The Bible: Why Do We Still Bother?

Why would we ever want to continue using an outdated book like the Bible for anything? Why this fascination with it? Why do some people even consider it the “inerrant word of God”? Are these questions familiar to you?

In this booklet, I will remind us of the most common arguments for dispensing with this book. Then, I will spend some time pointing out the continuing value of the Bible, despite those objections. I will end with a brief look at what the Bible is not, and what it is.

What I present is certainly not “dogma”! It’s the best I can offer. I will leave it to you to decide what you want to do with this sacred text of ours.

1. Why continue studying the Bible?

1. Outdated world view

In the first place, the Bible lives out of a totally outdated world view. For its authors, the world consisted of three parts: the earth, flat and with edges; an underworld of some sort, on which the earth rests, and a series of domes, above which were the waters creating rain, and above that were the heavens with the sun, moon and stars revolving around the earth, and above that, the heavens where the god(s) and other heavenly creatures lived.

This is a far cry from our current understanding of the world and its place in the universe. The change is dramatic and has implications for all kinds of ideas we find in the Bible. Note that this view of the universe persisted well into the Renaissance, and gave up its dominant position only very reluctantly, and after many serious doctrinal struggles within the Church!

1. Not even history!

In the second place, most of the Bible contains stories purporting to be factual and historical, but which have been proven to be mythical. Archaeology has not been able to prove the existence of Abraham, let alone the existence of Hebrew slavery in Egypt, or the Exodus from Egypt under Moses. And clearly the world was not created in six days, there was no Garden of Eden, no Adam and Eve, no original sin, no flood, and so on.

1. The Bible espouses some terrible values!

In the third place, many of the stories in the Bible describe a god to whom most of us could not possibly subscribe: a violent, vengeful, wrathful, interventionist god who punished humans for wrongdoing and sometimes rewarded them for their righteousness. Some of the values espoused by some people described in the Bible are downright primitive and tribal, and totally inappropriate to guide our lives today.

2. On the other hand…

1. The Bible offers a powerful vision of an alternative way to live

The Bible is a priceless artifact documenting how a small culture, surrounded by powerful civilizations, tried to be faithful to a Covenant they made with a unique deity unlike any other in the Middle East (or almost anywhere). A God whose name was so sacred that they were forbidden to pronounce it; a God who was prepared, as far as they were concerned, to adopt them as God’s chosen people, provided they agreed to a Covenant that ensured that they protected the marginalized, did not accumulate wealth, and kept themselves apart from other cultures.

It’s actually an amazing story! Here was an underdog people, who would never be able to reach the level of wealth and power of any of the empires that repeatedly conquered them, who nonetheless believed that they were chosen by God to care for this earth. It’s also a story of how this people evolved over the centuries in their understanding of this God and of God’s expectations of them.

What’s even more amazing is how, over time, they developed an understanding of what this God expected of them. For ever so long, this people still saw God as a god among many, albeit superior, but a tribal god nonetheless. One who would save them from their enemies (if they were faithful to the Covenant). And, over time, this culture broadened its understanding of this God so that, in the end, God was Lord of everything, and was characterized by Love.

Most of what the Bible describes as history is in fact “theological fiction.” But truth does not necessarily equate with factuality. After all, we still use fairy tales to teach our children important moral lessons! This theological fiction is full of very important lessons that live on today. Take the story of the Exodus. The heart of the story is the hero Moses, who, upon instruction from a divinity who reveals himself as YHWH – “I am who I am” (itself an incredible insight into the nature of God!) – finds a way to lead his people out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. But not before going through a long period in the wilderness. Why? So that they can forget about the horrible life of slavery under the Egyptians where survival was the only value, and learn the rules needed in order to be a thriving and responsible society.

1. The Ten Commandments

So what happens in that wilderness? The first thing the fleeing Israelites have to learn is to trust in God and not to hoard. This is the story of manna: God will feed the people, but they must gather only what they need for the day. Everything else will rot.

The second lesson they need to learn is how to live with each other. They were used to terrible conditions and tried to survive as best they could. Not a lot of trust or compassion or care. The Ten Commandments are a list of behaviours that are not conducive to a community which needs trust and cooperation. Check them out: we need every one of them if we are to be a civil society!

1. A culture apart

The leaders saw that, if the Israelites were to be faithful to this YHWH, they had to consider themselves a culture apart, and not get involved with any other culture around. Thus, the leaders documented a set of “purity codes” that would constantly set them apart from anyone else.

