Page "Christian mythology" Paragraph 5

According to Bernard McGinn, " mythic patterns " such as " the primordial struggle between good and evil " appear in passages throughout the Hebrew Bible, including passages that describe historical events.

Citing Paul Ricoeur, McGinn argues that a distinctive characteristic of the Hebrew Bible is its " reinterpretation of myth on the basis of history ".

As an example, McGinn cites the apocalypse in the Book of Daniel, which he sees as a record of historical events presented as a prophecy of future events and expressed in terms of " mythic structures ", with " the Hellenistic kingdom figured as a terrifying monster that cannot but recall Near Eastern pagan myth of the dragon of chaos ".