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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
Is there a sense in which ‘myth’ is an appropriate category of understanding of material within the Old Testament? In attempting to clear the way towards answering this question it may be useful to present some representative expressions of views about the propriety, or impropriety, of the use of the term ‘myth’ with regard to the Old Testament. There are some interpreters who hold that myth, properly so called, does not, even cannot, appear within the Old Testament; others, however, consider that there are significant features preserved and sufficient functions operative for the term ‘myth’ to be applied.
page 201 note 2 cf., e.g., Bright, J., The Authority of the Old Testament (S.C.M. Press, London, 1967) p. 129Google Scholar: ‘Israel's faith emancipated her from the world of pagan myth. Since her God was one God, without sex and without progeny, myth was alien to her. She created no myth and took over none save to devitalise it’; Dentan, R. C., The Knowledge of God in Ancient Israel (Seabury Press, New York, 1968), p. 135Google Scholar: ‘the complete absence of mythology in Israelite literature in all stages of its development (using the term “mythology” here in its usual dictionary sense in which “a myth deals with the actions of gods or godlike beings”)’.
page 202 note 1 Gunkel, H., Introduction to Genesis, E.T. The Legends of Genesis (Schocken Books, New York, 1964) pp. 14ff.Google Scholar
page 202 note 2 cf. James, E. O., Myth and Ritual in the Ancient Near East (Thames and Hudson, London, 1958) p. 283Google Scholar; Childs, B. S., Myth and Reality in the Old Testament (S.C.M. Press, London, 1960, S.B.T. 27), Chapter 2, pp. 17ffGoogle Scholar; Schmidt, W. H., ‘Mythos im Alten Testament’, EvTh, 27, 1967, pp. 237–240Google Scholar; Dulles, A., ‘Symbol, Myth and the Biblical Revelation’, TS, 27, 1966, pp. 8–11.Google Scholar
page 202 note 3 Smend, R., Elemente alttestamentlichen Geschichtsdenkens (Theologische Studien 95, EVZ, 1968), p. 34.Google Scholar
page 202 note 4 Noth, M., ‘Die Historisierung des Mythus im Alten Testament’ (Christentum und Wissenschaft, 4, 1928 [Leipziger Kartell Verlag\), pp. 265–272, 301–9Google Scholar (in Gesammelte Studien zum Alten Testament Bd. II [Chr. Kaiser Verlag, Theol. Bü., Bd. 39, 1970\).Google Scholar
page 203 note 1 Noth, op. cit., p. 301f.
page 203 note 2 ibid., p. 3O2f.
page 203 note 3 ibid., p. 271.
page 203 note 4 ibid., p. 306.
page 203 note 5 Cullmann, O., Salvation in History (S.C.M. Press, London, 1967, New Testament Library), p. 139Google Scholar. For ‘historicising’ considered as ‘demythologising’, cf. Rendtorff, R., ‘Kult, Mythos und Geschichtersquo; in Sammlung und Sendung (Festgabe für D. Heinrich Rendtorff zum 70. Geburtstag)Google Scholar, ed. Heubach, J., Ulrich, H. H. (Christlicher Zeitschriftenverlag, Berlin, 1958), p. 125Google Scholar; Anderson, B. W., ‘Exodus Typology in Second Isaiah’ in Israel's Prophetic Heritage (Muilenburg Festschrift), ed. Anderson, B. W. and Harrelson, W. (S.C.M. Press, London, 1962), p. 193Google Scholar. For ‘demythologising’ applied to the Old Testament's own use of myth, cf., c.g., Bentzen, A., Introduction to the Old Testament (G. E. C. Gad, Copenhagen, 1952 2), I, p. 241Google Scholar; Barr, J., ‘The Meaning of Mythology in relation to the Old Testament’, VT, 9, 1959, p. 7Google Scholar (on Genesis 1); B. S. Childs, op. cit., e.g. p. 41 (of t 6hom); McCarthy, D. J., ‘“Creation” Motifs in Ancient Hebrew Poetry’, CBQ, 29, 1967, p. 400 (of Chaoskampf).Google Scholar
page 204 note 1 Schmidt, op. cit., pp. 241ff.
page 204 note 2 Loretz, O., Schöpfung und Mythos (Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, Stuttgart, 1968, Stuttgarter Bibelstudien 32), pp. 31ffGoogle Scholar. Cf. Schmidt, op. cit., pp. 243–6; Childs, op. cit., pp. 49ff.
