History and mythology
From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science
History and mythology discusses the issue of whether the Bible should be viewed as history or mythology, as relates to the reliability of the Bible.
Contents |
Literary characteristics
History and mythology bear distinct literary characteristics. These include:
| History | Mythology |
|---|---|
| Recounting of events in dry, factual, linear manner; | Exaggeration, hyperbole, and emotional appeals |
| Provides specific timeframes for events | Absence of timeframes |
| Provides details such as genealogies and geography | Absence of such details |
| Describes people in objective fashion; no hero-worship | Creates "heroes" and "villains" |
| Earliest known form written | Earliest known form oral |
Bible compared to Greek mythology
Timeframes
Genesis provides specific dates and timeframes for the major events, particularly those related to the flood. For example:
- "By the first day of the first month of Noah's six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry." -- Genesis 8:13-14[1]
On the other hand, the author is unaware of a single mythological account from another ancient culture which records its events in such a detailed timeframe.
Genealogies and geography
Genesis provides genealogies for the line from Adam to Noah giving the year each had the next child in the line and the year they died. For example:
- "When Kenan had lived 70 years, he became the father of Mahalalel. And after he became the father of Mahalalel, Kenan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Kenan lived 910 years, and then he died." -- Genesis 5:12-14.[2]
Genesis also provides a remarkable degree of geographic detail. For example:
- "A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin [a] and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. [b] The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates." -- Genesis 2:10-14[3]
Some other ancient historical and mythological accounts do indeed provide rudimentary genealogies and basic geography. However, none do it in such striking detail, with such objective style. The description of Eden reads like a dry geography text, not a paperback novel.
Objective description of characters
There are no heroes in the Old Testament.
- Noah was both "righteous in his generation" and a sloppy drunk;
- Abraham was both praised by God as "a man of faith" and a coward who lied out of fear;
- Moses was chosen to lead his people from Egypt, but was also meek, shy, and had a bad temper which ultimately kept him out of the promised land;
- David was a "Man after God's own heart," an adulterer, and a murderer;
- Solomon was the wisest man of his day, but married pagan wives and allowed them to set up temples opposed to God;
The objective style in which these men are described is inconsistent with hero-myths. Hero-myths build up characters into such flawless beings that they become flat and unbelievable to the modern mind. The Bible, on the other hand, describes its characters in such rich detail, both good and bad, that the characters strike us as real.
Earliest known form
The earliest known form of Genesis is written. There is no evidence that it arose from oral traditions. Some academics assume that there was one, but they do this without evidence to support their claim. Genesis has been held out as being based on documents written by Moses himself. Other apocryphal accounts like the Book of Jubilees which are totally factually consistent with Genesis (and stop before Moses's death, unlike Genesis) explicitly claim to have been written by Moses
This contrasts sharply with Greek mythology, which was collected from oral traditions by Greek historians and mythographers like Herodotus seeking to record their country's beliefs, as well as poets and dramatists whose manifest purpose was to entertain and inspire, rather than to provide a historical annals.
See also
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Categories: Bible | History | Mythology
