Where angels fear to tread (but not Georgia legislators)

Some Georgia legislators have decided it would be a nifty idea to make the Christian Bible a public school textbook.  Of course, they are presenting their goal as promoting an "academic" study of the Bible:  Georgia may OK Bible as textbook: If a new law passes, it would be the first state to establish the Bible in its public school curriculum in modern times by Patrik Jonsson Christian Science Monitor 03/27/06.  Jonsson reports:

Though students in many states enroll in classes related to the Bible, Georgia would become the first to require its Department of Education to put in place a curriculum to teach the history and literature of the Bible. Schools would use the book itself as the classroom textbook. Specifically the bill would establish electives on both the New and Old Testaments.

It has overwhelmingly passed both chambers, but needs a final vote on a minor House change. The vote is expected as early as Monday. If it passes, the state's Department of Education has a year to establish Bible elective courses in the curriculum. ...

The Bible is already being used as a course study in as many as 1,000 American high schools, according to the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools in Greensboro, N.C. The US Supreme Court allows it as long as it's presented objectively, and not taught as fact. But the Georgia legislature's unprecedented decision to wade into what is usually a school district initiative has created concerns.

For example, the bill's use of terms such as Old and New Testament reflect a Protestant bias, some critics say. After all, Catholics and Jews have different interpretations and names for the tome. "To pick one is to suggest that is the right Bible, which is a school district making a faith statement," says Judith Schaeffer, a lawyer for People For the American Way, which works to maintain the separation of church and state.

Others worry that this trend - Alabama and Missouri are also considering statewide Bible study classes - is part of the broader culture war over the role of religion in civic life, and seeks to satisfy social conservatives rather than enlighten students.

Actually, Catholics call the Hebrew Bible the Old Testament, too.  But the Church recognizes several books as part of the Old Testament canon that are not in the Hebrew Bible, and Protestants do not.  The Hebrew Bible contains the books in the Protestant Old Testament, but in a different order.  The Christian Bible places the prophets last in the Old Testament because Christian theology traditionally held that everything in the Old Testament was pointing toward Jesus Christ.

It would do a lot more to promote genuine academic study of the Bible if the Georgia legislature were to make a big push to teach students Hebrew and Greek.  I mean, I'm sure that Jesus Christ spoke English, no question about it.  But the books about him were written in Greek.