The same—but different

We propose that on several counts they did not think about events the same way we do. In the ancient world they viewed reality with an eye to the metaphysical (spiritual) world, not just through the lens of empiricism. Consequently, the role of the eyewitness was not as highly valued. Seeing events through a lens that included the spiritual world, and not just the human world, meant that categories we might label mystical or mythical overlapped in indiscernible and inseparable ways with what we call the real world. Events in their view therefore consist of more than what we refer to as history. Yet, for all of that expanded view, that does not make the view of events any less real to them. They can have events as the referents to a narrative account, yet view the events in a different way than we do. The ancient world as a whole has different ways of knowing than we do.—Lost World of the Flood, 18