SPARKS CHAPTER 6
Chapter six is all about eliminating Biblical errors through genre. I felt like I was reading a much more sophisticated form of “Chicago Statement” style reasoning. If that treatise can be accused of moving goal posts to avoid errors, Spark’s outdoes it by a mile. We can simply change the genre of the Biblical books so that telling history is not their chief concern but rather telling and reshaping history to express theological ideology is their concern. Thus, it does not matter if what is authored is fiction or fiction blended with history. It makes little sense to accuse a theological retelling of history of factual inaccuracy. That was never its concern or intended purpose. Sparks is correct in that it is absolutely true the interpretation of a specific work ties specifically into its genre and intended purpose. I have personally believed for a logn time now that the Gospels—not just John-- are not strictly biography in the modern or even in the ancient sense. They blend history with theology and the ever present transforming and risen Jesus all into one. The genre view is troubling because a lot, and I mean a lot, of plain, straightforward statements in the Bible, giving the appearance of history, can no longer be interpreted the way the majority of the Church has the last 2,000 years. We are basically saying “no no no” this has been understood wrong for 2,000 years. Though admittedly, as long as we glean the same general message from the stories, has anything really changed?
Of identifying genre Sparks speaks of a “locutionary act (“what is spoken or written)” and an illocutionary act (authorial intent) and uses the following small conversation:
Mary: “Would you like a cup of coffee?”
Sam: “That would keep me awake.”
Based on this Sparks highlights that we can’t actually know from this whether or not Sam likes coffee. If Sam were driving far at night he might be positively affirming he would like some coffee. If he were ready for bed “in his pajamas” this might be a rejection of the offer. The life setting of this conservation matters. Without the proper context, how “the words fit into the world,” it is difficult to decide what is meant. If Mary was Sam’s wife of fifteen years, we might assume she would not offer him something he doesn’t like. But if they were hitting a travel center, driving late into the night, this might not hold true. Given the importance of context, Sparks writes:
“Given that human beings never understand contexts completely, this implies that we never understand instances of verbal discourse perfectly. Even when our interpretations our essentially correct, each involves subtle and inevitable elements of misinterpretation. Nevertheless, in the final analysis, our capacity for language is a beautify thing that allows us adequately and meaningfully to share our lives and experiences with one another—adequately, but never perfectly.” In my eyes this not only applies to Biblical discourse but also to Jesus during his incarnation., Melville’s Moby Dick is used as an example of purpose. Was the central concern of Melville getting whaling completely correct or was it about the obsession of Ahab? “To read Moby Dick as if it were a book about whales misconstrues Melville’s discourse.“ pg 209 Thus we need to examine Melville based on his intended purposes and the things that matter in the text. He may very well have gotten whaling wrong on a number of things but to judge the book by that given that wasn’t his purpose is a “petty criticism” according to Sparks who notes along with Barth that “many of our modern difficulties with Scripture arise precisely because readers are seeking the wrong things from Biblical authors.” Against this interpretation it must be mentioned that throughout much of the Church, the Bible has been interpreted this way. Did we really discover something radically new the last two thousand years of exegetes missed? Though @Chris_Falter brought up a good point recently:
Cardinal Bellarmine likewise affirmed the absolute inerrancy of Scripture, and applied that doctrine to Psalm 104:5 and many other passages that speak clearly of the Earth not having any motion.
“Oh, but Bellarmine was wrong! Those passages were not intending to teach science!” Of course we think that today. But at the time, Bellarmine had 1500 years of exegesis to back him up, and all Galileo had was a few telescopes.
It seems that there is a lot more than an immutable earth that the Bible “doesn’t teach” despite its plain language. So how does Sparks use genre?
