How Historical is the Bible?

Excavations of ancient Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee The Bible is not all history, but all the Bible is history. That first phrase is pretty much straightforward. The Bible is composed of much more than straight history—what happened, when, by whom, etc. It contains poetry, parables, prophetic...

How I Read the Bible, And So Can You! Part 4

In the last post I talked about how important it is to recognize that the biblical writers have their own voice. The Bible, especially the Old Testament, doesn’t speak with one voice or one viewpoint. It actually contains multiple voices and multiple viewpoints, and, as I pointed out last week, they don’t...

It’s Not History Without a Story

There is an official chronicle of the Civil War called “The Official Records of the American Civil War.” It contains formal officer reports , prisoner lists, written orders, maps, diagrams, and correspondence, from both sides, as well as first-hand accounts. Some of it is interesting to read, and a lot of...