Presenting the Issue: Biblical Stories,Their Interpretations,and Their Impact

Biblical stories, like those about Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus all carry the impact of creating communities that require interpretative tools to delve into the purposes of their existence. Since the stories are not histories as such, but an amalgam of myth, legend, and theology (some may call these “fiction”), their actual applications to a here and now must necessarily pass through the filter of interpretive traditions as well as modern scientific awareness. Such stories have proven effective in controlling human social behavior and enabling people to work effectively together. They have also spawned conflicts between groups leading to disastrous consequences such as the persecution of non-conformists, setting up identity groups at war with each other, and fixing cultural practices with an aura of immutable sacred authority. Recognizing the merits of such stories must always be tempered by the realization of their power for abuse.

Historian and philosopher Yuval Noah Harari, in his book, 21 Lessons for the 21^st Century (2018), makes the point that such stories distinguish humans from other mammals: “We are the only mammals that can cooperate with numerous strangers because only we can invent fictional stories, spread them around, and convince millions of others to believe in them. As long as everybody believes in the same fictions, we all obey the same laws and can thereby cooperate effectively” (238).

Harari makes a further point when he compares science and religion, suggesting that the purpose of religion is to create order while the purpose of science is to empower humans to control their environment: “Religion is interested above all in order. It aims to create and maintain the social structure. Science is interested above all in power. Through research, it aims to acquire the power to cure diseases, fight wars and produce food.”

Harari states it this way: “As individuals, scientists and priests may give immense importance to the truth; but as collective institutions, science and religion prefer order and power over truth…. The uncompromising quest for truth is a spiritual journey, which can seldom remain within the confines of either religious or scientific establishments” (Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, 2017 p. 199).

The purpose of biblical criticism is thus to bridge the gap between a reading of the Bible within specific religious groups and a study of the biblical texts using current social science models and tools of cross-cultural analysis. Biblical Theology Bulletin publishes works that do just this. Such readings have the larger purpose of separating out truth from dogma, and introducing a wider range of options in the way stories can have social meaning today.

We begin this issue with an examination of stories of women prophets in the Old Testament and then compare women in that social world with present day roles for women, “Women Prophets in the Old Testament: Implications for Christian Women in Contemporary Southeastern Nigeria” by Adolphus Ekedmimma Amaelfule. In this study the author uses a kind of Qal va-homer line of argument: if that was true for women prophets in Israel, how much more true it is for women leaders in society today.

Catherine Petrany studies the received biblical tradition of father-son didactic practice in which the father alone speaks and the son listens and observes his father’s teaching. Petrany, in “Fathers, Mothers, Sons, and Silence: Rhetorical Reconfiguration in Proverbs” contrasts this with the Queen Mother’s invitation for an entrance into words, into the art of becoming a verbal advocate in the judicial sphere. In its application, however, social status still prevents not only the son but the poor from having a voice. Like the son, they are silenced in practice.

Philip F. Esler and Angus Pryor team up to explore the ways in which art and biblical interpretation go hand in hand in the development of religious tradition, in “Painting 1 Enoch: Biblical Interpretation, Theology, and Artistic Practice.” Citing “the hundreds of thousands of paintings in the Western tradition on biblical subjects, many by the greatest artists,” Esler highlights how the artists’ interpretations “have made these works an intense focus of interest for researchers in art history since the founding of that discipline in the early 20^th century.” The article examines twelve paintings based on 1 Enoch and his model of an Ethiopian church, building on the uniquely close links between Ethiopia and 1 Enoch, a apocalyptic book written in Hebrew and estimated to date back to 300-200 bce. The Ethiopian Orthodox Teahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church hold that the books of Enoch are canonical, while other Jewish and Christian groups regard them as non-canonical. The paintings here are printed in color.

David M. Shaw, in “Called to Bless: Considering an Under-appreciated Aspect of ‘Doing Good’ in 1 Peter 3:8–17,” is following up on the well-known Balch-Elliott debate during the 1980s, both focusing on the question of conforming or resistance to Hellenistic-Roman society. Shaw introduces support for a third way, a ”soft difference” to describe the church’s missional posture, seeing blessing as a mission strategy. His analysis of the texts is informed by both Social Identity Theory and Narrative Transportation Theory.