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Alex's avatar

One way of perhaps comprehending the Bible is that it is a collection of various books: some meant to be strict histories, some meant to be more allegorical, and some poetic by nature. Ultimately, the way I perceive the Bible is a collection of inspired books that can lead one to understand the nature of God better. In our post-modern era, fundamentalism and strict, literal readings of ancient texts has led us to think that either the Bible is literally true in every sense and distinction or it is completely made-up.

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TW's avatar

A similar event of this nature happening three times on the bounce is highly improbable for a random dynasty. But the Old Testament isn't a collection of stories about what just so happened to occur to a random dynasty. It is about a dynasty chosen by God, who ordains the events of the world and particularly, perhaps, of this dynasty. This is where options 1 and 2 blend into one another: God might have ordained things such that these events did occur *so that* they could be recorded, tell a narrative, moral lesson, etc.

A lot of the Old Testament seems much less weird when viewed in a much bigger picture. This podcast (Mere Fidelity as a whole, but this episode in particular) is a good example of this in practice - I'd really recommend it, though it presumes a little familiarity with the OT (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deception-of-isaac/id885758537?i=1000654121564). There's this quite profound way that the OT (less so than the NT) rewards deeper readings.

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