Can we be honest about how we really read the Bible?
While suffering from writer's block a few years ago, I took the time to browse through my old Bible. Big, black and leather, the King James Version, this Bible went back all the way to high school, when I'd met Jesus, joined a Baptist church and begun reading the Bible as Baptists are supposed to do. Thank God for those Christians at Florence, Alabama's First Baptist Church. Twice I read the Bible all the way through during high school and college, marking key passages with different highlighter pens. All this in addition to passages I marked during Bible studies, worship services and the like. Many professional biblical scholars trace their vocations to similar beginnings.
As I held that leather Bible I wondered: Which passages did that earnest 16-year-old choose to highlight? The Gospel of John assaulted my eyes, almost entirely yellow, orange and turquoise. Likewise for Paul's letter to the Romans, the "Roman Road to Salvation." Indeed, most of Paul's letters received fairly thorough highlighting. Then I came upon a set of passages that fascinated me: Ephesians 5:21-6:9, often called the "Household Code." Here's what I found.
"Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as unto the Lord" (Ephesians 5:22). Highlighted. Indeed, that advice must have sounded mighty fine to a 16-year-old prospective husband. Chances are high that I'd encountered this verse while dating the girl I dearly hoped I'd someday marry. That never worked out, but the highlighting remains.
"Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right" (Ephesians 6:1). I assume that I highlighted this one out of pious devotion, for I certainly did not enjoy obeying my Mom. She was and is a wonderful parent, but I've always had a stubborn streak. But this verse even gives a reason for obedience! Just do the right thing. A sense of holy obligation must have moved me to highlight this verse.
"Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ..." (Ephesians 6:5). This one I did not highlight. Having read other translations, I knew that "servants" meant not employees but slaves. How could a white young man, reading the Bible in Alabama around 1981 or 1982, possibly highlight this verse? That 16-year-old boy knew a truth he could not articulate: some verses you just can't highlight.
I studied the Bible as best I could, but I knew almost nothing about slavery in the biblical world. That topic fascinates me now. (Did you know that slaves constituted perhaps half the population of ancient Rome?) As a teenager my knowledge consisted of this: the legacy of slavery still haunted my daily life. In my public school, perhaps 30 percent of my fellow students were African Americans. As an athlete, the proportion of black teammates was slightly higher. Yet, though I was a single teacher's son, very few of my black peers enjoyed my standard of living. My advanced classes were almost exclusively white. My awareness of how deeply race shaped my childhood is still growing, but this 16-year-old white boy could not read, "Servants, be obedient," without a moment of reflection.
I've learned a great deal from that encounter with my old Bible. Most importantly, we Bible readers need to be honest about what we're doing. Too easily we package the Bible in blanket statements. It's inspired. It's inerrant. It's authoritative. It's God's word. Alternatively, we describe the Bible as a user's manual for life, God's rule book, or (famously) "the message." Those blanket statements are really no more than slogans, for they do not describe what actually happens when people open the Bible and read it. I mean, really read it, from cover to cover.
Many people say they believe the Bible, but they don't actually read it. Some Bible believers read it only during the occasional worship service. Others start their days with a verse or two from a devotional guide. But few people take the time to read the Bible -- or even a single book of the Bible -- from beginning to end. What does it mean to pronounce slogans about the Bible if one doesn't know what it really says? One of the things it says -- repeatedly, by the way -- is that slaves should obey their masters. What does it mean to "believe the Bible" when it tells slaves to be obedient?
Many Bible passages discuss marriage, but we consult only a few. And it's a good thing too, since the Bible includes conditions for marrying a slave, how a man can dispose of a new wife if she fails to please on the wedding night, what a new husband should do if he suspects his bride is already sexually experienced and so forth. For centuries Christians could not work as bankers due to the Bible's general disapproval of lending at interest. As capitalism broke onto the scene, Martin Luther forbade lending for profit, while John Calvin allowed it. Today, Christians participate in the global finance system with hardly a second thought. Much of the Bible demands loyalty to the king; the Colonies had a king, they rebelled and today we remember the rebels as our "Founding Fathers."
The Bible continues to speak compellingly to individuals and communities in our day. It nourishes our highest aspirations, and it challenges our pride, our greed and our vindictiveness. But let's be honest. We all know the biblical books emerged from cultures far removed from our own in every way. We can evade the truth if we like, but all of us, without exception, highlight certain parts of the Bible at the expense of others. How we respond to the Bible says as much about ourselves and our culture as it does about Scripture itself. I would argue that being honest on this point marks a first step in becoming a faithful Bible reader.
Follow Greg Carey on Twitter @GregC666.
