Reflections
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 2 Timothy 3:16 NASB
Inspired– Why do we bother to investigate the historical and cultural settings of the biblical authors and audiences? If God is able to speak to each of us through the Spirit, does any of this tiresome research really matter? Yes, it might be interesting to academics, but for ordinary believers, isn’t it quite enough to have God’s word in the Bible and know that He can speak directly to my heart?
The response to these questions is found in an observation about language itself. The meaning of a word is how the word is actually used by the people who speak it. A true dictionary is not a list of words with their formal meanings, but rather a book that describes how the words of a language are actually used by the people who speak the language. For example, when I was in Yangon, I was required to leave my shoes outside the temple where I went to take photographs. When I left the temple, the attendant said, “You need to make a donation.” What he meant was that I had to pay to retrieve my shoes. The word “donation” did not mean a voluntary contribution. It meant a necessary payment. The word meant something entirely different in those circumstances.
This principle applies to biblical languages. Inspiration in the biblical text in actual use is quite fluid. The words used in the Bible were written by specific men (and women) during specific times in specific cultures. The words they wrote had meanings that the audience understood. But those meanings aren’t the same as the way we use the translated words today. In actual fact, the Bible doesn’t exist. What we have is a record of the interaction of men with God from ancient cultures and specific situations. What we have today is a compilation of the way men and women thought about and interacted with God in the past. And these records are fluid, that is, even though they are all complied in one book, they weren’t written that way and the language used in these records actually reflects changes in thought and expression from author to author and time to time. But the paradigm concept of the Bible does exist as part of a theological system. Under this paradigm, the Bible is a book inspired by God, and by that we mean that the text is treated as ifit is fixed and rigid for all times and all people. That’s why we have developed the doctrine of inerrancy.
Inerrancy is a theological/paradigmatic construction. The idea of inerrancy is that the Bible contains no mistakes or contradictions (in its original documents, of course). So when Paul pens, “All Scripture is inspired,” we read it as if he is saying, “Every word that you will read in this book called the Bible comes directly from God and is without error.” That’s not what he meant when he wrote to Timothy, but that’s how we read it after Aquinas, Luther and Calvin. The truth is that the biblical authors demonstrate a fluid use of the text. They can cite previous “inspired” passages while actually changing the text. They are typically unconcerned with contradictory details from one passage to another. They might even claim the Word of God contains no mistakes because “mistakes” are treated as deliberate, not accidental, e.g. the spelling of toledot in Hebrew. None of this bothers the authors, but the idea that the text isn’t exactly certain and determined bothers us. Why? Because we read the text with a theological paradigm that insists on certainty. We have a concept of God that suggests He does not change His mind or His character. We believe in perfection; specifically in the perfect God, and since perfection means “whatever has no necessity of change,” we conclude that what God says cannot ever be altered, especially if it is about who He is. Perfect in our world excludes the possibility of change.
The result of this philosophical/theological perspective means we think of “inspired” as a subset of “perfect.” And that means we ignore, overlook or attempt to explain away the evolution of biblical thought, the subtle contradictions and, in particular, the “fast and loose,” perhaps even cavalier way that the apostolic authors use the text of the Tanakh.
So, yes, you can still act as if all you need is your Bible and a good prayer life to understand what God is telling you in the text. Millions of believers act this way. But remember that “donation” means “you must pay” when you visit a temple in Yangon, and “grace,” “repentance,” and “sin” mean what the authors thought when they wrote the words, not what you want them to mean when you read the words.
Topical Index: words, meaning, inspired, inerrancy, 2 Timothy 3:16
Hello, possibly I’m getting myself in trouble here. I don’t have much historical background. Of the scriptures. I have some but only a fraction of what others have but the wealth of information that is available helps us to understand what was being said, along with what was meant to be heard there is a difference. Sometimes we hear what we want to hear. But when there is an understanding of the background. Is connected with the relevance of the reality. Authority. That was meant to be in place when it was spoken, and is spoken and will be spoken in the future. There is also a Clarity in the confidence that one can have what was meant to be heard the culture it was spoken. You can tell when a scholar is speaking. And the difference between believer is speaking is the conviction in the heart. Yes mixed with faith and trust….
…. The one that is read first is difficult, and under the most scrutiny be patient with reading this thank you.
