the bible as an adventure

8/14/2019 THE BIBLE AS AN ADVENTURE

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THE BIBLE AS ADVENTURE

By

Prudencio Garca Prez


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THE BIBLE AS ADVENTURE

- A short story to begin with

Long, long time ago, there was a novice who said to his master: Father, I read the Biblevery often, but I forget everything immediately. Then, the Master sent the young novice

to take water from a well with a broken and dirty bucket. An hour after, he asked: Didyou get any water from the well? No, I could not, answered the disciple- everything is

gone from the holes. What about the bucket, asked the Master? Ahhhh!!! The bucket is

completely clean, without dirt and dust!!! Look, said the Master: this is what thereading of the Word of God does to your life, even though you keep almost nothing in

your memory, the Word of God cleans and purifies your soul and, at the same time,

cancels the marks of your sins.

Why to read the Bible?

The Bible is still unknown to many Christians today, even though it contains the

greatest treasure: the Word of God. This magnificent treasure is not hidden nor has a lock,

its open to those who are interested and want to spend sometime reading or searching forthe truth. We know all the movies, the most famous actors and actresses, all the news,

every kind of games (chess, cards, computer, etc.) and many music bands; the Bible

instead is kept in the drawer of our desk as a protection against dust, dirt and booktermites. Some people even say that they have no money to buy a cheap Bible; others

question: Why should I read that book? Where is it said that I have to? This is not my

business; its just for priests and sisters.

The Bible is a meditation or reflection, based on faith, on the universal history. In it

we find the memories of the past through which the humankind can understand itsdestiny. An example: In certain moments of our life we feel the need to stop and reflect

about the past (how did I get in here?). Some of the memories are blurred. We can ask

witnesses about the important events, but everyone remembers according to personal

situations or interests. We can check once more the tracks of the past: pictures, poems,letters, clothes, books, etc. Al these elements maybe will not help us to reconstruct our

past history, but they will be very useful in order to comprehend what we had in the heart

and mind at that time, our feelings and emotions, and that is the most wonderfuldiscovery. Our goal is not to discover the past history, but recalling the stages of the past

we understand our present situation (why are we like this?). This is what the Bible is for

the people of Israel.

The Bible is an interpretation of history. When we remember the facts of the past, we

also want to discover their meaning. We want to know why these events took place.

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Obviously, our interpretation will depend on our personal situation, mentality or

personality: success or failure.

We understand things better after they have happened . While living our life, we

seldom realize whats going on. Only after some facts have happened we comprehend

their meaning and interpret them according to the present situation. The Bible is also abunch of ideas from the past that are reinterpreted in the light of the new events. For

Christians, the most important fact that gives light to the past is the coming of Jesus

Christ. Through him we can understand the Bible better, but not completely. To do itcompletely we will need to employ our whole life and the humanity its whole history.

The human history is a loves story: from the beginning, the people of Israel understood

history as an encounter with God; a God that loves men and call them to join him. But toget to know someone takes time, it is not an easy task: between love and hatred there is

only a short distance.

The Bible is the document that narrates the history of the people of God: theencounter and relationship between men/women and God. People dont want to discover

who the true God is; they prefer to create their own God: provider of life and success.The Bible tells us that the people continuously reject Gods path, but Gods love is bigger

than their weaknesses. The history of God and his people is a story of love, growing and

developing through many temptations. The final sign of Gods love is the coming of

Jesus to our world and life. So, the Bible is a spiritual book mainly and it interpretshuman history through peoples faith.

The Bible is a religious book, different from all other spiritual books. God is the maincharacter and we are invited to see him at work in our world and personal life. It contains

the divine revelation for the humankind, his project for the whole world. The God of the

Bible is a friend for men and women, especial mention for those who are poor, lost andoppressed.

To conclude, the Bible is a light in our way of life . When we are lost, live in darkness orlife has no sense, we normally are lucky enough to meet someone to help us find the way

out, not through pieces of advice, but making us reflect on his experience and on ours

too. This is what the Bible does for us: written in an ancient time, it cannot answer all our

questions; but listening to the authors, their discoveries, doubts, difficulties andconvictions, we may find a light for our life. This is a gift from God to us. He invites us

to live our life according to the predicaments of the Bible: the adventure of discovering

God through love. And this happens when we live in communion and dialogue with ourbrethren.

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What is the Bible about?

