In some ways, Mike [Licona] is just making the really obvious point that we have to read literature according to its literary genre. Legal codes should be read not for their poetic value, but for their clarity and applicability. Parables or apocalyptic visions should be read not for their concrete historical details, but for their moral lessons and symbolic power. Ancient biographies were not legal or interview transcripts, and yet nor are they mere mytho-poetics of the spiritual life. They were genuine accounts of real figures, which were designed to compel readers to follow the example of the figure, or, in the case of the Gospels, to inspire loyalty and trust in that figure. And the rules for writing good ancient bioi included conflation, contraction, transferal, displacement, and so on.
Read as ancient biographies the Gospels are excellent works. And just as an apocalyptic book like Revelation is still viewed by Christians as the word of God, the word of God revealed in a well-known ancient human literary genre, apocalyptic. So the gospels can be seen by Christians as the word of God, the very centre of the word of God, revealed through another well-known ancient literary genre, the historical biography.
Let me put this starkly, I do not believe that Jesus will one day return riding on a white horse with a sword coming out of his mouth, which is what Revelation 19 says. But saying I don’t believe that is not to disbelieve Revelation 19 as the word of God, it’s just to point out that the word of God is using acceptable ancient literary genres to emphasise the ultimate victory of Jesus through the word of his mouth, the gospel message.
In a similar way, I don’t believe Peter denied Jesus six times, I think I might have said that once or twice through the show. I don’t wanna do that just to make the various accounts of his denying Jesus three times add up. Again, I do not believe Jesus overturned the tables twice in his ministry just because John makes it one of the first events of his public career, and Matthew, Mark, and Luke make it one of the last events of his career. And I do not believe Jesus healed two centurion’s servants in Capernaum just because Luke tells us the centurion sent a delegation to Jesus, and Matthew tells us the centurion went personally to Jesus.
I believe what we have here are real events which are told in sometimes very different ways, in order to emphasise different true things about Jesus. This was perfectly acceptable to ancient writers and readers of biographies, and it’s a perfectly acceptable human literary genre through which the God of the universe can speak to us.
By John Dickson
Gospel Contradictions
Want to hear the rest of the episode?
Check out episode 127: “Gospel Contradictions”
