THE HISTORICAL TRUTH OF EXO 1–18:
a fundamental methodological criterion

Let us name the two following types of literary genres as “historical genres”:

• The historical report,
• The historical novel (i.e., either a fiction/tale imitating historical relation or an intentionally written mendacious history).

Let us note:

• If somebody writes mendacious history, he does not use any characteristic, specific literary genre, the genre being used exclusively for mendacious histories. Quite the opposite – anyone interested in lying to his readers makes everything so that his “work” could be considered a true story. To achieve the deception goal, such a “creator” applies the same literary genre as the authors of the true histories do.
• After considering the features of the author of the text, one ought to pass to consider the features of the text itself. It should be ascertained: the text of mendacious history does not differ structurally by the literary form (literary genre) from the true history.
• After considering the author’s features and text features, one ought to think over the reader’s possibilities and impossibilities. It should be noted:
  • The reader or explorer using the linguistic criterion itself will never be able to distinguish the historical relation (i.e., true history) from the historical novel (i.e., imaginary story) because the same grammatical/terminological dress appears in these both historical genres of literature.
  • Therefore, in researching the Bible, one cannot presuppose that the text written in compliance with a convention of the historical literature genre is not a historical relation but only a novel (historical fiction). Many representatives of scientific circles succumb to this methodological error (including Biblicist that use the Redaktionsgeschichte method, although they appreciate the text in its final form).

It is worth recalling what Pope Benedict XV wrote in 1920, in the Encyclical Spiritus Paraclitus  [1]: “history (…) must square with the facts, since history is the written account of events as they actually occurred” (No. 22).

Then the Pope notes that the Bible does not contain “pseudo-historical narratives” or “such kinds of literature [which] cannot be reconciled with the entire and perfect truth of God’s word” (No. 26)