An honest reading of the Bible

“The Bible is the word of God!”

That was the very clear message that I received growing up in a conservative church that prided itself on being a Bible-believing congregation. If something was written in the Bible it had to be true. If I found an apparent discrepancy, the problem had to be my lack of understanding. The Bible had to be correct.

Questions piled up. Who married Cain? Did Methuselah actually live 969 years? Is the earth only 6,000 years old? Was it truly at the direction of God that David killed tens of thousands of people? Did a star actually travel through the sky and settle over Bethlehem to lead three “wise men” to the baby Jesus? I was asking more and more questions that seemed to have no answers.

Eventually, the questioning came to Jesus himself. The 17th chapter of the John gospel reports a long prayer prayed by Jesus. Who recorded the prayer? Did God dictate to John all those long Jesus narratives found in the John gospel? How could I trust any of the words of Jesus reported in the Bible? Jesus left no written records. The four gospels do not agree with each other in many details. Did the disciples and other followers have photographic memories? Questions piled up, and there were no reasonable answers.

Still Jesus was very important to me. I was a devout believer and follower of the teacher from Nazareth. When I committed myself to becoming a Christian minister, I knew that I faced seven years of college and graduate school. Surely, I would find the answers to my questions.

I found more questions. I often say that I argued my way through graduate school. I studied under fine scholars, who knew more than I, and who encouraged my questions. They had my respect. I trusted them. I learned. I learned to abandon old questions and to adopt new ones.

Most important, I learned that the Bible is a very earthly book written by earthly men. The authors can be identified. They can be placed in history and circumstance. They argued with their contemporaries. They were poets and writers of fiction. They were dreamers and warriors. They were priests, kings and peasants. Their arguments resulted in a collection of writings, which we call “The Bible” and in which there is not one point of view but several. As a seminary graduate I joined in the arguments with the writers of the Bible. I also inherited the task of inviting others to join in the arguments.

Through this process I have never lost my fascination with Jesus from Nazareth. My devotion to him is unwavering. However, my faith is no longer in a collection of writings. My confidence is in a person of history. I trust and worship the God that Jesus called Father in Heaven.

I have written newspaper columns for many years. The number of columns is many hundreds. Readers have responded from around the world. Respondents have been from the whole range of Christian denominations and theological perspectives. Respondents have included Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and non-believers.

I strongly suspect many readers have had the same experience as I have had. They have been exposed to “the Bible says and that settles it.” They have been asked to embrace every word of a collection of writings that raises more questions than it answers. They have been discouraged from joining the arguments of a collection of writings whose essence is argument.

The Bible is the best-selling book in the world. Most of those Bibles are the least read books in the house. The Bible is an exciting book. I encourage everyone to read the Bible and reread it. Some of the writings are worthy of memorizing. Some of the stories are the finest ever written. Who can ignore the lessons from the “Good Samaritan,” “the Prodigal Son” or Psalm 23?

I leave one strong recommendation. Put every piece of the Bible in historical context. A series of questions should be asked with each reading. Who wrote it? To whom did he write it? When was the passage written? Why was the author writing? What literary form was the author using? Is the passage a letter? Is it a poem? Is it a myth? Is it fiction? Is it an attempt to leave a historical record? Is it a code of law? Is it a short story with special meaning?

I have lived my whole life with the Bible. I never tire of reading its contents. (Although some of the material is pretty dry. I really do not enjoy reading genealogies.) I never tire of hearing public reading from the Bible.

And do remember that the Bible is a never-ending argument. Join the argument.