Jonah and the Parables of Jesus
First he sees fiction as very valuable and appeals strongly to the parables of Jesus in defense of this: “If we aim to take the Bible seriously as God’s Word, this leaves us with only one possible solution: perhaps fiction is a more valuable genre for conveying truth than conservative evangelicals normally suppose.” Pg 214-5
An archetype, in his view, is actually stronger than a single historical instance. Using the parable of the good Samaritan, he tells us that if it were historical it would tell us about a few individuals from history and their impious behavior but “taken as a parable the story becomes something else altogether. It depicts not one historical situation but rather all instances in which religious people fail to love their neighbor in distress. In a very concrete sense, insofar as the parable describes and applies to many historical contexts rather than just one, we can reasonably claim that parables are more historical than conventional historical reports. So works in fictional genres can be quote true, not only theologically but also historically.” Pg 215. I think there is an equivocation in here somewhere utilizing the word history but I do get Spark’s point. An account that is made up to address a historical situation cannot be more historical than an account that is historically accurate. He seems to be waxing poetic here. But yes, even if Jonah is fiction, it is still meant to address and describe a specific historical reality regarding the Jews, repentance and salvation. He also says that given the world is fallen, scripture won’t only include factual narratives telling us “ what is ” but also fictional narratives depicting what “ should be .” I am not sure how he knows this and I can’t take it as self-evident, true or not. Sparks does point out that despite our preference for history, if Jonah is fiction it is none the less inspired by God and no less authoritative than a parable of Jesus. “Biblical fiction does not let us off the hook of obedience.” I guess I would ask why on earth should I believe this book was actually inspired by God in the sense of being written. Maybe it was merely inspire in the same way a mountain inspires an artists to draw it.
Usher and the Mimetic Genealogy of Genesis 5
Sparks points out the genealogy in Genesis 5, with its long life spans (365-969 years), is very much like a Sumerian kings list with even longer life spans (tens of thousands of years!). Bishop Usher used the Genesis genealogy incorrectly assuming it was straightforward history and mistakenly calculated the birth of the earth as 10/22/4004 BCE. At any rate, there are points of contact between the Genesis 5 and Sumerian King’s list:
· Both provide a list of pre-flood heroes with very long life spans.
· The seventh person in each list did not die but went to heaven (Enoch and Enmedur-Anna).
Given these points of contact and since Mesopotamian kings lists often stress the seventh king, many scholars feel that whoever wrote Genesis 5 simply took a Hebrew genealogy and patterned it after an older, Mesopotamian kings list. Supplementary evidence of this is found in the author of Genesis 5 possibly receiving most of this list from whoever authored Genesis 4. In addition, the final digit in the chronological information provided in the lists is 0, 2, 5 or 7 in all cases but one (26 out of 27 times!). These numbers are not strictly historical as this it not likely to arise by chance. Like some Sumerian kings lists they were probably influenced by “astronomical and mathematical figures.”
So Sparks argues the purpose of the list is not a factual genealogical listing. It mirrors Sumerian lists which “were important expressions of power and legitimacy in the Mesopotamian tradition.” This was meant to show the “value and significance of the Hebrew people.” This makes even more sense if we suppose Jewish culture was being threatened (during or after the Babylonian exile). As opposed to bad or second rate history, Genesis 5 is good “mimetic fiction” and “it is a truly masterful act of Israelite resistance to the arrogance of Mesopotamian culture.
Sparks goes on to point out the Pentateuch with its host of different genres is better viewed as an anthology. This explains contradictions between the same stories in multiple places where the same event is retold (e.g. the two creation narratives). “Viewing the Pentateuch as an anthology helps us understand why it contains two or more versions of so many stories, and also why it contains so many types of genres. Its author (or compiler) was clearly more interested in preserving Israel’s diverse traditions than in providing some kind of coherent book of history. Though the anthological result was unique, the basic impulse behind it—the desire to preserve cultural tradition—appears in some guise or other in every human culture, including our own.” Pg 219
He claims John wrote a theological Gospel and changed the timing of Jesus’ crucifixion to depict him clearly as the Passover Lamb. His argument is that because Jesus was a sacrifice that despite John changing historical details is theologically true because Jesus was a sacrifice. It is “not poorly researched biography” or “duplicitous fiction” but “a very effective theological biography.”
