Q U I C K S C A N

Where does the Bible come from?
How do we know what's true in the Bible?
Why are some parts of the Bible so confusing?
Why are Catholic and Protestant Bibles different?

Readers reflect on Friar Jack's musings

Where does the Bible come from?

We think of the Bible as one book—and a big, formidable book at that! Someone might approach it like a novel. But setting out to read the Bible is more like trying to get through all the books in your local library. In fact, the word "bible" literally means "little library." Our Bible has many different kinds of writings between its covers, including prayers, genealogies, histories, poetry, letters, short stories, love songs and so on.

The Bible contains the records of 4,000 years of Judeo-Christian culture. Even before writing materials were invented, the many stories included in our Bible were handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. We call this "oral tradition."

As time passed, the ancient Israelites began to commit their community's stories to writing. The earliest written stories told about the deeds of the kings. The people also began to write down their songs (psalms) as far back as the 10^th century B.C.E. (Before the Common Era). But most stories were written down between the fifth and the third century B.C.E.

Adapted from Scripture From Scratch.

How do we know what's true in the Bible?

One way to safeguard against misunderstanding the intent of an author is to determine the kind of writing the author has chosen to use. Any piece of writing has a particular literary form: poetry, prose, fiction, essay, letter, historical account and so on. This is as true of the biblical books as of any piece of contemporary writing.

If we misunderstand an author's literary form, we will misunderstand what the author intends to say. In order to understand what we are reading, then, we have to make allowances for the form and change our expectations accordingly.

Now look at how literary form functions in the Bible. One of the inspired biblical authors—the author of the Book of Job—has written in the form of a debate. This literary form demands that you be as persuasive as possible on both sides of an issue. If you write on the side you agree with persuasively and the side you disagree with poorly, you have not written a good debate.

If you did not know that the Book of Job is a debate, in which some of the characters argue persuasively for the point of view with which the author disagrees, you might read an isolated passage and conclude that the book teaches the opposite of what the author intended to teach. You might think that the friends are teaching a valid message about suffering.

If we look at the book as a whole, we discover that the author places the truth he is teaching not on the lips of Job's friends but on the lips of God.

Adapted from Scripture From Scratch.

Why are some parts of the Bible so confusing?

All meaningful human expression must be interpreted to be understood. This is true of a film or novel, of a cartoon or a racing form, of a letter from a friend or a facial expression.

There is no such thing as reading a text "at face value," that is, without interpretation. To refuse to interpret is one way of interpreting, namely, literalism. It does not deliver the "real unvarnished meaning" but condemns the reader to a superficial (at best) or erroneous reading.

Given that interpretation is necessary for genuine encounter with the word of God through Sacred Scripture, how is such interpretation to be done? Three connections are foundational.

First, we must be convinced that God does indeed desire to communicate with us and that the Bible is a privileged form of that communication.

Second, however, we must realize that the Bible is not a crystal ball. It is a text, and like all great texts it grows in meaning as our life experience expands. But texts are themselves also products of the times, places, cultures and circumstances in which they were written.

Third, we readers are limited human beings. If we require preparation and effort to read the stock market report, we must expect interpretation of the biblical text to require effort: study, prayer, discussion.

Adapted from Scripture From Scratch.

Why are Catholic and Protestant Bibles different?

This question raises the issue of the biblical canon. Originally, a canon (from the Greek kanon) meant a rod or stick that one used to measure length, and hence a criterion or standard.

Catholics and Protestants accept the same 27 inspired books as making up the New Testament. But when we turn to the Old Testament, some significant differences emerge.

The decision finally determining the exact number of books accepted as inspired Scripture for Catholics was not made until the Council of Trent in 1546. The Council fathers accepted 46 Old Testament books, following what appeared to them as a firm tradition of the Church from ancient times. The leaders of the Protestant Reformation, on the other hand, rejected some books agreed upon at Trent.

The seven disputed books are: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch and 1 and 2 Maccabees. There are also some sections of Esther and Daniel not considered inspired Scriptures by Protestants. Protestants call these seven books the apocryphal books. Catholics call these same disputed books deuterocanonical.

Fortunately, today modern translations of the Bible are published in Catholic editions. These translations will include an imprimatur (assurance of a Catholic bishop that the text is in line with Catholic teaching) and the seven deuterocanonical books.

Adapted from Catholic Update.

Friar Jack's Inbox

Readers respond to Friar Jack's Christmas message.

Dear Friar Jack: I have never read anything as telling as the poem you had at the end of your Christmas message. I have asked a few people what they think about it and they do not like it, but MY Lord and God has never been so mightily explained. I have copied it and have it here on my computer. What a great reminder. I am a 70-year-old grandmother and I truly thank you. —Rita

Dear Friar Jack: Regarding the poem of Daniel Ladinsky in your last newsletter, through the eyes of a former Protestant, the casual familiarity of the poem is a reminder of the generally ex tempore style of Protestant worship, a worship that largely displaces reverence with various forms of sentimentalism. It is not so much that it is "earthy" as that it has shed the fear of God, for whom the predicate "wild" would not be apt but, while surely with good intention, patronizing. Please forgive my directness; I grieve for the soul that assumes this posture before God, for it is a posture that is possibe only at a regrettable distance.

My Presbyterian pastor, whom I still see late Sunday mornings when I join my wife and children, judged that a mature Christian does not fear God. Is there a truth in Pastor Doug's judgment which you, with Mr. Ladinsky, see, and that I have not?—Joe

Dear Joe: I agree with you that "the fear of God," rightly understood, is a value and attitude of primary importance. With you, I believe we should always nurture and hold on to the fear of God, properly understood, namely, as a deep respect, reverence and appreciation for who God is. In this sense, indeed, "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God," as the Psalmist says in Psalm 111 (verse 10) and as the Book of Proverbs often advises (1:7, etc).

What we might be disagreeing on, however, is the amount of poetic freedom we can give to a poet or a poet's attempt to communicate the mystery of God's love. Even the words and images of the Bible itself can appear to us quite earthy, sensual and sentimental in their poetic renderings of God's kind of love. Consider "The Song of Songs" of the Old Testament. The sensual love poems of this wisdom book are describing the love of bride and groom and have been commonly understood by biblical scholars over the centuries as expressing—at least on one level of interpretation—the kind of love God has for us human beings. Mr. Ladinsky's approach may seem like an "out of the box" way of thinking about God's love for us. But is it a matter of his being too "out of the box"? Or are we too imprisoned "in the box" of our own cultural thinking? He seems to me to be very much in the poetic biblical tradition of "The Song of Songs."—Friar Jack

Send your feedback to friarjack@americancatholic.org.

A Message From Friar Jack

Welcome! I hope you'll enjoy all of the news about what's happening at AmericanCatholic.org, as well as my "musings." By the way, I am a real Franciscan friar. You can find out more about me here.

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