1. The Bible is a library

The word Bible comes from Greek (biblos), which means book. Bibla is

the plural of the term and means a collection of 73 books (OT: 46 and NT: 27).Like a good library, not all the books talk about the same subjects: history, poems,

proverbs, letters, psalms, songs, sermons, etc.

The Bible could be compared to a Newspaper: every part has a different value

and must be examined according to its importance and context.

When reading the Bible, the first question we ask is: what did the writer want to

say? (Intention of the text), what was his personal situation like when he wrote it?

(sitz in lebem), and finally, what does the text tell me now and in these concrete

circumstances? We dont need to learn the Bible by memory; we must live and actaccording to its teachings, because inside we discover the secret of our happiness

and salvation. And this secret can be seen by everyone looking for it.

2. The history of the biblical text

At the beginning the Bible was written on papyrus (from Egypt) or goats skin. Of

course, by hand (manuscripts). It was very expensive, so only a few rich people

had access to the Bible.

During the Medieval Age (V-XIV centuries), the monks in the monasteries

became the greatest publishers of the Bible. They dedicated their entire lives tostudy, copy and promote the Bible. They did it both ways, individually and as part

of a group. Because of their love for the Bible, they made every sort of copies:

bibles to be learn by memory, with pictures for those unable to read and embellishwith gold or precious stones decorations.

In ancient times, the Bible was very expensive: to have a copy, they need the skin

of 200 goats, prepare the ink and the whole life of the secretary (scribe orcopyist). The price was around 4 million NTS. With the invention of the printer

by Gutemberg in 1452, 160 calfs skin was needed to have a copy and the price

was lower (around 500.000 NTS). That is the reason why people could not read

the Bible: there were just a few copies and to expensive to move from hand tohand.

Which version of the Bible? Nowadays we have many versions of the Bible

translated into every single language. Which are the main differences among these

versions? There are mainly three: translation, notes and the number of books

included. The Protestant versions normally exclude a few books: Wisdom and

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Maccabees (OT); Letters of Jude and James (NT). Dont have notes at the bottom

of the page and the translations are different from the Catholic ones.

The Bible is the fruit of 1000 years work, but its message is permanent. It is the

proclamation of faith of a certain community and, at the same time, the revelation

of God himself through that community. Furthermore, the Bible is an invitation tofollow Jesus Christ in his mission of showing the whole world the reality of the

Kingdom of God. Every time we read the Bible, we must ask ourselves: what is

God telling me, here in Taiwan, in this present moment and concretecircumstances? The Bible reveals what is important for our salvation.

3. Language and biblical mind

The Bible was written in the East and for Eastern people : the Jewish people.

We dont belong to their culture and dont have their mentality, so it is impossible

for us to fully comprehend many elements in the Bible. Nevertheless, we have to

translate not literally, but their mentality.

The OT was written in Hebrew. At the beginning, it didnt have vowels and it

was very easy to make translation errors. For example: Michelangelo, whenmaking the sculpture of Moses, put horns on his head because he read a

translation of Ex 34 that uses the term krn (keren) and means horns.

Nowadays we know it should be karan, which means brightness, radiance,glitter. The same thing in English if to say cup we just write cp: it could be

cup, cop, cope, cape, cap.

The superlative doesnt exist in Hebrew; instead they say the same thing twice

or three times. For example: the most holy or holiest they say: holy, holy,and holy. Also, the song of the songs or bone of my bones and flesh of my

flesh.

Hebrew is a language poor in words or expressions . The same term can be used

with many different meanings. For example: ruah: wind, blow, breath, life,

force, movement, spirit. In short, in the Bible means both wind and spirit, whichcreates a lot of problem when translating (see Jn 3, 8 and Acts 2, 1-4).

Jewish people have a practical and concrete mentality, dont understand

abstract concepts. They dont search for the essence and identity of things; insteadthey prefer to know the relationship between things or beings with them. They are

not interested in things they cannot perceive and observe. For example: In the

story of Creation is said that God created the universe from nothing. The word

nothing has no meaning for them, so they translate it for chaos and disorder.The same thing talking about the Wisdom of God, it became something like a

person.

