It Ain’t Necessarily So

One of my favorite Gershwin songs is a little ditty from Porgy and Bess called “It Ain’t Necessarily So.” (It’s particularly good when Ella Fitzgerald sings it.) The song begins with a rather scandalous lyric:

The things that you’re liable
To read in the Bible—
It ain’t necessarily so.

Lately this sentiment has received a lot of play in the national press, though not with Gershwin’s—or Ella’s—flair. Harper’s Magazine had an article on this subject titled “False Testament: Archaeology Refutes the Bible’s Claim to History.”¹ Around the same time The New York Times had a similar piece titled “As Rabbis Face Facts, Bible Tales Are Wilting.”² People seem sad or angry—or sometimes gleeful—that many of the stories in the Bible ain’t necessarily so.