Scripture's Knowing

A Companion to Biblical Epistemology

Johnson

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781498204712
• Edition: 24
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Scripture's Knowing is a guide to the emerging field of philosophical study of Scripture, specifically about knowing. Assuming that the Scriptures speak verbosely and persistently about knowing, what do the biblical authors have to say? How do they conceptualize ideas like truth and knowledge? Most importantly, how do we come to confidently know anything at all? Scripture's Knowing follows the discourse on knowledge through key biblical texts and shows the similarity of biblical knowing with the scientific enterprise. The findings are linked to the role of ritual in knowing and implications for theologians and churches today.

1

Knowing

Biblical Language and Concepts

“Illumination” . . . is the plunge by which we gain a foothold at another shore of reality.

Michael Polanyi1

I will need the reader to bear with me for a few paragraphs.

Michael Polanyi portrays the moment of scientific discovery—what he calls “illumination”—as crossing a lake, landing on a far shore with a new vista of reality. Similarly, philosopher Esther Meek begins her definition of “knowing” by framing it as an act: “Knowing is the responsible human struggle.”2 Struggles happen over time and through the human body. Struggles are responsible only when we struggle for a purpose. Meek claims that as humans, we are not gifted with instantaneous knowledge. Rather, we must work for it. As all parents know, even grasping that “1+1=2” requires some initial effort to understand—even if the likes of Scout Finch no longer recall the struggle. I bring up basic addition here because most philosophers will go to mathematic examples when attempting to demonstrate their ideas about knowledge. Biblical authors, however, will not appeal to mathematics as examples to examine knowledge, though I believe they have something similar in mind.

When we use math as a proof of knowledge today, we are using the ideas associated with rigor and clarity in our culture. For us, one plus one just is two, and our access to its truth appears to us as universal—anyone can just see that it’s true. Scientist-turned-philosopher Michael Polanyi argues that an “illumination,” the “aha moment” of discovery, isn’t just a moment. That moment just is the culmination of the struggle to know. If even math requires striving and effort in order to understand the basics of addition, then we ought to think about what math proves and how it does so before we look at the Scriptures for a model of good knowing.

As an example, if two oranges and one apple lay on the table, a person with the basic skills of counting will have to observe what is on the table to determine that there are three pieces of fruit. Knowing that two oranges plus one apple makes three fruits reveals a learned and skilled process (e.g., discerning fruits from other objects). In order for humans to have that skill to just see that there are three pieces of fruit on the table, they must struggle to acquire the skill.

Even the ability to count objects (i.e., one orange, two oranges, three oranges, etc.) must be taught through rituals of repetition so that our ability to number objects comes through processes that we learned with our bodies as children. In a cruel twist of humanity, most of the work in teaching children these frustratingly simple skills is done in the period of their life that they simply will not remember.

Benjamint444, Navel orange1; Mgmoscatello, Apple picture.

As these skills are built up in us through those formative years, we are able to use them more quickly to solve simple problems, problems that were previously insurmountable to us before learning the skill. If asked how many pieces of fruit were on the table, I can easily assert “three” just by glancing. If pressed about how I came to the answer, I might report, “I just saw that there were three.” If asked when I learned to make such quick accountings, like Scout Finch I could naively say, “I’ve just always known how.” Without any parents or teachers to disabuse me of my ignorance, I could get away with such a belief about my counting ability.

Why am I talking about basic math in a chapter about biblical views of knowing? Because even when I have the ability to just see something, and even when it’s a genuine ability, that skill extends from a history of practicing, guided by adults, in order that I might be able to just see that 2+1=3. Anecdotally, parents can become frustrated with their child’s math homework because the parent does not understand how the child cannot just see the plain mathematic truth of “2+1=3.” As children, we struggled responsibly to see what is plain and obvious to adults. In short, knowing—even knowing basic math—is a process, and the moment of discovery is an event.

Examining the event without the process can create problematic views of knowledge. Problematic because they have little regard for the human body, community, and process in which they are bound up. For those interested in the biblical discourse, the ancient authors of Scripture regularly maintain the connection of the embodied person in her community struggling to understand reality over the course of time.

Knowing appears to be an acquired skill per the biblical authors. A skill is practiced until we achieve the knack for it, such as riding a bike or reading an X-ray. A child with the skill can just hop on a bike and go. A doctor who has the knack can just see a tumor in an X-ray film. However, the biblical authors presume that you must gain the skill through a guided process in order to see. Like a parent coaching their child’s first ride without training wheels or a medical student in a radiology course, we must embody guided processes in order to know. Once skilled, you see the world differently. Knowing is transformative, what Polanyi depicts as “the plunge by which we gain a foothold at another shore of reality.”3 Because it’s a skill, once you have it, the skill transforms you to just see something you could not previously see. You are different and, therefore, see differently.

If the biblical authors do not use mathematical examples to examine a theory of knowledge, then what is their version of rigor and clarity? Thinking through some examples might help, though they may not look very mathematical to us at first. In Genesis 3, the man and the woman of Eden just see that they are naked and hide themselves accordingly (Gen 3:7). In Exodus, the Israelites just see that YHWH4 opened the Red Sea and destroyed Pharaoh’s army (Exod 14:30–31). Conversely, the disciples do not see what Jesus is up to in Mark’s gospel (cf. Mark 8:17–18; 31–33). In Luke’s gospel, the disciples cannot even see that the resurrected Jesus is, in fact, the man walking with them for miles (...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Knowing
• Chapter 2: Knowing in the Creation
• Chapter 3: Knowing in the Exodus
• Chapter 4: Knowing in the Gospels
• Chapter 5: Knowing through Ritual
• Chapter 6: Biblical and Scientific Knowing
• Chapter 7: Practical Implications of Biblical Knowing
• Chapter 8: Further Reading
• Bibliography