My Authority

People will often say, “My authority is the Bible.” It would be more accurate for them to say, “My authority is what they told me at church the Bible means.” That's not meant to be overly snarky. It's just the reality of it. There has never been a singular or unified interpretation of the Bible.

One's theological understandings are shaped and formed by their religious sub-culture or tradition. Throughout history there have been varying Christian views on even the most fundamental doctrines associated with the Christian faith such as the divinity of Jesus, existence of hell, God as a supreme being, the doctrine of original sin, and the Trinity. The idea that there is an enduring core theology that is accepted as "Christian" is not true. What is "Biblical Christianity" to one person is not to another.

There are at least 14 Factors that influence how one interprets the Bible:

1. Your views regarding the inspiration of Scripture.

2. Whether you would favor a literal or figurative interpretation of any given passage.

3. Your knowledge and awareness of other “related” Scriptures dealing with the same issue, including the immediate context and the broader context of the entire body of Scripture.

4. Your knowledge and understanding of the background and motivation of the writer.

5. The way in which a given interpretation fits into your over-all theological belief system.

6. Your level of understanding of the original language in which the text was written.

7. The various interpretations and commentaries to which you have already been exposed.

8. The ways in which one processes information - a Western cerebral approach, an Eastern intuitive approach, and others.

9. The degree to which you are willing to accept logical inconsistencies as part of your belief system.

10. Your willingness to change your views in the light of new information.

11. The degree to which you are satisfied with your current views.

12. The amount of time you are willing to devote to your theological study and inquiry.

13. The unwillingness to consider alternative interpretations that diverge from your religious tradition.

14. Your overall view of God that has been conditioned by many different life experiences and relationships.

Based on the above variables, does it surprise anyone that there are many different ways the Bible is interpreted? This is especially problematic because many people view the Bible as something to be "right about."

Our best interpretations of the Bible are subjective. People start with their own subjective presuppositions about what the Bible is, such as:

- the Bible was meant to present a coherent theology about God and is a piece of coherent doctrinal exposition

- the Bible is the inerrant, infallible and sole message/"Word" of God to the world

- the Bible is a blueprint for daily living

In many religions, authority is based in a sacred book or Scripture, and often, by extension, to those who are deemed most knowledgeable or equipped to interpret and understand them. Jesus’s religious tradition, Judaism, was very much a religion anchored in a sacred text, the Torah and the rabbinic commentaries.

Jesus was a sage and story-teller, and did not take his point of departure from texts of Scripture. In his core sayings and parables, the Scriptures are conspicuously missing.

Neither did Jesus write anything, or instruct his apostles to record what he said or did. It was not Jesus who commissioned the writing of the New Testament. Instead, Jesus confronted the religious leaders, finding them guilty of what amounted to Bibliolatry – the glorification of a scared writing.

One can take the Bible as a literary anthology—a collection of varied literary genres written by multiple authors over the span of many centuries. In its details, too, the Bible is a literary book. Most of it is embodied in the genres of narrative, poetry, letters, myth, law and visionary writing. The Bible is an Epic, telling the saga of humankind. It speaks to the central themes of our existence, including life and death, good and evil, the nature of reality, meaning and purpose, the non-material or transcendent dimension, suffering and flourishing, love and hate, politics and religion. The saga includes both the ugly and beautiful things we do in the name of God. It’s a story that is still going strong.

Personally, I think the originality of the story the Bible tells makes it a fascinating a profound piece of literature. In the beginning God creates the universe, gives life and orders everything, gradually fades into the background, hands the keys over to a nobody in Palestine who cobbles together a small group of peasant followers, and single-handedly sparks a revolution against the institution of religion, which results in his execution.

People view the Bible as absurd because they assume that the Biblical writers intended us to take sections like the creation story, Adam and Eve, the Fall, Noah's Ark, Jonah and the whale, etc., literally. No, there is not a Gandalf-God in the sky who asked Abraham to kill his son, did not command holy troops into battles and wars, and did not strike down people dead for disobedience.

In my view, attacking the Bible because you think it's a joke that the biblical writers invented the creation story, Adam and Eve, Noah's Ark, the virgin birth of Jesus, etc. as literal events, are missing the point of the stories. Just because fundamentalist Christians interjected many absurd interpretations into the Bible, isn't really the Bible's fault. Which is more absurd: that the story of a whale eating Jonah is in the Bible, or that somehow the writer intended us to take it literally?

But even given all of that, because of how the Bible was abused to damage many people spiritually and psychologically, it may never be a piece of literature one will be able to embrace meaningfully. That's okay too. There are many spiritual, sacred, and literary works that you may find worthwhile such as the Tao Te Ching, Buddhist Sutras, The Vedas and The Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and others.

The ultimate authority of one's life is not the Bible. The highest truth is not confined between the covers of a book. It is not something written by men and frozen in time. It is not from a source outside oneself. One's ultimate authority is the voice of truth within one's own innermost being.