If you want to learn about Chemistry or a hard science, maybe. But if you wanted to know about literature (how to develop a plot/character) or poetry, you'd dust off the complete works of Shakespeare. You'd know more about human nature reading Shakespeare than most modern psychologists. Likewise, you'd learn more about politics reading Plato's The Republic than you would most Poli Sci 101 books.
Actually, I think you've hit on one of the reasons why I've been able to penetrate farther than others. Almost all researchers consider works like the Bible or Greek mythology or Sumerian epics to be literature or religion, and study them on those bases. In stark contrast, I consider them to be history, wrapped in a literary cloth and dipped in religion. The goal is to remove that covering to find the truth of the events. Almost no one has this mindset, which I believe is crucial.
That is to say, to me the Bible is like a history textbook, and jokers have drawn all over it for centuries.
If you want to learn about Chemistry or a hard science, maybe. But if you wanted to know about literature (how to develop a plot/character) or poetry, you'd dust off the complete works of Shakespeare. You'd know more about human nature reading Shakespeare than most modern psychologists. Likewise, you'd learn more about politics reading Plato's The Republic than you would most Poli Sci 101 books.
Actually, I think you've hit on one of the reasons why I've been able to penetrate farther than others. Almost all researchers consider works like the Bible or Greek mythology or Sumerian epics to be literature or religion, and study them on those bases. In stark contrast, I consider them to be history, wrapped in a literary cloth and dipped in religion. The goal is to remove that covering to find the truth of the events. Almost no one has this mindset, which I believe is crucial.
That is to say, to me the Bible is like a history textbook, and jokers have drawn all over it for centuries.
I agree wholeheartedly.