page 205 note 1 Loretz, op. cit., p. 48.
page 205 note 2 ibid., p. 77f.
page 205 note 3 cf. Frost, S. B., ‘The Role of Myth’, LQHR, 187, 1962, p. 250, who calls the old myths ‘an iridescent pool of metaphor, allusion and imagery’.Google Scholar
page 205 note 4 e.g., on the passage in Isaiah 11.6–11 (‘The wolf shall dwell with the lamb…’) Childs (op. cit., p. 65) remarks: ‘What we have is really a fanciful description having its original setting within myth.’ On the whole range of expressions in the Old Testament concerning the marvellous future of the people of Israel, Noth (op. cit., p. 308) observes: ‘The mythological features merely serve for vivid description and portrayal of the coming glory.’
page 206 note 1 Schmidt, op. cit., p. 254.
page 207 note 1 Eissfeldt, O., The Old Testament: An Introduction (Blackwell, Oxford, 1965, translated from the third German edition by Ackroyd, P. R.), p. 32.Google Scholar
page 207 note 2 Koch, K., The Growth of the Biblical Tradition (A. & C. Black, London, 1969), p. 150.Google Scholar
page 207 note 3 ibid., p. 155.
page 207 note 4 cf. Bentzen, op. cit., p. 241.
page 207 note 5 Hempel, J., Geschichten und Geschichte im Alten Testament (Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gerd. Mohn, 1964), p. 233.Google Scholar
page 207 note 6 Cullmann, O., ‘The Connection of Primal Events and End Events with the New Testament Redemptive History’ in The Old Testament and Christian Faith, ed. Anderson, B. W. (S.C.M. Press, London, 1964), p. 115.Google Scholar
page 208 note 1 Cullmann, , Salvation in History, p. 75, cf. pp. I37ff.Google Scholar
page 208 note 2 Cullmann, in The Old Testament and Christian Faith, p. 119.Google Scholar
page 208 note 3 Eissfeldt, op. cit., p. 36.
page 208 note 4 Gunkel, op. cit., p. 14f.
page 208 note 5 Childs, op. cit., p. 70f; Dulles, op. cit., p. 17.
page 208 note 6 Hempel, J., ‘Glaube, Mythos und Geschichte im Alten Testament’, ZAW, 65, 1953, pp. 109ff.Google Scholar
page 208 note 7 Cullmann, , Salvation in History, p. 139, n. 1.Google Scholar
page 208 note 8 Hempel, ZAW, 65, pp. 135ff.
page 209 note 1 ibid., p. 145.
page 208 note 2 ibid., p. 150.
page 208 note 3 cf. McKenzie, J. L., ‘Myth and the Old Testament’, CBQ, 21, 1959, pp. 265ffGoogle Scholar (= Myths and Realities: Studies in Biblical Theology [Geoffrey Chapman, London, 1963\, pp. 182ff)Google Scholar: ‘Now what are we to call such compositions as the creation account of Genesis I and the deluge story? The Hebrew did not replace myth with history… Actually the Hebrews displaced the objectionable story only by telling another story. Whether this is to be called myth depends on our definition of myth.’
page 210 note 1 McKenzie, op. cit., p. 270f.
page 210 note 2 Bultmann, R. in Kerygma and Myth, ed. Bartsch, H. W. (S.P.C.K., London, 1957; E.T. R. H. Fuller), p. 10, n. 2Google Scholar. For other broad understandings of ‘myth’, cf. Barr, op. cit., p. 3; Davies, G. H., ‘An approach to the Problem of Old Testament Mythology’, PEQ., 88, 1956, p. 90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
page 210 note 3 cf. Kerényi, K. in Die Eröffnung des Zugangs zum Mythos, ed. Kerén yi, K. (Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1967, Wege der Forschung Bd. 20), pp. 218ff, who describes mythology as a ‘Denk- und Ausdrucksform… zugleich auch Lebens- und Handlungsform’.Google Scholar
page 210 note 4 cf. Thomas Mann's phrase ‘zitathaftes Leben’ referred to by both Kerényi (op. cit., p. 219, n. 3) and Smend (op. cit., p. 33).
page 210 note 5 cf. Ackroyd, P. R., Exile and Restoration (S.C.M. Press, London, 1968, Old Testament Library), p. 226Google Scholar, in a quite different connexion: ‘Particular situations tend to be interpreted in the light of more general understandings of experience and of divine action, understandings which may ultimately be linked to a combining of historical reminiscence and “mythological” heritage.’
