This short article by Robin Yassin-Kassab, makes an intriguing claim about the wisdom of seeing the Bible, or any sacred literature, as mythology.
Myth doesn't mean untruth any more than a great novel does. Myth is heightened truth. A myth is perhaps more 'true' than reality because reality unfiltered is unstructured and unexplained. The fact that God uses human myths to talk to humans need not perturb the religious.
The idea that a myth is something different from a lie, and possibly more important than a simple factual truth, is not new even if it remains provocative and that is why I share this with you. Is this so different a claim than that made by the Sages of 2,000 years ago, that "the Torah was given in human language"? The idea that the infinite One could reveal in human language the full meaning of God's will is actually pretty arrogant on our part.
The article itself is overly simplistic and far too impressed with the results of a simple comparative of religions approach which notes the similarities of the Gilgamesh epic and the story of creation as found in the Hebrew Bible. But the larger issue of our ability to think bigger about the stories we hold to be sacred endures.
Ultimately, this author asks us to think about how big these stories are, and how the bigger they are, the more elastic their meaning will be. In a world of endless battles between too many who either see literal truth or no truth at all in the Bible, those are important questions to ask and to answer.
What do you think?
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Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
This retired Baptist minister merely adds "Amen!"
I am a Christian Zionist. When Moses spoke face to face with G-D He received the Torah .When G-D spoke the word good over his creation "man" He spoke the truth . When all of history is over and done , all creation will see this is true. The choice of Abraham and Israel is how G-D has chosen bring this about . Yeshua in the Brit Hadasha said salvation is of the Jews . The Bible or the scriptures have been produced by holy men of G-D as they were inspired. The hammers of skepticx have been worn out by the anvil of G-D's Word. It still stands . Myth is a very poor word to describe the revelations of G-d.
Just some history on the word...
"Myth"
1830, from Gk. "mythos" - "speech, thought, story, myth," of unknown origin.
Myths are "stories about divine beings, generally arranged in a coherent system; they are revered as true and sacred; they are endorsed by rulers and priests; and closely linked to religion. Once this link is broken, and the actors in the story are not regarded as gods but as human heroes, giants or fairies, it is no longer a myth but a folktale. Where the central actor is divine but the story is trivial ... the result is religious legend, not myth." [J. Simpson & S. Roud, "Dictionary of English Folklore," Oxford, 2000, p.254]
The quality of myth within stories is what makes them applicable to a wide range of experience.
I understood the message of "The Little Red Hen" without having to ask my mother if the hen was really and not a chicken, or how she could talk, in an attempt to factualize the information being conveyed.
Torah teaches us at the most basic level and, with greater understanding, the information which may be gleened becomes more abundant still. In broad terms, that may even be called miraculous.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! It is so liberating to find others who want to question the "factuality" of the Bible. Myth, facts, and truth do not need to be mutually exclusive. By calling the Bible (meaning both Old and New Testaments) Myth, allows us to find ways to make stories that were written to address the needs of a specific group of people at a specific point in history meaningful and practicable (capable of being put into action)for this point in time. It allows us to get past the human boundaries of language to the spiritual concepts being illustrated.
And, conversly, by calling the Bible Myth, it allows seekers to glimpse spiritual truths in other aspects of life outside of religiously sanctioned documents -- such as the truth of spirit that speaks through Rumi, Mozart, and Monet. It also empowers each of us to carry on our own conversation with the Divine.
God can, and does, speak to each of us in differnt ways and through different mediums -- why close yourself off from the small, still voice when you hear it at any other time or through any other medium.
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