in Oxford Handbook of Biblical Narrative. Edited by Danna Fewell. Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming. BIBLICAL HISTORIOGRAPHY AS TRADITIONAL HISTORY Raymond F. Person, Jr. Ohio Northern University Many biblical scholars draw sharp distinctions between “epic” and “history,” identifying “epic” with oral poetry and “history” with written prose. They also do not take seriously enough the characteristic of textual plurality for the biblical texts, thereby grasping to the anachronistic notion of an authoritative “original” text. They also fail to accept that biblical texts were produced in a primarily oral culture, thereby requiring the public reading of texts for their primary way of distribution, as well as how this realization requires serious revision to older notions about composition and transmission. Drawing from oral traditions, I challenge these assumptions in relationship to biblical historiography. Although I accept that generic distinctions existed, we too often overemphasize the distinction between “epic” and “history,” neglecting how they have similarities as interpretations of the past. I will demonstrate that ancient historiography was typically read aloud, thereby also existing in multiforms. In this way, biblical historiography (analogous to oral traditional epic) occurs in textual plurality and multiformity and, although this undermines its “historical” value from our modern perspective, we should value ancient historiography on its own terms before trying to mine it for historical data. Thus, biblical historiography is an example of what John Miles Foley called “traditional history” (Foley 2010), which differs from “factual” history, but nevertheless can be understood as a “true” interpretation of the past. Below, I will briefly survey discussions concerning the supposed distinctions between “epic” and “history” and the portrayal of reading historiographical texts as oral performance in Greco-Roman culture and biblical texts, before applying Foley’s notion of “traditional history” to Samuel-Kings // Chronicles as illustrated in a comparison of 2 Sam 21:18-22 // 1 Chr 20:4-8.