Cluttering the Timeless Text
This
weekend, I will be the guest on Nick Peters' Deeper Waters podcast,
where we plan to unveil a new project related to our earlier ebook Defining Inerrancy.
For a long time, we have discussed with Mike Licona the need for
something else to follow that. You can hear more on the podcast, but for
now, this 2012 post speaks to one of the sorts of problems our new
project will address.
**
This past week one of my TektonTV vids got buzz-bombed by Sam Harris fanatics. 6 out of 7 left the usual vacuous slogans we'd expect from those in that crowd, but one left a semi-intelligent comment that concerns an issue I've addressed indirectly over the years, but never systematically. Their objection was (sic):
Is common language for that civilization? shouldn't be your god's word universal and consider that his creations (us) will be reading that for the eternity?
My answer sums up the matter:
No, there's no reason God's Word has to be "universal" like that (which isn't even logically possible; if you think not, produce such a document now). That is an unreasonable demand invented in modern times by members of a culture that thinks too highly of itself.
However, it also deserves some expansion. There are actually three arguments that can be pushed back at this sort of objection. One is, as I said above, that such a product is logically (to say nothing of logistically) impossible. The second is that God seeks disciples, not people who want things handed to them on a platter. So there's no reason why readers shouldn't be expected to do a little serious study.
But the third reason is probably the most important one, and it relates to a common problem I've noted before: That of e.g., Sunday School lessons that strain and stretch texts like Lamentations 3:2 to try to make them "relevant" to today.
The modern Western reader is obsessed with "relevance". It never occurs to such readers that something from God wasn't, well, meant for us who reside at the bellybutton of the world. In our eyes, it is much as this Christian viewer of another vid on TektonTV said (not with he same sort of dismissive intentions fundy atheists offer):
In the same way, Peter, whilst answering a local, contemporaneous issue for his initial readership, passes on to us a scripture that is universal and timeless. If the text were only intended to address a local contemporaneous issue, why would it be cluttering up our Bibles 2000 yrs later?
The dichotomy here speaks for itself: It must be relevant to us now, or else it is just "cluttering up" the Bible. While this particular viewer was not intending to be insulting or arrogant, that is indeed what this comes off as -- a statement of our own self-importance.
Here is the reality: The Bible does contain many timeless, universal truths. I daresay if you extracted them and put them in one book, it would be a book no larger than the epistle of James (once you eliminated all the repetition, or material that is thematically similar). Is the rest just "clutter"? No -- what it actually is, can be expressed by analogy.
**
When you go to a pack and ship store to send something small and breakable, they don't just dump it in a box -- they cover it with styrofoam peanuts, secure it with packing tape, and stamp FRAGILE all over it (so that, in some cases, the delivery people can throw it over a fence when they get to where it belongs...but that's another issue). The "clutter" of the Bible is just like that -- a genre "package" designed to deliver the universal and timeless kernels safely to others.
Without this packaging, what would be left for Israel in 1400 BC? Not much -- a short text that would require a great deal of interpretation to show how it was relevant to them in their own lifetimes. In other words, the application, as well as the exhortation, which is what much of that "clutter" is. Yet it is that very "clutter" that would persuade them of the necessity to preserve and pass on the whole, including those timeless, universal kernels.
In all of this, I have little sympathy for the modern reader who complains that it can be a lot of work to figure out what is universal and what is local or temporal application. Well, no, it's not. The next Tekton E-Brick will be what I'm calling a Direct Application New Testament, where I extract those universals and explain their modern application. How hard was that? It wasn't -- and it isn't. Most of the work, in fact, was already done for the Tekton Annotated Bible; the rest of the E-Brick will involve expansion of that, mostly by examples. Either way, this wasn't rocket science, and it's nothing that could not have been done by any Christian (or fundy atheist) willing to give up watching Big Bang Theory for a few weeks.
No, not in the way that is being argued. The fundamentalist automatically reads that to mean "all Scripture" as in "every verse" -- yet how is the verse in Kings which speaks of men "pissing against the wall" useful for teaching, correcting, and training in righteousness? It refers to Scripture as collective books, not as individual verses, which means there will still be what some derisively call "clutter".
It's time for many of us to get past the fundamentalist (and fundy atheist) attitude that says that either all of the Bible is relevant to us today, or none of it is.
