The Bible and History | How to Read the Bible Semester Discussion Guide

Part 3: The Bible and History

The following should be read aloud as a group, with each person reading one paragraph before passing on to the next person. Afterwards discussion will follow with the provided discussion questions.

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe…

John 20:30-31 ¹

The Bible is not New York Times style reporting.

Fr. Philip Zymaris ²

The Bible contains historical narratives of many events that happened in the past. This has led some people to conclude that the Bible is primarily a book of history in the modern sense… In Mark, Jairus’ daughter was not yet dead when he asks Jesus to come, while in Matthew, she was already dead when he asks him. Which of these two narratives is correct? Is one “true” and the other one “false”?^3,4

This example of an alleged contradiction in the Bible serves to highlight an important point: the Biblical authors, and ancient peoples more generally, did not view history in the way we do today… The ancient Greek historian Thucydides, writing around 400 BC, says this openly about various speeches he records when writing his History of the Peloponnesian War:

With reference to the speeches in this history, some were delivered before the war began, others while it was going on… so my habit has been to make the speakers say what was in my opinion demanded of them by the various occasions, of course adhering as closely as possible to the general sense of what they really said… the accuracy of the report being always tried by the most severe and detailed tests possible.⁵

The Church Fathers endorse and utilize this ancient methodology… St. John Chrysostom, for example, when writing about the historical discrepancies found among the four Gospels, says the following:

“What then? Was not one Evangelist sufficient to tell all?” [a critic may say.] One indeed was sufficient; but if there are four that write… this very thing is a very great evidence of their truth. For if they had agreed in all things exactly even to time, and place, and to the very words, none of our enemies would have believed… But now even that discordance which seems to exist in little matters delivers them from all suspicion, and speaks clearly on behalf of the character of the writers.⁶

For St. John Chrysostom, then, the various differences in the Gospels actually are a demonstration of their truth… The ancient Greek historian Herodotus says this explicitly in his Histories:

Herodotus of Halicarnassus here presents his research so that human events do not fade with time. May the great and wonderful deeds—some brought forth by the Hellenes, others by the barbarians—not go unsung; as well as the causes that led them to make war on each other.⁷

If history in the ancient world was written to discern the causes of specific events, for what purpose were the books of the Bible written? …

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.

This is the disciple who is bearing witness to these things, and who has written these things; and we know that his testimony is true. But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.⁸

In other words, there are many things about Jesus’ life that John the Theologian could have written down… Similarly, the specific events and ways in which events are described in the Bible are there because the human author (and God who inspired the human author) intended them to be there.

The fact that John carefully composed and selected what events he would narrate… This happens many times in the Bible, perhaps most prominently in the book of Daniel:

The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belshazzar, “Can you report the dream that I saw and its decision to me?” Daniel answered before the king and said, “The secret that the king inquired is not of wise men, magicians, enchanters, and soothsayers to report to the king. But it is God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made what is necessary to happen at the final days known to King Nebuchadnezzar.”⁹

The twentieth century St. Nikolai Velimirovich goes beyond the interpretation of dreams…

Many people in the West think of the mysticism of Eastern Christianity as something unreal and imaginary… Our Church as a whole, from the beginning, has been mystical in its interpretation of the visible universe, of things and events, as well as of man’s and mankind’s life and destiny.¹⁰

We will return to the topic of symbolism in the Bible in more depth in part four. May God continue to enlighten us to the meaning of Holy Scripture through the prayers of his most pure mother and all the saints!

Discussion Questions:

1. How is the purpose of biblical history different from the way we usually think about history today?
2. What do the differences between the Gospel accounts show us about the authors and their message?
3. How does knowing that Scripture was written “so that we may believe” influence the way you read it?

________

¹ John 20:30-31 RSV.
² Fr. Philip Zymaris was my professor of liturgics at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. This phrase was often said by him in his classes and continues to be said by him to this day.
³ Mark 5:21-43.
⁴ Matthew 9:18-26.
⁵ Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 1, Chapter 1. Coradella Collegiate Bookshelf Editions.
⁶ St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, Homily 1. Translated by John Henry Parker.
⁷ Herodotus, The Histories, Book 1, Chapter 1. Translated by Andrea Purvis.
⁸ John 20:30-31, 21:24-25 RSV.
⁹ Daniel 2:26-32, Theodotion.
¹⁰ St. Nikolai Velimirovich, “The Universe as Signs and Symbols: An Essay on Mysticism in the Eastern Church.” Edited by Sergei D. Arhipov.