Too Small a Boat

If I define history as the objective scientific recount of exact events, then history is too small a boat for matters of faith.

It’s virtually impossible to know objective scientific fact (so-called). For example, suppose a videographer recorded the assassination of JFK, even that won’t provide an inerrant record of events.

We question whether biblical stories are true because we doubt them. We don’t constantly question the sun; we accept its reality. But our continual debates about whether biblical stories go back to actual events may arise from doubts that such events occurred, in any form.

“Objective scientific history” is a myth of the modern age. The moment something occurs, the reality of it begins to recede into the past. Human finitude places it beyond absolute knowledge.

But we can know with a high degree of certainty that an event occurred, without having total command of “objective scientific data” about it. To say that we cannot know the precise details of the life of Abraham is not to say that it doesn’t matter whether he lived, or is simply a story or legend.

I relate today to Abraham in precisely the same way that I relate to the good Samaritan: through the biblical story. Of course it matters that Abraham lived in ancient Mesopotamia about 3500 years ago, whereas the good Samaritan is a character in one of Jesus’ parables. Nevertheless, as a reader and a believer, I relate to both in the same way, the only way that is available to me.

(Another kettle of fish is the question of whether reality itself is a story in the mind of God.)

Endlessly debating the degree of objective historical veracity in a biblical account is like a dog chasing its tail – it goes on ad nauseum and gets you nowhere.

I don’t want the Bible to be “objective scientific history.” That’s way too small and too leaky a boat to trust eternal truth to.