James K. Hoffmeier - Do Historical Matters Matter to Faith?

Do Historical Matters Matter to Faith?
A Critical Appraisal of Modern and Postmodern Approaches to Scripture

Copyright 2012 by James K. Hoffmeier and Dennis R. Magary
Published by Crossway
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First printing 2012
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Do historical matters matter to faith? : a critical appraisal of modern and postmodern approaches to Scripture / edited by James K. Hoffmeier and Dennis R. Magary ; foreword by John D. Woodbridge.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4335-2571-1 (tp)

1. BibleHistory of biblical events. 2. BibleEvidences, authority, etc. I. Hoffmeier, James Karl, 1951

II. Magary, Dennis Robert, 1951

BS635.D56 2012

220.6dc23

2011037802

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

T HOMAS H. M C C ALL

G RAHAM A. C OLE

M ARK D. T HOMPSON

J AMES K. H OFFMEIER

M ICHAEL A. G. H AYKIN

R ICHARD E. A VERBECK

R OBERT B. C HISHOLM J R .

R OBERT D. B ERGEN

J OHN W. H ILBER

R ICHARD L. S CHULTZ

A LAN R. M ILLARD

W ILLEM A. V ANGEMEREN AND J ASON S TANGHELLE

J ENS B RUUN K OFOED

R OBERT W. Y ARBROUGH

C RAIG L. B LOMBERG

D ARRELL L. B OCK

E CKHARD J. S CHNABEL

T HOMAS W. D AVIS

J OHN M. M ONSON

R ICHARD S. H ESS

M ICHAEL G. H ASEL

S TEVEN M. O RTIZ

During the past thirty years biblical and theological scholarship has had to cope with many serious challenges to orthodox and evangelical understanding of Scripture. In addition to the Enlightenment positivist readings of the Bible (which continue with us after more than two centuries), we can now add postmodern literary approaches that treat the biblical narratives solely as literature that should be read as fiction. One of the consequences of this development has been the minimalist-maximalist historiography debate. The generally skeptical mood toward much of the history of the Bible (e.g., the Genesis ancestors of ancient Israel, the Egyptian sojourn, the exodus, the wilderness wanderings, the conquest of Canaan, and the united monarchy) has naturally taken its toll on the academic study of Israelite religion, Old Testament theology, and biblical theology, as these disciplines are intimately connected to history.

These two radically distinct paradigms for analyzing the Old Testament, despite the methodological differences, come to similar conclusions regarding the historical trustworthiness of the Hebrew narratives from Genesis to 1 Kings. J. Maxwell Miller and John H. Hayes well represent the modern (yet two-centuries-old!) approach when they opine:

We hold that the main story line of GenesisJoshuacreation, pre-Flood patriarchs, great Flood, second patriarchal age, entrance into Egypt, twelve tribes descended from the twelve brothers, escape from Egypt, complete collections of laws and religious instructions handed down at Mt. Sinai, forty years of wandering in the wilderness, miraculous conquests of Canaan,...is an artificial and theologically influenced literary construct.

Adherents of the postmodern hermeneutic arrive at nearly the same conclusion. Thomas Thompson serves as a representative for this model: Biblical Israel, as an element of tradition and story, such as the murmuring stories in the wilderness,... is a theological and literary creation.

New Testament studies has not been immune to scholarship that has challenged traditional readings of the Bible. There were the quest for the historical Jesus that began a century ago with Albert Schweitzer and Rudolf Bultmanns demythologizing approach to the Gospels, both of which treated the New Testament as a suspect document historically. Just as Old Testament scholars have been dominated by the radical stances of the historical minimalists in recent decades, the field of New Testament studies has had do deal with the Jesus Seminar and its dismissive claims of the Gospels with respect to the birth, life, and death of Jesus.

Evangelical biblical scholars have rightly rejected the extreme positions of historical minimalism, whether in Old Testament or New Testament studies. The rise of postmodern approaches, despite the many negative aspects, has detracted from the ascendancy of traditional higher criticism as practiced in the academy since the nineteenth century. One consequence of these competing approaches to biblical studies is that there is no longer a consensus among critical scholars; rather, a plurality of approaches is in vogue. Given the loss of a consensus on the academic study of the Bible, it is surprising that some evangelicals would challenge their colleagues to embrace the findings of critical scholarship, to dismiss the historicity of many events in both Testaments, and then to insist that intellectual honesty requires an admission that the Bible contains many errors and inconsistencies. It goes without saying, in the view of some, that the doctrine of inerrancy should be radically revised, if not laid to rest. Progressive evangelicals, as they have identified themselves, are raising some important questions regarding recent academic trends and traditional evangelical views of Scripture. They advocate looking to Scripture purely for theology while setting aside questions of history in the name of bending the knee to the latest conclusions of critical biblical scholarshipa new manifestation of an old neoorthodoxy.