Bible Part 3 – Observation/Interpretation

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View Bible Series Intro, Bible Part 2 – Authority

Bible – Holy Book, Story, Myth, Mess Maker, Best Seller…Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth? What is this book? Why & how do we read it? What kind of authority does it carry?

Part 3 – Observation/Interpretation

Lets begin with a couple longer quotes…

“Nobody really believes any more the old idea that biblical scholars, equipped with neutral and objective tools and methods, provide the ‘facts’ about scripture which the systematic theologians can then ‘interpret’. Anyone who has worked within biblical scholarship knows, or ought to know, that we biblical scholars come to the text with just as many interpretative strategies and expectations as anyone else, and that integrity consists not of having no presuppositions but of being aware of what one’s presuppositions are and of the obligation to listen to and interact with those who have different ones…Once you can make scripture stand on its hind legs and dance a jig, it becomes a tame pet rather than a roaring lion. It is no longer authoritative in any strict sense; that is; it may be cited as though in ‘proof’ of some point or other, but it is not leading the way, energizing the church with the fresh breath of God himself. The question must always be asked, whether scripture is being used to serve an existing theology or vice versa.”
- NT Wright, Scripture and the Authority of God

“Let us imagine entering a museum and contemplating one of the exhibits. the painting could be said to offer us a type of revelation, for it stands before us and communicates a message. However, the message of a piece of art is not simple, singular or able to be mastered. This is evidenced in the fact that different people will take away different meanings from the same artifact…When we ask ourselves the meaning of the artwork, we are immediately involved in an act of interpretation which is influenced by what we bring to the painting. In a similar way, the revelation of God…will be able to speak in different ways to those with ears to hear. The parable is given to us, but at the same time its full wealth of meaning will never fully be mined. It is not reducible to some clear, singular, scientific formula but rather gives rise to a multitude of commentaries…[many pages later] While we must acknowledge that the Bible holds such a wealth of meaning that it can be read in a never-ending number of ways, this does not mean that it can be read in an infinite number of ways. To return to the example of an artwork, a painting can be read in multiple ways, but there are limits to the range of legitimate interpretations one can have. For instance, an image of two people embracing cannot be legitimately thought of as an image of war. In this way a piece of art has a transfinite set of interpretations rather than an infinite set of interpretations. The same goes with the Bible. While people will understand the phrase ‘God is love’ differently, depending upon their cultural context, it cannot be legitimately understood as a call to hate or do violence to others. So then, acknowledging that we all get God wrong and that revelation can be interpreted in a variety of ways does not necessarily mean that we are caught in the tentacles of relativism, but rather can open up a dynamic, kinetic relationship with the text.
- Pete Rollins, How Not to Speak of God p. 17 & 64.

For many people, reading the bible often means reading a short blip and looking for some simple little nugget that i can apply to my life today. This is ok to a point, but it very often ends up being a way that we can find some little idea or truth that we already pretty much agree with and ignoring the rest. This way of reading the bible generally ignores both the context and the reality that whatever is being read is part of a larger story that is unfolding. That it is real people in real places at real times who had encounters with a god who is seeking to work within the lives of people to bring shalom to the entire world. After reading in this way for a long time, this kind of approach to the bible has a tendency to inoculate us against it having any kind of power or authority to speak to us as the live word of god. Certain verses are assigned a specific meaning, added to a list of other verses in the bible to create a systematic list of all that can be said about god, people and his work in the world. If this is all there is to it, i don’t see why once you know these points, There’s any reason to read the bible. Perhaps that’s why so few people in the church actually read it very much…

On the other hand, the bible is a pretty colorful story. There’s plenty of drama, love affairs, sibling rivalry, sex, murder, hero’s, kings and jealousy, foolish mistakes, you name it, it’s in there.

And like any good story, we can find ourselves and our situations within those stories. Like any good book, movie, or work of art, there’s plenty of ways the plots resonate with us in new and unique ways depending on what’s going on in our lives. And god does speak to us in this way. We learn about what it means to be human, what works, what doesn’t based on the success or failure of those who have gone before us. Different characters are going to stand out at different times, our emotions at the time are going to cause us to be drawn into and see the situations presented with fresh eyes and the text will speak to us again and again. Stories somehow change the compass in our brain – You come to the end and you know that’s what it looks like to live well…

In this way, the bible does have never-ending meaning for the one reading or hearing it. But as Pete Rollins mentioned, that does not mean that it can be read in an infinite number of ways. There is intent. There is something the author is communicating through the journey.

The bible speaks to us and inspires us to get caught up in a particular story and gives us a unique role to play within that story.

Some come to the bible as though there is no intent, as though it’s meaning is purely subjective, meant simply to be enjoyed like any other story. I would challenge the idea that any story is just a story?

