‘Minimalism’ is the supposition that the biblical text cannot rightly or honestly be mined for historical reconstructions of ancient Israel or earliest Christianity. The underlying assumption here is that the biblical text is not historically oriented. That is to say, the purpose of the Bible is not to offer twenty-first-century historians fodder for their reconstructive mills. It is to speak theologically to ancient (and I would also say, modern) communities of faith.

Though this definition is not necessarily the standard definition of minimalism, it does offer a more accurate understanding of what ‘minimalism’ is and will be the working definition for the words ‘minimalism’ and ‘minimalist’ in what follows. Furthermore, denoting ancient persons as ‘minimalists’ is admittedly anachronistic. Nonetheless, I will use it anyway simply because it encapsulates present reality. So, for example, Paul the Apostle may not have gone to Copenhagen or Sheffield to learn theology, but I describe him as a ‘minimalist’ for reasons I shall demonstrate below, albeit briefly.

First, though, a few things have to be stated as clearly as possible. These are:

1. Most ‘histories’ of Ancient Israel and Earliest Christianity are simply examples of circular reasoning. Many ‘historians’ use the Bible as a historical source; they reconstruct a ‘history’ which is often nothing more than a recapitulation of the biblical telling; and the Bible is affirmed as ‘historical’ because of the history so constructed. Similarly, the life of Jesus, for instance, is gleaned from a reading of the Gospels. Said reconstruction is named a ‘history of Jesus' life’.

2. …