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The Bible's Proper Use - Reframing the Center E1
61 Plays27 days ago
In an era where some Christians on the forefront of social justice and peacemaking advocacy, while simultaneously other Christians are running the department of war or promoting racial homogeny, it has never been more important for Evangelical Christians to wrestle with the questions, “what is the center of the Christian faith?” and “how is God known?” These are the questions we are engaging with in this four part series on “reframing the center.” While many western Christians may answer these questions with a simple, “the Bible tells me so,” there are a myriad of problems with this approach, the primary one being that the Bible does not speak consistently about God. This is a problem for the western mind, but it wasn’t a problem to the writers of the Bible, because they took a much more dialogical, paradoxical, and narrative-driven approach to their holy texts. In this episode, Matt lays out some of the ways that a Hebraic reading of the Scriptures changes the questions we ask about the text, and fundamentally reshapes how we use the Bible for theology and community formation.
Resources Referenced: Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus and Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus by Louis Tverberg, Jesus and the Law of Moses by Paul Sloan
Interlude Music: Vision (Instrumental Version) by Lu’
Theme Song: Believe by Posthumorous
Recommended
Transcript
Expressions of Christian Faith in the U.S.
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, it's the Reparidign Podcast. Thanks so much for joining us again. We're having a few conversations here on something that I think is really important. As I evaluate the Christian culture in the United States, and more specifically the evangelical culture, I'm noticing that there are vastly different ways that people are expressing the faith while ostensibly worshiping the same Jesus.
00:00:19
Speaker
Some are advocating for love and empathy towards strangers in the name of Christ, while others sow fear and encourage self-protectionism also in Jesus' name.
What Centers Christianity?
00:00:28
Speaker
I think this should really raise the question to us, what really is the center of Christianity?
00:00:33
Speaker
How is God known to us? Does the tradition provide us any type of consistency when we seek to shape our community's ethical formation in the world? I'd really encourage you to hang with us for the next four episodes here as we address some of these questions.
00:00:47
Speaker
So today we kick things off discussing how much our approach to the Bible and our use of the Bible ends up affecting the ethical formation of the Christian community.
Impact of Bible Usage on Ethics
00:01:06
Speaker
right, Matt, what is the center of the Christian faith? The Bible. Well, maybe. i am realizing kind of over the last several years that how a Christian answers that question can drastically impact their ethics and quickly can take people out of the world of abstraction and thinking about theology to like the very real impacts upon how they live their lives and how they form their Christian communities.
00:01:30
Speaker
It's in no small part, I think, why some Christians in our country are at the forefront of peace activism movements and and social justice advocacy, while others are running the department of war and celebrate killing image bearers of God in the name of the same God. So how can you have these two extremes and both of them are praying to God to bless the work of their hands?
00:01:51
Speaker
you know foundational to this discussion about what is the center of the Christian faith, we'll be understanding how to use or not use the Bible. After that, we'll be in a better position to maybe have a more honest discussion about the center of our
Eastern vs. Western Thought
00:02:05
Speaker
faith.
00:02:05
Speaker
Yeah, thinking about how we use the Bible. You and I have talked a lot about the importance of interpreting the text within its original context. Today, I want to talk a little bit about what we do after that.
00:02:17
Speaker
How are we supposed to actually use the text? Just as it's important that we interpret the text as the author intended, I think it's important that we be mindful of what the author intended for how we go about using the text as well.
00:02:29
Speaker
So this is going beyond the question of how to interpret the scriptures. It's also all about what they are and how to use them. Exactly. I actually think it might be helpful first to think about how we're used to using the text.
00:02:42
Speaker
In our modern context, we've been shaped really strongly by Greek philosophy, where we use logical systems and this kind of Western form of logic and thinking. We like to look at data and measurements, and we always want to find the underlying principle, the sort of unifying concept or maybe an equation that allows us to know what's really going on underneath the hood. Mm-hmm.
00:03:02
Speaker
When we encounter the messiness of Scripture in its narratives, its laws, songs, poems, and prophecies, our instinct is to look for the unifying concepts that explain the messiness so that we can understand what's really going on, so we can get to the simple, clean, abstract truth.
Ethical Formation in Scripture
00:03:20
Speaker
We're looking for a kind of single, consistent set of facts about God, about history, and the future that we can boil down to a small, consistent, systematic theology that smooths out all this messiness of Scripture. We're looking for a systematic theology from the Bible.
00:03:35
Speaker
Our first task in learning to use scripture better is reflecting on the fact that this modern way of thinking that feels so normal to us is actually kind of an outlier within human history. When we compare ancient, Eastern, even Hebraic ways of thinking to ours, we see really big differences.
