Today we call Bible Sunday, a day in the year when we especially
give thought and reflect on the importance and meaning to what we call “The
Bible”
If we were to ask ourselves “what is the Bible” we may get a
variety of answers. Furthermore if we were to ask people outside the church we
would get another set of answers.
For us it usually comes in the form of a book, though for many
today it may be on line or other digital form.
If we were able to ask the early Christians what was the Bible
they would give a very different answer to us. For Jewish Christians growing up
in the 1st century (Jesus own day and beyond) the Bible as we know
it simply did not exist! Strange to think this I know.
Scriptures did exist and the scrolls were regularly read
publically yet as we hear in Nehemiah they were always read … with
interpretation. The Word of God was never restricted to what was written on the
page the Word of God included “the interpretation”.
The Jewish collection of
books (what we might describe loosely as “Old Testament” or Tenakh in Hebrew, was not fixed until well
into the second century. There are just 5 Torah Book, 13 Prophet books and 4
collections of hymns. (22 books all told)
The New Testament as we know it was argued about for years and
consensus was hard to come by and it was not until the end of the fourth
century that something was decided and in fact a further deliberation came in
the late 16th century that a decision was finally made on the New
Testament Canon.
This also excludes the situation that some even today think the
Apocrypha is or is not acceptable!! So we cannot even reach a conclusion today!
It may seem strange to us who have been so used to thinking of the
New Testament that early Christians did not grow up with what we now simply
take for granted. Even the thought that you did not know the gospel of Luke for
example might make a huge difference to how we would approach Christmas! And
many Christians did indeed not know Luke, and others who may have known Luke
would not have known Matthew etc… everything was much more localized.
Perhaps one way of illustrating this for our minds today is how some
churches use one hymn book, and others a different one…. Think how attached we
become to hymn books!? (perhaps a poor example)
Furthermore we also have that key to scripture as Nehemiah
witnessed and also the Ethiopian Eunuch…. Interpretation…. How can we
understand without interpretation? This has always been key to scripture
throughout Judaism and Christianity.
It goes without saying that Martin Luther’s battle cry “Sola
Scriptura” Scripture alone was actually worked out with very rigorous teaching
and interpretation…. Even if only to cope with clear contradictions and
anomalies we come across in the differing texts.
Biblical Scholarship particularly from the 19th century
onwards has opened the pages of scripture even further, and new ancient texts
have been discovered since then too. Our current Bible is sourced from hundreds
if not thousands of different textual sources, words have been poured over for
years now to bring fresh understanding to a text we many have believed to be
set in stone.
Whoever wrote the epistle we call, to the Hebrews was probably
correct when they wrote:
“the word of God is living and active, sharper
than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints
from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Bear in mind of course that even this was written before a word of
the Gospels as we know them had been penned.
I do indeed believe in the strength and wisdom of what we may call
the Word of God….. indeed I feel this more today than I did in the 1980’s and
1990s. The Bible is truly fascinating and gripping, but it only so for me
because of study and learning about its intricacies. The more I read and learn
the more I am able to inwardly digest what is expressed and said. It certainly
takes patience too!
The Bible has forever been a text formulated and interpreted by
countless believers in countless situations. It is amazing how this is. It is a
lifeless thing to me without the people who read it and live through it. The
Bible this way does indeed become living and active.
The Bible without a believer is empty… as illustrated by that
interesting film called the Book of Eli.. the blind man who learnt by heart the
words and in this way was able to save the text from destruction.
And, as has been wonderfully expressed elsewhere
“Be careful how you live. You may be the only Bible
some person ever reads.”
On this Bible Sunday let us give thanks for God’s word living and
breathing through us. The text is nothing without the believer.
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