Brief reference must be made to Enns's writing on the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament to demonstrate further that he believes that the Bible records myths that are "essentially unhistorical." In chapter 4 of his book, he recommends for further reading his article on 1 Corinthians 10:4.¹⁷ There he repeatedly labels as "legend" Paul's reference to the purported Jewish tradition about "the rock which followed" Israel in the wilderness. My analysis of his discussion is elsewhere.¹⁸

It is interesting to ask why in his book Enns never calls the reference in 1 Corinthians 10:4 a "legend" while doing so explicitly and repeatedly in his article. The fact that he concludes chapter 4 with an unqualified recommendation for his article makes apparent that he has not changed his mind. Thus, Enns presents us with another ambiguity, this time between his book and his recommended article.

So, at the end of the day, one has to read Enns very closely over a number of pages to determine precisely what he means by myth. I have adduced some extended quotations, and when we let "Enns interpret Enns" from one part of the book to another, letting his clearer statements interpret the unclear, the likely conclusion is that he uses myth still in the essentially normal sense, i.e., stories without an "essential historical" foundation (his very language).

The Question of Recording "Objective" History in Relation to the Incarnational Model

In connection to the preceding section, Enns also says, "One must question the entire assumption that good history writing, whether modern or ancient, is concerned to transmit only bare facts of history. Is there really any such thing as a completely objective and unbiased recording of history, modern or premodern?" (p. 45). There may be some scholars, both evangelical and non-evangelical, who hold the assumption that Enns is arguing against, but the majority of conservative Old Testament and New Testament scholars who publish in their fields today would not hold such an assumption.

This does not mean, on the other hand, that evangelical scholars who agree with Enns's general premise—that all history is not completely objective—agree with his deduction of what this premise means for the reliability of historical events recorded in the Bible. Enns thinks this assumption entails the following: "If the Bible does not tell us what actually happened, how can we trust it about anything? Simply put, the problem before us is the historical character of precisely those Old Testament narratives that seem to report historical events" (p. 45).

Though there is a rhetorical tone in the first question of this quotation, the words are Enns's own, and they appear to express his skeptical view of the reliability of events reported in purported historical narratives, as the second sentence further suggests. It is apparent that Enns's overall point in this quotation, understood within the context of his discussion here, is to affirm that "interpreted history" means significant varying degrees of distortion of the record of that history for the purpose of making a theological point. Accordingly, one's trust in such biblical narratives is to be in the theological point being made and not in the actual factuality of the events recorded in these narratives.

But cannot historical writers interpret events without distorting the description of how those events occurred? Leading conservative Old Testament scholars answer in the affirmative, but Enns does not make the reader aware of these views.¹⁹ For example, I know of a Jewish scholar who is convinced that the New Testament account about Jesus' resurrection is historically reliable, but he disagrees with the New Testament's interpretation of the resurrection, i.e., that Jesus is the Messiah for Gentiles and Jews. (This Jewish scholar believes Jesus was the Messiah only for Gentiles.)