I love Bible study, and bemoan the ever-increasing biblical illiteracy that pervades the modern church.
But the following quote from Søren Kierkegaard from his book, Provocations, made me stop and think a bit. Is he right? Could it be that we do not have too little knowledge, but too much, and the correction is not to learn more, but simply to follow what we already know?
Here is what he says:
The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obligated to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. “My God,” you will say, “If I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world?”
Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.
What do you think?
I do not agree that the Bible is easy to understand. If it were, then its meaning would be agreed upon by sincere exegetes. If fact, the Bible itself states that some scripture is difficult to understand.
Gary,
You are right, of course. But I do think that sometimes people use exegesis to explain away challenging portions of Scripture and maybe even to create job security.
hmmm…
very interesting, … and provocative, as Kierkegaard only can be !
I like the way Alan Hirsch describe the “message” of the Bible as being “simplex”
simple because it can be understood by a child and an illiterate peasant
complex, because we’ll spend our entire life always discovering new aspects of it, and struggling to know more and more God and Jesus, and “the mystery” which Paul was running after (Phil 3)
I wrote something about that last year, and my basic question was “how can it be that intelligent and sincere people, reading exactly the same book (the Bible) end up with completely different conclusions ? ” and the question that come right after, and which I try to have an answer for the last 20 years (… and I’m now 29…) is “why is there so much divisions and denominations in christianity?”
apparently “good exegesis” didn’t prevent that denominationalism plague
I don’t want to rewrite this article in english, but basically, I came to the following conclusions
1- that Scriptures ought to be used in close interaction with daily reality (not out the blue, in abstraction, or in academic ivory tower)
2-it ought to be interpreted by what we could call “crucified” christians
3-and that “crucified” christian should interpret in the context of a “crucified” community/church (because being in a close knit church is a very good way to actually be “crucified” 😉 and sanctified, and because I need insight from others in my interpretations. God talks to everyones of his children, even if they are unable to read or mentally disabled)
1 Corinthians 1 and 2 is a very good guideline in that matter
Paul says: “we have the mind of Christ” (by the end of chap. 2), after having started with “And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”
When we are a crucified community/church, seeking humbly to know the will of God, in an actual struggling situation/practical problem, with love and humility we can finally say that maybe that time we got to have “the mind of Christ”. WE, not I, not you, not he, but “WE”
Jon Zens wrote something very interesting about that. You can see it here.
with Paul’s guidelines in 1 Corinthians 1-2, a community made by people which Paul describes as “Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.”
and it’s not to say that Bible Scholars are unuseful (I would be the last one to say that,… the New Testament was written for the big part by a scholar, Paul), but even a community as the one in Corinth can “function” and “know” the will of God.
everything is practical and concrete. Knowing all the atonement theories,the controversies about hell, and end-times debates, and the Calvin/Arminius debate ,. etc are really great things, but ought to be handled with wisdom
(sorry for writing so long comments…. )
Write away! You make great points.
is there any way to subscribe to your blog in English? For example, does Google have a translated page somewhere?
you can see a google-translated version by clicking on the right side of the page where it is said “blog translation”
or you can go here:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hp&hl=en&u=http://tommyab.wordpress.com?sl=auto&tl=en
the article I’m talking about in the previous comment is here
and the “drafty” article about spreading the gospel in a post-christian context here
Wow. Interesting to think about. Personally I feel like that could be true. Parts of the Bible are just difficult to understand…that is just fact. But if you were to simply read it and take what it directs you to do at face value..then yes!…how difficult it is to adhere to. You say to yourself..’surely it cant really mean that exactly! there must be an underlying, easier meaning to this.’ I can certainly see where the comment comes from, and again it may be true.
Its hard to say thats the case on a whole though. So many people interpret the Bible in so vastly different ways..its hard to say.
Thanks for sharing, it really makes you think.
Did Jesus teach from the Holy Bible? NO because it had not been written then. Jesus often refeared to the scriptures when he would say “it is written” when He was under attack from the devil and the teachers of the law, they used the scriptures as a weapon to control the people and they tried the same strategy with Jesus and when it did not work the plotted to shut Him up. I do get tied saying the same thing time and again yet to no avail when I say, do as Jesus did and obey what He said.
Love the Lord your God with your whole being and your neighbour as yourself, both these commands have equal standing and the encapsulate All the law and the prophets. Full stop. There is nothing more to add. Jesus also said “even greater things will You do than I have done”.
The Church wants us to believe there is no more revelation , they are lying because they want to control Their Church, but Jesus did not say build your Church He said “build MY Church”. The Church will never be united until that time happens we start to follow Jesus teachings and build His Church.
The Holy Bible was given to us by God to help us understand God. It was Not given to control and manipulate people and give power to the so called interlectuals of this earth. The American Red Indian says “the White man talks with forked Tongue” who do we know has a forked Tongue the serpent. Am I saying the Churches are speaking the words of the Devil? Well you’ve got everything else figured out, what do you think.
I don’t give up on people as I try to release them from their self imposed bondage, but they do exasparate me when they can’t get past Genesis 1 when God created the universe in 6 days, they don’t believe that and tell me what else can you believe in the Bible. I will put s stumbling block in Jerusalem. Jesus is both a stumbling block for the unrepentant and The Truth for those that believe without seeing. I will make them deaf and blind says the Lord, and give them up to their wicked ways so they will become enslaved to their own rechedness.
Follow the Lamb not the Ram.
Clive.
Clive,
Great comment. You are exactly right about why the Bible was given to us by God – not as a book to control others, but as a way to help us understand life, and to give us some parameters in which to walk during life.
Of course, Jesus did have all of the Hebrew Scriptures which He read, studied, and taught from, and the Christian Scripture (the New Testament) build on the themes found in the Old Testament. But still, He didn’t use the Scriptures to control others, and neither should we.