Article November 21, 1994 ISSUE

Hello, Jacob

What can we learn about ourselves from the people and lessons in the Bible?

Brian E. Zavitz

Among other things, the Bible is biography. For many of the people in the long history it records, we are shown significant events in their lives, sometimes over most of their lives, in a way that makes it obvious that these are real people and real events.

There may be some Bible characters invented or enlarged for the purpose of making a point—Job is probably a good example of this—but to a very large extent, this book is about real people, and what happened to them and why. This is probably one reason that the Bible has such a profound impact on those who read it. Even if its readers don't catch—or even if they consciously reject—the spiritual significance of these distant, remarkable events, still it is hard to dismiss them as mere religious mythology. They ring too true.

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