Frank Mobbs, when basically dismissing the historicity of the Old Testament (what he calls “three-quarters of the Bible”) in his analysis for AD 2000, “How much history do the Scriptures contain?” (August 2008), could have benefitted from a serious study of Thomas Crean’s account of genre (see earlier post): "In our days, reflections upon the historicity of a Biblical book often advert to the notion of 'literary genres'. This notion is unexceptionable in itself … Holy Scripture contains many such genres. Indeed, the Second Vatican Council explicitly uses the notion, teaching that "truth is differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and poetical texts". A fallacy is committed, however, when it is supposed that the identification of a genre … of a particular style of poetry or prose, allows one to decide upon the historicity … of what is related in that genre”.
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