Robert McKey – renowned Hollywood screenwriter in his seminars on “Story” reminds writers that

“Story is the map of life’s hidden order” in other words, it reveals the authors understanding of what life is meant to be.

Part of what enables good stories to move us is there ability to put us inside the world of the characters. Why else would movie directors spend so much time finding the just right costumes, locations, backdrops. Often the story is set with some kind of narration that gives you a hint at what is going on in the world and in the lives of the characters. Without these details, we might miss the point…

Have you ever sat down to watch a movie some ways in, or picked up on a favorite tv show after missing a number of episodes and found that there’s insiders information that you’re missing. A character says or does something and the response is more dramatic or just much different than you might have expected? Of coarse the same thing can happen among friends when you’ve shared history together. A word, phrase, look… Can take on all sorts of layers of meaning. When your on the outside, it’s easy to be left wondering, what did you mean by that?

Considering the number of years, cultures, languages, and genres being crossed as we read this book which records gods ongoing conversation with people and the world, it would be wise for those who want to know this god or who seek to listen to Jesus and put his teachings into action, to take time to really observe what’s going on and to ask questions in order to better understand what is being communicated…

What did you mean by that? How were you trying to move and influence the world by that?

Introduce the idea of taking time to Observe & Interpret the scriptures in light of the real people, places and times they were written, to the best of our ability, so we can better apply them to our own lives today.

Consider the following questions as we look at Luke 4:15-30 [this week] and Rom. 14 [next week]

Inductive Bible Study Questions

Your two goals are:
To have a good understanding of what the text is saying,
To have the Holy Spirit show you how to align your life with what it says.

Observation Questions: What does it say?
Ask who, what, where, why, when questions…

Who wrote it? Who’s involved? Who’s it to? Why was it written? What’s going on? Was this written in response to anything?

Is there a particular genre this text is written in?

Are there words that keep recurring throughout the passage? Are there words that need further definition?

What are the key phrases?

Notice comparisons and contrasts, if/then statements…List all commands, warnings, advice, promises… Is there a specific context to those statements?

Is there a prayer prayed here for me to repeat?

What is this section all about? How does it relate to the surrounding text (context)? What happened before this passage? After?

What is noticeable, special, or unusual about how the words, phrases, and sentences are put together?

What are the central thoughts, themes, main ideas of this passage…

Sometimes it is helpful to paraphrase the passage in your own words, or outline the passage.

How would you title this section?

Interpretation Questions: What do we think it meant to the original audience? to us now?

What was the historical setting and situation?

Why might this particular text have been written? What was the author’s intent or purpose? What did they want to communicate?

Why does the author say what he says? Why does she say it in that way?

Are there words, concepts or illustrations that are not clear as to their meaning? What did they mean or how were they used in other writings of that day?

What is the significance of quotations, Illustrations, commands, if/then statements, promises…Are there references to other works?

What circumstances were present at the time this text was written? — social, cultural, and the church situation?

How does this text sound within its foreign ancient Near Eastern or Greco/Roman social context?

How does it sound in the immediate, domestic Israelite or early church context?

What did it mean to the original people to whom it was addressed? How did they respond?

What change/improvement is being made in the lives of people in the covenant community? How does this change influence the larger ANE/GR world?

Application Questions: How does this apply to your life?

Is there a way that the change or redemptive movement that impacted the original hearers should effect my behavior, attitudes, or thinking about God, life, relationships, etc. What am I to do?

What does this passage teach about God’s nature? Christ? People? The world?

How does this relate to what is happening in my life today? Within my relationships? In my local community, the broader world?

Are there ways in which this Scripture inspires new redemptive ideas to meet the needs, situations, or problem I am facing personally or in my own academic or career settings?

How might it speak to the larger justice issues facing our world? Does it ask for or inspire change in political or economic systems? Foreign relations, medical/health, technological, corporate, community…

What is a specific course of action for you to take based on this Scripture? What will you do? When will you do it? With (for) whom will you do it?

What can you ask God to help you do based on your study of this section?

What prayer can you pray as a response to this section? Is there a verse you can make into a prayer?


Bible Part 2, Authority

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View Bible Series Intro

Bible – Holy Book, Story, Myth, Mess Maker, Best Seller…Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth? What is this book? Why & how do we read it? What kind of authority does it carry? Part 2

[The mp3 of this session picks up a couple of comments into this first question...]

A week later, what are your thoughts on our little scripture command exercise?

I found that some of the scripture commands we read almost beg for some context, for more of the story, while others do seem like they’re either timeless, or just very timely for our own day. But i think the fact that some statements in the Bible do transcend culture doesn’t mean that the whole thing is intended to be a-cultural and without need for some interpretation. Would you agree that there is at least some level of knowledge needed about the context of a statement or command in order to make a good decision about how to obey? In fact, one of the more interesting things about the Bible, though the real truth magazine article seemed to rail against the idea, is that the Bible, unlike any other holy book,  tells a story. It is not simply a collection of proverbs, wise sayings, or disconnected moral of the story illustrations. It seems to be, like the Hindu priest told Leslie Newbegin, “a quite unique interpretation of universal history and, therefore, a unique understanding of the human person as a responsible actor in history.”

