· What sort of history did they think they were writing?
· How was history perceived in the ancient world?
Even considering such questions alerts the modern reader to the limitations of ancient history, as well as to the great distance of time, culture, and language, between the biblical writer and the current reader. IS THE BIBLE FACT OR FICTION? invites the reader to look at the "historical books" of the Bible, not from the standpoint of what actually happened, but to understand the type of history the biblical authors were actually writing.
Organ wrote this book out of frustration with uncritical reading of various genres of biblical texts. She felt that the "historical books"--such as Acts of the Apostles and the Old Testament chapters of Maccabees, and Joshua though Kings--are most susceptible of being read in a naive and literal way. Most readers fail to take into account modern expectations of historical accuracy vs. the preconceptions of the ancient writers. Her book focuses on the style, creativity, and individuality of the biblical writers/historians and the richness of their work and examines their accounts through the lens of modern scholarship.
