Another issue that came up in class (see my previous blog)
is that of inspiration. How can we refer to stories in the Bible and use
methods from secular sciences and at the same time hold to the Bible as the inspired
Word of God? Or, are we not devaluating the Bible as Word of God by simply
referring to large chunks of it as stories? What are the implication of the above
for or view of the Bible as ‘inspired’?
We do not have the time and space
to discuss inspiration theology here. What we should say is that the Bible
did not fall out of heaven ready to go to print. It developed over thousands
of years and many authors have been involved in its writing. In faith, we believe
it to be the inspired word of God.
The interesting fact is, agreeing
that the Bible is inspired by God, that God did not choose to communicate to us
by means of a ‘flat’ abstract historical thesis. When one reads the Bible, it
soon becomes obvious that the text, that we believe to be the inspired Word of God,
is a multidimensional document. It uses narrative, poetry, parables and a range
of other literary types (genres) to communicate to us.
We all know that one cannot read fiction,
poetry, history or the newspaper in the same way. We need to understand the
type of literature we are dealing with and interpret it according
to that literature type’s rules. Not doing so, we might end up with a total
wrong idea of what the text wants to communicate.
If God then, communicate to us by
means of different genres, shouldn’t we take the trouble to understand his
communication accordingly? If the inspired authors of the Bible used narratives
to communicate God’s message, then we should take that serious and interpret it
as such. Otherwise, we might end up with a totally wrong understanding of what God
wants to communicate to us.
As Ryken (1990:9) correctly
observes: “To view the Bible as literature does not require one to regard it as
fictional or to compromise one’s view of its special religious authority.”
If God inspired the authors of the Bible
to write huge parts of Scripture in story form, who are we to think that it is
not fitting to read and interpret it as such?
Thanks Basie. I believe you make some very important points here. How do we get people in the pew to understand that they have to take the kind of literature in the Bible into consideration when reading it? Many people are shocked to discover that Genesis 1, for instance, can be (should be) read as a poem.
ReplyDeleteThat is quite a challenge. Churches are so polarised when it comes to these issues and quick to frame each other when someone holds a different position or sometimes, I think, do not understand an issue. So rather than giving some thought about an opinion it is easier to dismiss it if it is not understood.
ReplyDeleteA starting point would probably be to help people understand that genre is part of the inspired Word of God. If the Spirit did not did not mean that the biblical text should be written in different styles then why do we find different definable types of literature in the Bible?
The next thing would be to help people understand that different types of literature (also the biblical ones) need to be understood and interpreted according to their type. The challenge would then be to teach people how types of literature function and that all cannot be interpreted on the same level.
Good luck.