1. The power of the Sabbath

The most important part of this code was the observance of Sabbath – there is to be no work done on the seventh day. No other culture around ever offered a day off! Our “weekend” was never heard of! You worked seven days a week, to get as much profit for your masters. The Israelites were to refuse work one day a week. The Creation myth confirms it: if God needs to rest after six days of creating, humans can certainly do the same!

1. The Jubilee vision

Now comes the most extraordinary set of instructions for the new community. One could call it the Jubilee, or Sabbath economics. What it amounts to is a set of constraints on wealth. The rules are extensive and complex – and they are repeated several times in different Books of the Bible. Simply put, they command that every seven years, one’s fields should go fallow; that the stranger and the poor should have access at all times to the fringes of your property so they can feed themselves; every seven times seven years, you were to return any property you had acquired from others back to their owner; you were to forgive debts; you were to free your slaves. Just think about that for a moment! What kind of society would you produce if you did that? One in which everyone had what they needed, but no one had everything they wanted.

1. The role of the prophets

You might ask: did the Israelites ever implement these stringent rules? They tried. They had been told that, unlike other countries around them, they did not need kings. But they succumbed to the temptation, and, sure enough, kings started building palaces and instituting taxes and neglecting the poor, the orphans, and the strangers.

Fortunately (unfortunately for the rich and powerful), almost every generation produced prophets – people who felt driven to speak on behalf of YHWH and to call the people to task. You just have to read the scathing words pronounced by the likes of Isaiah or Micah, or Amos to see how the people were challenged to remember the rules of the Covenant!

1. The Bible contains excellent stories which carry deep truths:

1. Exodus – Captivity to Freedom

We’ve seen the outline of the Exodus story earlier in this booklet. The story is archetypal and speaks to us today. Many of us still remain captive – to addictions, to consumerism, to distractions towards wealth, power, and fame – and we need to be freed from these, so that we can live richer lives in just and fair communities. Just like the Israelites in the wilderness, we need to strip ourselves of old ways and learn new ones by paying attention to God’s Dream for humanity.

1. Exile – Exile to Homecoming

Another main story in the Bible is the conquest by the Babylonians, who take all the elite of the Israelite community into exile in Babylon, where they long for their homeland, their life-style, the religion, their freedom. We too often find ourselves in exile, longing to go “home,” where we are accepted as we are, where we are safe. Prophets reassure them that they will some day return. And when they do, they engage in rebuilding their society, their religion, their Temple, and their Covenant rules.

1. Expiation – Separation to Reconciliation

The Bible is full of stories of people who, through their behaviour, have violated community rules, broken relationships, and are shunned by their community, often experiencing illness. Through acknowledgement, honesty, some form of confession and redress (“expiation”), these people become reintegrated into their community, which forgives them, and they can continue to live rich lives. This happens to us all the time. You can see Jesus do this all the time as he went about his ministry in Galilee.

1. Covenant

The fourth main archetypal story is that of a sacred contract between God and a people. It’s a story of understanding and loss, recuperation, repeated failure, repeated forgiveness and retrying, because remaining faithful to God and God’s desire for us is never easy, never done once for all. The story allows us to transcend our petty worlds of daily routines, work, consumption, worrying about this or that, and to focus every now and then on the big picture – the really big picture! – why are we here? What is our real role in this universe? Why would the universe evolve self-sentient beings? How do we remain faithful to the call from our Creator to be stewards of this earth?

3. What the Bible is and is not:

1. What the Bible is not:

By no stretch of the imagination is it a science text! The Creation story is a powerful myth of God’s love for God’s creation, in contrast to similar creation stories from the surrounding cultures. But it does not describe creation itself! In its defence, it was the best attempt to explain natural phenomena available at the time. Just leave it at that!

Nor is it God’s inerrant word telling us how to live. It is not a single text. Within the Bible are huge contradictions – which is to be expected, given the different sources over vast time periods. The broad themes offer wonderful perspectives for our lives today. But using the Bible to say something like “But the Bible says…” is irresponsible.

1. What the Bible is:

The Bible is really a library of some 66 books (in the Protestant Bible, at least), a collection of stories describing how a people coped with political and military oppression, how they tried to remain faithful to an ancient vision of being a “people of God,” and how they tried to create an alternative culture to any of the dominant cultures around them.

It is also a record of the evolution of a people’s understanding of the transcendent reality called “God,” from a tribal god requiring human sacrifices (Abraham being told to sacrifice is only son) to a loving “Abba” (Jesus’ term, which means “daddy”) who cares for every creature.

It is a source for deep reflection on the nature of human existence and the goodness of creation. Try reading the Bible with this perspective in mind… Use a reliable commentary – it helps a lot!