Scripture

An Ecumenical Introduction to the Bible and Its Interpretation

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• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN:
  9780801046421
• eBook ISBN:
  9781441241658
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

Most Bible introductions are the product of a single person or present only one perspective. Written by and for people from a variety of faith traditions, this distinctive introduction represents the work of fifteen Protestant and Catholic scholars--all members of the same theological faculty, but representing a diversity of backgrounds and approaches. Part I introduces the Bible itself: its library-like character; its geography, history, and archaeology; the books of each Testament; important noncanonical books; the Bible's various Jewish and Christian forms; and its transmission and translation. Part II covers the interpretation of the Bible at various times, in various traditions, and for various reasons: in the premodern period and in the modern and postmodern eras, including recent critical, theological, and ideological approaches; in Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, and African-American churches; and for spiritual growth, social justice, and Christian unity. Offering helpful insight into how Christians (and others) have agreed and disagreed in their approaches to the Bible, it provides students with a clear, succinct introduction to Scripture as divine and human word.

Chapter 1

The Bible as Book and as Library

PAUL P. ZILONKA

The title of this book contains within it two ways of referring to its subject matter: Scripture and the Bible. The first, Scripture, sometimes used in the plural (the Scriptures), comes from the Latin for “writings” (scriptura); this in turn corresponds to a common way of referring to sacred writings in Greek: hai graphai (“the writings”). The second, Bible, comes from the Greek word for “book,” biblion. What we are about to explore, then, is a book, or collection, of sacred writings. For this reason, people of faith sometimes call this book the “Sacred Scriptures” or the “Holy Bible.”

Although many people use the terms “Bible” and “Scripture” interchangeably, as we will do, the two terms can suggest different nuances of meaning. For instance, many religious traditions have sacred texts, or “scriptures,” but only Judaism and Christianity refer to their scriptures as “the Bible.” Ironically, however, some people feel that the term “Bible” is more religiously neutral, and perhaps more academic, than the term “Scripture,” with its connotation of holiness or divine inspiration.

In this and the following chapters, we will attempt to look at the Bible, or Scripture, from both an academic perspective and a faith perspective. That is to say, we want to understand it both as a human book and as a sacred text, emphasizing the former in part one, which focuses on the Bible itself, and the latter in part two, which is concerned with the Bible’s interpretation, especially in the Christian churches. Our investigation begins with a consideration of the Bible as both book and library.

THE BIBLE AS BOOK

As we have just noted, the English word “Bible” originated from the Greek term for “book” (biblion), which is derived from the Greek word for the papyrus plant (biblos). Egyptian craftsmen produced an ancient version of paper by matting together strips of this marshland plant. The dried sheets of papyrus were then glued together in rolls to become a scroll. Jeremiah 36 gives a colorful example of how the invention of these materials contributed greatly to the development of the Bible:

In the fourth year of King Jehoiakim, son of Josiah of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Take a scroll [Greek chartion bibliou] and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah until today. (Jer 36:1–2)

Baruch, Jeremiah’s secretary, refers to the process: “He dictated all these words to me and I wrote them with ink on the scroll [Greek en bibliō]” (v. 18). Even though the angry king burned the document “until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire” (v. 23), Jeremiah dictated another with “all the words of the scroll that King Jehoiakim of Judah had burned in the fire, and many similar words were added to them” (v. 32). From this biblical passage, it is relatively easy to understand the transition from writing on papyrus (Greek biblos) to naming the finished product a book (Greek biblion).

Ordinarily, only one side of a papyrus scroll contained writing. (The heavenly visions in Ezekiel and in Revelation specifically mention writing on both sides of the papyrus as a sign of an extraordinary, supernatural message: Ezek 2:10; Rev 5:1.) Scrolls were the ordinary instrument for preserving and reading the sacred texts in synagogues; locating a particular passage required some dexterity with large scrolls. The Gospel of Luke describes the scene in the Nazareth synagogue when “the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to [Jesus]. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me . . .’” (4:16–17).

Papyrus was not the only material on which ancient writers inscribed texts. After animal skins were thoroughly cleaned and stitched together, they served the same purpose as the more costly papyrus, which only grew in certain regions (e.g., Egypt, Galilee) and thus often had to be imported. The abundance of sheep and goats in Palestine provided a steady source of durable scrolls called parchment (Greek membrana). Scribes who produced the collection of Jewish manuscripts (from around the time of Jesus) that scholars today call the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) used these animal skins, which were durable enough to survive after more than 1,900 years in clay jars.

In Roman times, writing tablets with wax surfaces were framed and hinged together along one edge. Since the frames were made of wood (Latin caudex), the set of writing tablets was called a codex. This arrangement allowed for writing on both sides. (It was the precursor of the modern book.) Soon sheets of papyrus or parchment were sewn together at the “spine.” By the second century C.E.,[1] the books of the Christian Bible were recorded exclusively in this kind of codex, while the Jewish community retained the scroll format. The practicality and economy of a portable document with writing on both sides was eminently suited to the rugged missionary lifestyle of Christian evangelists, and the codex helped Christians to think of their various sacred texts as constituting one book.

