I remember my grandmother always referring to the Bible as the “good book.” The construct traces back to the Puritan preaching that prevailed in early U.S. history. During the era of American continental expansion in the 19th century, the reference became normative. Of course, “good” has several possible layers of meaning, but primarily it meant a book worth reading, a book that had some moral authority. This was especially true in a time when literacy was low and books were scarce. In those days, a family might own only one book, and it was almost certainly the Bible.
But in modern times, I have scarcely ever heard the phrase. Most commonly, especially from the conservative Protestant point of view, we hear the Bible referred to as the “word of God.” By this, I think they mean an inerrant text that conveys all that God needs humans to know to gain salvation. They interpret the New Testament comment, “all scripture is God-breathed,” as almost a sacrosanct process of literal dictation.
This conservative view, technically, is not verbatim, as the Greek word in some English translations is rendered “God-breathed” simply means “inspiration.” Conservative theology generally ascribes more to inspired human writing than to literal dictation from God. In other words, God worked through very human writers, like Isaiah and Paul. The common believer in the pew at church usually doesn’t understand this essential nuance.
Even among Christians, there are several different viewpoints, ranging from the conservative view mentioned previously to the Catholic and Orthodox view that tradition is equal with scripture. In fact, it was this element of tradition that most excited the Reformers, leading them to reject tradition in favor of “only scripture.”
In the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, there is also a strong emphasis on inspiration. The original writers were inspired by the divine, and the various men and committees who put together the collection of writings of the Bible as we know it today were also inspired by the divine.
Finally, the progressive Protestant view is that scripture is human testimony to divine experiences, but not God’s literal speech. This helps deal with the problem of translations somewhat. While all acknowledge the originality of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts, many conservatives believe that translations are equally authoritative. Most scholars, however, are not so accommodating. The scholarly view, and that of most progressives, is that the translations are little more than subjective interpretations.
When the Bible uses the phrase “word of God,” it means one thing and one thing only. The Gospel of John spells this out succinctly and the Greek text is clear. We need to ask but one question when reading the opening verses. He begins, in the King James Version, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” My question for the “word of God” people is this: Was the Bible there with God in the beginning? Clearly not, so there is no way to argue that the Bible is the “word of God.”
Now, if, as some of you say, the Bible is inerrant, then what is John talking about in chapter 1? Reading on, we find clearly that John declares Jesus in Verse 14, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” I don’t think the Bible could be clearer.
The Bible is not a fixed collection of writings. Remember, the New Testament was not scripture for Jesus and the early Christians because it did not yet exist. For Jesus and the early Christians, scripture consisted of two main parts: First, the Torah (the five books ascribed to Moses), and the writings of the various major and minor prophets of ancient Israel, known collectively as Prophets. The Torah was fixed by about the fifth century B.C., Prophets around the third to second century B.C. The writings were fluid until the latter part of the first century A.D., although they were known, sometimes used and sometimes revered.
When it comes to comparing the list of accepted writings, Christian traditions do not omit any of the Hebrew scriptures, although the order and divisions may differ. For example, Samuel, Kings and Chronicles are one book in the Hebrew scriptures, but each is divided into two books in the Christian canon. Catholic and Orthodox Bibles contain writings not found in the Protestant canon, such as Tobit, Wisdom and Maccabees. There’s even a 151st Psalm in some canons.
Source: Korea Times News