Has anyone ever said something and later heard that same thing repeated, but totally missing the point? Have you ever been quoted in a newspaper and felt like, though the quote was accurate, it was actually being used to support a position that was nearly the opposite of what you were saying?

Watch Cobert video, 

Of coarse understanding scripture is even deeper than just a talking about reading it in context or as static, timeless truths. Theres a whole lot more to context than just a few sentences before and after the text you’re looking at.

“Simplistic affirmations (The Bible says) on the one hand, and counter-affirmation (You read the text naively; we read it in context, and that changes everything) on the other, only get in the way of serious debate.” – NT Wright, Scripture and the Authority of God

The real questions begin when we open the door to understanding the broader culture. What was going on in the ancient near east or greco roman world when this was written? what was the social context? the domestic and religious culture of israel or the church at the time the book was written? What kind of movement was there within the books of the Bible? Was there a redemptive spirit that brought reform and change as Gods story and work within the world developed and was revealed? Did God gradually reveal his plan and will to people, gently wooing them towards his, and our best, or did he try to lay out the ideal in every situation right away, so that we should insist upon replicate and live out every detail or at least the basic principle of each scriptural command as it is written? What about commands that seem to contradict themselves? Does this prove that the Bible is unreliable? Or does it prove that the bible is a narrative that is going somewhere and that people who begin in different places are sometimes going to have to move in opposite directions in order to find themselves at home with this God?

These are all great questions if you are committed to the Bible and you want to better understand how to live out its teachings. But why would anyone care about what the Bible says anyway? Why should this book guide a persons vision of life, of what is important, and how to behave? why should anyone follow it’s unique understanding of the human person and become a particular kind of actor in it’s proposed history? Is it just an interesting read that some people feel compelled to mine for inspiration, or does it carry some kind of authority? And considering how many appeals to the Bible are made with the assumption that it is, as Cru’s statement about the Bible made clear, that, “It is the supreme and final authority in all matters on which it speaks.”, than what is meant by authority?

Do you care about the Bible? Why?

What do you mean when you say that the Bible has authority? 

What kind of authority does the bible have? and how does that authority work in our lives?

I think there is a big difference between,

Matt. 28:18 - “All authority in heaven and on earth is given to the books you are all going to write about me”

vs.

“All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me, therefore…”

Heb. 1:1 ¶ In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways,

Heb. 1:2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.

Scripture itself points – authoritatively, if it does indeed possess authority! – away from itself and to the fact that final and true authority belongs to God, delegated to Jesus Christ…

How is the authority of Jesus somehow exercised through the Bible? What kind of authority does God have anyway, and what role does scripture play in carrying that authority?

What does it mean to have authority?

authority noun
1 the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience:
[ often with infinitive ] the right to act in a specified way, delegated from one person or organization to another: official permission;

2 (often authorities) a person or organization having power or control in a particular, typically political or administrative, sphere:

3 the power to influence others, esp. because of one’s commanding manner or one’s recognized knowledge about something:

  • the confidence resulting from personal expertise: he hit the ball with authority.
  • a person with extensive or specialized knowledge about a subject; an expert: she was an authority on the stock market.
  • a book or other source able to supply reliable information or evidence, typically to settle a dispute: the court cited a series of authorities supporting their decision.

There is a very real kind of authority that comes from a person or a political entities ability to punish or kill you for disobeying…In this way, weapons, do give a certain kind of authority, but is that the authority of God, of Jesus?

For Jesus, power and authority does not seem to be something he exercises over people. Jesus authority seems to come from his ability to serve, empower, heal, and bring freedom to people.

exousia, – rightful, actual and unimpeded power to act, contrast with dynamis – force, might, ability to accomplish something by strength and power. A ruler, or sovereign.

Jesus doesn’t exercise power over people, instead he uses his unimpeded power to come under people and act in a way that builds them up.

Matt. 7:28   Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching,  29 for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

Matt. 9:6 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Stand up, take your bed and go to your home.”

Matt. 9:8 When the crowds saw it, they were filled with awe, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to human beings.

Luke 4:36 They were all amazed and kept saying to one another, “What kind of utterance is this? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and out they come!”

Jesus authority comes from giving voice to those who have no voice, not from trying to make his voice louder. His authority comes not from seeing how much he can push people around, but from seeing, who’s been pushed around and needs help getting back on their feet.

In Jesus time the Roman Empire ruled the world through the power of coercion. Submit to the Empire or die, be crucified. So, authority meant those who were the strongest, those who told you where to go and what to do. Authority was coercion, to bend peoples wills to get them to do what you wanted them to do.

