There are many people today who believe that religion is outdated and not relevant to our times. The scriptures were written in days long past when life was simpler. Why study the scriptures when the stories are so irrelevant anyway? Besides, how can we believe the stories be true? To answer those questions, we look at some of the more debated Old Testament stories - Noah’s Ark, Job, Jonah and the whale. What it all comes down to in the end is that the stories in the Old Testament may or may not be real. If real, they may or may not be exaggerated upon. In the present life, I don’t expect we will ever know. But the point of this episode is that it really doesn’t matter. Jesus Christ used fictional parables, as we all know. But in only a few of Savior’s parables does He mention that the upcoming story was a parable. Maybe the Savior’s listeners figured it out from the wording of the story. But maybe… it just didn’t matter to the Savior or His listeners whether the parable was true or not. Parables were teaching devices, like metaphors and similes. The point of the story was the principle being taught, not the story itself. The truth of the Old Testament stories has been debated for centuries, when, in all actuality, it does not matter if they are true or not. We should have testimonies of the principles and moralities of the Gospel which we have spiritually confirmed through prayer. Our testimonies should not require that our Bible stories, parables, or metaphors be historically accurate.
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S1E15 – Are the Old Testament Stories True?
This is the podcast Science and Scriptures Season 1, Episode 15, or “Are the Old Testament Stories True?”
Hello, this is your host Scott Frazer and welcome to another episode of Science and Scriptures. Last week we discussed the idea of respecting mainstream science, especially in the face of criticism around how it is handling COVID. Today, I would like to discuss an older question. Are the Old Testament stories true and has science affected our understanding of them?
There are many people today who believe that religion is outdated and not relevant to our times. They believe that the scriptures were written in days long past when life was preindustrial and simpler. There were no mortgages, cars, or cell phones to maintain in those days. Why study the scriptures when the stories are so irrelevant anyway? Besides, how can we believe the stories be true? To answer those questions, let’s look at some of the more debated Old Testament stories.
After the Creation account and the tragic story of Cain and Abel, the next Old Testament narrative we read is about Noah’s Ark, as found in Genesis chapters 6–9. The debate on Noah’s Flood started back in 1666. Religious leaders took the verse in Genesis,
“…I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.”
…very literally. Replicas and depictions of Noah’s ark show it to be a massive ship, housing giraffes, elephants, ostriches, and other species of animals which lived thousands of miles from Noah’s homeland. It seemed an impossible story, but the debate continued for centuries… and still continues even today.
Rather ironically, the science of geology started out as a search of ancient rock layers to verify that a global flood had occurred, thus verifying the Biblical account. With a global flood, millions of tons of dirt would have been eroded off the dry land and into lakes and oceans. According to Genesis, this sediment would have had almost a year to homogenize, spread around the earth, and gradually settle in the lowest points of the entire world (oceans, lakes and canyons). This sediment layer would have been extraordinarily thick and strewn with the fossils of the millions of dead animals and birds killed in the Flood. If Noah’s Flood was truly global, a very thick, unique, and easily recognizable sediment layer would have been found in any formations that dated to about 2300 BC.
But no geologist ever found such a rock or sediment layer. As David Montgomery described in his book, The Rocks Don’t Lie,
“The initial development of the discipline of geology was premised on the Flood as fact, which naturally led to imaginative theories on how to interpret the story of Noah’s Flood. Later, with evidence literally in their hands and beneath their feet, geologists began to influence theology, showing that a global flood fell short when tested against the rocks that make up our world.”
The story of Noah’s Ark and a global flood has a sore point between science and religion for centuries, but science has made its case stronger and stronger over those years. Besides the geology data, other calculations have shown there is simply not enough water on earth to cover it from pole to pole. It was proposed that the flood, if it actually happened, might have been a regional flood. In that case, Noah may have only needed to save his farm animals, which would have required a much smaller boat.
Research of the scriptures themselves often lead to reinterpretation. For example, in the verse quoted above, the Lord states that through the Flood, “every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.” The face of the earth is usually taken to mean the whole earth, as was believed for centuries. But when other Old Testament verses use the phrase “from off the face of the earth”, it most often makes much more sense to interpret the phrase as “from the local region”. For example, in Genesis chapter 4, Cain complains to the Lord that he was being “driven out this day from the face of the earth”. If that phrase meant the entire surface of our planet, Cain was going to have to figure out how to levitate to be driven off of it. Only if this phrase means “the local region,” does this verse and others make any sense.
So, the sciences, mostly Geology in this case, help us to understand that the story of Noah’s Ark should probably not be taken literally. When we do that, we open ourselves up to other possibilities that make much more sense.
