Quote:
Originally Posted by DuffMan
Is it "fictional" or "non-fictional" literature?
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The Bible is a collection of all sorts of different types of literature written by different people over the course of long periods of time. There are several texts that are "non-fictional" by an appropriate understanding of how historiography functioned in the ancient world. For example, there were hundreds of years in the Iron Age in which Israel was ruled by the Davidic dynasty; there is no reason to question the historical veracity of the basic political and religious systems that were in place at the time.
Of course, there are also fictions. I think it is relatively safe to assume that everything written in Genesis is etymological fiction: stories featuring possibly actual people that had been passed by word of mouth for generations, but which contain massive embellishments intended to convey moralistic lessons or explanations about any manner of things.
The Bible is not a simple book; it is best understood for its complexities.