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Rev. James Martin, S.J.: Who Killed Jesus? An Examination of the Evidence
Sorry I don't buy Josh McDowell's arguments in Evidence Demands a verdict. Please read about actual processes. Nicholas Tesla inventor of Alternating Current claims his discoveries were influenced by the Bible. This is why people are walking away from churches as adults.Faith isn't just quoting sentences. Theology hates Faith. Faith conversely hates Theology.
Why? I clearly am very far short of perfect, a point to which my wife, and my kids, and probably my boss would all attest.
Why bother reading the Bible at all if there is no testable evidence to support the existence of the god it represents? Faith and knowledge are two different things.
It means evidence that can be tested to substantiate the existence of the Bible God, or any of the other countless gods for that matter. Using the Bible or the Torah as proof of God, is like using the novel 'The Time Machine' as proof of Morlocks.
Testable:
"A procedure for critical evaluation; a means of determining the presence, quality, or truth of something."
Just because people believe something, doesn't make it true. For example, Hinduism was invented more than 2,500 years before Christianity, and it has well over 1-billion followers. Their (main) Gods are Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. I'll go out on a limb and bet that you don't believe in Hinduism or any of it's Gods, yet there is exactly the same amount of "testable evidence" for the existence their Gods as there is for yours... none. Zero.
Bottom line? So far, God only exists in the minds of those who believe it. If and when it's proven that this or that god exists, it will be because "testable evidence" has been presented, tested, and verified. It's the only way to separate fact from fiction.
I'm responding here to your 5:44 post because of no reply button above. You say this: "i'll still regard faith it as a trait (some would say 'gift') that some have and which requires the irrational jump over the inability to prove it. some have even told me that it's not, indeed, real faith until you do."
I agree with much of what you say in your post, but I do disagree with the word "irrational" in calling faith an "irrational jump over the inability to prove it." Faith is not irrational. Think of the synonym "trust" for faith. If I trust that God exists, I place my trust in many people, events & experiences, all of which I interpret & relate to rationally. I trust the Old Testament because I know many wise, self-actualizing, loving, responsible people who trust it, study it, venerate it, & apply its teachings to their lives in ways that enrich & enhance their lives. I trust the NT because it makes perfect sense to me & I trust that the morality & way of life it teaches, to the extent to which I can conform my life to it, enriches & enhances my life. I trust God because I have an ongoing relationship with God, part of which has been some profound spiritual experiences that have brought me great love, joy, comfort & peace. None of this is in any way irrational.
Living life without religion or the belief in a deity is more favourable internally. Every moral decision faced lingers on the concious. Where as Abrahamic religions create an atmosphere of no consequence and no inherent incentive to be righteous. Every bad decision through ignorance or spite is countered through forgiveness, and every good decision is done in the name of another. Living non religious I have realized that my life bears more meaning and responsibility. I can no longer be ignorant to the consequences of my decisions, for ignorance has no place in a world without an omnipresent being.”
Num 15:28 And the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sins ignorantly, when he sins by ignorance before the lord, to make an atonement for him; and he shall be forgiven.
Luke 23:42-43 And he was saying, "Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!" And He said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.
These scriptures are my proof of Christian perceptions. Proof of the perception that on the death bed, acknowledgement of Jesus gets you saved, and proof that ignorance is acceptable.
Yes, folks do cherry pick verses to promote their agendas( again nothing new under the sun) and this is why folks should study Romans 3:10-12, as a reminder why we cherry pick verses.
Also, slavery in the Bible is not the same as the slavery most Americans are familiar with. Biblical slavery was either a form of apprenticeship which resulted in the "slave" being given money and property when his time of service was over, or it was a means for one to pay off debts owed to another. Either way Biblical slavery was both voluntary and, for the most part, temporary.
I've read the bible from cover to cover twice and there are parts of it that really speak to me but the same can be said of many other books. When I read the Stephen King short story The Body (later the movie Stand by Me), I felt that he had been peeking in on me on my 12th summer.. it was eerie.
I've long thought that reading the bible cover to cover at least once every 10 years should be a requirement for anyone proclaiming themselves to be a Christian. I suspect that after 2 or 3 readings, we'd have a lot more reasonable and reasoned people of faith (and a lot more people like myself who see the bible as a storybook)
The bible, along with other religious tomes have been the catalyst that has caused so much devastation and misery to mankind throughout its conception.
There is a lot of truth in that. But don't forget the other side, which is that the inspiration for so much of the good that people have done in the world has been religious. Even in our own, very modern, times. Look at the hospitals that were founded by religious groups. The colleges. The orphanages. Soup Kitchens. The list goes on and on even in our secular times.
Religion makes you think of more than your own immediate concerns, ties you to your community and your fellow man. Anyone who thinks that the influence of religion has been mostly negative is very mistaken, IMO.