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The Art of Biblical History
By V. Philips Long Zondervan
Copyright © 1994 Zondervan
All right reserved. ISBN: 0-310-43180-8
Chapter One
HISTORY AND THE GENRE(S) OF THE BIBLE Is the Bible a History Book? The simple answer to the question posed in the title to this chapter is no, the Bible is not a history book. But this is just the kind of question to which a simple (simplistic?) answer should not be given, at least not without going on to say what else the Bible is not. It is also not a science book, a law book, an ethics book, a theology book, or even a book of literature or politics (the list could go on). The Bible may be of vital interest in each of these areas, but its essence cannot be reduced to any one of them. If the question means to get at the essential nature of the Bible, then history book is not an adequate answer. It is important to recognize the all-encompassing character of the question, however, lest one fall prey to the kinds of false dichotomies often encountered in discussions of the historical character of the Bible-namely, the Bible is not history but literature, or the Bible is not history but theology. The Bible, in terms of its essence, cannot be fully and adequately described by any of the above labels.
What then is the Bible? Much of the modern problem of biblical interpretation is linked to what Robert Morgan describes as "concealed disagreements" about how the subject matter of the Bible is to be defined: "Some call the Bible superstition, others the word of God." The definition likely to enjoy widest acceptance is that the Bible is a religious book. As the canonical Scriptures of two of the world's major religions, Judaism (Hebrew Bible = Old Testament) and Christianity (Old and New Testaments), the Bible certainly qualifies as a religious book.
But is religious book an adequate definition? To some it will seem so. To secular interpreters, for example, the Bible may appear to be just one religious book among many. For confessing Christians, however, the Bible is not simply a religious book but the religious book of their community of faith (though some in this group may assume that the Bible's authority is not intrinsic but is simply accorded to it by the community of faith itself). For those Christians who would take their cue from the Bible's own self-understanding, the Bible is not simply a religious book or even the religious book of a given community but, rather, the religious book that is above all others and quite distinct from all others-its very words being "God-breathed" (2 Tim. 3:16).
THE BIBLE'S MACRO-GENRE AND THE ISSUE OF TRUTH
What view one takes on the question of the Bible's essential nature, what we might call its macro-genre, will have far-reaching implications for how one assesses the truth value of the text. Secular readers, the first group described above, will find it easy to assume that the Bible, as just one religious book among many, may often be lacking in truth value. Confessing Christians, the second group, will at least want to regard the Bible as true in some sense-for example, "true for me." They will ascribe to the Bible at least a relative or subjective truth value. Christians of the third group, among whom I wish to be included, will hold that the Bible is true in a much more sweeping sense and will assume, consciously or unconsciously, that the Bible's truth claims (i.e., what the Bible teaches, commands, promises, and threatens) and its truth value (i.e., the veracity and/or authority of these speech acts) coincide. Having said this, I must emphasize that one's commitment to the truth value of the Bible does not automatically settle the question of the truth claim(s) of any given text. It is one thing to believe the Bible to be true; it is another to understand what it says.
This point may be illustrated by imagining a situation in which you tell me that you have written something that you would like me to read. Let us assume that I believe you to be both trustworthy and competent and thus have confidence in the truth value of what you write. Despite this confidence, if you offer no further comment, and if the circumstances surrounding our conversation offer no hint, I shall have very little idea of what it is you have written (i.e., what its genre, and thus its truth claim, is). Is it a telephone message, a list of things you would like me to do, a complaint, a poem, a joke, a riddle, a grocery list, a letter of recommendation, a contract, an essay, or what? The fact that I have confidence in your veracity and competence will, of course, influence the attitude with which I approach what you have written and the manner in which I respond, once I understand it. But my confidence in you does not guarantee that I will have an easy time comprehending what you have written.
All this is to make the point that questions of truth value and truth claim are essentially distinct. On the one hand, one's assumption regarding the likely truth value of the Bible is fundamentally affected by one's assessment of the macro-genre (or, more properly, the essential character or ontological status) of the Bible. If the Bible is a merely human document, then it may well be untrustworthy; if it is the very word of God, then the assumption will be the opposite. On the other hand, one's discernment of the particular truth claims of the Bible requires that more specific genre decisions be made. Since the Bible comprises a collection of works of diverse literary genres, the truth claim(s) of this or that biblical text (what this or that text intends to convey, command, etc.) can be discovered only as each text is read on its own terms, with due recognition of its genre and due attention to its content and wider and narrower contexts.
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Excerpted from The Art of Biblical History by V. Philips Long Copyright © 1994 by Zondervan. Excerpted by permission.
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