Origins, history, language

Is the Bible controversial or tame?

Some of the themes of the Bible books were controversial in their time. It is very difficult to find anything in the Bible that was just seen as a tame ‘story’. Whether they deal with story or history, the Bible writers are trying to tell their readers something of God’s purposes and intentions for people. Every book has its theme or purpose; no book is merely an account.

EXAMPLE: The Book of Jonah

The Book of Jonah tells the story of a religious spokesperson or prophet, Jonah, who tried to run away from God’s command and had various adventures, including the well-known encounter with the large fish. But behind the story lie important religious ideas: that God would always forgive rather than punish and that God is the God of all nations not just the Jews. This can be contrasted with the Book of Ezra, which was harder on the non-Jews – see Chapers 9 & 10 – and illustrates how controversial the issue was at the time.

So Jonah is the story of a particular people at a particular time. But it is more than this. It carries a very clear religious message and communicating that message is the intention of the book.