00:03:53
Speaker
So while we prioritize understanding systems, an Eastern thinker would prioritize an integrated practice, actually figuring out what they want to do from the text.
00:04:04
Speaker
While we prioritize logical systemization, Hebraic thinker might actually embrace paradox. While we seek a rationalization that explains, Hebraic thinker would actually emphasize the need for dialogue.
00:04:18
Speaker
Let's start by, i think what is the most important one here, looking at this Hebraic emphasis on practice. Yeah, what do you mean by that? Eastern or Hebraic thinkers don't tend to make the same sort of distinction between knowledge and practice that we're so used to thinking about.
00:04:33
Speaker
but We're accustomed to separating the things that I know or what I believe from how I live my life. It's easy for me to kind of put those in two separate boxes. An Eastern thinker would see people as more integral.
00:04:45
Speaker
They would understand that what a person does reflects what they actually believe, and that those things together make up who they are.
Paradox and Narrative in Hebraic Thought
00:04:52
Speaker
So scripture written for an Eastern audience is going to emphasize ethical formation.
00:04:58
Speaker
It's easy for us to overlook that sometimes when we abandon a Hebraic approach to reading scripture. Narratives in scripture were intended to help form a corporate identity. The Torah was intended to begin a big corporate discussion.
00:05:12
Speaker
Prophecy was meant to be read self-critically, even for later generations. An apocalypse was intended to encourage and embolden its audience in the challenges that they were facing in their time and place.
00:05:23
Speaker
All these different genre types that we see in Scripture are all working towards the same end, the ethical formation of its audience. We can miss that when we're quick to read the Bible simply to obtain information and start organizing our understanding of history and abstract principles that we're looking for about God.
00:05:40
Speaker
When we do that, we'll start to read narratives just for history. Or maybe we'll read law as if it's intended as a simple set of commands. We might read prophecies only as declaration of judgment.
00:05:52
Speaker
We can start to read apocalypse just as prediction of the future. We need to be careful that we're looking for the ancient intent of these ancient writings and not just the mental ascent to abstract ideas that we as Greek thinkers are trained to try to find. Yeah, yeah.
00:06:06
Speaker
When God gave Israel the Torah, he didn't tell them to study it so they'd be ready for an apologetics debate with the Amalekites. Oh, yeah. He did, in Deuteronomy 4.6, tell them to observe the laws so that their wisdom and understanding would be shown to the nations.
00:06:21
Speaker
Wisdom in scripture is always about a way of life. Gaining wisdom is about changing a pattern or changing behavior. It's a big shift for us, but the ways that Hebraic thinking brings wisdom can be the real challenge.
00:06:35
Speaker
Yeah, and that makes sense within that context because throughout the Hebrew Bible, they were chosen ostensibly by God to be a different type of people within their ancient Near Eastern context.
00:06:47
Speaker
They weren't simply to be a people that believed different abstract ideas about the deities. In fact, it kind of makes us uncomfortable sometimes because some of their theology we don't actually share as Western Christians.
00:07:00
Speaker
And it's like God didn't even see fit to correct all their theological assumptions that they shared with their ancient Near Eastern neighbors. But what God did do is he tried to shape and fashion them into a different type of community that pointed toward a different type of reality.
00:07:15
Speaker
And this is, to your point, what wisdom is really getting at. Wisdom is getting at the ethical formation of a people, a different orientation of the way they lead their lives, to change the value structures of a community so that they prioritize things that God cares about.
00:07:30
Speaker
mental assent to facts may not be enough to make that formation. Grounding identity-forming narratives just might be the way to do it. Yeah, especially when those narratives invite people into conversation, into having to wrestle with that text, into actually interacting it with a way that helps transform them.
Multivocality and Community Dialogue
00:07:50
Speaker
Ah, so for example, in paradox, there's an invitation to talk instead of to shelf the discussion. And if you're talking about it, well, then it's going to be a priority. It's going to be something top of mind.
00:08:00
Speaker
Yeah, I think this use of paradox in scripture is one that can really throw us for a loop. So while we as Greek thinkers love to systemize our concepts and organize principles until everything is answered, at least in the abstract, Hebraic thinkers are much more content to deal with life as it is, in all of its kind of apparent contradiction and inconsistency. They're willing to embrace this paradox and take the space that it leaves between ideas as a room to kind of wrestle with these concepts.
00:08:51
Speaker
Lois Tverberg writes of ancient Jewish thought that it's much more comfortable with knowing its limits than is Western Christian thought. The Hebrew mind was willing to accept the truths taught on both sides of the paradox.