His treatment of Daniel’s ex eventu prophecies I agree with but it seems strange to simply reduce them to the sole point of expressing a theological truth: “God knows what the future holds because he is in control of human history. Daniel’s ex eventu predictions were one legitimate way of expressing the reality of God’s foreknowledge and sovereignty.” Sparks does go on to point out how genre does not solve all of Daniel’s problems.
I was a bit put off by some of his discussion of the different blocks of law in the Pentateuch and his treatment or of Chronicles theological retelling of history. Even while agreeing with it. “Not contradictions at all” and “not errors” seemed odd to me even if technically correct. I can’t fully finger it yet but it looked like I was getting the same old evangelical harmonization techniques, just with genre now. It’s a cute method of salvaging some form inspiration and maintaining Biblical integrity in face of a literal army of difficulties. If its fiction or a blend of fiction and history it doesn’t have to be accurate. It really is extremely difficult to tell what separates the Bible from any other work in Spark’s eyes? Sure, he operates under the assumption that it is God’s word but looking at its details there is not much to suggest this whatsoever. Daniel made this observation and it is poignant. In fact, outside of its salvific record, it looks like a completely human work on every level. In fact, he says as much, “even after generic criticism” accounts for many Biblical difficulties “ample evidence remains that the Biblical authors were subject to their own finitude and fallenness when they wrote Scripture.” He suggest Daniel screws up thinking the end was nigh. Paul and the author of Revelation, along with many early Christians also had a mistaken eschatology. Interestingly enough, Spark’s doesn’t go far enough with this yet. If much of the early church thought Jesus would return soon, and we have sayings to this effect, it is hard on historical grounds not to push this belief to Jesus. I think Meier ended up siding with early prophets in the church but it has to be a VERY EARLY development if it doesn’t go back to Jesus. At any rate, I will find it a bit suspicious if Sparks more or less reconstructs a traditional, evangelical Christianity while admitting the Bible contains large amounts of fiction. He is going to need to do a good job in selling a hermeneutic. Was Jesus really a sacrifice or is this just the natural interpretation of a culture steeped in animal sacrifices and “blood magic?” Why do we accept it as doctrinally true that the incarnation was a sacrifice? Even if it was Jesus giving his life for us, this could be viewed as merely creating solidarity alone and not in the sense most of the Biblical authors thought it.
At any rate, Sparks offers his own summary: “The genealogy of Genesis 5 is not bad history; it is mimetic Jewish propaganda. The Pentateuch is not a confusing blend of contradictory fictions; it is an anthology of Jewish tradition. Hebrew law is not a compendium of legal inconsistency; it is the result of a rational, necessary, ongoing process of statutory reformulation. The Chroniclers history is not a pack of duplicitous lies; it is narrative of retributive theology. John’s Gospel is not a poor and misleading biography; it is a theological portrait of Jesus’s life. Daniel’s ex eventu prophecies are not deception; they are theological expressions of divine sovereignty. Again and again, in these instances and others I have not mentioned, the problem of Scripture’s ostensible “errors” is resolved by generic considerations.” Pg 225
I am still digesting the contents of chapter 6. I feel a bit unsettled on some issues but I can’t put my finger on it yet. Maybe it is my modern tendency to favor true stories over fiction or to treat works with an appearance of history as if they were actually historical. This type of genre is a bit foreign to me. And my chief concern is how we maintain any hard model of inspiration. As I mentioned earlier, a mountain can be said to inspire an artist who paints it. But the mountain does not control the accuracy of the artists rendition. Most Christians have a higher view of inspiration than this but I can’t help but think this is all scripture looks like and needs to be viewed as by Christians. I am not sure why a significantly fictions anthology with diverse theologies and contradictions is viewed as “the authoritative word of God.” Why are we not compelled to view the whole Bible as a mere anthology of our beliefs?
Vinnie