[Image not included because of rights restrictions.]

The first page of the Gospel of John from 𝔓⁶⁶ (Papyrus Bodmer II), the earliest relatively complete manuscript of that Gospel, dating from ca. 200 C.E. (Courtesy Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cologny, Switzerland)

THE BIBLE AS ONE BOOK

Most people come to the reading of the Scriptures with some preconceptions about what they are. Since they are often described by one, singular title—“the Bible”—and since, like most other books, the Bible has a front and back cover, it is understandable that so many people think of the Bible simply as one book. A quick glance at the titles in the Table of Contents might give the impression that the Bible is one book with many chapters. Likewise, religious believers confidently speak of the whole Bible as the “word of God.” This familiar heartfelt expression of faith significantly reinforces the idea that God is the one author of everything contained in its unified pages. And, to be sure, the Bible does tell one grand story of God’s love for humankind, which theologians have tried to summarize in such biblical words as grace, salvation, the kingdom of God, or covenant.

However, even after spending only a little time paging through the dozens of individual sections of the Bible, we discover great diversity in writing style and content, suggesting many different human authors and objectives. In addition, the dates implied in these texts range from the beginning of the world to what seems like its end in the not-too-distant future. This variety of historical epochs suggests long periods of use and reinterpretation of earlier documents.

Honestly recognizing the complexity of the Bible as a diverse collection prepares us to experience both why it is a treasure of great spiritual value and why it also requires careful study. In fact, the Bible attests to its own diversity.

THE BIBLE AS MANY BOOKS

The Bible clearly indicates that it contains other books within itself. Frequently, the Bible refers to the “book of the law of Moses” (2 Kgs 14:6) or the “book of Moses” (Mark 12:26). Mention is also made of other specific documents, such as the “book of the words of the prophet Isaiah” (Luke 3:4; cf. 4:17), the “book of the prophets” (Acts 7:42), the book of “Hosea” (Rom 9:25) and the “book of Psalms” (Acts 1:20).[2]

The Gospel of John also refers to itself as a “book” (John 20:30; Greek biblion). Likewise, the author of the Acts of the Apostles tightly knits that document to the story about Jesus that the same person had presented “in the first book” (or “account”; Greek logon), namely the Gospel according to Luke (Acts 1:1; cf. Luke 1:1–4).

This little journey of discovery alerts us to the truth that the Bible is not really just one book. In fact, we can speak quite appropriately of it as a “library of books.”

THE BIBLE AS A LIBRARY

In a library, individual books are usually organized according to particular topics. There are sections for science, philosophy, religion, history, art, music, biography, fiction, etc. An educated person has certain expectations about what information would be contained in the books grouped in these various sections of the library. Since library books are not generally organized by the dates they were written, two books by two authors who lived twenty centuries apart can stand side by side. For example, we might find a philosophical work by Plato (430–347 B.C.E.) on the same shelf as a commentary on that work by a modern philosopher and published just last year. Despite the vast difference of time, both books focus on the same literature of Plato. We benefit greatly when we read both works together, even though they were written more than two millennia apart.

In the Bible, individual books containing material spanning many decades (in the case of the New Testament) or even many centuries (in the case of the Old Testament) are joined together in collections. For example, the first five books in the Jewish collection (the Christian Old Testament) are usually associated with Moses, whose story links four of them (all but Genesis) together, yet the books were not written at the same time. Other books from different periods are grouped together because of their association with the ministry of individual Hebrew prophets. A smaller group of writings from various centuries concerns itself with provocative topics of a general nature, such as the challenge of belief in a God of love and justice while believers live in a world where innocent people suffer and their oppressors prosper. The book of Psalms gathers together 150 hymns written over many centuries. Gospels attributed to four different Christian authors stand side by side, even though many factors, including date of composition, distinguish them from one another. The same is true of letters by various Christian missionaries. The profound religious relationship among all of these writings from various time periods is not always immediately evident.

The diversity in the Bible with respect not only to date, but also to literary genre (type), is thus quite remarkable. As the previous paragraph suggests, the Bible contains historical works, prophetic books, quasi-philosophical writings, hymns, biographies (the Gospels[3]), and letters. There are also legal documents, short stories, collections of proverbs, sermons, records of visions, and other kinds of literature. Within each of these kinds of books, we find numerous additional literary forms, such as the well-known parables.

Having all the books of the Bible gathered together between two covers of one book makes them all available to us at the same time. Even though they have much in common with one another, we should never forget that each book has its own history of development and its own unique perspe...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Contributors
• Abbreviations
• PART ONE: The Bible
• PART TWO: The Interpretation of the Bible
• Glossary
• Subject Index
• Notes