Fact or Fiction, part 2

Is the Bible Fact or fiction?

The simple response, yes. But that doesn’t really tell you much does it. I must state that these are ultimately my opinion and I understand that some of you will not hold the same opinions. If you disagree, please respond and let’s start a conversation.

The Bible is a work of fiction in many areas, There are places that we can say with certainty that the writing is absolutely fiction like the book of Esther, Daniel, Song of Solomon. These books were intended to be fiction. They do not relate history. Now there are some books that are historical or semi-historical these books do pose some problems for us because very infrequently do we have sources that affirm the historicity of the material. In some places we find several sources that are in agreement but are in conflict with the Biblical narrative. Other parts of the Bible take on what is obviously the Mythical tone.

Now, what does this mean? If the Bible is at best a questionable historical text, and likely a mythical book, does that make the Bible and its contents irrelevant? No. We see that these texts are the ways that people talk about themselves. So, it doesn’t really matter as much what happened but what the people believed happened and how they passed the story on. The ancient Israelites created their history just as Modern Americans craft a history. It is often more important the stories we tell about ourselves than the reality. So long as we continue to hold the Biblical texts as saying something important to us, they continue to relate some sort of truth.

For me, when I read the Bible I don’t look for a historical reality, you might choose to believe that there is history presented there, what I look for are the stories of how people related to one another and to their God. These are the important things to me. The Bible can be viewed as many different things, some are more healthy than others. The Bible can be a book of laws and moralisms; it can be a history lesson, some view it as their science textbook; for some the Bible is a spiritual director for others it is a judges. For me the Bible is a collections of individual and communal stories of humans’ quests and interactions with the Divine and the stories of the Divine reaching back.

If we want a more full view of God’s work in the world though we can’t stop with reading the Bible. We have to keep reading more accounts. Read the work of theologians from every era, from common Christians. Listen to your friends and neighbors talk about their relationship with God, most importantly listen to the least of these. To get a full view of God, we need to listen to the stories from the margins, those dangerous people, not dangerous because of themselves, but because God has a special relationship with those people we choose to turn away. We need to listen to the poor, the hungry, the lonely, the sick and imprisoned, and those people we determine to be “too sinful” or unrepentant.

My Bible is no longer confined to just the 66 books of the Protestant Bible. My Bible now remains a living breathing book contained in the world’s libraries and in the hearts and minds of all people who have a relationship or who desire a relationship with the One Living God.

~ by edwardwhpease on July 26, 2009.