ABSTRACT

This chapter suggests that the two New Testament stories, by featuring an interpreter or a guide at work on the Bible, should actually permit a latter day Theophilus to remove the historicity of Moses and the prophets of the Hebrew scriptures from the agenda of Christian theology. The implication of such an attitude to biblical history is more fashionable in some contemporary quarters than others–and is quite a recent fashion. The chapter shows that questions, the traditional assumption that ancient Israelite and early Jewish religions were fundamentally historical religions in the sense of being primarily concerned with, and based on, actual events in history. It argues that key issues and attitudes are sketched which are vital for the interpretation of the divine house and royal house in Jerusalem that follows. It may readily be conceded that New Testament interpretation of scripture is largely a matter of contemporizing exposition.