Biblical Literature | The Supernarrative

One of the profound aspects of the Bible is the clear existence of an overarching narrative. This quality of the Bible should surprise any thinking reader. How is it possible for 66 books written by 35 authors over 1500 years to demonstrate any sort of real unity and agreement? The Bible shows a clear beginning and ending—the story of first things and the story of last things. And in-between there are many portions that harmoniously point backward to that exact beginning and portions that point forward to that exact ending.

In these biblical books, there are no real contradictions or disagreements. Any one author can be shown to express an important element of the full meaning of Scripture in a perfectly explainable way. This includes the transition from the so-called “old covenant” to the “new covenant.” Jesus and the Apostle Paul explain the relationship clearly and satisfyingly. The old is not really old and the new is not really new!

No unknown set of authors who decided to fool the world with a “flawless” narrative would dare create such a difficult theological nut to crack. Agreement over the many centuries of creation of the Word would have to have been enforced by trickery, subterfuge, and sophistry. But the existence of so many copies of the Scripture prove that didn’t happen.

Bible authors don’t try to explain away difficult concepts such as the old and new covenants. They acknowledge them and explain them, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Critics must attack the unity of the Bible or be forced to acknowledge its truth. The presence of an overarching narrative, what might be called the “supernarrative,” cries out for a single divine source or author. Any source like the Bible would be impossible from a human perspective. The Bible is made up of individual units of human authorship set in real time which ended up, when examined together, encompassing a highly complex theology called Christianity.

If there are no real contradictions in the Bible, there must be a supernatural source. And it’s not as if apparent contradictions don’t exist in the Bible. They do, but they are explainable in surprising ways. For instance, in the Old Testament, Moses is nearly destroyed by God because his son had not been circumcised as commanded. Yet in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul asserts that allowing oneself to be circumcised for the wrong reason is anti-Christian. A new reader could justifiably be confused by whether or not circumcision is required of Christians.

Paul explains what circumcision really means—that God demands circumcision of the heart, not just the flesh.

We can have confidence in the reality of biblical truths. The Bible is divinely inspired, and God should be praised for giving the world this powerful collection of books that lead to salvation and show joy everlasting.