The second model was proposed by the ‘biblical theology’ school of the 1950s and 1960s.35 In philosophical terms, this school opposed the idealism of Bultmann with a kind of realism. The New Testament is given authority not because it witnesses to timeless truth, but because it witnesses to the mighty acts of the creator god within history, and especially in the events concerning Jesus. The text is then revelatory, and hence authoritative, insofar as it bears witness to the ‘real thing’, that is, to the event(s).