Dismantling unlawful authority that colors our vision of who we are really dealing with..it’s a constant job it seems. Tearing down the false images of who we think He is and who He really is. The LIVING WORD, not a dead Word that fits our limited understanding and paradigm but one that has been living forever and fits us all, one size fits all, as it is presented so that we can understand what He is saying where we are and then when we have stretched it out of shape by working it and establishing it in our lives, we receive new garments or wineskin He reestablishes the boundaries/sizes to our new size and shape and stretches us once again and again and again. We enlarge the pegs of our tents and graze in an enlarged new pasture, fresh and new. Growing ever stronger and moving from glory to glory we are being made and conformed into His image. His sheep know His voice, it’s got that ring of truth. He speaks, we follow.
“Perfect in our world excludes the possibility of change.” Exhibit A of your point, I think, Skip. I have decided that truth can not be a static ideal (perfect) that we can measure ourselves against (i.e. as in I am less than truth, or more truth-like): truth (wisdom), as the Bible portrays it, is a living entity, expressed through us: a relationship with the Truth Speaker. Therefore truth can never be static, as “truth”, Biblically, is simply the description of what happens in relationship.
Relationships themselves are never static – never non-changing. Relationships are the epitome of change – of life – as they are a dynamic compilation – the mysterious one-ness of the duality of agreement BETWEEN. Relationships are always in flux – in change – because they are alive. In fact, I have become more than suspicious that life for individuals is only possible to the extent that they are in relationship with more than themselves. I believe relationship is the very fabric of life, which we participate in, not ‘have’ in some mysterious isolation FROM others. Life IS relationship.
In the parlance of relationship language, then, “perfect” is going to refer to the completed circuit of that agreement between: not whether or not one or the other of those in agreement ‘have’ the ‘truth’, but whether or not the truth has been expressed by the completed transmission of that agreement. In other words, either both establish what truth is together, or neither ‘has’ it at all. I believe truth is dynamic: that truth IS the expression of that image of relationship: of the life that is found only in the current BETWEEN. Neither ‘end’ ‘has’ life: life for either end is only possible when the circuit between those end points is complete: when relationship is successful: when perfection of life transfer is complete. Life is whatever is in between (relationship), and all the end points share it TOGETHER. This is the very essence, I am convinced, of what “oneness” means: not solitary, singular, but together: completed: perfect. Therefore, truth, too, is a description of what happens in between: nothing static possible: no ideal at all possible, either.
That does not mean truth is whatever I want it to be, however, or even what I think it is: truth is what I find when I relate to God, myself and others, and it will always line up with all the other relationships, too. This makes truth ever new, as it is not an ideal to be ‘reached’, but merely the description – the report as it were – of what is happening in relationship. When God tells us the truth, He is telling us a description – a command – of how to do relationship. That formula was designed by Him, but that does not mean it is a static formula! How could it be?
I believe truth, like all the other characteristics of God, is the very essence of the dynamic of relationship, then: the definition of what is happening IN BETWEEN. In that sense, the uniqueness of who we are – our identity as individuals – is established BY the unique dynamic we enjoy when our circuits are completed (“perfected”) with our Creator: our other half, as it were. I am who I was created to be when my Creator has unimpeded expression through me. Only when relationship is so solid that potential is realized is individuality even possible. Therefore, I believe individuals do not ‘have’ relationships: individuality – identity – uniqueness – (I am beginning to suspect) is a side effect of the life that relationship provides. In other words, my solidness is a derivative of how solid I am currently – presently – connecting with the other part(s) of who I am. My reality is a sum total of one-ness with all, not a singled-out point of ‘me-ness’ to the exclusion of all. This is my design: the image of how God (“oneness”) is in me: the very essence of how life works.
I believe truth, also, is established IN BETWEEN. I do not think there is esoteric ‘truth’ hanging out there in space – no secret knowledge to be passed along to worthy seekers: not even a divine yardstick with which to measure if I ‘got it right’ or not, as “right”(eousness) itself, in the Bible, anyway, IS what happens in between. I believe truth, too, must be a living dynamic of interaction. I have noticed that the truth of the Bible is always established in relationship. Thus, we see covenants established and re-established by mutual agreement. Prophecy, too, is open-ended as the other half of the probability of prophecy is the conditional action of those who are in the prophetic time forecast. Ezekiel describes a theoretical, conditional probability that was dependent upon the actions of Israel. When they failed to keep up their end, the prophecy ‘failed’, too. Was Ezekiel a liar, then? What is truth?
