Jul 09 2008
The Bible doesn’t say
Not a few recent posts and speeches on question of bishops, whether gay or women, have prompted this, but I want to protest the casual use of the phrase; “The Bible says”.
There is one way in which that phrase might be true: if I were to follow “The Bible says …” with a long quotation that started at Genesis 1:1 and finished at Revelation 22:21. Even then that would be controversial depending on the inclusion or omission of the apocryphal / deuterocanonical books. However, that is not typically how people use the phrase, whether it is (normally) Christians staking out a position, or (occasionally) atheists seeking to argue for the ludicrous nature of Christianity.
There are two essential things that are meant by “the Bible says”. The first is, “I have read in my Bible the words X.” The second is, “My (or my tradition’s) theological interpretation of the overall tenor and thrust of the Bible is Y”. What happens quite often is that the two are combined, so that X is a shorthand statement for Y, and it seems to me that this then disguises the fact that Y is what is really happening.
Non-controversially, consider this claim: “The Bible says that God is love.” It is certainly possible to find in the Bible the phrase “God is love” (1 John 4:8). It is also possible to find a great many statements made, or stories told, about God which would strongly suggest both that this and its opposite is true. But a strong Christ and Cross focussed interpretation of God, leading into developed Trinitarianism, allows this short statement to stand as a summary of the whole narrative and interpretative framework adopted by the Christian Church.
Controversially, consider the statement that “The Bible says same sex relationships are an abomination.” Of course, it doesn’t quite say this even in my first sense. The specific form of words it contains that come nearest to this (and I note that I am entirely ignoring questions of translation) is “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination” (Leviticus 18:22). That is to say, the verse refers to particular but imprecisely specified sexual acts, not relationships. Just at this level, interpretation is needed to flesh out what the sexual acts might be, and further interpretation is needed to move from this to any concept of a relationship, especially the sort of monoandrous one being proposed by some gay Christians and others today.
But more must be said. A second verse, Leviticus 20:13, goes further: “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death.” What is it that allows our speaker to claim “The Bible says same sex relationships are an abomination” but not to call for the death penalty. The verse is being selectively referred to, because a wider interpretative framework is being applied. “Abomination” is also used to refer to shellfish among other things (Leviticus 11:10), or to confusing clean with unclean animals (Leviticus 20:25). A bigger framework is necessary to make sense of why part of one verse can be held to typify what “the Bible says” when another verse, or even another part of the same verse is laid aside as not being what “the Bible says”.
None of this is to argue for any particular interpretation of any verse, or to suggest what the right interpretation should be. But I am arguing that there is never a “Bible says” argument that actually is just the quotation of a verse. The very act of selecting the verse depends on an interpretative framework or tradition. “I take the Bible to say …” “My tradition teaches that the Bible says …” “Our church interprets the Bible to mean…” All these are fundamentally honest statements.
By contrast, use of the phrase “the Bible says …” tends to dishonesty and self-deception. It obscures the work of interpretation that lies behind the statement, whether individual or ecclesial, and it replaces an honest argument for that interpretation with a statement that labels disagreement as rebellion, and questioning as sin.
Repeat after me: “The Bible doesn’t say”.