00:09:03
Speaker
It recognizes the mystery and apparent contradictions are often signs of the divine. Imagine for a second with me trying to teach your children generosity while also making sure that they're wise enough not to be taken advantage of people who might try to take advantage of that generosity.
00:09:20
Speaker
a Western thinker might try to first develop the abstract principles around generosity, right? When is it beneficial? What is the purpose of generosity? What do I need to know to verify if someone is actually deserving of that generosity not? Yeah.
00:09:34
Speaker
Then I might teach my children those principles and then help them work out in real life how we actually apply those principles to the situations of life. A Hebraic thinker might take a very different approach.
00:09:45
Speaker
They might simply tell their children two parables. One about a man who was too cautious about giving and ended up harming the community he was a part of and lost the respect of his family.
00:09:56
Speaker
Then that Hebraic thinker might tell their children another story about a man who was too generous, who got taken advantage of and his family became destitute because he wasn't wise in his giving. Those stories aren't meant to provide all the principles about generosity, but they're intended to invite someone into a conversation and to help develop the intended virtues so that when those children grow up, they can make the wise decisions that they need when they actually face the difficult, nuanced circumstances of life.
00:10:23
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. When we look at the Bible, we see lots of ideas that are in tension with one another. Does righteous behavior or wicked behavior lead to prosperity?
00:10:34
Speaker
Are humans lowly dust creatures with meaningless lives, or are they image bearers formed by the God of the universe? Depending on where you look, yes to all. Genesis two seven just the one verse, describes humans as both dust creatures and as specially created image bearers. That's right. They're both lowly and elevated, insignificant and important in God's design.
00:10:57
Speaker
Now, if you're a Greek thinker, there's a good chance you're already trying to resolve these ideas in your head. You're searching for a unifying concept that explains both of them. A Hebraic thinker would be much more likely to see the value of the tension of those statements.
00:11:11
Speaker
As one rabbi describes, a person should always carry two slips of paper, one in each pocket. On one it should be written, the world was created for my sake. And on the other it should say, I am but dust and ashes.
00:11:23
Speaker
On days when we feel discouraged and worthless, we should read the first one. On days when we're consumed with pride and our own self-importance, we should read the other. Hebraic thought values this multivocality sometimes it's called.
00:11:36
Speaker
It sees the benefits of holding seemingly incompatible ideas in tension. And rather than feeling this need to resolve or unify them, it places them into conversation, communal dialogue that invites people into discovery, into wrestling with these ideas themselves.
00:11:54
Speaker
yeah they're certainly not attempting to provide a unifying theory or to provide harmonizations between two conflicting ideas. They'll not only let them exist, but they'll embrace them and they'll instantiate these paradoxes into the holy scriptures, into the the holy texts, and then just leave them there to be wrestled with.
00:12:13
Speaker
Which can feel really frustrating or inconvenient for us Western thinkers when we see those because it feels almost incomplete to us. Like somebody left ends untied. it actually cuts right against the project of systematic theology.
00:12:27
Speaker
Can you imagine a theologian wrestling with one of the paradoxes, let's say, in in Proverbs, where two things side by side are incongruous, they they say the opposite things, and the job of the theologian is literally to provide a theory that unifies them. And so he's just left either A, disregarding one of the two, or B, butchering both of them and not really respecting what they have to say.
Ongoing Dialogue in Hebraic Tradition
00:12:51
Speaker
I think we'll talk about this a little bit more as part of the series, but in either of those options, I think what we're doing is actually misusing and possibly even disrespecting the scriptures as they've been giving to us. Mm-hmm.
00:13:04
Speaker
I think there may be value in searching for those underlying concepts that help unify and explain some of these things. But I do think it's really important that we recognize that the text won't always make it clear how to unify those.
00:13:16
Speaker
And often the purpose of the text is to wrestle with the paradox. So if we seek the unifying concepts so that we can avoid the paradox or explain it away instead of wrestling with it, then we have certainly missed the purpose of the text.
00:13:29
Speaker
Right. And my point in bringing up the example of a systematic theologian would be their job would be to instantiate an answer into a textbook, which is where the discussion is supposed to stop.
00:13:41
Speaker
Because you're supposed to then read the textbook and then you know the answer and then you repeat the answer. Mm hmm. Now we've bypassed the purpose of the text, which was to discuss it in different contexts and keep it going as an ongoing live discussion. Yeah. If you were to buy a systematic theology book and the author was to say, hey, here's one idea, here's how it's presented, here's what it means.
00:14:02
Speaker
And then here's another idea that isn't quite compatible with the first. All right, students, I think you should go discuss these things. People would return the book and expect their money back because as Greek thinkers, that is not a satisfying resolution. But what you just described is the world Jesus was born into. That is what his religion was. That's what they did. That's what they practiced. That's exactly what they practiced.
