A Misbehaving Bible

The Bible is a fascinating book. It is one of America’s best sellers and most quoted books on the market. Yet it is sadly one of the most misunderstood and misused books today. One cannot accurately calculate the extent of the damages inflicted upon human beings by the misuse of this holy book (think slavery and the appeal to the Bible for support of this evil former institution).

Scholar Peter Enns, author of The Bible Tells Me So . . . Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable To Read It (2014) identifies the crux of the problem: “Many Christians have been taught that the Bible is Truth downloaded from heaven, God’s rulebook, a heavenly instructional manual—follow the directions and out pops a true believe; deviate from the script and God will come crashing down on you with full force.” The Bible as rulebook! The Bible as instructional manual!  Herein lies the problem.

Christians are often compelled to read the Bible in a flat line trajectory, meaning: “The Bible says it, I believe it, and that settles it.” This particular view of the Bible is often expressed the following way: “The Bible contains all the answers to life’s problems.” Of course literalism is the preferred method of reading and interpreting the Biblical texts, unless of course your literalism becomes too dangerous or inconvenient (see Mark 9:47).

The Bible, says Peter Enns, often misbehaves in unexpected ways and its misbehavior is often swept under the rug or ignored. Like the misbehavior of a wayward child, parents will often ignore the misbehavior rather than do the hard work of dealing with it appropriately and in healthy ways. But make no mistake about it: The Bible is not the “Good Book” everyone thinks it is; there is quite a lot of badness and ugliness printed on its pages (probably a big reason guys like Richard Dawkins profess Atheism).

For example, how can Evangelical Bible believing Christians condemn Islam (and so many today do just that) for promoting a violent warrior god when their God is portrayed as such in their own Bible (stories of the Canaanite conquest/ancient infanticide no less)? Truth is the God of the Old Testament (Christians worship this God too) is portrayed as a kick butt warrior God who hesitates not in giving orders to kill men, women, children, and animals in the conquest of Canaan (okay the animas don’t count, but . . .).

Or how in the world do Bible believing Evangelicals ignore the two very different birth stories of Jesus reported in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke? No amount of pretzel twisting will harmonize these two narratives (see Borg & Crossan: The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Birth, 2007). Yet most church Christmas pageants are based on a false conflation of these two diverse stories, which I’m bad to report is a false reading of the texts.

Then there are the two very different histories of Israel’s monarchy in 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles. The histories are told from two very different perspectives purporting two very different political agendas. Here we go again, a misbehaving Bible that just can’t seem to get its stories straight. No amount of human effort can harmonize these two very different histories into one coherent history (but some will indeed try).

Then let’s not forget that the Bible barely gets underway when it offers two creation stories, each very different from one another (Story #1 in Genesis 1 and Story #2 in Genesis 2-3).

Yes the Bible can be a challenging book when read just as it is without any attempt to edit out the parts that are troubling. In the words of one blogger: “I have come to regard with some suspicion those who claim that the Bible never troubles them. I can only assume this means they haven’t actually read it” (Rachel Held Evans). I would add that they may have read it but did so in a vacuum.

I think a misbehaving Bible is intriguing, exciting and challenging, and keeps me coming back time and time again to glean wisdom from its stories, its poetry, and its compelling narratives (in spite of their discrepancies in reporting the facts). A Christian should not be fearful of a misbehaving Bible, but rather rejoice that it just may reflect a God who has a great sense of humor in order to tease us in such ways.

So here are my 2016 tips for how to best read the Bible and get the most from it:

1)   Take the Bible for what it is and not what you want it to be; remembering, the Bible does not need you to fix it.

2)   Let the Bible speak from within its own historical context and not your own 21^st century Western context (this is difficult to do but so rewarding in the end).

3)   Don’t attempt to harmonize all the discrepancies you find in the Bible, or sweep them under the rug, or pretend they don’t exist because they do exist.

4)   Look for the deeper meanings behind and beneath the texts rather than looking for easy solutions to life’s problems.

5)   Remember that the Bible is neither a history book nor a science book. It was not designed to explain the “what is” of life; rather it was written in order to give meaning to life.

6)   Quit using the Bible as a rulebook, it will only frustrate you.

7)   Keep reminding yourself that the Bible is not God. We don’t worship the Bible but rather we worship the God of the Bible (this is important).

8)   Finally, there are some really great books out there on the subject of the Bible. Read a few of them. Books like the one mentioned above by Peter Enns is excellent, or try this one by Marcus Borg: Reading the Bible for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously but not Literally, 2015).

The Bible is a great book but read incorrectly may cause you a great deal of heartburn. Lighten up and take the Bible for what it is: The story of God and humans and all that this relationship entails.