Finding God in Scripture

Bertone

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781532604751
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Why should I read the Bible? Isn't it just a lifeless and detached piece of history, an ancient relic? You may have heard people ask these questions or even asked them yourself. This book will help you find the answers to understanding the Bible in a twenty-first-century context. We have progressed as a civilization, there is no doubt. The advances in computer technology, communication, and science, have improved the quality of our lives. But fundamentally--at the core--the desires and motivations of humans remain the same and it is to this that the Bible speaks most clearly. However, interpreting the Bible requires intellectual curiosity, commitment, and a desire to discover truth. Finding God In Scripture will equip you to better understand the nature of the Bible's message and the dynamics of how to interpret it. For example, just like today's modern writers, biblical authors used various literary techniques such as the complexities associated with plot and characterization in narrative or the use of poetry, evoking emotions. These literary techniques were intended to convey God's message and involvement in the world. Finding God In Scripture will show you that there is more to the Bible than the communication of historical information; there is a reality--a truth that can transform your life.

1

A Historical Survey of Biblical Interpretation

“The Bible Is Irrational”?

Bill Maher, a popular comedian who calls himself a “rationalist,” believes the best comedy derives from “gaps,” or what doesn’t makes sense. One of the best examples for gaps in logic, he says, is belief in the God of the Bible. In an interview with Fox host Bill O’Reilly, Maher asked the question, “If it [the Bible] is your perfect Holy Book written by God, why is there stuff in it that makes no sense . . . If the Bible is inspired by God, then how come so much of it is either wacky or immoral?” As proof of this statement, he then asked, “What about the part in the Bible that says if you see your neighbour working on a Sunday, you should kill him?”13 First, a minor correction: Maher incorrectly refers to Sunday as the day of rest. It was actually the Sabbath (Exod 20:8–11), which extends from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. Second, and more importantly, Maher makes the common error of attempting to demonstrate theological relevancy for today without making the appropriate historical and cultural inquiries first. The logical and erroneous conclusion he reaches is that the Bible is irrational, or “wacky or immoral,” as he puts it.14

The ancient Israelites understood the Sabbath as a day of rest from labour because the Lord rested on the seventh day of creation and blessed and hallowed it (Gen 2:3). On this day, the Israelites desisted from work because rest was considered to be a blessing to humans, both physically and spiritually. Not only did it provide the opportunity for physical rejuvenation in ancient Israel, the Sabbath day was also primarily dedicated for worshipping the Lord (Lev 23:3) and was a reminder that God had delivered the Israelites from bondage in Egypt (Deut 5:15). Weekly Sabbath observance was the essence of ancient Judaism’s identity. In the New Testament, Jesus regularly attended worship in the synagogue on the Sabbath (Luke 4:16), but he also reminds the Jewish people that the Sabbath was not an end in itself but was instead for the benefit of human beings. Their needs must take precedence over the law of the Sabbath, since the intention of the Sabbath was for the benefit of humans.15 Later Christians, who understood the resurrection of Jesus on the first day of the week as the most blessed day in their lives, began to worship on the first day of the week (Sunday) and designated it as the Lord’s Day.16

For Bill Maher, Sabbath observance and its enforcement may appear unreasonable, but for ancient Jews it was the basis of their identity and, more specifically, an acknowledgement of the God they served. Any breach of this observance would not only be a denial of Yahweh’s intervention in Jewish history but also an outright denial of Yahweh himself as the God of Israel. Understood in this light, we can better appreciate Jewish sensitivity to Sabbath observance and the extent of its enforcement in ancient Israel. Many years later, Jesus himself demonstrated how to place Sabbath observance in proper perspective during his time while still maintaining theological sensitivity to its nature. Certainly some modification would be needed to the extent of Sabbath observance in today’s Jewish communities out of consideration for the changing contemporary culture, but its meaning can still be honored. Thus, the “gaps” in logic Bill Maher points out in the Bible are really not “gaps” at all, for they disappear with responsible historical inquiry. This does not make belief in the God of the Bible irrational or even irrelevant.

A more academically inclined theorist who also claims the Bible is irrational is Richard Dawkins. He is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, who served as Professor of Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University from 1995 until 2008. Today, Dawkins continues to be an advocate for atheism in his publications and public debates. In his book entitled The God Delusion, he states, “To be fair, much of the Bible is not systematically evil but just plain weird.”17 Dawkins’ four-hundred-page book declares that belief in God is a delusion and belief in the Bible is irrational. He characterizes belief in the claims of the Bible as the purposeful suspension of critical thinking. However, this stereotype is in part the result of an overly simplistic method of biblical analysis. Dawkins, in similar fashion to Maher, has attempted to engage in theological discourse without first positioning the biblical text within its appropriate historical and cultural context.

