incredulous that he played such an important part when he was such a jerk.  Keith pointed out that God uses imperfect people.  Duh.  Of course he does.  And isn't that good news for us?  It means he can also use us!!!! 

I imagine every nuance of human nature is portrayed in scripture. Every sin represented....every dastardly act, every sneaky, mean spirited personality, every act of selfish carnality.  There is much good there too, of course...yet the Bible does not sugarcoat human nature. 

Girard's teachings on mimesis and mimetic rivalry, reveal something even more sinister exposed in Scripture.  He claims the Bible is the only holy book/writing that reveals the scapegoating mechanism in humans.  It lays bares our propensity to sacrifice. (always another...very rarely ourselves) From subtle undertones in the OT to the full fledged revelation of Jesus as an innocent victim scapegoated by the crowd and the powers that be. 

This book also has a chapter on the Apocrypha...which looks interesting. 

In the intro he sums up the method of his writing and ultimate purpose for writing the book:

In this book I shall consider the Old Testament as a work of literature, revealing the grandeur, the folly, the nobility, the baseness of human nature. I shall not consider it primarily as "the history of the Hebrew people," for the Hebrew people are much like other people, having the same passions, impulses, purity, filth, selfishness and self-sacrifice that dwell side by side in the heart of every man and woman in the world. I shall consider it as I would a play, an essay, a novel, a poem. The characters in the Bible are just as real to me as Theodore Roosevelt. I shall therefore point out and try to interpret interesting and significant episodes and passages, with one hope in the back of my mind all the time--that those who read these pages will re-read the Bible with renewed zest.