The Bible Among Myths: Oswalt

LIBERTY UNIVERSITY

THE BIBLE AMONG THE MYTHS

A SUMMARY PAPER

SUBMITTED TO DR. DANIEL WARNER

FOR OLD TESTAMENT INTRODUCTION

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

OF THE MASTERS OF PASTORAL COUNSELLING DEGREE

IN THE LIBERTY UNVERSITY SEMINARY

BY

JASON MOOORE

OMAHA, NE

NOVEMBER 2013

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………3

THE BIBLE IN ITS WORLD...………………………………………………………………...4

THE BIBLE AND MYTH: A PROBLEM OF DEFINITION………………………………….5

CONTINUITY: THE BASIS OF MYTHICAL THINKING…………………..……………….6

TRANSCENDENCE: BASIS OF BIBLICAL THINKING………….……….………….……..7

THE BIBLE VERSUS MYTH……………………………………………….…………………8

THE BIBLE AND HISTORY: A PROBLEM OF DEFINITION………….……….………….9

IS THE BIBLE TRULY HISTORICAL? THE PROBLEM OF HISTORY (1)…….…………10

DOES IT MATTER WHETHER THE BIBLE IS HISTORICAL? THE PROBLEM OF HISTORY (2)…………………………………………………………………….……………..11

ORIGINS OF THE BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW: ALTERNATIVES………………………….12

CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………………13

INTRODUCTION

John Oswalt sets the stage of his book “The Bible among the Myths” well in his Introduction. He sets out to debunk critics on the Old Testament that compare the Bible to myths or put YHWH in the same viewpoint as Near Eastern gods. He attempts to show that when “myth” is shown in its definition in common terms and function, the Bible is not in line with that definition. Mr. Oswalt does a fantastic job setting up the rest of the study by revealing his aim to compare not only the history of Israel and their neighbors, but during the history Israel was the only one to hold true their beliefs. The point of the book is that in the worldview, the Bible is to be taken as just another mythological piece of literature and nothing more. There is an increasing amount of people that are skeptical about what the Bible claims to be and the biblical story it contains. Most people that do not believe the Bible to be true simply call it “history-like” and label it as theology that the Israelites...