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MYTH, HISTORY, AND INSPIRATION: A REVIEW ARTICLE OF INSPIRATION AND INCARNATION BY PETER ENNS
Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Jun 2006 by Beale, G K
4 Enns's discussions of wisdom literature and law in chapter 3 would appear to be consistent with this viewpoint.
5 E.g. see D. I. Block, "Other Religions in Old Testament Theology," in Biblical Faith and Other Religions (ed. D. W. Baker; Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2004) 43-78, who, in essence, affirms these first three views, though the majority of the article elaborates on the first perspective. see also Heidel, Babylonian Genesis 139, who cites a scholar representing the third view.
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6 E.g. see J. H. Wallon, "Ancient Near Eastern Background Studies," in Dictionary for the Theological Interpretation of Scripture (ed. Kevin J. Vanhoozer; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005) 42; see the entire article (pp. 40-45), which is helpful and in which Walton registers agreement also with the preceding three perspectives on ANE parallels, though aligning himself most with this fourth view. see also Block, "Other Religions in Old Testament Theology" 47-48, who also appears partly to align himself with this fourth view.
7 see Walton, "Ancient Near Eastern Background Studies" 43, who repudiates such unconscious absorption and use of myth in the OT, while still affirming that "God's communication used the established literary genres of the ancient world and often conformed to the rules that existed within those genres" (p. 41).
8 It is probable here that Enns is including the patriarchs and Israel in this "all."
9 The meaning of this sentence is unclear to me.
10 Indeed, the word "lohîm can also be applied to earthly idols (e.g. Exod 34:17; Lev 19:4; 1 Chron 16:26; 2 Chron 13:9; Pe 96:5; Isa 37:19; 42:17; Jer 16:20) or, often, generally to gods that the nations (or apostate Israel) worship (Exod 34:15-17; Num 25:2; Deut 6:14; 7:16), though most references in the latter category also most probably refer to mere idols or idols that represent gods. Other uses of the word refer to angels in the heavenly realm (Ps 97:7; 138:1; cf. Job 38:7: "sons of God"), and it may be that the word can refer to malevolent angelic-like deities dwelling also in the heavenly realm (see Job 1:6; 2:1; Gen 6:2, 4, where "the sons of God" [b'ne-ha "l6hlm\, according to many commentators, refers to fallen angels), and viewed as divine by some humans (cf. perhaps Jer 7:18; in the NT see 1 Cor 8:5; cf. Eph 3:10; 6:11-12). Paul captures well the OT view when he alludes to Deut 4:35 in 1 Cor 8:4 ("there is no God but one"), and then in vv. 5-6 says "for even if there are so-called gods" and "many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God," and in 1 Cor 10:20 affirms that the "so-called gods" are "demons."
11 Of course, critical scholarship would date Deuteronomy around the sixth century BC, so that, according to this view, these statements of Deuteronomy would be seen as arising later in Israel's history.
12 Block, "Other Religions in Old Testament Theology" 57.
13 His discussion suggests strongly that he would not take these accounts in their fullness to be reports corresponding to real events of the past.
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