Saturday, October 17, 2009

How does one read the Bible? On holiness as requirement for understanding the Bible!




The question is often asked "how do we read the Bible"? And answers are found by investigating its contents. But before we can even consider reflecting on the meaning of the Biblical message, we need to ask with what attitude do we read the Bible.

Biblical Studies began during the Enlightenment as a real discipline in which readers began to “study” the Bible in a “scientific”, learned manner. In this period they stressed that the Bible was a human book with a human face. Biblical Studies slowly became a science in which the Bible was considered to be a book like any other book. We can only understand it fully, it was said, if we acknowledge its human, restricted nature.

For many readers of the Bible, this was a liberating approach. For them it was nothing else than confessing about the Bible what they were saying about the Incarnation: the Word became flesh and lived among us. We touched it, saw it, heard it – the Word was truly human. This focus on the human nature of the Bible explained many problems which readers had with the Bible, without necessarily contradicting that the Bible was a book of faith. It was, after all, a book in which humanity confesses in human language its searching, exploring and often frail faith in God .

For some it even enhanced the special nature of the Bible: Exactly because of the many voices in the Bible of people who sincerely struggled to express their deep belief in a God who reaches out to humanity, the Bible stirred hearts and transformed people. People identified with such an approach.

And yet, as Biblical Studies developed, especially in recent times with the literary and narratological readings of the Bible, the Bible was regarded as a “text.” Biblical books were seen as written documents with a certain narrative, rhetorical and literary structure and function. So the process which took place since the Enlightenment continued, increased and is now at a place where the text became less “human” and more “object.”

So today we speak almost consistently of the Bible as “book”, as “text”, as “narrative.” We lay it on an operation table and dissect it to our own satisfaction and with great curiosity.

This is obviously a good thing – we pay minute attention to the text and take great care to understand it well. But in the meantime, the Bible wishes to be much more than that. One the one hand, it wants to be a divine voice, representing God’s words. On the other hand, it wants to be the words of John, Matthew, Mark, Paul and James. They speak, indeed in a human form, about how God touched and transformed humanity. We do not have a text, schluss, but we have voice in word who speak and communicate with us over the centuries.

To hold on to the fact that people wrote this Bible and speak to us, is highly significant. The reader of the Bible has to keep this constantly in mind. It is common courtesy to hear the other person out, to allow the other one to speak to me – and not to make them the object of my speech only.

It is even more so when that one shares his or her intimate, special thoughts with us. We listen to them because we hear words from their heart. It is a deeply respectful attitude which is required from us. One is even more respectful when someone shares his or her innermost feelings about his or her ultimate values. So one listens with respect. We see that person like others do not. We even see him or her as we do not often perceive them.

It is not so easy to listen to others. By listening to the other person, I put myself at risk. It may just be that I may be touched by his or her words. The words may stay with me, haunt me, inspire me or make me feel despair. They may even change my life forever. Their words may make me do things which I normally would not do. I do take on a special responsibility by entering into a conversation with the other.

This is even more the case with Biblical texts. They speak about a God who is holy whom Biblical authors experienced in all the divine power. Take off your shoes, Moses is told, before the consuming fire. You must be aware that you are in the presence of the Holy. You need to be holy yourself, without shoes, without anything which may be impure in the divine Presence.

The Bible is a text, yes. But it is also, we are told text-wise, something deeper and more than a text. It is a book full of words of people who have been inspired by the divine, ultimate being. The Bible is a divine word for which we need to be ready if we really want to grasp its meaning and communication. This simply means that we need to be holy. It is not a holiness which consists of a string of achievements which we can offer God. It is holiness in the sense of understanding we are in the presence of the Holy, of who we really are, how in need we are to listen, to heed, to receive, to be responsible, to respond.

We are at risk when we take these words in our hands, this text. We do so with responsibility. And with awe. Because, as is always the case, the one who speaks to me, from face to face, may bring me where I never thought I would be.

This is quite a challenge for Bible readers: in taking up the book, taking it into our hands, we realize what responsibility we take on ourselves. We are in the presence of the Other, the human one who speaks about God. We are in a holy sphere. It is a space we enter with deep respect, it is a Presence before which we stand in awe.

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