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The symbolism of the numbers. Most of the Hebrew numbers are symbolic:

number 7 means perfection, completion (Mt 15, 36-37; 18, 21-22; Mk 12, 20-23;

Lk 17, 4; Rev 1, 4). For example: the Our Father contains 7 petitions, so it is the perfect petition to God. Number 4 means universal totality or fullness of

something: Beatitudes, 4 in Luke and 8 in Mathew; 4 directions, 4 winds, 4

fishermen, etc. (Mt 4, 17; Lk 19, 8; Jn 11, 17). Number 12 means the wholepeople of God: 12 tribes of Israel, 144000 (12X12) saved. Number 40 indicates a

long period of time (40 years in the desert; 40 days of temptation).

The Hebrew concept of wise. For us wisdom and wise person means to

understand the essence of things, to know science and gives answers to many big

questions. For the Jewish, wise person is the one who knows how to live, how

to succeed in life and, for the religious ones, to fulfill Gods project for us. An

example: Solomon: Westerners call him wise for his science and knowledge; forthe Israelites, he was wise because he lived well his life and was successful. On

the other side, on his public life, he wasnt a balanced politician nor a prudent

administrator (1 Re 3, 16-28 is the only example of his wisdom).

Some people see miracles everywhere. For example Lk 22, 7-13; Mk 14, 12-16

and Mt 26, 17-19: Jesus sends his disciples to Jerusalem to prepare the Passoverand after seeing a man with a jar of water, to follow him. Many preachers see in

this passage a miracle of Jesus, because he is capable to predict the future and

hidden events. To tell the truth, Jesus was a great observer of the Jewish mentality

and customs, because in Israel, a man who goes for water to the fountain is notmarried yet, has no wife; if we was married, would be the wife the one to get the

water. And a man single, has no family to celebrate the Passover with, so he can

invite a large group into his house.

The conversion of S. Paul (Acts 9, 1-9; 22, 6-16; 26, 12-18).From where did he

fall down? The paintings place him on a horse, but the biblical text doesnt say

anything about that, only says he fell to the ground. For the Jewish to fall tothe ground is an habitual gesture to indicate the attitude of someone who is in

front of God; for them to see God meant to die and that is why they look to the

ground when they are in his presence (Ex 33, 18-20).

What is your name? For the Jewish, the name of a person is a synonym of the

nature, quality and essence of that person. To know the name of someone means

to understand the deepest part of the person, secrets, and destiny and to have a

certain power over him. When Moses asked God what his name was, Heanswered: I am who I am (Ex 3, 13-14). Nobody can get to know God perfectly

or have some power over him. To give a name to something means to besuperior to him: Jesus gives a new name to Simon: Peter; Adam gives a name to

the animals of the earth.

For the Hebrews, their words dont fly away nor disappear. They have a nomad

mentality, and for them the words are as important as gold is for us: the word of

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God and the poems were spoken from parents to children to be remembered. This

was their treasure. In the desert, nomads couldnt make sculptures, paintings,

writings or architecture. The only thing they had was their conversations. For theJewish someone who dominates the art of talking is an important person: king,

priest, wise person, doctor. Words hide an enormous power: can kill or heal; give

joy or sadness; change peoples behavior: anger, vengeance, hatred, war; alsopeace, happiness, joy, love and friendship. The value of word is very high in the

Bible and we cannot play with it.

4. The various stages of the Bible

In the beginning the word already existed. The origin of the Bible is found in

the oral communication of traditions, covenants, confessions of faith, etc. Theydidnt have books, so they have to learn everything by memory and this is why

words are so important for the ancient people of the Middle East.

The first written book of the Bible is not the Genesis and the last one is notthe book of Revelation. The book of the Bible needed many stages and authors

to finish them. The way we see them now is the product of many centuries of

work of many writers who dedicated their lives to search for materials and putthem under a certain thematic order.

The process of redaction of the OT was very long. Nowadays we recognize four

traditions or fonts for the construction of the OT (surely there were more):

Yahwist, Elohist, Deuteromist and Priestly document.

- YAHWIST: Uses the name Yahweh when speaking about God. He was born

around the year 850 B. C. His mission was to collect, revise and complete thesacred traditions on the people of God. In this tradition, God is painted with

human characteristics; his accounts show he has an opened mind: for example, theuniversal dimension of the salvation (all the nations will be included) and it is

brought by a special person.

- ELOHIST: Uses the name Elohim to refer to God. He lived around the year

722 B. C. His mission was to collect, correct and complete the sacred traditions of

the people of Israel. In this tradition, God is a spiritual being, distant from men,who cannot be seen and manifests himself in dreams. This God is very strict; He

gives his spirit to Moses and the people and the salvation is expected coming from

many persons. This tradition might have been written in a time when there weremany great prophets.

