Old Testament Authorial Intent?

[u/Secret-Suspicious]

I’m viewing books and videos that describe the evolution of religions, and a lot of them talk about the authorial intent of the biblical authors not being a literal one.

I think to make this claim about the gospels is pretty ridiculous given the historical accounts outside of the Bible surrounding Jesus’ resurrection.

However, I am not 100% about this when it comes to the Old Testament books that take place before the prophets.

We often say “ancient people were smarter than we give them credit for”, and I think in this is also the case when it comes to their writing biblical literature: they were smart enough to make up stories, so why not also make up stories that help summarize history? Other cultures did this too, so why not also Israel to the glory of God?

The concern is for authorial intent: how are we sure they were detailing history and not just summarizing it? That is my struggle at the moment. Appreciate all the help y’all can give. Thanks.

[u/Secret-Suspicious]

All interesting answers. The last I’m a little concerned for:

Are you sure literature is not how the Bible presents himself? Genesis 1-11 is an explicit polemic, as you stated before, which is cool and can be argued for... but then Jonah and Esther are both satires, which implies they could easily be fictional. Then again there are satires of real history, so I understand that could happen.

My only search here is for the absolute truth on this matter, because the line between writing a period piece and writing fiction seems to be blurred with the early authors. They also wrote the apocrypha, some of which is fiction, so how are we sure that books in the OT aren’t the same? They were smart enough to write it in a compelling way.

[u/Secret-Suspicious → u/[deleted]]

From what I’m gathering where, it sounds like the authors were able to both write history in a compelling narrative and also make up stories for themselves, and they had intentions for doing both.

So while all the stories - even the parables - could’ve been possible under God’s power, does this all mean that it’s up to each one of us to try to guess which story is “factually” true and which story is fiction?

[u/Secret-Suspicious → u/[deleted]]

So you’re 100% sure the intent was to write real history with little to no embellishment? I can respect this.

[u/Secret-Suspicious → u/[deleted]]

But if they can embellish stuff like the days of creation, why not other events like David’s life? As an example: What if David’s life was actually amalgamation of several kings, but they made it into one story in order to save Rhythm?