The Bible represents the viewpoints of ancient civilization. One would expect the practices and beliefs it describes to be consistent with the world and society of the Bible. Compared to our twenty-first-century society, these beliefs and practices would appear anomalous. This does not mean they have no relevance for the twenty-first century. A responsible study of the Bible will first attempt to understand the text in its original historical context. Readers of the Bible may discover cultural and societal oddities associated with ancient biblical cultures (e.g., tearing one’s cloths on an occasion of great sorrow [2 Sam 1:11]; the idea that a tax collector is considered a sinner [see Luke 7:34]). It is precisely these oddities in the Bible that gives the stories the ring of truth. The peculiarities of ancient cultures make the Bible a realistic representation of societies in the distant past. Biblical stories are couched within the history, culture, and language of ancient society, and they employ the literary conventions of their world. We should expect nothing less. Dawkins would have us skip all historical inquiry and jump to the question of theological relevance without the benefit of first engaging in responsible historical inquiry. Dawkins’ interpretive methodology is typical of all who ignore or suspend the necessary investigative tools needed for the academic study of the Bible.18 This is most likely the reason he insists the Bible is irrational.

The Authority of the Bible Put in Question

Bill Maher and Richard Dawkins are representative of a larger movement that has been building for many years. They are part of a vigorous effort to demonstrate that the Bible is irrational and irrelevant. This movement to discredit the Bible advocates the position that “if the Bible does not make sense, it must not be true and the God promoted in it does not exist. If the Bible is not true and God does not exist, then why believe it and live your life by its teachings”? The underlying motive is to discredit the authority of the Bible based upon the notion that if it is not instantly understandable, then the Bible is of no use to modern thinkers. Some are under the mistaken impression that the study of the Bible is simple and uncomplicated—that is, we can open its pages and understand its message clearly without any need for investigative study, even though its contents are hundreds of years old and represent cultures far removed from ours.

Even many individuals who espouse conservative views of Christianity are under the impression that the Bible is simple and uncomplicated. Their belief is that understanding theology in the Bible is straightforward, implying there is no need for further study or research. It is as if to say, “A plague on all your study and research. We just believe in the Bible and the God of the Bible.” However, doesn’t the search for knowledge of God deserve a commitment to serious and responsible effort? Many inquirers believe it does. Like any historical document, the Bible deserves the appropriate tools for investigation. More than this, if the Bible teaches us about God, then we must be even more diligent in our study. The stakes are too high. Our search for God reveals God’s plan for our world and our purpose in it. This requires a sensitivity to the message of the Bible that can come only through careful and responsible study.

Our understanding of God can be misconstrued and the message of the Bible can become unclear if we fail to employ the appropriate analytical tools. For example, how do we understand a passage such as Deut 21:18–21 today? It reads, “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him . . . then all the men of the town shall stone him to death.” A superficial reading of this passage gives the impression that God is impatient, cruel, and even unmerciful towards a young person exhibiting apathetic and unrepentant dishonor towards his parents. Certainly more study of the original context is in order. It is only after we have done this that we can inquire about the text’s applicability for our contemporary society. The New Testament proposes a new covenant era in which many of the Old Testament laws and regulations are superseded by a new covenant code of ethics.19 This fact must be understood in our study of the Old Testament. God’s redemptive purposes culminate in the work of Christ, and this requires that all matters of ethics and theology be viewed through a New Testament lens if we are to appreciate the meaning of the Old Testament today.

As we shall see, very early in the history of the Christian movement individuals turned to quick and careless solutions to complex interpretive issues in the Bible, which ultimately resulted in a devaluing...

Table of contents

• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: A Historical Survey of Biblical Interpretation
• Chapter 2: Getting Back on Track
• Chapter 3: Establishing the Text
• Chapter 4: How Did We Get Here?
• Chapter 5: Part 1 (The Artistry of the Text Itself: Biblical Narrative)
• Chapter 6: Part 2 (The Artistry of the Text Itself: Epistles)
• Chapter 7: The Subject of Literary Genre
• Chapter 8: The Question of Historical Context
• Chapter 9: Jesus in Scripture
• Chapter 10: The Spirit and Meaning
• Bibliography