- DEUTERONOMIST: He is considered the editor of the book of Deuteronomy,

around the year 623 B. C. He knows that Yahweh is the God of Israel and Israel ishis chosen nation. This editor is very nationalist, loves liturgy and the centralism

of the cult. In this tradition, God is transcendent.

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- PRIESTLY DOC.: written around the year 450 B. C., probably under the

influence of Ezekiel. It belongs probably to the circle of the priest of Israel and

edited at the end of the exile of Babylon. The priestly document argues with themyths of Babylon; gives great importance to the celebration of the Sabbath, the

circumcision and the synagogue. Also to the sacrifices and the necessity of priests.

This tradition can be seen especially in the book of Leviticus, the second part ofthe book of Exodus and the first and the last chapters of the book of Numbers.

In the NT, the Gospels were written immediately. They contain the life and

message of Jesus. At the beginning there were more than 60 gospels about the

figure of Jesus, but slowly the Christian community reduced the number and

chose four of them. The Gospels are not a biography of Jesus, but a testimony of

faith in him. Their mission is to awake and strengthen the faith of the people inJesus; invite the audience to make a personal option for Jesus and follow his steps

through the celebrations of the Christian community.

In the Gospels, some accounts come from Jesus himself and others arecreations of the Christian community. In the end, it is in the Resurrection where

it was revealed to the disciples the Kingdom of God; this is the key part of the

message of Jesus because they discovered in it the meaning of the historical life ofJesus.

The encounter with Jesus is not archeological nor intellectual, but existential .

Then, to preach the Gospel is to proclaim Gods salvation through Jesus Christ,the model of the new man in the new society.

5. The Canon of the Bible

The books of the Bible have been inspired by God. Even though these books

have been rearranged, corrected and completed, the Church considered this

collection to be inspired by God and, in doing so, affirms that they dontcontain any error regarding our future salvation. This is what the Second Vatican

Council says: We have to confess that the book of the Scripture teaches firmly,

with fidelity and absence of error, the truth that God wanted to include in thesacred words for our salvation.

At the time of Jesus there were many other books that have not been

considered inspired by the Jewish and the Christians. These books are

called apocryphal and many people used to read them. For example: it is knownthat the Jewish living outside Israel (Diaspora) accepted another seven books as

inspired: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, Baruc or letter of Jeremiah,1-2 Maccabees, Esther and Daniel (from the last two, only a few parts). This is the

Alexandrian version or of the Seventy (LXX); it was the most famous version

during the second century before Christ.

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During the first century of the Christian era, the Jewish already accepted a few

books as inspired by God. The Christians found this list of books and accepted

them as well. We must say something: during the first 200 years of the Christianera many books were written to satisfy the curiosity of many people who wanted

to know details about Jesus live, family, childhood, etc. These books were very

successful among the people, but rejected by the Christian community. At thattime were presented more than 60 gospels, many documents attributed to the

disciples: Acts of Peter, acts of James, acts of John, Revelation of Peter, and

Revelation of James. Almost all of them werent accepted by the community. Onthe other hand, we know that some true letters of the apostles were lost. We also

know that some inspired books dont belong to the author, for example: the letter

to the Hebrews was not written by St. Paul.

During the Council of Nicea (325 a. C.) was made the first list of the inspired

books.

So, what is the Canon of the Bible? It is the official list of the books that theChurch has accepted as inspired. In the 4th century St. Jerome translated the

Bible to Latin, this version is called Vulgate, and the church considered these

books as inspired by God for our salvation (they are known as the canonicalbooks).

The Protestants, following Luthers criteria, refused to accept some of the books

of the Vulgate as inspired. The Council of Trento (XVI) discussed the problemand decided to approve the same canon; the one we have still today. Then, the

books accepted as inspired from the beginning are called proto-canonicals.

Those books rejected by the Protestants are known as deuteron-canonicals.

What was the method used to select the books? For the OT, the church

remembered that for Jesus and his followers the OT was inspired by God. They

accepted the books of the residents in Palestine and those of the Jewish livingabroad. For the NT, the Church accepted those books thought to be written or

redacted by the apostles or someone closed to them (criteria of apostolicity).