00:14:21
Speaker
When you look at the Hebrew scriptures, I think it's clear that that is the way that they were intended to be used. It's easy for us, I think, to skim through the Torah and assume that it was a comprehensive set of instructions for ancient Israel.
00:14:34
Speaker
Ancient Israelites seeking to apply the Torah instructions were well aware of the fact that in practice, the Torah commands weren't always precise or comprehensive. And sometimes they even conflict with one another.
00:14:45
Speaker
Commandment to do no work on the Sabbath isn't super precise. It leaves lots of open questions like, what does it mean to do no work? What about when requirements in law to love your neighbor or to circumcise your son on the eighth day conflict with the Sabbath commandment to do no work?
00:15:01
Speaker
Torah leaves these really important questions of interpretation as a corporate task for the people. It invites engagement into this conversation for its readers about how to live this out.
00:15:13
Speaker
The Hebrew people very much embraced this need for conversation around their scriptures. The Mishnah, sometimes is called the oral law or the Oral Torah, is a record of this dialogue around how to live out the commands of Torah.
00:15:25
Speaker
It's full of discussion and disagreement about all the nuanced details that the text leaves open-ended, and it records multiple opinions and interpretations on all of these requirements.
00:15:36
Speaker
So a section of the Mishnah might look like a Bet Shammai says A, and Bet Hillel says B, maybe Rabbi Judah says C, and then it will just move on to the next section.
00:15:47
Speaker
The really surprising part about this Mishnah is that it simply records the varying, often conflicting positions without attempting to reconcile them. It invites readers into a dialogue without needing to present a tidy, consistent resolution to every idea. Yeah.
00:16:04
Speaker
Keeping Sabbath required a lot of interpretation. And the Mishnah has plenty of specific restrictions, like don't swing a hammer, don't drill a hole, don't write two letters with either hand.
00:16:15
Speaker
However, where I think the Mishnah really fascinating is when it considers what's allowed on the Sabbath due to special circumstances. When life is at risk, many of the opinions recorded in the Mishnah allow almost any action that's required to preserve that life, even if that requires working on the Sabbath, like providing medicine or medical care, digging someone out of a fallen home.
00:16:37
Speaker
In situations of life-threatening hunger, even feeding someone unkosher food is permitted by one rabbi's opinion in the Mishnah. This document is full of this conversation, sometimes even debate, around how to actually live out God's law.
00:16:50
Speaker
There's an expression in Hebrew when you debate, you're supposed to do so, L'Shem Shemaim, meaning for the sake of heaven. Mishnah Avot 517 says, Every dispute that is for the sake of heaven will in the end endure, and one that is not for the sake of heaven will not in the end endure.
00:17:07
Speaker
Yeah, I think I was going here a little bit earlier, but I'm just struck just in your discussion about Western rationalization versus kind of a Hebraic, more dialogue approach. I'm struck again that introducing the debate and not settling it, but leaving it somewhat open-ended or, you know, presenting the different opinions of the different rabbis and leaving it there.
00:17:27
Speaker
That invites continued conversation, which is really important if you want this principle, this law, this rule to carry on generation after generation without just being set aside.
00:17:37
Speaker
Because here's what happens. You can make hard and fast rules about what something means, but as the world changes, the economy changes, the structure of society changes, those rules that you made are going to be irrelevant someday.
00:17:49
Speaker
And then there's no guidance. The original law could just be forgotten in the past or have no modern updated application to it. But by inviting the dialogue, you are ensuring that people of the tradition continue to keep the principle front of mind and try to apply it in a faithful way. And there's not going to be uniformity. That's not the point.
00:18:09
Speaker
But the point is, i can assure you that everyone that's really debating about Sabbath keeping is surely at some level attempting to keep the Sabbath, right? and When you say, though, keeping the Sabbath means this, this, and this for all time, then what if those circumstances are no longer relevant to a culture? Then the whole thing is probably just forgotten. Or alternatively, if keeping the Sabbath is this, this, and this, well, then I can easily keep those things and carve out a million other ways in my life where I don't have to keep the Sabbath.
00:18:37
Speaker
Anything that doesn't touch on those exact rules are free for me to pursue. And I'm not really seeking to live out the fundamental principle behind the discussion, behind the admonitions. I think there's also something powerful about the idea that in your life, encounter a situation that you haven't heard discussed before. And your first thought wouldn't be to sit down and think through the principles, but it would be to take that situation to the council, to a group of people that you would sit down and discuss it with. And you'd have the opportunity to have other people weigh in on that and present their opinions.
