Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 43:1 (NA 1992)
Article: Authorized Or Unauthorized: A Dilemma For The Historian
Author: David W. J. Gill

---

TynBul 43:1 (1992) p. 191

Authorized Or Unauthorized:
A Dilemma For The Historian

David W.J. Gill

I. The Unauthorized Version

An important work, The Unauthorized Version: Truth and Fiction in the Bible by Robin Lane Fox,1 University Reader in Ancient History at Oxford University and Fellow of New College, sets out to examine critically the Biblical texts and asks the question, as the subtitle implies, is the Bible history or fiction? In many ways it is a companion volume to the author’s earlier Pagans and Christians2 and readers will recognise sections drawn from it, such as the discussion of Sergius Paulus and his links with Pisidian Antioch.3 Moreover it is Lane Fox’s knowledge of the world of late antiquity which comes to the fore. The title may be puzzling to some and it is explained in the Preface (p. 7) as follows:

It is unauthorized because it addresses questions which the Bible itself obscures: its authors, historical growth and historical truth. It is not an unauthorized version because other people have authorized their own version and wish to suppress the truth in mine.

II. History And The Unauthorized Version

The book consists of four parts in twenty-two chapters and is completed by an extensive bibliography which reflects the breadth of Lane Fox’s research. Historians will find Part III (Chapters 11–19) the most important section. There is a useful chapter on ‘Ideas of History’ (Chapter 11) which emphasises the importance of a chronological framework, an approach somewhat characteristic of historians in Oxford.4 This methodology is in contrast with, say, a

TynBul 43:1 (1992) p. 192

Cambridge method which looks more at themes in history.5 Indeed Lane Fox reminds us of two important questions to ask of a text:

1. Is the text purporting to be history? 2. What was the source for the writer of the text?

Lane Fox asks, what is in some ways, a restricted set of questions about the texts, for example about the accuracy of the chronological scheme. Yet it is as well to remember that some ancient historians have a broader view of history. Fergus Millar, Professor of Ancient History in Oxford University, could take Apuleius’ fictional Golden Ass and use it to inform about second century AD Greece and in particular Corinth.6 This is indeed how New Testament background studie...

visitor : : uid: ()