WELCOME TO THE BIBLE

1. INTRODUCTION

The question, "What is the Bible?" was posed to a group of active Christians. The answers they gave can be summarized in one sentence, "The Bible is the inspired Word of God." Their answer is certainly right. But it also reveals a certain oversimplification, a certain one-sidedness, in the way most of us view the Bible. Why is it that none of the Christians questioned pointed out the obvious fact that when you open the Bible what you actually see is not a word but words, words written by human beings?

To say that the Bible is the Word of God is a declaration of faith. As a matter of fact, what we see when we open the Bible are the words of men. A more comprehensive answer to the question of what the Bible is should, therefore, take these two aspects of the Bible into account. A more balanced answer to the question would be: "The Bible is the Word of God in the words of men." It is important for us Christians who read the Bible to be always mindful of this two-fold nature of the Bible. If not we run the risk of making the same mistake as Monsignor Abraham.

Monsignor Abraham lived in a parish with a young priest who loved gardening. The young priest planted garden-egg in his garden and at meal time he would harvest some of it for the common table. This pleased Monsignor Abraham very much because he loved garden-eggs. At the end of the meal Monsignor Abraham would say, "Thank you, God, for these delicious garden eggs;" and nothing at all to the young priest. This drama repeated itself everyday and the young priest was dying to receive from the Monsignor some word of acknowledgement for his personal efforts, but he got none. So he decided to teach the Monsignor a lesson. That day he did not bring the garden-eggs to table as he usually did and, after the meal, the Monsignor asked him, "Why don't we have garden-eggs today?" The young priest answered him, "Ask God. You always thank Him after eating the garden-eggs. Ask Him why He did not serve you garden-eggs today?"

Actually, Monsignor Abraham did not make a mistake in thanking God for the garden-eggs. His mistake was that he failed to thank the young priest as well. It is true that eventually every good thing comes from God. Yet there is need for us to recognize and acknowledge the human hands through whom God gives us these good things because without their personal cooperation and effort we might not have those things on the table. This is true not only of the fruits of the garden but also of the books of the Bible.

2. THE BIBLE AS THE WORD OF GOD

The Bible, for Christians, is not an ordinary book. It is not just a good book. There are many good books in the market but there could be only one Bible. The Bible is the book of God; it has God for its author. Just as Moslems believe in the Koran and Hindus believe in the Vedas, Christians believe in the Bible as a record of the saving deeds and teachings of God addressed to all humankind, a record of divine revelation. The Bible is said to be the Book of God because it is inspired by God, it bears witness to God, and it can be fully explained only by God.

(a) It is inspired of God.

"All scripture is inspired by God" (2 Tim. 3:16). The expression "inspired of God" is the English rendering of a Greek word meaning "God-breathed". God breathed forth His spirit on the human writers and the Spirit moved them to write the scriptures. "No prophecy [of scripture] ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God" (2 Pet. 1:20-21). It is on account of the inspiration of the Bible that God is said to be its author.

(b) It bears witness to God.

"You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me (John 5:39)." The Bible bears witness to God in many ways: it is a testimony to the wondrous deeds of God in the history of his dealings with humankind, it is a treasure house of God's answer to the fundamental questions of human existence (e.g. where did life come from? why are we here? what does the future hold?), and it is a compass directing the steps of humans in their quest for at-one-ness with their Creator God.

(c) It can only be understood in God.

Only God knows the profound meaning of His word and He alone can imparts this to to men. "For what person knows a man's thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. 2:11). The disciples on the way to Emmaus found no consolation in the scriptures until Jesus joined them and then "beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27).

3. THE BIBLE AS THE WORDS OF MEN

Though we accept the Bible in faith as the Book of God, the fact is that what we actually find in the Bible is not just one book but a collection of books. It is, in fact, a library comprising of different books written by different men, in different languages, at different times, in different places, using different literary forms, addressed to different people, in different social and cultural situations.

(a) Different books

Catholics accept a Bible of 73 books, Protestants a Bible of 66 books and the Ethiopian Orthodox church accepts a Bible of 81 books.

(b) Written by different people

These include men of different professional and social positions such as kings (David, Solomon), priests (Ezra, Nehemiah), civil servants (Isaiah), farmers (Amos), historians (Maccabees), doctors (Luke, according to an ancient tradition), musicians (David); and men of different charismatic and administrative responsibilities towards the community of the people of God such as apostles (Matthew), elders (Peter), prophets (Ezekiel), missionaries (Paul), and visionaries (John).

(c) Written in different languages

The English Bible is a translation. The books of the Bible were originally written in three different languages, namely, Hebrew (for most of the Old Testament), Aramaic (for parts of the Old Testament books of Ezra and Daniel) and Greek (for all of the New Testament and most of those Old Testament books accepted by Catholics and not accepted by Protestants).

(d) At different times

The earliest parts of the Bible to be written down, found in the books of Exodus and Judges, are believed to date as far back as the 13th century B.C. and some books of the NT, e.g. John, are dated as late as the close of the 1st century A.D. That means that the Bible took more than 1,200 years to write.

(e) In different places

The earliest portions of the Bible were probably written in the desert before the Israelites settled down in the land of Canaan. Most of the books, however, were written in Jerusalem at the time of the kinds and prophets. Others were written in Samaria, Assyria, Alexandria, Rome, Ephesus, Patmos, etc.

(f) In different literary forms

The books of the Bible are not all written in one form. Some (e.g. Genesis) are in the prose form which is ideal for story telling, some (e.g. Psalms) are in the poetic form which is ideal for recitation and singing, and others (e.g. the Ten Commandments) are in the legal code form which is ideal for citation and reference. Some are factual (what actually happened) and some are fictional (imaginary events that did not happen, like the parables). Some are like news reports (the Passion story) and others are personal reflections (like the letters of Paul).