00:19:08
Speaker
And you'd be sitting there having a real discussion about the purpose of the law. Which of the commandments are the weightier ones? How do we balance and interpret all these things? Like that process of bringing that to people and having those kinds of real discussions, especially when they pertain to real questions about what am I allowed to do? You know, when I wake up on a Shabbat morning is a powerful ethical formation tool.
00:19:30
Speaker
Yeah, all of a sudden you find your community is meditating upon these things day and night, is writing them upon the doorpost of their home, is having discussions precisely because the discussion is ongoing.
00:19:41
Speaker
And it's a feature, not a bug, that everything has not yet been harmonized into a perfect systematic theology. Yeah.
Jesus and Jewish Debates
00:20:09
Speaker
When we read in the Gospels about Jesus arguing and disagreeing with religious teachers, I think it's easy for us to miss that he was engaging seriously in this ongoing Jewish dialogue around topics like marriage, hand-washing, Sabbath, and understanding the very heart of the law. That's right, yeah.
00:20:27
Speaker
We would have loved for a Western, modern, Greek-thinking Jesus to throw off the whole conversation and instead to just hand us a nice, clean, logically consistent set of abstract principles that resolved all the tensions and paradoxes of Torah. That's the chosen season seven. However, Jesus of Nazareth entered into this Jewish debate about the Torah.
00:20:49
Speaker
He taught with specific culturally relevant examples about turning the cheek and carrying gear an extra mile. He told cryptic parables about morally ambiguous people.
00:21:00
Speaker
He invited his disciples into a conversation instead of just providing them simple guidelines. And it invited debate and sometimes scrutiny. Since Hebraic thought sees scripture as a foundation for the corporate dialogue that follows, the multivocality that we see in scripture is actually a feature instead of a bug.
00:21:20
Speaker
When you engage seriously with scripture, you are already engaging in an ongoing discussion, a disagreement of sorts, a tension that exists within the text. Mm-hmm. I think we've all experienced thinking that we knew something confidently until we encountered real opposition to that idea.
00:21:39
Speaker
And then by engaging in real dialogue and disagreement and having to reassess what we think and actually wrestle through competing ideas, only then do we come to really understand what we think and really understand why we think what we think.
00:21:53
Speaker
Sometimes not as confidently. Sometimes we're more open to nuanced discussion at that point. But we really are formed by those conversations. Kind of matured in a way, christened with a good bit of wisdom.
00:22:06
Speaker
I've loved in the interviews that we've gotten to do with scholars, people who have studied scripture to incredible depths and looked at the context and all of its fine tooth detail. I've been struck by how the people who studied this the most are sometimes the most nuanced in their opinions yeah or the most willing to recognize where the limits on their understanding are.
00:22:28
Speaker
Sometimes that genuine pursuit of understanding through wrestling with the text and the conversation and the history and the messiness actually gives people a lot more self-awareness and a better perspective on the limits of their own understanding. Yeah, I think so.
00:22:43
Speaker
can have a humbling effect. So if we're going to pursue a contextualized approach to actually using our Bible, it's important to be aware that Hebraic thinkers emphasized practice over understanding.
00:22:55
Speaker
And in order to help form people the way they intended, they used tools like paradox or tension in the text to invite people into a conversation The kind of conversation that leads people to discover for themselves and to wrestle with how to apply these texts and live them out in the messiness of life.
00:23:14
Speaker
So we as Western Greek thinkers need to be careful that we don't pick up this ancient Hebrew text and start trying to read it as if it was intended as a Greek, logical, systematic work. Because we're going to start running into lots of problems. Yeah. The text isn't going to do what we want it to do. And then we're left having to make some difficult decisions.
00:23:34
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. and think this is a super helpful summary, Matt, and thanks for taking us through this. The Hebraic mind emphasizes more practice over mere knowledge, paradox over kind of a forced system, and dialogue over neat rationalization of a problem.
00:23:52
Speaker
I think where we want to go next in this conversation, i kind of want to spell out what happens when we Western Christians try to read the scriptures without that lens and instead with a Western lens that we're all familiar with. We start trying to put a square peg through a round hole and we find we're having to shave edges off. Exactly.
00:24:10
Speaker
and unfortunately, i think what that creates is it puts us in a position of crisis mode where we're trying to put out fires. We're trying to do the apologetics and we're trying to answer all the questions so that we can support our faith, so that we can support Jesus of Nazareth, so that we can support sometimes even like the existence of God.
00:24:27
Speaker
i think all of that may just be wrongheaded. and i want to spend a little bit of time on that in our next episode or two. it Sounds like fun.