The Book of Job
Since my youth, I never liked the book of Job, since I could never reconcile the premise that God put Job through hell on earth just to win a petty argument with Satan. If Job is a historically accurate book, then no matter how one tries to justify the narrative, it is rather difficult to see God in a favorable light. So, it was a huge relief for me to learn that the book of Job is actually a work of literature and not historical fact.
In his excellent book “Rereading Job,” Michael Austin details the needed adjustments to our thinking regarding Job. First, Austin announces that the book of Job was not a historical rendition of a real man named Job.
“Job is a highly stylized work of imaginative literature that may or may not have been based on the experience of a real person but cannot be considered objective history. Everything about the Book of Job announces that it is a work of literature. It begins with the Hebrew equivalent of “once upon a time” and deliberately steers us away from any historical place or period. It features immortal characters (God and Satan) acting in ways that are inconsistent with their actions anywhere else in the Bible.”
If Job is not historical, then God did not really make a bet with Satan to see how far Job could be pushed. He did not allow Job’s ten children to be killed or Job to be stricken with disease as part of that wager. If the book of Job is a work of literature, then God did not really bully and intimidate the man Job in chapters 38–41.
The author of Job was trying to make a point that righteousness does not guarantee us blessings. This work of literature is fraught with irony, which you will miss if you read it with the misconception it is a true and historical book. Once you accept Job to be a work of fiction, but still an amazing piece of literature, you can learn what the book is really trying to teach you.
Jonah and the Whale
In the book of Jonah, Jonah is called to cry repentance to the wicked city of Nineveh. In fear, Jonah flees his mission call and gets on a ship bound for Tarshish. A giant storm arises, and the crew casts lots to see who has brought this evil upon them.The lot falls upon Jonah. He admits that he is probably the cause of the storm and advises them to throw him into the ocean. The crew tries to row to shore, but to no avail. They finally take his counsel and throw him into the ocean. Jonah would have surely drowned, but, and I quote
“Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”
Jonah then repents of his actions, using several similes that compare being alienated from the Lord as being in the belly of a whale or at the bottom of the sea. And I quote…
“And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.”
The Lord commands the whale to vomit out Jonah on dry land. Jonah goes to Nineveh and finds great missionary success, getting the people to fast, cover themselves with sackcloth, and cry unto the Lord in repentance. Wow!
The thing about the story of Jonah is that it sounds like a great tale to tell around a campfire. You have a prophet who flees the Lord, but then has the courage to tell the ship’s crew to throw him into the middle of the ocean, where he would surely die. You have adventure in the form of “a mighty tempest in sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.” You have an extraordinary creature, a great fish, which swallows Jonah and then spits him onto dry land three days later. THEN Jonah finds incredible success as the people of Nineveh repent and the Lord forgives them. A very happy ending indeed.
But again, no one knows the truth of this story. Jonah may have existed, and he may have really received and then fled a missionary call from God. He may have repented and went to Nineveh, where he found success. The great fish may have existed… or it may have been an embellishment of a simple missionary story.
Many Christians believe that the story of Jonah must have been real because the Savior referred to it in Matthew 12:40. Many Church members believe that Job must also have been a real person too, because he is referred to by Ezekiel in Ezekiel 14:14, by James in James 5:11, and by the Savior in Doctrine and Covenants (D&C) 121:10. However, the Savior also refers to the beggar Lazarus in Luke 16:19–31, the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:33, and the prodigal son in Luke 15:11, never mentioning that these men were not real. Fictional characters are often used to teach, as demonstrated in Aesop’s fables, Grimm’s fairy tales, stories by Hans Christian Anderson, the Tales of Arabian nights, and Jesus’s parables. The story of Jonah or Job do not have to be historical to instruct us about earth life and how we should behave.
And this is what it all comes down to in the end. The stories in the Old Testament may or may not be real. If real, they may or may not be exaggerated upon. In the present life, I don’t expect we will ever know. If your testimony hinges on the fact that the Old Testament only relates true stories, then your testimony will be attacked by logic and, in the case of Noah’s Ark, by geology.
But if the Old Testament stories retained their historical veracity over the centuries since they occurred, I would consider it a miracle. Humans build stories. We embellish and word our stories to make them more interesting to our audience.
It is believed that Moses wrote the book of Genesis in about 1550 BC. But it is believed that Noah’s Flood occurred in 2340 BC. So the story of Noah’s Ark was part of ORAL history for about 800 years. Actually, according to Bible researchers, much of the Old Testament was part of oral history before it became written history. (On a side note, there is evidence that even the written Old Testament was rewritten a few times over its history, but that is a topic for another day.) In any case, would it surprise you to learn that tales of the Old Testament were embellished over the years of the oral retelling of their narratives? It wouldn’t surprise me at all. I certainly embellish stories from my own past or those I hear from others. I am pretty sure embellishment is a very human trait, and I am not the only one to do it.
