What is a “myth”? I mean literally. This Sunday I am posting what Pastor Bess has to say about this in relation to the stories of the Bible. Myth defined is not to say that it means wrong or fictional. This excerpt by Pastor Bess is a continuation of his efforts in bringing us to greater understanding of what it is we are really reading when we pick up the bible.

Bible Mythology

by Pastor Howard Bess

Mythology has a bad name in everyday language.  A myth is commonly understood as a repeated statement that is not true.  This is not the definition that I am using.  I am using myth as the correct name of an honored, respected and widely used literary form. A myth is any story or report in which God or a god is the primary actor. By this definition the Bible is filled with myths.

Robert Laurin was a very special friend.  He was the Professor of Old Testament at American Baptist Seminary of the West.  He taught during the same years that I pastored churches in Southern California.  Eventually he spent a period of time as the president of American Baptist Seminary of the West.  He identified himself as an Evangelical.  He had the credentials.  He was a graduate of Westmont College and received his seminary degree from Fuller Theological Seminary.  He earned his PhD at the prestigious University of Edinburgh in Scotland.  He authored books and scholarly papers.  He wrote a highly respected introduction to the Old Testament.  One of his students described him to me as “the finest classroom teacher I ever had.”   Bob and I found ourselves attending the same meetings, and over the years we became friends

One day I asked him about how he handled the key stories of the Old Testament in his classroom.  His response was clear and became my model.  “Early in my education I came to accept that many of those key stories of the Old Testament were not history.  I tried to find other terms to identify them.  I called them stories.  I called them parables.  I tried not to call them myths out of concern that students would misunderstand.  I finally faced the fact.  They are myths.  I have never again called them by any other name.”

Robert Laurin emboldened me, and I have never again called them by any other name.

The phenomenon of the Israelite people is difficult to explain.  For many centuries they perpetuated themselves as a unique people without the unifying power of a king or a homeland.  They maintained themselves as a unique people, while living the life of nomads.  They kept their unique identity during years of slavery in the foreign culture of Egypt.  A small group of Israelites spent decades in Babylon as a slave/servant people.  Great pressures were put on them to embrace the religion of their masters.  They refused to bow down to any God but their Yahweh.  They did not integrate.  They took the time to review and to find new meaning in the collected myths of their heritage.

Some of the Israelite myths are more important than others.  At the heart of their self-understanding are a small number of key myths.  God promised Abraham that he would be the founder of his chosen people.  On God’s command, Abraham went out “not knowing where he was going.”  Abraham’s commitment to God was so complete that by God’s instruction he was willing to sacrifice his son, Isaac.  Jacob wrestled with God on the banks of the Jabbok River.  Jacob received the blessing of God, but limped the rest of his life.  God gave him a new name, Israel.  Israel means “he who wrestles with God.”  God recruited Moses and Moses led the children of Israel out of their slavery in Egypt.  At Mt. Sinai God gave Moses ten commandments and wrote them on stones.  “You shall have no other Gods before me” rang in the head of every Israelite.

These are the myths, along with other supporting myths, which made Israelites a unique people who will not disappear or go away.

When we move to the story of the followers of Jesus of Nazareth in the New Testament, we find the same phenomenon.  In the gospel writings we find basic myths that surround the Christ story.  As Christians we reinforce the importance of these myths every year

with our celebrations of Christmas, Good Friday and Easter.  We enshrine the virgin birth, the death of Jesus for our sins, and his resurrection from the dead every Sunday in the singing of hymns and our communion celebrations.

The narratives of the birth of Jesus, the death of Jesus for our sins, and Christ’s resurrection from the dead are just as surely myths as are the Jabob/Jabbok River and the Moses/Sinai stories.

Mythology is not history. Mythology is more than history.  Mythology is in many ways the antithesis of history.  History happens in time.  Mythology supersedes and goes beyond time.  Mythologies endure because they draw our attention to values and insights into life that will not go away.  Mythology takes us into the realm of God.  The Bible myths take us into the realm of the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and Jesus.

Do myths and history ever join hands?  That is not a decision that can ever be addressed by critical Biblical scholarship.  Whether or not myths and history walk with locked arms will remain a matter of faith choice.

This is not an attempt to make that choice for anyone.  This volume is an attempt to introduce the reader to the mythologies of the Bible.  My goal in writing is that at least a few people when asked “Do you understand what you are reading?” will be able to respond with a knowledgeable “yes.”

Pastor Howard Bess lives in Palmer, Alaska

We barely understand what we are reading in today’s storytelling (journalism and non-fiction) and it is in our common form of the English language, let alone the unusually cumbersome English used in biblical translations. So we are fed the translations by other humans who are reading these stories and relaying to us their interpretations. Christian Dominionists tell us that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, yet they release updated versions. How does that even add up? And now that this is an interwoven part of our political platform in America, we are told by the “neo(new)-theo(theocrats)-religio(religious)-politician(90%republican)” that even they do not understand it with training and that we are not supposed to:

Once again…I thank Pastor Bess for prompting us to think.