When I was a young boy growing up in Chattanooga, Tennessee I had a favorite place to go by myself. It was in back of the Marks’s house just a block away from our house; it was a seemingly secluded, wooded area. And when I went there I enjoyed the feeling of being on an unpredictable adventure; the possibilities were endless. The woods were level in some places with hardwoods like oak, etc., then I could climb a small hill and enter a whole field of pines that reminded me of small Christmas trees.
Always enamored with all things “American Civil War” I found large holes dug into the ground that I assumed were foxholes almost a century old; in truth, I have no idea what they really were, but they intrigued me to no end. At times I was afraid in the woods, and other times it was my personal haven. If you go there today you will see nothing there but house after house; the area is totally built up and inhabited as if there was never any wilderness at all.
A friend wrote me the other day, and asked that I write about the topic titled above. He posed the question: “Is the Bible a history book, or a collection of parables? If a person believes it is historical fact they would need to reconcile countless anomalies throughout the Bible.”
What a great question! And, of course, it is one that has been asked generation after generation for centuries. Will I finally provide the definitive answer in this blog, an answer that will once and for all settle the query for all time?
Nope! But I do hope to present a viable point of view that will at least make sense to the honest inquirer.
You don’t have to be Biblical scholar to know that the writings commonly referred to as “the Bible” (lit. the BOOK) are a collection of documents from different authors, in different time periods, with different agendas, different literary styles, and different languages. It is a beautiful thing to hold such a handy volume in our hands, translated into a language we can read, isn’t it? But make no mistake, you may recognize the words you are reading, but you may, in fact, have no idea of the context, the writer’s purpose, or the literary style being employed.
And lacking those things . . . you may not understand the writings at all! The onus is on the modern reader, as it has been in every generation; there is no escape, no easy way to grasp the meanings. Even if you believe it to be “from God” you do not escape the question, “How do I understand what I’m reading?”
Simply put, the Bible is made up of a potpourri of ancient documents that were scrutinized by the Hebrews, and then by the early Christians, voted “in” or “out” of the canon according to the belief in their authenticity, and then interpreted in about as many ways as you can imagine. Some saw literal meanings, some saw symbolism, some saw parable, some saw mysticism.
Is there a correct way to interpret Scripture? Yes, indeed there is! You evaluate each writing based on linguistic, stylistic, contextual and occasional facts. Wow! That demands a great deal. Yes, it does. And thankfully, part of the job has been done by scholars who dug into these things and then attempted to put what they learned into words you could understand. But that is only part of the solution.
As has been pointed out ad nauseam, the English words to “Ring Around the Rosie” are easy to define by virtually ANY student of English. But to truly understand what the words really refer to requires a good bit more information, doesn’t it? Thus it is with the Bible writings.
I’ve often thought we would do well to separate the 66 accepted books of the Bible into individual volumes to help us stop trying to constantly harmonize the ideas in them, and see them as stand-alone works in their own right. Then having done that, we might find certain harmonies between them, or threads that run through them.
For instance, the two distinct creation stories in Genesis 1:1-2:3 and Genesis 2:4-7. Were they from two different sources? We will never know, but I’d say it’s a very likely. Clearly, the compiler(s) had no problem putting the stories side by side; it was certainly no accident that was overlooked. As with many stories about crucial events there are various tales that circulate. Were these stories meant to be literal? Personally, I doubt it. But far more important than whether it is literal or not is the truth it presents. The concept of “light” existing before the sun and moon were created (Genesis 1:3-5) has been affirmed by physicists for years, but appears as a contradiction on the surface. But does that even matter?
The stark contrast between the Hebrew creation stories and other ancient cosmogonies is noteworthy. But nowhere is there any indication that the stories in Genesis purport to be scientific (in an age before science); they can, however, be true even if they are not literal.
“A truth is not governed by literality.”
Ivan Benson
The first eleven chapters of Genesis attempt to tell the reader how things got to be the way they are. They are unparalleled in that regard in the ancient world.
If each writing in the Bible is viewed in its own right we find obvious symbolism being promoted in Revelation, erotic poetry in Song of Solomon, epistolary style in the letters of Paul, songs of hyperbole in the Psalms, historical narratives in 1&2 Samuel, Jesus stories in the gospels, personal correspondence in Philemon, diatribes in the Gospel of John, actual parables in the Synoptic Gospels, cosmoganies and stories of origin in Genesis, prophetic visions in Ezekiel, etc.
So, is the Bible history, or parable? YES! It is ALL of that and more. And it behooves the reader to decide which. That doesn’t mean that whatever each person decides is correct, however. But it does set the bar a bit high. Such is the challenge of understanding ancient documents.
Here is the bottom line. The body of ancient documents we refer to as “the Bible” exists. It is by far the most studied, examined, scrutinized and opinion-eliciting writing of all time. It is not going away. Its longevity and historical corroboration as well as its attestation by unsympathetic ancient authors makes it the most important collection of ancient documents for all time.
Understanding it may not be easy. But nothing worthwhile is.
You see, the Bible is a lot like the woods behind the Marks’s house in Chattanooga. A variety of terrains, a variety of flora; areas of mystery and intrigue, and some areas that seem quite straightforward and obvious. And like the woods of my childhood, many have built upon that site in such a way that what was once truly there is obfuscated and rendered unintelligible by modern thought. You might never guess what it once meant! Unless you continue to dig deeper.
And that’s the significance of this question, and the answer you give to it.
The God Story 
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