Let’s do this. Let’s start over with Skip. Let’s redefine all those words in that Good Book that haven’t been ‘working’ so well with the paradigms we got handed. I guess that is easier for those of us who got disillusioned when the ‘truth’ we got preached didn’t work so well when we tried it out at the race track. I’m up for some paradigm shifting: my first paradigm has already been trashed. Now, either I was lied to the first go round, or “truth” means something different than what I got handed! Let’s find some truth together, today.
“Unalone” and not on my own…
Amen! Yes, I agree!
We have a hard time believing and handling a LIVING GOD, He keeps moving and doing things we don’t understand and blowing our minds with His wholeness. We are so used to our idols not responding that we are shocked and don’t know what to do with HIm. Those clear membranes or sheets dividing us and the truth, those paradigms that have to be broken through so that we can be birthed into new dimensions of clarity and eternal reality. I find it so comfortable to just float along without struggling I don’t want to be changed sometimes, most of the time but I’m hooked on Him and I keep getting to be schooled with all the other fishes. This lifeline is held by the Master Fisher of men. He lets me be stimulated by the current, to fight His pulling even. One of these days He’s going to bring me in and consume me I’m sure of it.
I keep seeing this light bulb screwed into the socket and the current between the two wires sparking and making a connection…and then there’s always that beginning, “Let there be Light”!.
I appreciate all the different posts responding to Skips hard work. I don’t know where you come up with half of what you & others come up with but I really enjoy it and it always makes me think outside my little box, to have to think differently, stretch and change. Thank you.
This post reminds me of Pilate’s response to Jesus …
Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate *said to Him, “What is truth?” John 18:37-38
So, what is truth and where do you find it? I have found that it’s a Presence
Mark Randall, are you the one responsible for the fact that we can now edit our post-posts? I have been wanting to thank you for a while, now. Thank you for your effort and persistence, and Skip, too, for sponsoring that! Thank everyone responsible for this forum, too. It’s a big, pricey, labor of love that we should all appreciate: those of us who benefit every day. It is also dependent upon us, too. Let’s not forget that. God bless this community by means of us doing our part and appreciating all those who already are, too. He does it through us. May we let Him, today. Me too.
Thanks, Laurita! I just try to use software that will allow for the best user experience possible. Sometimes we get it right, sometimes we don’t 🙂 May your Passover be blessed!
There was a time I was driven to despair with the considerations of experiencing life as it is. Turning to Him, now I rejoice!
(I love this group…)
Hang in there with me on this one.
Words don ‘t impact anyone until they
are heard or read and thus internalized.
That moment of receiving is when meaning
is imparted. IF, that is, it is perceived AS it was
intended when written or spoken.
But the receiver may easily misconstrue the word.
Misunderstanding is usually a flaw in the receiver’s
network.
The word and its meaning remain intact. The question is
will and does God intervene to clarify? “I have much more
to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the
Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.”
I, for one, believe this . . . noting full well that many times it has
taken me many years to truly receive and understand.
I’m a slowpoke too, it usually takes me a while to really get it. I guess I have to help clear the airwaves from all the scramble and static that has been piled up inside me so I can hear clearly. I have been given a good headset I just have to learn to use it and turn the volume up!
Has anyone considered people search for a formula God has hidden and translate the Bible to meet their end means?
Maybe that is a part of why we don’t want change nor inaccurate translations because it
Messes up the formula.
If I do A + B I will receive C and be rich and famous and …
Food for thought. My Dad called it “brain bubblegum” something to chew on.
I think I love you Dad! If you don’t have a formula you have to use your FAITH, oh my!
Trusting that the “answer” proceeds from that which He has set in motion…”And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1.6
I miss my Dad so! He walked with God.
I’m not being argumentative, I’m really wondering! How does the Malachi 3:6, where God says, “I change not” fit? You see all through scripture where God was going to do one thing and then changed His mind because of of repentance or someone begging for mercy on behalf of others, but I always wondered about this verse. Is it specifically His character and our “churches” have just run with it in light of perfection doesn’t change?
The problem is that most theology (especially the kind preached in churches) confuses ONTOLOGICAL change with RESPONSIVE change. Ontological change means a change in the substance (in this case, the character) of God. So, the verse states that God’s character (what makes Him God) does not change. But responsive change means that God reacts and interacts with His creation, and He adjust His behavior, not his character, accordingly. The reason theology confuses these two (when human beings don’t), is that theology is committed to a Greek idea of perfection and that idea prevents us from attributing ANY change to God. So we end up with the dilemma.
I wrote my doctoral dissertation on this subject, in case you’re interested. It’s called, God, Time and the Limits of Omniscience”