In the end, the most important point to decide if a book was inspired or not was its

acceptance by the Church. Why? Because if the Church has the grace and

charisma to interpret correctly the Bible, then it has the grace or gift to define and

keep the canon too.

- Conclusions about the canon:

- a) What has been revealed by God in the Bible is the part that talks about oursalvation. The Bible does not want us to become physicists, biologists, historians

or archeologists; just true believers. The Bible does not talk about science, but

about our salvation and the human salvation as center of the creation.

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- b) The Christian religion and the preaching of the Church must be fed by the Holy

Scriptures and follow them: whoever preaches must preach Gods messages (1

P 4, 11). We cannot preach anything against the Bible or without having afoundation on the Bible and the interpretation of the Church during the centuries.

- c) The authority of the bishops is not above the Word of God, but at its service;this is what the CV II affirms.

6. The division of the Bible

Our Bible is divided into chapters and verses. The division into chapters took

place in the XIII century (done by the English Bishop Stephan Langton in 1226)

and the division into verses came in the XVI century (1551).

The first Bible containing chapters and verses was a French translation edited by

Robert Estienne: translated into French, with Greek and Latin text. These

divisions are very useful if we are to specify the text to read or study, but it isdangerous because we could destroy the meaning of an episode if we cut in the

wrong place.

How to study the Bible?

There is a huge difference between reading and studying the Bible. When we read the

Bible, we normally put ourselves at the center of the text, trying to get the meaning of it

for me. Study the Bible instead, means to use the scientific methods to discover themeaning of the text itself, without any relation with our personal situation.

Nowadays there are many different methods used to study the Bible, but none of them iscomplete: structuralism, materialist, psychological, critic and historic, popular, etc. Each

of them needs the help of the other methods to search the texts from different points of

view. Lets see two types of methods: scientific and popular.

1. The Scientific method: synchronic reading

a) First approach: read the text slowly and write down our reactions: what I like; whatsurprises me, questions without answer yet, etc.

b) Study the text: read again the text and underline the following highlights:

- Repeated words or expressions, synonyms, words belonging to the same familytree or the opposites;

- The main characters (people or things): indicate what they say, do and happen to

them, etc.

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- Places, movements and trips: see its relation with the actors and importance.

- The form of the verbs: it is not the same to use the present, the past or the future.

- Other possible indications in the text...After this, we start asking questions to the text or the actors: Who is doing something?

What is doing or looking for? Who helps in this search? Who is opposing? From the

beginning to the end, do we perceive any transformation? Whose? How did it happen?How many stages were needed? Who performed the transformation?

c) The text inside the context: the episode is part of a bigger part, a whole book orchapter. This makes sense by itself, but this meaning is richer if analyzed in relation with

the whole book. So our questions will be: How can it be joined to the previous and

following chapters or to the whole book? What is its place in the book? What does it add

to the book?

d) The text inside its time: these are some of the questions you can ask: when was it

written? What was the situation of the people, author or main actor like at that time? At

that time, did the expressions or sayings of the text have any special meaning? What isthe literary genre of the text? Are there in the Bible or outside any other similar texts? If

yes, what are the similarities? What are the differences?The biblical accounts have been edited by a community and for them, so who is the one

talking? What is the question he is trying to answer? This is what we call to know the

authors intention.

e) Verify the data: look again to the questions we make at the beginning and see if we

can answer all of them satisfactorily. This is the verification of the analysis.

f) Read again the text (actualization): Taking advantage of the obtained data, answer

these questions: what is the sense of the text for me today? What is it inviting me to do or

live? Is it useful and helpful for my life?

2. Popular method: actualized and shared reading

a) The purpose of the method: to discover that God is present in our daily life; he wants

to get in touch with us and encourage us to live a better and happier life.

b) Conditions for it to work properly:

- Everybody has something important to say and also the others dont know what it

is. Respect all the possible opinions.

- It is needed someone to prepare and guide the meeting (like a plain needs a pilot).

c) Developing the method:

- Read the text and find out the key words (the meaning).

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- Analyze deeply our own reality: the situation of the people in our world today.

- Read the account again and understand it.

- Get deeper into the meaning of the text: put the present situation and the keywords together, to see the work of God in our life and history.

- Dialogue among the member or the community.

- Pray with the episode: express through prayers the presence and activity of God inour life and world: thanksgiving; forgiveness; help; start new beginning; make a

compromise, etc.

- Conclusion: a final song.

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the bible as an adventure

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