{"id":441,"date":"2012-05-03T16:24:26","date_gmt":"2012-05-03T16:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=441"},"modified":"2012-05-03T16:24:26","modified_gmt":"2012-05-03T16:24:26","slug":"var-_gaq-_gaq-_gaq-push_setaccount-ua-25646250-2-_gaq-push_trackpageview-function-var-ga-document-createelementscript-ga-type-textjava-38","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=441","title":{"rendered":"<script type=\"text\/javascript\">    var _gaq = _gaq || [];   _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-25646250-2']);   _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);    (function() {     var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text\/javascript'; ga.async = true;     ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https:\/\/ssl' : 'http:\/\/www') + '.google-analytics.com\/ga.js';     var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);   })();  <\/script>  <\/heat> Session 26 \u2013 Held on Sunday, April 29, 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Bible: is there substance behind the story?<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For nearly all of the first hour of our session we grappled with that question.\u00a0 Not knowing that we would discuss this question, I started our session repeating what has been something of a mantra; the Bible was written by persons of faith.\u00a0 It was written to persons of faith.\u00a0 It was written for their faith.\u00a0 To ask the Bible to be more than that is to ask the Bible to be what it is not.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean, however, that the actual questions that we have are not worthy of discussion.\u00a0 Nor does it mean that there are no historical facts in the bible.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s begin with a few facts that may have different meanings for different folks but they remain facts.\u00a0 The facts may seem obvious but they are worth keeping in mind.\u00a0 The bible that we have in hand is first a book, really a library of books, extending over at least a thousand years.\u00a0 So everything in it has to be mediated by the words.\u00a0 As believers we believe that the Bible is the word of God but that doesn\u2019t mean it is not also the word of human beings.\u00a0 In fact, the more we understand the human words, the more fully we can appreciate the word of God.\u00a0 Further, we have no extant physical books that are the original material on which the books were written.\u00a0 Thus every bible stands on the shoulders of unknown numbers of persons who passed the books down.\u00a0 They form a tradition, even if we think sola scriptura. \u00a0Now the Bible we have in hand is written in English, thus it is a translation and every translation has to be an interpretation, an attempt to convey to us in English what it meant to an ancient people in their time and place.\u00a0\u00a0There is not one translation, but many.<\/p>\n<p>For the record, the bible from which I have drawn my notes, for the most part, is the electronic version on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.\u00a0 The notes help us to understand what we have come to know about the historical setting in which the books were written, sometimes who wrote them, sometimes when they were written, and much more.\u00a0 The notes attempt to create a context for our faith understanding of the bible.<\/p>\n<p>As I listened to our group, there seemed to be two major factors out of which our question continues to be raised.\u00a0 First we were taught almost from infancy that the bible is true, after all it is the word of God.\u00a0 For a majority, but not all, of the members of our group true meant actual historical events.\u00a0 To be exposed to historical scholarship as our study group has been is to challenge the bible as we first learned it. This is unsettling.<\/p>\n<p>There seems to be a second factor which is expressed in terms of substance behind the story.\u00a0 The inference maybe more nuanced but ultimately it infers that either there is substance behind the story [read actual historical events as narrated] or the story is fiction, made up, not historically true, therefore, not substantial.\u00a0 The problem with this factor is that, I believe, it is a false dichotomy.\u00a0 It is not either or.\u00a0 It all depends on the nature of the literature.\u00a0 Ancient writers simply were not aware of such distinctions.\u00a0 They wrote out of belief, thus for them, nearly everything spoke of God, in ways that we find very difficult to fathom.<\/p>\n<p>As I compose this segment, I realize I need to bring this down to earth.\u00a0 So I will take one example, the flood.\u00a0 Maybe for most of us the word &#8220;flood&#8221; means water overflowing its banks, destroying what is in its path, drowning, etc.\u00a0 But it also can symbolize life, life that overwhelms us, that we can feel like we\u2019re drowning, that we can wonder why is this happening to me, that I need help, etc.\u00a0 The original author probably made no such distinctions.\u00a0 The flood was both of these at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>We come along thousands of years later.\u00a0 Life today, maybe more than thousands of years ago, can flood over us, overwhelm us, we don\u2019t feel like we\u2019re in control, and we want to be in control.\u00a0 Life today also presents us with a context in which we distinguish between fact and fiction, between fable and history, etc.\u00a0 We live in a world in which the overwhelming evidence is that it is at least 13 billion years old, that our earth is 4 billion years old, that human beings have been on this planet for more than 100,000 years.\u00a0 Etc.\u00a0 Etc.\u00a0 For me, the story of Noah and the Flood expresses many truths.\u00a0 The first that comes to mind is that our misdeeds have consequences but not in the simplistic sense that would argue God brought Hurricane Katrina onNew Orleansbecause of the behavior of the people ofNew Orleans.\u00a0 To hear such thinks saddens me because first of all it fails to understand both God and the Bible and secondly it presents an image of believer that has little or not attraction to me.\u00a0For the story reminds us that God forgives, God is committed to us, that every rainbow is a reminder of faithful God. \u00a0Even more, though, as a Christian I believe that that God became flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth and that he is the very Word of God, God Incarnate, and so the Christian Scripture was written to tell us of him.<\/p>\n<p>Well I better stop to ask you what your thoughts are, questions, observations, etc.\u00a0 I will comment on the Genesis passage next week, our final week of this study year.\u00a0 Remember we will change our format for the summer months, so keep in touch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bible: is there substance behind the story?\u00a0 For nearly all of the first hour of our session we grappled with that question.\u00a0 Not knowing that we would discuss this question, I started our session repeating what has been something of &hellip; 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