This past Sunday, I began teaching the Sunday morning class about one of my pet topics: the history of the bible. I am deeply passionate about this book we call “the bible” and how it has been used by God through the ages to impact our lives for good. And so it seemed perhaps a good opportunity to share a little about my story and why that happens to be.
I grew up in a small, rural fundamentalist baptist church: good people, lots of love for me, but very strict understandings of what the bible was and a very low tolerance for questions being asked at all. They taught me the bible was inspired, authoritative, and infallible — and that the only translation you could trust was the King James Version. To question the bible was akin to questioning God — it was out of the question, as far as they believed; and so they quickly stifled any inquiry that even remotely pointed out inconsistencies or suggested varying standards of historicity.
But while I knew there was something deeply flawed with this understanding of the bible, I did not know of any other way to hold to the bible as a person of faith in Jesus.
While learning more about the history and archaeology underneath the bible stories during my early college years, the wheels on that bus came off entirely. The circular reasoning of the fundamentalist viewpoint proved to be a house of cards that collapsed when I came face-to-face with actual data and the freedom to examine it. The bible was still dear to me, but I wasn’t sure how to name its authority or claim inspiration any longer. I resolved to make an effort to cease making claims about the bible that the bible just didn’t support. And I committed myself to learning the languages of the bible, as I realized that doing so was key to engaging with these texts first-hand and learning from the “primary sources” instead of having to trust what other people thought.
By the time I had finished college, I had accomplished a biblical languages minor, having completed three years of biblical Greek study and two of Hebrew. At college, I added further study in seminary while serving as a tutor in both languages. Here, I also wrote a thesis exploring a lengthy passage of Kings and Chronicles for evidence of linguistic developments. Then at the University of Chicago, I was a student in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (now called the Department of Middle Eastern Studies). I learned many languages and studied ancient Hebrew inscriptions, Aramaic royal proclamations, Old Babylonian law codes, thanksgiving psalms from the Dead Sea Scrolls, Middle Assyrian letters, Phoenician and Punic inscriptions, and more. I admit that having classes above the Oriental Institute (now named the “Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, West Asia & North Africa”) made me feel a bit like Indiana Jones at times, as we would move into the museum to read from a particular stele or tablet in the collection. My research at the University of Chicago focused largely on the Psalms; the Dead Sea Scrolls have been particularly revealing with regards to the history and shaping of the Psalter.
All of that to say: I have invested considerably in this question of how the bible came to be, and I have done so precisely because I believe it is of great import to our faith and life. Much harm has been done and continues to be done “because the bible tells me so” — because toxic misunderstandings about the bible lead to dishonest conclusions and unchristian behaviors. I have felt for years that at least the justification for most every ugly thing done in the name of Jesus can be traced back to faulty claims about inspiration and authority…… claims that emerge from other claims about how the bible came to be.
My commitment from all those years ago remains largely intact: I intend to let the bible speak for itself. What I mean by that is that I attempt not to claim anything about the bible that is not supported by the bible’s own history and content. If I must, I commit to holding those claims more delicately, and only in cases where they are not contradicted by the bible’s own history and content.
There’s more I could say, but that probably doesn’t surprise you. I’d love to hear from you: What has been your relationship with the bible? Is there anything I’ve shared here that challenges you or that you disagree with? What would you like to know more about?
Remember, we’re all in this together.
Pastor Michael