Over and over again Jesus introduced his followers to a different kind of exousia, a power and authority that comes from serving and sacrificing your life for others. He says, it’s not about the first, it’s about the last, and unless you lose your life you will never find it. He doesn’t come with the sword, he comes with a towel and serves by washing peoples feet. He doesn’t come into Jerusalem before his crucifixion, triumphant on a horse, but on a donkey, not with some conquering attitude, but weeping for the people. When Peter cut off a soldiers ear Jesus picked it up and put it back on. As if to say, no Peter that’s not the way we bring about change in my kingdom, that’s not how we wage war against the enemy this is how we do it. We heal people.

Jesus had an entirely different way of understanding power. Exousia for Jesus was the authority that comes from living such a life of devotion, service, and compassion that people say, that’s real. For Jesus it was about being crucified and offering his life.

How, then, is the authority of Jesus exercised through the Bible?

Does the Bible have authority primarily because it supplies reliable information or evidence, that can settle disputes? Is it intended to be a rule book or instruction manual? Of coarse it does give us facts and information about Jesus, god, people, and the world, but is that how it carries the authority of Jesus? I mean, we can argue that it tells us not to murder people, or lie, and that we are meant to love our enemies, and do justly… but why? And, how?  Are we supposed to build up arguments from within it, to back up our definition of justice and how it balances out with the command to love our enemies?

Or is the authority of this book found in the way these words, and the reality of which they speak are dynamic, motivating and empowering bringing hope and strength to accomplish the mission of reconciliation, redemption, and peace that claims to be set in motion by the God who supposedly inspired them?

2 dif. types of true – True as in fact vs true as in resonate,  ring true with human life

If we asked, “is it true that Jesus died on a cross?” we normally mean, “Did it really happen?” But if we asked, “is the parable of the prodigal son true? we would quickly dismiss the idea that “it really happened”; that is not the sort of thing parables are. We would insist that, in quite another sense, the parable is indeed “true” in that we discover within the narrative a picture of God and his love, and of multiple layers of human folly, which rings true at all kinds of human knowledge and experience…

Juxtapose, reading dishwasher instructions, with quote from Brueggermann…

The Bible is inherently the live word of God, revealing the character and will of God and empowering us for an alternative life in the world. While I believe in the indeterminacy of the text to some large extent, I know that finally the Bible is forceful and consistent in its main theological claim. It expresses the conviction that the God who created the world in love redeems the world in suffering and will consummate the world in joyous well-being. That flow of conviction about God’s self-disclosure in the Bible is surely the main claim of the apostolic faith, a claim upon which the church fundamentally agrees. – Walter Brueggermann, Biblical Authority

Which reading sounds more true to what we have in the bible? 

  • the dishwasher instructions seem a heck of a lot more informative. Much more specific and helpful when it comes to knowing exactly what to do, but when do you use an instruction book?
  • Is that maybe why, we don’t read the bible as much?

The Live word of God has power to re-orient people not into robots that simply repeat a program or step-by-step ever static action plan, but a power infused with stamina and impetus to act in a way that brings life and justice and goodness into the world in the middle of whatever situation a person is facing.

I want to show a video clip – Watch the final 4 min. of the Documentary, ‘Prince of Peace, God of War” listen to the story of metropolitan krill, 

Some people use the bible to debate who’s in and out with god how far one can go in belief or actions and still be right with god. Other people discover in it gods love and are so secure in that love and in gods goodness and unimpeded power to act for the good of all creation, that they can put that same love into action in the world without fear.

Go to Bible Part 3 – Observation, Interpretation

What is the Bible?

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I delivered this on Sunday at Fusion, and I’m sharing it here, too.  The idea is to probe questioning and begin discussion.  Join in!

What is the Bible?

I think we can all basically agree that this is an important book

It’s certainly one of the most distributed books of all time

It’s definitely the most translated book of all time

Millions of people—probably billions of people are reading it today all around the world

We talk about it here every Sunday and throughout the week at B3 and one to another.

A lot of us read it a lot.  Maybe every day, maybe every once in awhile, maybe every now and then

Most people read it at two of the most significant days in our lives—our weddings and our funerals

So we both celebrate with it and mourn with it—and all kinds of places in between

We have Bible churches and Bible colleges and Bible studies

There are millions of other books that tell us how to read this book and tell us what it’s all about

There are hundreds of different translations just in English

There are high schools and universities and communities and denominations and religions

that are defined by the way they read this book

Some people call themselves “biblical Christians” or tout “Bible-based teaching” in their churches

Some people say they read the Bible “literally” and some people say they read it “metaphorically”

Some people want to “interpret the Bible”—others think they don’t need no interpretation and they just read the thing ‘cause they can read thank you very much

We talk about context and pretext and subtext

What is this text?

