Faith, Reason and Theology on Biblical Historicity
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Research regarding historical background and literary composition of biblical writings during the last decades has followed an independent path and has been done outside of theology. The methodologies used within the academic world and the results reached so far, pose challenges to theologians and clergymen regarding the identification of the actual achievements and limitations of such researches. Bearing this in mind, the article presents some considerations regarding the findings of those researches in order to outline some practical recommendations for biblical research and the teaching of theology. After reviewing the contributions of the most relevant researchers of "independent histories" of ancient Israel and those that could be labeled as the "third search" for historical Jesus, the emergence of some agreements is established, as well as the limitations of some methodological assumptions that, by accepting only what common human experience could prove, exclude some higher-order realities or present Jesus as a figure that cannot be either Christ or son of God. The conclusion is that a reasonable balanced should be encouraged. On the one hand, a healthy openness towards the possibility that some events have taken place that, because of their own nature, cannot be proved empirically. On the other, preventing to present as facts what are literal readings of the biblical writing.
References
Ahlström, G. W. (1993). The History of Ancient Palestine from the Palaeolithic Period to Alexander’s Conquest. Sheffield, Reino Unido: Sheffield Academic Press.
Benedicto XVI (2010). Exhortación Apostólica “Verbum Domini”. Ciudad del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
Borg, M. J. (1994). Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time. The Historical Jesus & the Heart of Contemporary Faith. San Francisco, EE.UU.: Harper.
Campbell Jr., E. F. (1998). A Land Divided: Judah and Israel from the Death of Solomon to the Fall of Samaria. En M. D. Coogan (ed.), The Oxford History of the Biblical World (pp. 206-241). Oxford, EE.UU.: Oxford University Press.
Chaney, M. L. (1983). Ancient Palestinian Peasant Movements and the Formation of Premonarchic Israel. En D. N. Freedman & D. F. Graff (eds.), Palestine in Transition. The Emergence of Ancient Israel (pp. 39-90). Sheffield, Reino Unido: Continuum International Publishing Group.
Chadwick, J. (2003). The Mycenaean World. Cambridge, Reino Unido: Cambridge University Press.
Collins, J. J. & Sterling, G. E. (eds.) (2001). Hellenism in the Land of Israel. Notre Dame, EE.UU.: University of Notre Dame Press.
Crossan, J. D. (1991). The Historical Jesus. The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant. San Francisco, EE.UU.: Harper.
Crossan, J. D. (1994). The Essential Jesus. Original Sayings and Earliest Images. San Francisco, EE.UU.: Harper.
Dalley, S. (2004). Recent Evidence from Assyrian Sources for Judaean History from Uzziah to Manasseh. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 28, 387-401
Darshan, G. (2013). The biblical account of the post-diluvian generation (Gen 9:20-10:32) in the light of Greek genealogical literature. Vetus Testamentum, 63, 515-535.
Davies, Ph. R. (2008). Memories of Ancient Israel: An Introduction to Biblical History – Ancient and Modern. Louisville: Westminster John Knox.
Dickinson, O. T. P. K. (2010). Was there really a Trojan War? The Anglo-Hellenistic Review, 41, 18-22.
Downing, F. G. (1988). Christ and the Cynics: Jesus and Other Radical Preachers in First-Century Tradition. Sheffield, Reino Unido: Sheffield Academic Press.
Doran, R. (2011). The Persecution of Judeans by Antiochus IV: The Significance of “Ancestral Laws”. En Harlow, D. C. & Hogan, K. M. & Goff, M. & Kaminsky, J. S. (eds.), The “Other” in Second Temple Judaism: Essays in Honor of John J. Collins (pp. 423-433). Grand Rapids, EE.UU.: Eerdmans.
Edelman, D. V. (1993). The History of Ancient Palestine. Minneapolis, EE.UU.: Fortress.
Faust, A. (2000). The Rural Community in Ancient Israel during Iron Age II. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 317, 17-39
Faust, A. & Weiss, E. (2005). Judah, Philistia, and the Mediterranean World: Reconstructing the Economic System of the Seventh Century B.C.E. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 338, 71-92
Finkelstein, I. (1996). The Territorial-Political System of Canaan in the Late Bronze Age. Ugarit-Forschungen, 28, 221-255.
Finkelstein, I. & Mazar, A. (2007). The Quest for the Historical Israel: Debating Archaeology and the History of Early Israel. Atlanta, EE.UU.: Society of Biblical Literature.
Galil, G. (2001). A Re-Arrangement of the Fragments of the Tell Dan Inscription and the Relations between Israel and Aram. Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 133, 16-21.
Grabbe, L. L. (ed.) (2008). Israel in Transition: From Late Bronze II to Iron IIa (c. 1250-850 B.C.E.). Volume 1: The Archaeology. Nueva York, EE.UU.: T & T Clark.
Grabbe, L. L. (ed.) (2010). Israel in Transition: From Late Bronze II to Iron IIa (c. 1250-850 B.C.E.). Volume 2: The Texts. New York, EE.UU.: T & T Clark.
Grethlein, J. (2008). Memory and Material Objects in the Iliad and the Odyssey. Journal of Hellenic Studies, 128, 27-51.