**
This past week one of my TektonTV vids got buzz-bombed by Sam Harris fanatics. 6 out of 7 left the usual vacuous slogans we'd expect from those in that crowd, but one left a semi-intelligent comment that concerns an issue I've addressed indirectly over the years, but never systematically. Their objection was (sic):
Is common language for that civilization? shouldn't be your god's word universal and consider that his creations (us) will be reading that for the eternity?
My answer sums up the matter:
No, there's no reason God's Word has to be "universal" like that (which isn't even logically possible; if you think not, produce such a document now). That is an unreasonable demand invented in modern times by members of a culture that thinks too highly of itself.
However, it also deserves some expansion. There are actually three arguments that can be pushed back at this sort of objection. One is, as I said above, that such a product is logically (to say nothing of logistically) impossible. The second is that God seeks disciples, not people who want things handed to them on a platter. So there's no reason why readers shouldn't be expected to do a little serious study.
But the third reason is probably the most important one, and it relates to a common problem I've noted before: That of e.g., Sunday School lessons that strain and stretch texts like Lamentations 3:2 to try to make them "relevant" to today.
The modern Western reader is obsessed with "relevance". It never occurs to such readers that something from God wasn't, well, meant for us who reside at the bellybutton of the world. In our eyes, it is much as this Christian viewer of another vid on TektonTV said (not with he same sort of dismissive intentions fundy atheists offer):
In the same way, Peter, whilst answering a local, contemporaneous issue for his initial readership, passes on to us a scripture that is universal and timeless. If the text were only intended to address a local contemporaneous issue, why would it be cluttering up our Bibles 2000 yrs later?
The dichotomy here speaks for itself: It must be relevant to us now, or else it is just "cluttering up" the Bible. While this particular viewer was not intending to be insulting or arrogant, that is indeed what this comes off as -- a statement of our own self-importance.
Here is the reality: The Bible does contain many timeless, universal truths. I daresay if you extracted them and put them in one book, it would be a book no larger than the epistle of James (once you eliminated all the repetition, or material that is thematically similar). Is the rest just "clutter"? No -- what it actually is, can be expressed by analogy.
**
When you go to a pack and ship store to send something small and breakable, they don't just dump it in a box -- they cover it with styrofoam peanuts, secure it with packing tape, and stamp FRAGILE all over it (so that, in some cases, the delivery people can throw it over a fence when they get to where it belongs...but that's another issue). The "clutter" of the Bible is just like that -- a genre "package" designed to deliver the universal and timeless kernels safely to others.
Without this packaging, what would be left for Israel in 1400 BC? Not much -- a short text that would require a great deal of interpretation to show how it was relevant to them in their own lifetimes. In other words, the application, as well as the exhortation, which is what much of that "clutter" is. Yet it is that very "clutter" that would persuade them of the necessity to preserve and pass on the whole, including those timeless, universal kernels.
In all of this, I have little sympathy for the modern reader who complains that it can be a lot of work to figure out what is universal and what is local or temporal application. Well, no, it's not. The next Tekton E-Brick will be what I'm calling a Direct Application New Testament, where I extract those universals and explain their modern application. How hard was that? It wasn't -- and it isn't. Most of the work, in fact, was already done for the Tekton Annotated Bible; the rest of the E-Brick will involve expansion of that, mostly by examples. Either way, this wasn't rocket science, and it's nothing that could not have been done by any Christian (or fundy atheist) willing to give up watching Big Bang Theory for a few weeks.
A counter to this that has been offered is, "What about 2 Timothy 3:16 which says, 'All
Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and
training in righteousness'?
Doesnt that demonstrate that the whole Bible is useful to us?"
No, not in the way that is being argued. The fundamentalist automatically reads that to mean "all Scripture" as in "every verse" -- yet how is the verse in Kings which speaks of men "pissing against the wall" useful for teaching, correcting, and training in righteousness? It refers to Scripture as collective books, not as individual verses, which means there will still be what some derisively call "clutter".
It's time for many of us to get past the fundamentalist (and fundy atheist) attitude that says that either all of the Bible is relevant to us today, or none of it is.
Comments
The sad fact is that Christians disagree between themselves about what the Bible says. Is homosexuality wrong? Is the universe 6000 years old? Looking back at Christians in history, is slavery moral? Should Jews be persecuted? To a non-Christian that is very good evidence there is no God behind it all making an effort to ensure his message is clear.
Why is it a sad fact? We need to drop the pretense that only one view is valid everyone has to learn the one true opinion and and just spout that like little robots.
Judaism is more hip to the importance of diversity I wish Christianity was more like that,
Amen brother JP