Really, what is the Bible?

We sometimes call it the Word of God, the Holy Bible, The Word, etc.

Most of us know “Bible” has something to do with the word “book”.  Is it the book?  Is it a book?

Let’s start with the most undisputable facts:

It’s books, not book.  Thinking of the Bible as a single book is actually a somewhat newer phenomenon in our tradition.  Obviously we know that there are many books inside, but the terminological difference here between the singular and plural is subtle and significant.  The word “Bible” comes from the plural noun “biblia” and was known shortly after as τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια—“the holy books”

So talking about “the Bible” as one thing is saying something already.  I think we’re implying a kind of unity and singularity.  Do we want to do that?

It’s a collection of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts from all different times and all different places.  How could it be that people writing from so many different political regimes and schools of thought and accepted social customs, that people writing in so many different genres and different styles and different languages, how could it be that they are all making one thing, telling one story?

If the authors of all the books of the Bible were here right now, what do you think they would say about that?

But is that the point?  Does it matter what the people who wrote these books thought about them?  Can God lift a text out of its context?

The Protestant Bible has 66 books.  Other Bibles in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions add a few more.  Wisdom, Tobit, Maccabees, Baruch, Sirach and others.  How did that happen?

Along time ago, before Jesus even, scholars began to translate Hebrew into Greek, the language that was becoming more and more the go-to language of the times.  When these bilingual Jews translated the Hebrew texts, there were a few books that were sort of up for grabs.  Some Jews considered them significant, inspired works.  But ancient Jewish scholars rejected them as being equal with the Five books of the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, etc. for a number of reasons, most notably that some of these other texts were newer—Only a hundred or so years old, as opposed to three or four hundred. They called this translation the Septuagint, which means 70, because supposedly 70 different translators worked together on it.

After that, Greek speakers and readers became familiar with these “apocryphal” books.  The New Testament got written in Greek a little ways after that.

More than a thousand years later, and after many years of usage and after some debate from the thinkers of the church about whether or not they were equal with the other writings,  more than 10 books got dropped from the canon.  The Reformation theologians thought only the books that the Jews were sure of should be in.  Period.  Some people weren’t even entirely sure about the New Testament—Luther specifically questioned whether the Book of James should be in scripture, at one point calling it “a letter of straw.”  Should we automatically follow the lead of these forefathers of the faith, though?  Has anyone hear even heard of, never mind read, Baruch or Sirach?

Part of what I’m getting at is this: what is the canon of scripture?

First off, what the heck is a canon?

It meant something like standard or measuring stick originally, and it’s come to mean a settled, official list of something.

This dispute over the apocryphal or deutero-canonical books, “the later canon” of the Old Testament was not officially decided on by the Catholic church until the 1500s.  That was a long time after the New Testament had been settled, a few minor questions aside.

So awhile back Christians decided that we had to make a tidy list of the books of scripture that were in the club.  In the 300s, there was something called the Council of Nicea (Nicea is a town near Istanbul) that brought all these priests and political officials together to decide what books belonged in the New Testament and what books didn’t.  There were fistfights.

But we ended up with the New Testament.  And we all seem to be pretty happy with what they came up with.  Sure, there a couple people who will go seek out the books they rejected and say this, that, and the other thing.  But for the most part, we really don’t think about it.  It’s rare enough that we find a few peaceful moments to open up the darn book and read something.  Are we really going to spend that time questioning whether or not they got every detail right about it thousands of years ago?

And really, we trust God, right?  Why would he have let his church make such a huge mistake?  If God can raise the dead and do miracles and save our souls, surely he can help us get the Bible right, right?  Shouldn’t we just have faith in the Council of Nicea?  That God was there, took care of things, and now we can move on to something more interesting?

But hasn’t God constantly let his church and his people make colossal mistakes?  Isn’t that what so much of the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures are all about?  And can’t we see obvious signs in the history of the Christian church that God is letting us sort out our own issues: Inquisition, Crusades, Slavery, Racism, Sexism, Entitlement to trash the Earth?

But come on, wouldn’t God want to get this one thing right?  His Word?  How else could we even begin to understand who He is?  It just makes sense that God would guide the creation of the Bible and the Council of Nicea.

Maybe. But why are we so sure?  Why are we so less sure about the other church councils on the veneration of Mary, Christ literally being in eucharist, and infant baptism?

Well, all that aside, here we are with the Bible our Protestant heritage has given us.  66 books.  Genesis to Revelation.

But the last 200 hundred years have raised a lot of questions about this book.

Scholars and students and pastors all started asking the questions that a post-Enlightenment culture would want to ask:

Yeah, I’ve read it, but is it real?

Is Genesis mythology?

Can we really trust the histories of the Hebrew people in Exodus, Joshua, Samuel, Kings, etc.?  Are they even really works of history as we think of it today?

Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

Was there even a real person named Jesus?  How can we even prove it?

Scholars in the 1800s and the 1900s put the Bible through the meat grinder of cross examination.  They challenged a lot of things that were held as gospel truth for a long time.

They challenged whether the Bible was really accurate at all

They challenged how “inspired” it really was and what it even means to be “inspired”

They challenged whether Paul really wrote Colossians, Ephesians, and I and II Timothy

They challenged whether the Gospel of John really recorded the words of Jesus

They challenged the miracles

They said some of the Old Testament was Hebrew propaganda

They challenged the way Christians had used prophetic passages to predict Christ

They said actually this was written much later than you thought

and this probably wasn’t written by the guy you thought it was

A lot of people in the church didn’t pay much attention.  Some people thought they were all just crazy liberals who were trying to undermine the true gospel.  Some people thought it should be us vs. them.  But others just wanted to come to a place on Sunday where they could hear the words of peace and truth they had grown up with.  To a place of encouragement and familiarity.

How should we think about writers and scholars that question the Bible?  Are they enemies, heretics, liars— friends, brother and sisters?

Some people say that the Bible is God’s perfect word.  Is it inspired or inerrant or infallible?

Did God verbally inspire every author in every time and place and only every author at every time and place?  Is every “and” or “but” just right?

Does it get every historical, scientific fact right?  Or maybe we can let some that stuff slide—maybe it just gets everything right about our salvation?

How can we know that?  What’s our evidence?

And what do we have to believe about the Bible to be good Christians?

Anything?

Interestingly, the Nicene Creed, the church’s classic early statement of faith, has almost nothing to say about the Bible. It says that the Holy Spirit spoke through the Prophets.

That’s it.

It really wasn’t until quite a bit later—after the Reformation— that the church started making pretty specific claims about how God “made” the Bible.

But enough of that.  How should we read this book, this Bible that we have?  One chapter at a time, a story at a time, a verse at time?  A book at a time?

With some historical context?  Or can we just pick it up and read?

And can all these verses and chapters and books and authors really be telling a single story?  Is it even reasonable to think that a letter from 60 AD and a book of depressing poetry from 500 years before that and a catalogue of visions and judgments and political commentary from even before that could make a single book with a single thesis?

These are questions to chew on.  Let’s talk about them.  Let’s listen carefully to each other.

I want to end with a personal reflection on this book.  It’s not a theological or historical or critical reflection.  It’s a reflection that comes out of reading this thing on and off and back on and back off and so on for probably 11 or so years.

This is a library

and a sanctuary

and a book of life.

I have sometimes found in it

a beautiful and amazing vision

that imagines human beings bound

together with God and together

together

in the kind of love that won’t hold it over you

when you act so selfish you forget everyone else exists

or when you had a huge blowout because you were stressed.

I have sometimes thought this book was wrong

or didn’t make any sense

or didn’t apply to me

and I have sometimes wondered if there’s much truth in here.

I’ve often found it filled with hope

and compassion.

This book tells a lot of stories

that only people who are

burnt out

and beat down

and screwed up could get.

This book is a treasure that is more

scandalous, more surprising, more mysterious,

more challenging, and more interesting

than I have often given it credit for.

It is a lamp unto my feet and a light

unto my path.

Bible Series Intro

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What is the Bible?

“The Bible is a book written over a period of thousands of years by many authors. It tells one story: God’s acting in the lives of people.” – IV

“The Scriptures are Inspired by God and declare His design and plan for mankind.” – XA

“The Bible is God’s infallible written Word, the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. We believe that it was uniquely, verbally and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, and that it was written without error (inerrant) in the original manuscripts. It is the supreme and final authority in all matters on which it speaks.” – Cru

The TNIV translation gives it a subtitle, “Timeless Truth in Today’s Language”

What do these words mean? Timeless? Infallible? Inerrant? One story?

Has anyone ever played bible roulette? where you just need to hear from God so you start flipping the pages, stop, and put your finger on the page and try to make sense of what you find there?

How’d that go?

“The Bible, also called the Scriptures or the Sacred Scriptures, is a collection of books written by human authors inspired by God. They are an account of God’s revelation and plan of salvation for the human race. The Bible is made up of seventy-three books and is divided into two sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The books of the Bible are written in several different literary forms. It is as important to recognize different literary forms when reading the Bible as it is to recognize different forms of writing in a newspaper. For example, when reading the paper, we have to know if we are reading an editorial or news story or an advertisement.” -Ask a catholic.com

The real truth, a magazine (which proposes to be) restoring plain understanding of the Bible wrote, “Recently, in a stunning, but candid, admission of the position of the Catholic Church on the Bible’s authority, the London Times (Oct. 5, 2005) carried an article describing a document just published by the Catholic Church in England titled The Gift of Scripture. This truly astonishing publication, in which various bishops and cardinals stated that one studying the Bible should not expect “total accuracy” from its contents, declaring that “We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision,” totally undermines the Bible’s authority. In it, the Bible was described as a combination of the “Word of God” mixed with “human dimensions.”