Hallo, W. W. (ed.) (2002). The context of Scripture. Leiden, Holanda: Brill.
Heltzer, M. (2008). The Province Judah and the Jews in Persian Times. Tel Aviv, Israel: Archaeological Center Publication.
Horsley, R. A. (2003). Jesus and Empire. The Kingdom of God and the New World Disorder. Minneapolis, EE.UU.:Fortress Press.
Joffe, A. H. (2002). The Rise of Secondary States in the Iron Age Levant. Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient, 45, 425-467.
Kelly, A. (2006). Homer and history: Iliad 9.381-4. Mnemosyne, 59, 321-333.
Kitchen, K. (2004). The Victories of Merenptah, and the Nature of their Record. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 28, 259-272
Knoppers, G. N. (2003). Shem, Ham and Japheth: the universal and the particular in the genealogy of nations. En Graham, M. P. & McKenzie, S. L. & Knoppers, G. N. (eds.), The Chronicler as theologian: essays in honor of Ralph W. Klein (pp. 13-31). New York, EE.UU.: T & T Clark.
Lemche, N. P. (1985). Early Israel: Anthropological and Historical Studies on the Israelite Society Before the Monarchy. Leiden, Holanda: Brill.
Lemche, N. P. (1998). The Israelites in History and Tradition. Louisville, EE.UU.: Westminster.
Lipschitz, O. & Oeming, M. (eds.) (2006). Judah and the Judeans in the Persian Period. Winona Lake, EE. UU.: Eisenbrauns.
Liverani, M. (2003). Oltre la Bibbia. Storia antica di Israele. Roma - Bari: Laterza.
Mack, B. L. (1993). The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q and Christian Origins. San Francisco, EE. UU.: Harper.
Maeir, A. M. (2014). Khirbet Qeiyafa in its Regional Context: A View From Philistine Gath. En Schroer, S. & S. Münger (eds.) Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Shephelah (pp. 61-72). Fribourg, Suiza: Academic Press.
Meier, J. P. (1998-2017). Un judío marginal. Nueva visión del Jesús histórico (vol. I, II/1, II/2, III, IV y V). Estella, España: Verbo Divino.
Neill S. & Wright, N. T. (1988). The Interpretation of the New Testament 1861-1986. Oxford, EE. UU.: Oxford University Press.
Petrakis, V. P. (2006). History versus the Homeric “Iliad”: A View from the Ionian Islands. The Classical World, 99, 371-396.
Pontificia Comisión Bíblica (1993). La interpretación de la Biblia en la Iglesia. Madrid, España: PPC.
Ratzinger, J. – Benedicto XVI (2007). Jesús de Nazaret. Volumen I. Desde el Bautismo a la Transfiguración. Madrid, España: La Esfera de los libros.
Ratzinger, J. – Benedicto XVI (2011). Jesús de Nazaret. Volumen II. Desde la Entrada en Jerusalén hasta la Resurrección. Madrid, España: Encuentro.
Sanders, E. P. (2001). La figura histórica de Jesús. Estella, España: Verbo Divino.
Smith, M. (1978). Jesus the Magician. New York, EE. UU.: Harper & Row.
Soggin, J. A. (2002). Storia d’Israele dalle origini a Bar Kochbà. Brescia, Italia: Paideia.
Segalla, G. (1993). La “terza” ricerca del Gesù storico: Il Rabbi ebreo di Nazaret e il Messia crocifisso. Studia Patavina, 30, 463-511.
Thompson, Th. L. (1992). Early History of the Israelite People. From the Written & Archaeological Sources. Leiden, Holanda: Brill.
Theissen, G. (1985). Sociología del movimiento de Jesús. El nacimiento del cristianismo primitivo. Santander, España: Sal Terrae.
Theissen, G. (1988). La sombra del Galileo. Las investigaciones históricas sobre Jesús traducidas a un relato. Salamanca, España: Sígueme.
Theissen, G. (2003). El Nuevo Testamento: historia, literatura, religión. Santander, España: Sal Terrae.
Twelftree, G. H. (1993). Jesus the exorcist: a contribution to the study of the historical Jesus. Peabody, EE.UU.: Hendrickson.
Varo, F. (1995). El marco histórico del Antiguo Testamento. Perspectivas actuales. Scripta Theologica, 27, 751-788.
Varo, F. (2013). Historia social y religiosa de Israel en los tiempos bíblicos. En Carbajosa, I. & González Echegaray, J. & Varo, F., La Biblia en su entorno pp. 155-409. Estella, España: Verbo Divino.
Varo, F. (2015). El Antiguo Testamento en el Concilio Vaticano II. Scripta Theologica, 47, 155-175.
Vermes, G. (1996). La religión de Jesús el judío. Barcelona, España: Anaya & Mario Muchnik.
Whitelam, K. L. (1996). The Invention of Ancient Israel: The Silencing of Palestinian History. Londrés, EE. UU.: Routledge.
Witherington, B. (1994). Jesus the Sage. The Pilgrimage of Wisdom. Minneapolis, EE. UU.: Fortress Press.
Wright, N. T. (1996). The Original Jesus. The Life and Vision of a Revolutionary. Grand Rapids, EE.UU.: Eerdmans.