Bible is not a history book

By Peter Espeut

Whatever Keiran King has learnt over his short academic career, he hasn't learnt much about the Bible. But that hasn't stopped him from pontificating about it.

The title of his Gleaner online column of March 12, 2014, 'The Bible isn't a divine text - it's a messy history book', makes two assertions about the Christian scriptures, neither of which is subscribed to by the majority of Christians.

First, the Bible is not a history book - messy or otherwise - and was never intended to be. The Bible is a collection of books of different literary genres: poetry and prose, proverbs and hymns, theology and musings, letters and carefully constructed short stories, laws and taboos, history and myth. The predominant literary form throughout the 73 books in the Christian Bible is 'theology'; the poetry, hymns and stories are theological, and whatever history is there is seen and interpreted through the prism of theology.

Religious fundamentalists believe every word of the Bible is literally true (meaning historical and scientific). Fundamentalists may be in the majority in Jamaica, but thankfully are in the vast minority globally. Keiran's broadside is really applicable only to biblical fundamentalists. Behind Keiran's critique of the Bible is scepticism about the historicity of stories about "pillars of salt" or "knocking down Jericho". But the majority of Christians in the world do not believe these stories to be history in the first place, so Keiran is jousting with windmills, or with fundamentalists.

Bible wrapped in human culture

Which brings me to his second pontifical assertion: that "the Bible isn't a divine text". All Christians believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, but don't agree on what this means. Many fundamentalists believe that God 'dictated' the books of the Bible to their human writers, making them nothing more than God's secretaries. The majority of Christians believe that the Bible is "inspired by God, but written by the hand of man", meaning that the biblical texts are rooted in the human culture of their contemporary context. Therefore, interpretation of scripture must take place at different levels; the meaning in the original context might be different from the meaning for today.

This approach to scripture is incarnational, meaning that it focuses on the human-divine nature of scripture. Jesus - fully God and fully human - does not scorn His human nature, and forges a partnership with us which we call the Church, and the Sacraments (which mediate His presence through human actions), and to produce children (He contributes the soul).

The Bible, then, is not simply a "divine text" but is wrapped up in human culture, and needs to be interpreted as such. Behind Keiran's critique of the Bible is scepticism that something can be both human and divine at the same time.

If the only experience one had with religion was fundamentalist Christianity, one might find oneself becoming a sceptic like Keiran. Fundamentalism opens itself to easy attack by sceptics and from theologians from older traditions. Fundamentalists argue that the only way to know Jesus is through the Bible. They argue that the Bible is their reference point, their unerring source of truth, the standard by which they live.

Faith is in Jesus Christ

Christianity is not a 'religion of a book' like Islam. Our Christian faith is in the person of Jesus, the Christ, not in a book. Our faith primarily is based on a personal relationship with Jesus, and the Bible is very important in assisting us to have this personal relationship. Persons who have never experienced the joy of close interaction with God will clearly be sceptical about the Bible and religion in general.

Keiran is puzzled about the silence of God since the last book of the Bible was written: "But for the last forever, including all of visually recorded history, we've got ... nothing. Nada. Niente. A couple of bleeding statues and Mother Teresa. If this is the same guy, he either has the Guinness record for brooding silences, or them Israelites were some lying mother-farmers."

But God has not been silent "for the last forever". The Bible tells us (1 Tim 3:15) that "the church of the living God is the pillar and ground of the truth". After all, the Bible came from the Church. The Spirit of God has never ceased to speak to the Church, fallible though it may be.

There have been many sceptics over the millennia, with stronger arguments than Brother Kieran; and the Church and the Bible which she produced has survived them.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and Roman Catholic deacon. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.