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Section Reading the Bible Again for the First Time
A Cyberspace Discussion Group

Foundations: Reading Lenses: The Bible and God


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Click on the 3 sections below for materials according.
SUMMARY REFERENCES
IS THE BIBLE A WORK OF GOD OR A WORK OF HUMANS

Everything depends on how we measure the Bible as HUMAN RESPONSE to God. We will perceive everything differently depending on whether we see the Bible as from God or from humans. If we see through the lens of NATURAL LITERALISM, we will see God as guiding the writing of the Bible and that scripture comes then FROM God. If however we see the Bible as a HUMAN PRODUCT, we will see the Bible as a product of ancient Israel and of the early church. Borg sees the Bible in through this second lens. "I see the Bible as a human response to God. Rather than seeing God as scripture's ultimate author, I see the Bible as the response of these two ancient communities to their experience of God."

FIVE CASES TO ILLUSTRATE.
1. Literalism believes the Bible is God speaking. And so it has great authority. It changes when we consider that whoever is speaking, it is that person's voice and circumstances - albeit a comment, an experience of God's view is being expressed perhaps.
2. Genesis stories. If one, then these are God's stories of creation. If the other, they are an ancient peoples stories. The first perspective has led to some curious rationalisations between relgious and scientific circules.
3. Law. There is a lot of moral and legal rule in the Bible. If we consider God to be speaking it has a gravity attached to it. We see such in the controversy today on homosexuality. It is Borg notes curious to say the least that the larger body of old law is not read or considered or followed. A selective process is in hand.
4. Strange Stories. Selecting a story in Exodus of God trying to kill Moses, Borg points out there are a lot of strange stories that are glossed over by literalists. If the Bible is seen as a record of an ancient people, then the existance and meaning of such stories becomes more interesting. Why would God tell this story? becomes Why would Isreal tell this story?
5. Women. Borg then takes up the passages in 1 Timothy against women to illustrate how much is at stake whether we believe the Bible is to be understood as coming from God or from humans.

EITHER-OR. There is a group who try to straddle the fence on this. Borg points out the consequence then becomes a large effort to separate the God parts from the Human parts. It is he says "all a human product, though generated in response to God"

THE BIBLE AS SACRED SCRIPTURE

What does "sacred" mean. When the parts were written, they generally wern't understood to be sacred. Essentially it means a process of canonization. Scholarship now understands the Torah to have reached sacred status by 400 BCE, the Prophets by 200 BCE, the Writings by 100 CE, The New Testament by 367 CE

Sacred also means within and for a specific community (cultural-linguistic). " The Bible is the "constitution" of the Christian world, not in the sense of being a collection of laws but in the sense of being its foundation."

THE AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE

Related to the first lens of origins, we understand two different sorts of authority granted the Bible. If from God, then God is a kind of Lord (chief ruler).

The second lens leads one to a different place of "critical dialogue with the Bible" which "implies not simply that we make discerning judgments about the texts. It also means that we allow the texts to shape and judge us."

THE BIBLE AS SACRAMENT OF THE SACRED

Sacrament - a means of Grace. "Things are sacramental when they become occasions for the experience of God, moments when the Spirit becomes present, times when the sacred becomes an experiential reality." Sacramental use of the Bible is found among Jews, Christians and Muslims. There are many practices. There is also private devotional reading of the Bible.

It has long been the practice of religion to say "This is the Word of God" or some similar statement. The New Zealand Anglican Book of Common Prayer says "Hear what the Spirit is saying to the church."

THE BIBLE AS THE WORD OF GOD.

WORD is not plural. It is metaphorical and nonliteral. "Words bridge the distance between ourselves and others: we commune and become intimate through words. ... The Bible is a means of divine self-disclosure. ... the Bible contains the primary stories and traditions that discose the character and will of God."

CONCLUDING MEAPHORS FOR SEEING THE BIBLE

A Finger Pointing to the Moon. A good phrase borrowed from the Buddhists. Too often Christians have mistaken the finger for the moon, the Bible for God. If the Bible is necessarily seen through a lens, some have found their believe in the lens.
"Rather, being Christian is about a relationship to the God who is mediated by the Christian tradition as sacrament. To be Christian is to live within the Christian tradition as a sacrament and let it do its transforming work within and among us."
REFERENCES
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As an example of the EITHER-OR approach that Borg says won't stand up, here is a facisating example to check on. Thomas Jefferson compiled just such a Bible. He went through and edited out the strange and irrelivant parts and by taking out the Human he thought he had the God parts.

St. David's United Church.Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
The United Church of Canada.

September 30, 2001, feb 22, 04.