(May 9, 2022 at 8:41 pm)Belacqua Wrote: And I think the stories in the Bible are nearly always motivated by mythical, spiritual, moral, or other non-accurate-history goals. (Whether we like these messages is a separate question.) So I think the attempt to pin down the destruction of Sodom, or Noah's flood, or the parting of the Red Sea, as inspired by some specific historical event is interesting but mostly missing the point.

When I first read the bible, as a new Christian, I realized that the stories were written to have religious meaning.  They might be allegory, or a morality tale.  This caused me to throw out the idea that the stories were actual history.  The problem was "isn't it convenient that historical events conspired to create an allegory".  It doesn't make sense for them to be both.

Yes, some stories could be inspired by actual events, or salt pillar formations, but the contents of the story are fiction.

(May 10, 2022 at 9:48 am)HappySkeptic Wrote:

(May 9, 2022 at 8:41 pm)Belacqua Wrote: And I think the stories in the Bible are nearly always motivated by mythical, spiritual, moral, or other non-accurate-history goals. (Whether we like these messages is a separate question.) So I think the attempt to pin down the destruction of Sodom, or Noah's flood, or the parting of the Red Sea, as inspired by some specific historical event is interesting but mostly missing the point.

When I first read the bible, as a new Christian, I realized that the stories were written to have religious meaning.  They might be allegory, or a morality tale.  This caused me to throw out the idea that the stories were actual history.  The problem was "isn't it convenient that historical events conspired to create an allegory".  It doesn't make sense for them to be both.

Yes, some stories could be inspired by actual events, or salt pillar formations, but the contents of the story are fiction.

Let's not forget that the Biblical texts are among many other texts from Antiquity. For instance, some 20 different Gospels exist from the New Testament era in addition to the four that made it into the Christian Bible. Five or so different Acts also exist (see below).