Is the Bible Myth? Depends who asks.

 

  1. If it is a fellow teacher, or someone with an advanced degree in the Humanities, I say, “With a capital ‘M,’ yes. Lowercase ‘m’, it is not.”
  2. If it is a parent of one of my students, I say, “No, of course not.”
  3. If it is a student questioning his or her faith, I say, “What do you define as ‘myth’?” Then I hope they give an answer I can easily address.
  4. If it is a student assured of his or her faith, I say, “We know the Bible to be inerrant.” Then I defer to their Bible teacher.
  5. If it is a class full of students, I collapse on the ground, curl up in a ball, and sing “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know.” After I did that, I would probably do number 4, not because I don’t know the answer.  I just don’t know how the students would take my answer.

Here’s what I actually think: the Bible is Myth.  It is not a myth.

Therefore, this post is probably self-defeating since I am, in essence, confessing what I’ve censored myself from saying. It is something I have not said aloud, even when I had the opportunity to teach this concept since our first unit in World Literature was Greek Mythology.

 

Here’s what I could have said to my students:

Continue reading “Is the Bible Myth? Depends who asks.”

Bible As Literature – CHSBT – 038

The Bible is literature… but is it just another book? Should we read it differently than other literary works? In this episode, Chris discusses the Bible with Christine Iskander (a college professor and comparative literature expert) as well as Jon Bennett (high school English teacher and published author). While most of us assume that we know how to read, we often use a different set of tools as we approach the Bible. In this episode, they tackle genre identification (poetry, myth, narrative, history), reader-response criticism, and how to read the Bible well, while still treating it like a sacred text.

Check out Jon’s book (Reading Blue Devils) here on his Amazon Author Page.