A Reply to Three Responses to My Article on the Book of Daniel and the Christian Scriptures

In an article by me dated December 29, 2016, I stated that Dr. S. Temjen Imchen’s statement that the Book of Daniel is part of the Christian Scriptures was incorrect, that it was in fact part of the Hebrew Scriptures. He, in turn, in an article in both the Eastern Mirror and the Nagaland Post, dated December 30, 2016, responded to my article by stating that I am wrong, that, “…the Book of Daniel is read both from a literary and theological sense as well, and the whole Bible is called the ‘Christian Scriptures’ and is correct theologically.”

Imchen does what I have found so many writers of editorials in the Nagaland papers do, he makes a statement in some authoritative way, sounding rather scholarly, and expects readers to accept his statement at face value: he said it, therefore it must be true.

But there is this quaint tradition in the scholarly world that when you make a statement which contradicts someone else’s statement, you have an obligation to cite the source of your statement. In other words, I do not accept Imchen’s statement or accept him as an expert, and therefore, without more, his statement is meaningless to me.

But I will do his job to prove him wrong: I will provide citations to show that he is incorrect, and if he wants to respond to me I suggest that he find some citations to disprove my citations. I first want to direct him to The Pontifical Biblical Commission report, 98-pages long, titled, “THE JEWISH PEOPLE AND THEIR SACRED SCRIPTURES IN THE CHRISTIAN BIBLE.” The title of section I of the report is, “The New Testament recognizes the authority of the Sacred Scriptures of the Jewish people.” I challenge Imchen to find anywhere in this 98-page report, affirmed by the Vatican, that the Christian Scriptures include the Hebrew Scriptures.

And just in case the Catholic version of history is not satisfactory to Imchen, I offer an excerpt of exegesis from “The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments…AUTHORIZED King James Version.” This classic book for Protestants around the world (but perhaps not in Nagaland), states, in the rear, under “Items of Information Concerning the Bible,” “Among the terms employed by the sacred writers to designate the collection of books which we call ‘the Bible’ are these: The Scriptures; The Holy Scriptures; The Word; The Word of Truth; The Law and the Prophets; The Old and New Testaments. The Jews called the Old Testament ‘the Law,’ ‘the Prophets,’ and ‘the Writings.’” It should be noted that nowhere in that list of terms for the “BIBLE is the term, “the Christian Bible.”

Although Imchen tries to overwhelm the reader with scholarly-like information, a giant parade of words, nowhere in there does he disprove my simple point that the Book of Daniel is NOT part of the Christian Scriptures. I await Imchen’s citations.

Imchen also addresses my example of an educated and intelligent Naga who had no idea what the Holocaust was about. In his article, he responds, “For many of us educated Nagas, we need no teaching on Holocaust … issues faced by the Jews around the world in the past and present.”

I have received an e-mail from a Naga (I do not know whether the person is a male or female, and the person has not responded to my request to get the person’s permission to use his or her name, but it is available to the Nagaland newspapers, if necessary), in response to my article, which says, in part, “What Hitler did to Jews was a fulfillment of the prophesies of the Scriptures. There was no escape from it as much as God’s Word is true.” Is that another piece of wisdom taught by the churches of Nagaland to its people? Amazingly, I have never heard such a statement from the Vatican, or any Catholic scholar, or from any Protestant sect in the Western world, including the Baptists. Is this another Naga Christian invention? If so, exactly what prophesies is the person referring to? Is Imchen so sure that “educated Nagas” know about the Holocaust? I personally have spoken to a number “educated” Nagas who had no idea about the Holocaust, and I’m not referring to the word alone. When I mentioned that six million of my co-religionists were murdered in World War Two, they have acknowledged that they had never heard of that before. I then gave them a quick lesson on einzatsgrupen, gas chambers, etc.

Which gets me briefly to a short article by N. Janbemo Humtsoe, Wokha, in an article dated December 30, 2016, appearing in the Nagaland Post. In addition to his delightful ad hominem attacks, e.g., “though he [meaning myself] is still young [not true; I’m 73], senility and delusion appeared to have taken over his consciousness and rationality,” and a bit later, “But being a hypocritical and hysterical person, Silverstein….”, he has the following to say, which is why I’m addressing his article at all:

“…Silverstein may be right that many Naga leaders are detriment to the Naga people. But looking at the progress that we have made over the six or seven decades, it’s a giant leap. Our education system, despite your poor opinion, is flourishing. But if somehow, there is a fault in our educational system, people like you are to be blamed, for our education system is a replication of the western education.”

It is remarkable to read how many important things Humtsoe has wrong in four lines. What exactly is the “giant leap” the Nagas have made over the last six or seven decades? Nagaland is, as a well-respected Naga academic said recently in a Nagaland paper, “a failed state.” It is run by corruption, intimidation, and violence, and the rule of law does not exist. If that is “a great leap,” I can’t imagine what Humtsoe is referring to that existed before the “great leap.”

He then goes on to say something laughable to anyone with the capacity for critical thinking among the Nagas, that the Naga education system “is flourishing.” I have not sat in Naga primary or secondary school classes, but I have spent substantial time with school-age children and adults, and most are sorely in need of continuing education classes, to say the least. There are of course exceptions, but to say the education system is “flourishing,” is, to use a word that Humtsoe applied to me, “delusion[al].”

But the most important point I want to make is about Humtsoe’s last statement, that if the education system is bad, “people like …[me] are to be blamed, for our education system is a replication of the western education.” This is an example of a flaw in the Naga writers that I have been following for 18 months or more, and a sign of something that will be fatal to the Nagas in the long run if they continue to believe it. It is the tendency to blame everyone but themselves for everything that is wrong with Naga society. It is not American or other Western teachers who have taught poor English writing habits to the Nagas. Overall the grammar and punctuation of the Nagas in the English language is very poor.

I appreciate that English is not the first language to many Nagas. Many speak their tribal language, for example, Angami, many speak Nagamese, but that is not the fault of the West. English should be your most important language if your students want to get along in the world, and by “world,” I mean outside of Nagaland.

Many Nagas blame the corruption and violence, the lack of the rule of law, on the government of India (GoI), but that is just a rationalization for not doing anything about it all. The corruption and violence is by Nagas against Nagas, and it is the Nagas who must have the courage and perseverance to replace them with the rule of law. Blaming outsiders is a coward’s way out.

In another article in response to mine, appearing in The Morung Express and the Eastern Mirror, a Kito Chishi has this to say, “We don’t have the luxury of liberty in our society. I admire the phrase in the western world, ‘innocent until proven guilty by a court of law,’ whereas in Nagaland whenever a concerned citizen tries to raise a voice to fight the irrational system, the law enforcement authorities beat us to pulp whenever they feel offended thanks to their own egotistical imagination. Then there are the factions who whenever feels threatened about their ideals and views hesitates not, to take us to their camps and give us a thrashing for life.”

So is Humtsoe going to blame all of the things Chishi just said above on the West? Chishi is a Naga talking about Nagas, not Westerners. Where’s that “giant leap” Humtsoe’s talking about?

It is long past time that the Naga people, and especially the self-proclaimed leaders of the Naga community, the ones who make speeches and write articles all the time, to grasp reality and take responsibility for the “failed state” that is Nagaland.

Robert A. Silverstein.
He can be contacted at rsilverstein@nycap.rr.com