[If there’s no human dimension, I’d like to hear how this group explains away Joshua’s recording of the sun standing still in the sky, when we’ve visited outer space in the past 50 years and seen that the earth moves.]

Leslie Newbigin, who after spending years in India and then returning to what seemed to him a completely different European world, writes in his book, “Gospel in a pluralistic society” of a Hindu scholar who complained to him saying, “You Christians have misrepresented the Bible…As I read the Bible I find in it a quite unique interpretation of universal history and, therefore, a unique understanding of the human person as a responsible actor in history.”

One of the foremost, OT theologian of our day, Walter Brueggermann writes, “…the biblical text is endlessly “strange and new.” It always and inescapably outdistances our categories of understanding and explanation, of interpretation and control. Because the Bible is “the live word of the living God,” it will not compliantly submit to the accounts we prefer to give of it. There is something intrinsically unfamiliar about the book; and when we seek to override that unfamiliarity, we are on the hazardous ground of idolatry…The Bible is not a fixed, frozen, readily exhausted read; it is, rather, a “script,” always reread, through which the Spirit makes all things new.”

Anyone ever wish for God to just lay it all out plain and simple, like a step by step guide to life?

I recently read on a friends FB wall, that she just wished God would write her a letter and tell her how to make decisions… Isn’t it true that sometimes we want something in the Bible that God didn’t give us?

In the Pocket guide to the Bible, a little book about the big book, Jason Boyett writes,
“The Bible has motivated its reader to tend the sick, feed the poor, shelter the homeless, educate the uneducated, fight for the oppressed. It also motivated the Crusades, the Inquisition, and Apartheid…It drove Martin Luther King Jr. to push for civil rights while fueling the lynch mobs who opposed him…”

Bible Command Exercise… Discover the challenges of static application… and the reason why some people have genuine and legitimate concerns about the use of the bible in the world today.

If you think we should follow a particular scripture exactly as it is read straight off the page move to toward the right of the room.

If you think the particular command is irrelevant to our life today, move towards the left.

If you think the verse holds some level of application but should be modified rather than lived exactly as commanded, find a place somewhere in the middle of the continuum.

Gen. 1:27 God created humankind in his image…28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it

Deut. 6:5 …love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

Deut. 26:12   When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce … you shall give it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless and the widow,

1 Cor. 16:20 Greet one another with a holy kiss.

1 Cor. 14:34 women should be silent in the churches.

1Tim. 5:23   Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.

Deut. 15:19   Set apart for the LORD your God every firstborn male of your herds and flocks.

Deut. 22:28   If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered,  29 he shall pay the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

Deut. 15:11 Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, “Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.”

Mt 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations

Lev. 18:19   “‘Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period.

Lev. 18:22   “‘Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.

Lev. 18:23   “‘Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it.

Lev. 19:19   “‘Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.

Mt 5:37 Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’;

1 Tim 4:13 devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture

2 Pet 1:10 be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure.

Gen 9:6 Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person’s blood be shed; for in his own image God made humankind.

Jn 13:14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.

Mt 10:8 Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.

Lev. 20:27 ¶ A man or a woman who is a medium or a wizard shall be put to death; they shall be stoned to death, their blood is upon them.

Luke 6:37   “Do not judge, and you will not be judged

Luke 12:33 Sell your possessions, and give to the poor

Ex. 20:9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work

Rom. 14:21 it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble.

Matt. 10:5 ¶ Do not go among the Gentiles, or enter any town of the Samaritans, go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.

Acts 1:8 you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

1Cor. 11:6 If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off…7 A man ought not to cover his head

1Cor. 7:27 Are you unmarried? Do not look for a wife.

Gen. 17:10  Every male among you shall be circumcised.

Ex. 21:20 ¶ When a slaveowner strikes a male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies immediately, the owner shall be punished. Ex. 21:21 But if the slave survives a day or two, there is no punishment; for the slave is the owner’s property.

Matt. 5:42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Rom. 12:14 ¶ Bless those who persecute you

Rom. 12:20  “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

Prov. 23:14 Punish [your child] with the rod and save his soul from death.

Prov. 31:6 Give beer to those who are perishing, wine to those who are in anguish; 7 let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.

Lev. 19:28 ¶ “‘Do not put tattoo marks on yourselves.

Psa. 150:4 praise God with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, 5 …praise him with resounding cymbals.

Lev. 19:32 ¶ “‘Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God.

Acts 15:29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.

