Q. G. E. Wright of Harvard fame used to talk about how the Hebrews took pagan mythological ideas and demythologized them. He concludes (as does B. Childs later I believe) that the Hebrews were not a myth making people. What is your view on these things?
A. Of course it depends on how you define myth, but I would say that the Bible takes what we would call mythological ideas from the surrounding nations and applies them to God often in relationship to his actions in space and time. Psalm 74:12-17 takes the mythic theme of the creator God defeating the sea monster and applies that to God. Or we might consider the concluding section of Psalm 77 which likens the crossing of the Sea to God’s fighting the waters themselves.
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