Quotes from Our Holy Faith: Book Seven

Christ in Promise, in Person and in His Church

Chapter XV, beginning on page 226 in the Neumann-reprinted edition, is the problematic one. On page 227, the text says, "Sometimes, too, the human authors of the Bible would tell an historical incident to drive home their message. They also often used an imaginary story to get their message across.......In this chapter we are going to discuss five Old Testament books which are not historical in the strict sense as we now understand it, though they may well contain historical elements. The inspired authors intended by them mainly to teach some important religious truths and encourage the reader in his faith."

The text goes on to discuss the stories of Job, Jona, Tobia, Esther, and Judith. Each of the sections tells the outline of the Bible story, then makes further comments along these lines from the story of Job:

(page 228) "Job is not an historical work; it is a dramatic poem. Job may have been a famous Arabian noted for his piety and patience, whom the author uses as the hero of his poem. The purpose of the poem is to discuss the unsatisfactory ideas of rewards and punishments which existed at the time."

and on page 229: "The story of Jona was not intended to be taken as history. The author, whose name has not come down to us, wished to show how ridiculous certain Jews of his time were who would have nothing to do with the Gentiles, that is, with all who were not Jews"

and on page 230-231: "The author of the Book of Jona had a good sense of humor, which God's inspiration did not suppress....He was one of a small group of Jews who protested against the teaching that God only cared for the Jews. Such teaching was foolish, and so God inspired the writer to picture this attitude in such a way that people would laugh at it. Since the Jews who rejected the Gentiles quoted the prophets to justify their actions, the author made his hero a prophet."

Contributed by S.K. (8-21-02)