Were These Old Testament Stories Historical Events? (Special Podcast Highlight)
The Patrick Madrid Show
Relevant Radio
4.8 • 588 Ratings
🗓️ 6 February 2024
⏱️ 5 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dive into a fascinating episode of The Patrick Madrid Show, where a caller named Dominic from Roswell, New Mexico, sparks an intriguing discussion. Dominic's been pondering some hefty questions after hearing his priest describe the stories of Jonah and Job not as literal events, but as mere tales. 🤔✨
Patrick Madrid takes you on a biblical exploration, affirming that Jonah was indeed a real historical figure. Why? Because Jesus Himself referred to Jonah in ways that prove his actual existence. Patrick emphasizes that the trend to demystify biblical stories, suggesting they're just moral fables, misses the mark. He reminds you that miracles, like Jesus feeding 10,000 people, are not about sharing but about divine intervention. 🍞🐟
Patrick Madrid draws connections between Jonah's experience and Jesus' own resurrection, pointing out how Jesus used Jonah's story to illustrate His message. He also touches on Noah, reinforcing the idea that these figures were not merely literary devices but were so vital to the narrative Jesus presented about faith and prophecy.
When it comes to Job, the waters get a bit murkier. Patrick cites Father Ken Baker, saying that while Job's story offers a profound meditation on the problem of evil, it's less clear if Job was a historical person. The story's rich poetic language and exploration of suffering and faith don't hinge on Job's historicity but on the universal truths they convey. 📚💭
So, there's more to these stories than meets the eye. They are not just tales but are woven into the very fabric of faith, history, and the enduring human quest for understanding in the face of the divine. 🌊🙏
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | 88-914-914-9. Let's go to Dominic now in Roswell, New Mexico. Hi, Dominic. Hey, Patrick. I was calling |
| 0:06.8 | because the last couple weeks at Mass, whenever the reading was about Jonah, the priest said that, |
| 0:13.5 | remember, this is not a literal story, it's just a story. And then whenever it was about Joe, |
| 0:20.0 | he said the same thing, that it was not a literal story. It was just a story. And then whenever it was about Job, he said the same thing that it was not a literal |
| 0:22.1 | story. It was just a story. And so I was wondering, I always believed it was literal. |
| 0:27.7 | Yeah. Well, let's take them in order. So let's start with Jonah. Jonah is or was, I should say, |
| 0:34.8 | a real historical personage. And the way we can know this is not simply because of the book of Jonah, |
| 0:41.2 | which we read about him going to Nineveh and being swallowed by the fish and all that, |
| 0:47.1 | but more importantly, because Jesus references him on several occasions as an actual historical figure. |
| 0:59.1 | So it is a trend in some circles in biblical studies to, sometimes the term that's used as demystified, or to try to say that, well, |
| 1:08.8 | this wasn't really a miracle. This didn't really happen. |
| 1:12.0 | They didn't really, Jesus didn't really, for example, multiply loaves and fish to feed |
| 1:16.8 | 10,000 people. |
| 1:17.9 | The real miracle is that they shared their food. |
| 1:20.7 | No. |
| 1:21.8 | Sharing your food is not a miracle. |
| 1:24.2 | So this is an artifact of that wing of biblical studies which says that these people, Noah, |
| 1:32.0 | and Adam and Eve, for that matter, in some cases, but Noah and Jonah and things like that |
| 1:38.1 | are just, they're just devices that were used to tell moral tales and they weren't real, |
| 1:43.9 | but Jesus says otherwise. Jesus |
| 1:45.5 | refers in Matthew 12, for example, for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly |
| 1:50.5 | of the great fish, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. |
... |
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