On Believing in the Bible

 I got asked Wednesday if I believe in the Bible. As God is my witness, I have no idea how to answer.

Believe in the Bible? How could I not? The 66 books that comprise it -- 73 if you're Catholic, and 81 if you're Orthodox -- express the foundations of the Christian faith. It's all there, from the Fall of Humanity, right through the Crucifixion, and all the way to the end. Heaven descends to earth and God's fondest wish comes true as he walks among us. The Bible says that, and I believe it.

But it sounds so cheap to put it that way. I'm amazed when people actually read their Bibles. But believe in it? What does that even mean?

The Bible talks about a dome that's placed over the earth to keep the land dry. When it's time for it to rain, God has to open floodgates in the dome to let the water through. The Bible also talks about warehouses filled with snow, and it mentions talking donkeys and snakes with legs. It names people who lived for 900 years, women who gave birth when they were 90, and men who had children when they were even older than that. With its left hand the Bible tells you to roast the sacrificial meat and not to boil it, and with its right hand it says of that same sacrifice that you should boil the meat and not roast it.

The Bible tells us that Jesus celebrated the first night of Passover with his disciples, and then it tells us that he was crucified on the first night of Passover at the time they were sacrificing the lambs.

Believe in the Bible? Is this a statement of faith, or a declaration of identity? "Stand back, for we are the people who believe in the Bible."

I remember when I believed in the Bible like that. It gave me such a headache. There are a handful of places in Scripture that appear to say women have no business being in ministry. They're mostly in letters Paul wrote, and they read like someone spilled fresh pizza on a nice new rug and couldn't get the stains out no matter how hard they tried. There are a half-dozen other passages that read like someone butchered a pig on fresh linen. They're called clobber passages, and people use them to justify throwing children out of the house for being gay.

"You have to read Scripture the way it is," I often was told. After all, we believe in the Bible.

But the Bible's an old book, and not even one book. It's a library, a collection of mythology, legends, folk tales, law, history, poetry, philosophy and folk wisdom, genealogy, census records and polemic. It includes personal correspondence and letters to whole communities, and a couple books written in a style so rare today that it's hard to tell if the author wrote it in code or just after he found some colorful mushrooms to snack on. The Bible was written between 3,000 and 2,000 years ago on the other side of the planet in Hebrew. Aramaic and Greek, by a group of people who didn't even wear pants. Anyone can read it, but to understand it properly is going to take work.

The Bible is the record of a conversation, a long one, among a people who were trying to get to know God while he was trying to get to know them. Because it's a conversation, there are a lot of voices and they don't always agree. Some are harsh and xenophobic, like Ezra. He saw his people marrying Gentile women and said "You're polluting the holy race! Get rid of them." Others are as  warm and welcoming as a plate of fresh cookies and a glass of milk, like the book of Ruth, which welcomes and praises the very women whose presence drove Ezra crazy.

They were all included for a reason, but they're not equal in value. Jesus' favorite book was probably Isaiah, and like a good Jew, he knew the Torah well. You know what he didn't quote? The book of Judges.

Who believes in the Bible? The one who reads a clobber passage and decides, "Yup, gays are sick and in rebellion against God," or the one who tries to reconcile what he's been told the passage means with the sister who was there for him when he desperately needed someone? The one who listens when he's told what the Bible says, and accepts it; or the one who listens, thinks about it, and studies for years to understand the people and society that produced the Bible, so she can understand it in its original context?

Do I believe in the Bible? It takes a lot of hard work, but I'm doing my best.


Copyright © 2022 by David Learn. Used with permission.