(g) Addressed to different people

As Christians we tend to read the Bible as God's word addressed to us in our present life situation. This should not make us forget that the books of the Bible were originally addressed to specific communities of faith. These would include the tribes of Israel, the tribes of Judah, Jews in exile, the Greek-speaking Jews in Diaspora, Jewish Christians, non-Jewish Christians in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, etc. Some were even addressed originally to specific individuals such as Timothy, Titus and Philemon.

(h) In different social and cultural situations

The books of the Bible do not all address the same social and cultural situation. Some were addressed to people of a nomadic or semi-nomadic culture (cattle and sheep rearers) and others to people of a sedentary culture (farmers), some were addressed to people of rural culture and others to people of urban culture, some where written in war time and others in peace time, some where addressed to people in bondage and others to people in freedom, some where addressed to oppressors and exploiters and others to the oppressed and exploited, some where addressed to people in exile and others were addressed to people under persecution.

4. WHO IS THE AUTHOR OF THE BIBLE?

We have seen that the Bible is the word of God as well as the words of men. One might then ask, who is the author of the Bible, God or men? The answer, of course, is that both God and the human writers of the various books of the Bible are fully authors. Does this astonish you? Then think of the garden-egg story we told at the beginning of this chapter? Now, who is responsible for providing the garden-eggs on Monsignor Abraham's table. Faith and reason tell us that God and the assistant parish priest are both fully responsible. In the case of the Bible, the co-operation of both the divine and the human author in the writing of a book of the Bible is such that both deserve to be called authors.

Written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (cf. Jn. 20:31; 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:19-21; 3:15-16), they have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself. to compose the sacred books, god chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their powers and faculties so that, though he acted in them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more.⁽²⁾

5. UNITY IN DIVERSITY

In spite of all the diversity in the Bible arising from different writers of different epochs and with different concerns, all the biblical writings bear witness to a unity of faith in the one God. The Bible is thus a wonderful example of unity in diversity. The unity is underlined by the phrase "Word of God" (singular) and the diversity by the phrase "words of men" (plural). God has only one WORD. This one WORD is expressed by men in many words.

For God has said only one thing:
only two do I know:
that to God alone belongs power
and to you, Lord, love
and that you repair each man according to his deeds.
(Psalm 61/62:11-12 Grail)

Notice how, in this citation, tho one word of God becomes two in the understanding of the recipient and three as he tries to write it down. The mind of every Bible reader should be how to discover the WORD in the words of the Bible. Christ's castigation of the Jews in John 5:39-40 can indeed be paraphrased as follows:

You search the words of the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me; yet you refuse to come to me, the Word of God, that you may have life.

6. A GREAT MYSTERY

The manner in which the divine and the human are present in the Bible cannot, in the end be fully understood or explained by the human mind. We know that the Bible is fully human and fully divine how it happened. Such deep truths of faith are called mysteries. A good example of such a mystery is the Incarnation, the mystery of the word becoming flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We only know that in the person of Jesus Christ of Nazareth the divine and the human are fully present, but nobody can understand, not even the mother of Jesus how Jesus is fully God and fully man. Similarly, nobody can fully understand, not even the inspired authors themselves, how the Bible is, at the same time, fully the word of God and the words of men. The Church recognizes the validity of the analogy between the mystery of the Bible and that of the Incarnation:

Indeed the words of God, expressed in the words of men, are in every way like human language, just as the Word of the eternal Father, when he took on himself the flesh of human weakness, became like men.⁽³⁾

A similar analogy could be made between the Bible and the mystery of the Eucharist in which the body and blood of Christ are fully present in the ordinary form of bread and wine.

7. HOW TO APPROACH THE BIBLE

Knowing that the Bible is at the same time a divine and human handiwork should affect the way we approach, use and understand it. As the work of God we should approach it with much faith and humility. Much faith is required because without faith it is impossible to hear and understand the word of God. A man of little faith can find enough "evidence" in the Bible to lose even the little faith he has. Humility is also required since God reveals himself only to the humble ones. Jesus blessed His heavenly for hiding the knowledge of the kingdom of God from the learned and the clever and revealing them to the little ones:

At that time Jesus exclaimed, "I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children. [Matt. 11:25 NJB]

In addition, since the Bible is also the work of men, a knowledge of the human conditions in the place and time in which the various books of the Bible were written could help us to better appreciate their message. In fact, some knowledge of the historical, the geographical, the cultural and social contexts in which the books of the Bible were written in indispensable for a proper understanding of their message. To read the Bible intelligently some background knowledge is required. As John J. Dougherty has rightly observed:

To read the Bible without preparation is to read it in a vacuum, or in a fanciful world of one's own making. Either course is dangerous and may lead to a land of topsy-turvy interpretation. The inference is inescapable: some knowledge of the ancient world is an absolute prerequisite for intelligent Bible reading.⁽⁴⁾

The aim behind the book you now have in your hands is to provide the first steps in this kind of back-ground knowledge, a first preparation for a more enlightened Bible reading.

1. My apologies for the of use this traditional phraseology rather than the more inclusive "in human words". "In the words of men" is used on purpose to bring out more clearly the concern of modern biblical scholarship that many hands were involved in the composition of the Bible, and the concern of feminist hermeneutics that the Bible has a bias in favour of masculine interests and concerns.

2. Vatican II Dogmatic constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, n. 11. Emphasis mine.

3. ibid. n. 13.

4. 4.John J. Dougherty, Searching the Scriptures: A Popular Introduction to the Bible, Garden City, N.Y.: Image Books, 1959, 1963.

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