The Historicity of Old Testament Narratives

Many scholars of the Old Testament are skeptical of some or most of the Old Testament's historical reliability. But Waltke and Yu suggest that that there are three lines of evidence suggesting that such skepticism might be a bit unwarranted.

“Several lines of evidence show that biblical narratives intend to write real history: (1) they are obsessed with locating events in time and space; (2) they appeal to written records such as the book of Yashar; and (3) they point to commemorative markers of the narrated events that are “there to this day,” such as the twelve stones to mark Israel’s crossing of the Jordan (Josh 4:1–9)” (Bruce K Waltke and Charles Yu. An Old Testament Theology: An Exegetical, Canonical, and Thematic Approach [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007], 96.

To this one might add the presence of family or genealogical details and the inclusion of embarrassing events (David’s adultery).