Old Testament Historicity — Introduction

Biblical Historicity

• (V.P. Long) Experts presume too much about their ability
• History of Biblical Israel vs History of Israel
• History begins with Herodotus

Assumptions (Exposing Them)

Frame issues / Primary sources

Which is history? Depends if you believe or not

• False dichotomy

What’s Affirmed or Denied?

• An account can be incomplete and still be true.
• A lone historical source can still be true.

• One perspective, though biased, need not be considered false

• The above is “imperfect history” —
  • not fully complete
  • not fully cross-referenced
  • not all-inclusive in perspective
• An incomplete (and hence imperfect) account can still be a true account
• The Bible can be imperfect in its historical telling, but still be true
• Imperfection need not mean errant or that something is wrong with it

The Way We think of History

The word “history” is Greek in origin. Its definition as a literary genre and the extent to which its use for biblical material may be anachronistic are questions raised by recent scholarship… History, for most modern Westerners, is what happened…

…History writing as a literary genre is an account of what happened in the past. The latter is judged by how accurately and objectively it recounts past events. There is some recognition that historians have their own biases, that no one is completely objective…

…and that writing history involves interpretation. If pressed, most moderns probably will admit that it may be impossible to know for certain exactly what happened in the past. Nevertheless, telling exactly what happened remains the goal and essential definition of the genre as it is generally envisioned. (DOTHB, 418)

Probing Assumptions

Do you see potential problems with the modern sense of history?

• Precise accuracy (exactitude)
• Objectivity (no intentional bias)

No human can achieve this

Do we really believe…

• Something cannot be true if it isn’t exhaustive in detail and perspective?
• The one dominant perspective must be false?
• That incomplete = untrue?

How precise must you be in order to be considered accurate (i.e., reliable, valid)?

• How ever I would write it
• They become their own standard

Questions to ask:

• Number of Sources?
• Conversations?
• No place for memory?

Reliable vs. Exhaustive Completeness, Precision

• Since an event and the interpretation of the event are two different things, can the event be made known reliably if one’s biases are also known? Which side are they on?
• Is reliability made impossible or unlikely by bias?
• Does partial information about an event mean that what is said about the event is untrue?
• How exhaustive and inclusive must the report be to be considered “unbiased”?

The reality is that historians critical of the Bible and other ancient texts want to question an account’s reliability when it fails to meet exhaustive completeness and precision, but they refuse to falsify the reliability of other accounts of events, even in their own lives according to the same standard.

• Invisible The forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Monster by Stephen L. Carter

  The bestselling author delves into his past and discovers the inspiring story of his grandmother’s extraordinary life.

  She was black and a woman and a prosecutor, a graduate of Smith College and the granddaughter of slaves, as dazzlingly unlikely a combination as one could imagine in New York of the 1930s — and without the strategy she devised, Lucky Luciano, the most powerful Mafia boss in history, would never have been convicted. When special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey selected twenty lawyers to help him clean up the city’s underworld, she was the only member of his team who was not a white male.

  • Is this story less objective than other histories of the Luciano trial?
  • Where the lives of all others involved researched at the same level of detail as Eunice Carter’s?
  • Were conversations from which data were drawn unfailingly recorded?

Your Own Autobiography?

• Is your version of your own life objective?
• All perspectives included equally?
  • All readers can be swayed
• How precise are your data?
  • Is there no place for memory?
• Are all your recollection cross-checked?

What About God? Supernatural?

Another presumption…

That crediting the causation (direct or providential) of events to God cannot be considered history.

• God’s reality cannot be known objectively

• Therefore, neither can his activity.

• What about God?
  • “divine activity”?
  • “history” or reliable accounting?
  • Qadesh / Ramesses II
    • He credited his gods
    • Why the Qadesh be considered historical
• History and the Gods by Bertil Albrektson
  • Inconsistent judging ANE’s vs Biblical

Framing Historicity

• Are our modern expectations consistent and reasonable? Think outside box
• How much history would we have?
• Why are we insisting on perfection?
• Is it misguided to judge an ancient document by modern expectation? Assume accurate

Mike Chu 4/28/2023
Taishanese (Toishanese)

Historicity a Western Concept?

• Taken little information and ran with it
• Rational Beliefs - Does reliefs rational?
  • Alvin Plantinga - religious beliefs are “properly basic”

Ethnic Churches Growing in Boston

• Ethnic identity longing for traditional cultural ties
• Cultural distinctiveness
• How do we maintain the cohesiveness in a multi-cultural environment?
• Creating a space
  • Welcoming
  • Offer kindness

Progression

• Demanding uniformity?
• What do we do with power?

Tsalmaveth (Strong 6757)

Job 3:5 - Not translated as “shadow of death”

• וְ֭צַלְמָוֶת
• vetzalmavet

• Death-like shadow, deep shadow

• חֹ֣שֶׁךְ
• choshech
• Darkness, obscurity