page 211 note 1 B. S. Childs' rejection of myth as an expression of the Old Testament's understanding of reality seems to me to recognise what has just been said, that myth is a category external to the Old Testament. However, his view that ‘Israel itself as the new reality’ is the expression of the Old Testament's understanding seems to avoid the interpreter's task of applying his own categories of understanding. The question should be asked whether myth is one of Israel's ‘thought patterns’; cf. Childs, op. cit., p. 97f.
page 212 note 1 Cross, F. M., ‘The Divine Warrior in Israel's Early Cult’ in Biblical Motifs, ed. Altmann, A. (Philip W. Lown Institute of Advanced Judaic Studies, Brandeis University Studies and Texts III, Harvard U.P., Cambridge, Mass., 1966), p. 19Google Scholar. Cf. Schmidt, op. cit., p. 247; Ringgren, H., Israelite Religion (S.P.C.K., London, 1966), p. 115Google Scholar; Frost, S. B., LQHR, 187, p. 248.Google Scholar
page 212 note 2 Childs, op. cit., p. 89f; for the ‘mythicising’ of Zion, cf., too, Wolverton, W. I., ‘The Meaning of the Psalms’, Ang TR, 47, 1965, especially pp. 23–26; for an ‘idea’ influencing later theological thinking, see P. R. Ackroyd, op. cit., p. 237.Google Scholar
page 212 note 3 Hempel, , Geschichten und Geschichte, p. 14.Google Scholar
page 213 note 1 ibid., p. 51.
page 213 note 2 Full references, further supporting material, and review of recent scholarship in Weippert, M., Die Landnahme der israelitischen Stämme in der neueren wissenschaftlichen Diskussion (Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1967, FRLANT 92) (E.T. announced by S.C.M. Press, London, for 1971).Google Scholar
page 214 note 1 e.g., Albright, W. F., The Biblical Period from Abraham to Ezra (Harper Torchbooks, New York, 1963).Google Scholar
page 214 note 2 Wright, G. E., Biblical Archaeology (Gerald Duckworth, London, 1957).Google Scholar
page 214 note 3 Franken, H. J., in Cambridge Ancient History, Revised Edition, Chapter LXXVI, ‘Palestine in the Time of the XlXth Dynasty, (b) Archaeological Evidence’ (C.U.P., 1968)Google Scholar, p. 4; cf. Pritchard, J. B., ‘Culture and History’ in The Bible in Modern Scholarship, ed. Hyatt, J. P. (Abingdon Press, New York, 1965), p. 319.Google Scholar
page 214 note 4 G. E. Mendenhall, Review of Weippert, op. cit. (see p. 213, n. 2 above), Biblica, 50, 1969, p. 435.
page 215 note 1 If Noth's division of this epilogue to the Conquest narrative between his ‘Sammler’ (ca. 900 B.C.) (vv. 16–20) and the Deuteronomistic History (vv. 21–23) is correct, it shows the liveliness of this interpretation within Israel for at least three hundred years; see Noth, M., Das Buck Josua (J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck\, Tübingen, 1953 2, HAT 7), pp. 9 and 12.Google Scholar
page 215 note 2 See p. 202, n. 3 above; cf. S. B. Frost, op. cit., p. 250: ‘The history of Israel becomes in fact the new myth.’
page 215 note 3 Smend, op. cit., p. 20f.
page 216 note 1 For an account of the passage in terms of the lesser acts of God's intervention by way of warning, see Staples, W. E., ‘Epic Motifs in Amos’, JNES, 25, 1966, pp. 106ffGoogle Scholar; Fohrer, G., Elia (Zwingli Verlag, Zürich, 1968 2, Abhandlungen zur Theologie des Alten und Neuen Testaments 53), p. 8.Google Scholar
page 216 note 2 McKenzie, op. cit., p. 277.
page 217 note 1 Reventlow, H. Graf, Das Amt der Propheten bei Amos (Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1962, FRLANT 80), pp. 75ff.Google Scholar
page 217 note 2 Weiser, A., Das Buch der XII kleinen Propheten (Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1959 3, ATD), p. 154.Google Scholar
page 217 note 3 cf. Würthwein, E., ‘Amos Studien’, ZAW, 62, 1950, pp. 10ffGoogle Scholar; Hesse, F., ‘Wurzelt die prophetische Gerichtsrede im Kult?’, ZAW, 65, 1953, pp. 45ff.Google Scholar