Stories are often fabricated around historical figures. My favorite example is of George Washington, the first president of the United States. There is a popular myth that when Washington was six years old, he received a hatchet as a gift and cut down his father’s cherry tree with it. When confronted, young George responded “I cannot tell a lie… I did cut it with my hatchet.” Of course, we now know this story was a fabrication. We tend to make bigger heroes of our heroes. Since they are heroes, everyone is more likely to believe these fictional side stories about them. It is not hard to imagine that story-tellers in the days of the Old Testament (when there was no television or other forms of entertainment) may have embellished their oral histories to make them more exciting to a receptive and entranced audience.
New Testament Parables
I find it ironic that while we resist the idea of reading possibly-fictionalized accounts in the Old Testament, we are fine with finding them in the New Testament. In the very first parable about the sower of seeds, Matthew prefaces his story to explain that The Lord “spake many things unto them in parables”. But the Savior starts out the actual parable with the words,
“Behold, a sower went forth to sow;”
Jesus does NOT start out the story to His listeners with “Behold, let me tell you the parable of a sower who went forth to sow.” In fact, in only a few of Savior’s parables does He mention that the upcoming story was a parable. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John often identified parables for us and maybe the Savior’s listeners figured it out from the wording of the story. But maybe…, it just didn’t matter to the Savior or His listeners whether the parable was true or not. Parables were teaching devices, like metaphors and similes. The point of the story was the principle being taught, not the story itself.
The first responsibility of prophets, missionaries, and other teachers is to teach true principles. Stories should be true if they are represented as factual. But at times, stories cannot be validated, but remain effective teaching devices. Many of the Old Testament stories – such as Daniel and the Lion’s Den, David and Goliath, and the story of Ruth – are designed to teach that if you are faithful to God, you will be blessed. In this life, we will never know if those stories followed actual events, but we understand the principles they teach.
The principles taught in the Scriptures are true – but we should recognize that stories to teach the principle may not historically verifiable.
In summary, the principles of the Gospel are true. Teachers will teach those principles considering the age and ability of their students to understand them. Especially for teaching young children, teaching devices need not be limited to only stories that are true. The Savior certainly did not so limit His teachings.
We extract true principles from the Scriptures and the teachings of men, as best we can. Some of those teachings, such as those we find in the Old Testament, are so ancient we have no idea today if they are true and accurate renditions. We don’t know if those Old Testament stories are embellishments of true events, or if they are stories made up to teach a concept.
The truth of the Old Testament stories has been debated for centuries, when, in all actuality, it does not matter if they are true or not. We should have testimonies of the principles and moralities of the Gospel which we have spiritually confirmed through prayer. Our testimonies should not require that our Bible stories, parables, or metaphors be historically accurate. Much of the history of God in dealing with His chosen people may be found in the Old Testament. Those histories are important. We can learn what the prophets of the day thought most crucial for them to teach, which is what the scriptures are for.
One last thought on Old Testament accounts. Many critics of religion find significance in the fact that creation stories of other peoples and cultures are similar to the creation story found in Genesis. They believe that this shows that the Biblical creation story is not that special and was just one of many. This could be true. In days long ago, it was common for different countries to have their own gods and their own stories about them. But I also believe these similarities demonstrate that oral histories and stories travel and intermingle. I can imagine storytellers long ago talking to a group of travelers around a campfire in a far-away land and recounting, “Let me tell you the story of the creation of the world, as told to me by a man from Israel.” It would be a fascinating story of course, but one that could be blended with creation stories of a man from Egypt or from Mesopotamia.
Many Christians wish Genesis would give us an accurate and scientifically verifiable rendition of the Creation. They wish the stories and books of the prophets could be verified with ancient scrolls and documents that tell the same stories. But the Bible was never meant to be an incontrovertible source of scientific and historical accuracy. The first chapters of Genesis, which tell of the Creation, are more poetic than scientific. They are meant to inspire – not to convince. The Bible, like the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price, testify of the Plan of Salvation by other peoples who lived long ago. The principles taught in the Old Testament can be spiritually verified, though the stories used to teach those principles can never be proven to be historically accurate.
So, are the Old Testament stories true? I have no idea. But, I do know that, though the stories may be a bit dated, the principles they teach are timeless.
So, that is all that I have for you today. I hope you have enjoyed this podcast. I realize that some of you may disagree with some of my statements. If you have any questions or comments, please email them to me at scottrfrazer@gmail.comI will be happy to discuss. In any case, thank you for the time you have spent listening to this episode.
Once again, this is Scott Frazer of the podcast “Science and Scriptures”. If you think this podcast might be of interest to family members or friends, please share it with them. Take care.