Deut. 15:12 ¶ If a member of your community…is sold to you and works for you six years, in the seventh year you shall set that person free. 13 And when you send a male slave out from you a free person, you shall not send him out empty-handed. 14 Provide liberally out of your flock, your threshing floor, and your wine press, thus giving to him some of the bounty with which the LORD your God has blessed you.

1Pet. 2:18 ¶ Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.

Col. 3:13 Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other

Deut. 22:5 ¶ A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing

Num. 5:12 ‘If a man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him… 17 The Priest shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water….26 he is to have the woman drink the water.

Lev. 25:36 Do not take interest of any kind from your countryman

James 5:14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.

Rom. 12:9   Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;  10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.  11 Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.  12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.  13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

How are you feeling about this exercise? what questions?

Close with Mike’s state of the bible address. Where it’s been, what looming questions has academia wrestled with? What doubts are common among skeptics…?

Go to Bible Part 2, Authority

Christmas Rant

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For the past 3 years around Christmas I’ve had conversations with well meaning Christians who, frustrated with the commercialization of the holiday, believe the whole thing is pagan, never was about Jesus, “has its roots in everything but Christ” and isn’t worth celebrating at all. “We know” of course; “Jesus wasn’t born on Dec. 25th, so we’re just copying everyone else…”
On the Christmas was never about Jesus topic, I like what historian Jonathan Hill writes in, “What has Christianity Ever Done for Us?”
“Some Christian festivals did indeed have pagan forebears. Christmas, for example, is often associated with festivals such as Yule and Saturnalia… Christians chose to celebrate the birth of Christ not at the same time as Saturnalia (dec. 21), but half way between that festival and another, the Calends of January. The idea was that the Christians would have something of their own (to celebrate) while everyone else was recovering from Saturnalia…That, at least, was the explanation given by St. John Chrysostom, who lived at the end of the fourth century…when this date was fixed for good…
As Christianity spread…collapse of Roman empire…old festival began to be displaced by the new, it was inevitable that many of the old customs would remain but be Christianized. Much of what we know as part of Christmas comes from Yule and other celebrations of the solstice, but Christmas itself was not based on those older festivals…So the Christians may have taken over parts of the pagan past, but we know this, because they told us so themselves.”
This is such great incite, because in Christianity today, we tend to throw out everything with that hints of differing ideas, when we are actually called to redeem and restore everything to a place where it is all good, life giving, and honoring to God.
“This is our present festival. This is what we are celebrating today – the coming of God to man…so that we might return to God… So let us keep the feast, not like a heathen festival, but in a godly way – not in the way of the world, but in a way above the world – not as if it were ours, but as it belongs to him who is ours, our Master’s – not as of weakness, but as of healing – not as of creation, but of re-creation.” – Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 38, on the birthday of Christ, AD 380
This is the movement of Christ, continuity and discontinuity…not to abolish, but to fulfill. Christians believed they were called to enter the world as it is and to renew and restore it. Part of what that meant to them was to take whatever they could from the culture that was “upright, good, and true” and to celebrate it and wherever they could, to redefine it so that it pointed to the greatest truth that is Christ and his story.
One example is the evergreen plants. In the Scandinavian region the solstice celebration was called Yule. A large tree branch or even a whole tree was little by little feed into the fire over the coarse of the celebration as an offering to Thor, the Norse god of thunder. Holly, ivy and mistletoe were prized for their evergreen qualities, representing hope that all trees would regain their leaves in the spring. Christians directed the evergreen qualities to the hope we have in Christ, and pointed out how the red holly berries symbolize the blood of Christ. The modern Christmas tree is said to have begun when the reformer, Martin Luther, after delighting in the beauty of fallen snow sparkling on an evergreen tree cut one down and set it up in his home, decorating it with candles so he could share this story with his children. He decorated it with candles, which he lighted in honor of Christ’s birth.
So what about Santa & gifts? Things do get a bit mixed up here, but I think we have much to celebrate and redeem. St. Nicholas of Myra lived in the 4th century, around the time the date of Christmas was being established… Stories were told that he threw money through a window to help the poor. His Birthday was celebrated on 6 Dec. and often people gave gifts to one another in his honor.
It has been suggested that Dutch settlers living in now, NY city had to wait weeks for their St. Nicholas presents to reach them from Europe, mixing gift giving up with Christmas…
When the British took the city in 1664, they brought the Germanic Father Christmas who became confused with St. Nick or in Dutch, Sinter Klass…The German Father Christmas – goes back to the Wild Hunt of Yule. During Yule, the god Odin was said to lead the Wild host on a ride through the winter skys bringing the promise of fertility…Father Christmas rewards good children while a sinister figure named Ruprecht actually punishes bad children with a stick…
So, yes, there are some roots of our current Christmas traditions in America that were not part of the early Christian redemption of the celebrations. I think the question for us is, how are we going to honor the early Christian’s intent to both celebrate jesus birth, (which everyone knew was not on dec. 25.) and to redeem everything possible out of culture?