A SOCIAL SCIENTIST’S NOTES ON BIBLICAL TEXTS

Introduction

In addition to studying cultural processes in the modern world I have for many years studied the canon texts of the ancient Hebrews and early Christians. I have read through many of these texts several times — none of them, even the most obscure, less than two dozen times. I therefore regard myself as an amateur student of early Judaism and Christianity. On these pages I collect notes on these texts in the interest of helping other readers less familiar with these texts to appreciate what they might have to say. I have been interested for some time in how and why these texts have seemed so very relevant to people in many different social settings over many centuries. This makes my question somewhat different from those that usually occupy scholarly examination. Underlying this approach to the Bible is the conviction that many of the texts in the Bible encourage a life that is different from the “religious life” as it is often supposed.

For me the Bible has been a vital resource for dealing with the problems of life. (How I got this way is a long and very personal story.) It is not easy to explain how the Bible serves as a personal resource to someone who knows little about the Bible. Because the writings that constitute a collection of such ancient texts are various in their origins and style and purposes, they may seem opaque and forbidding to the beginning reader. My topic is how the texts in their times affected people: why were they so precious to the early community, and in what sense? And to what effect? For example, in my examinations of the New Testament texts, I want to consider how they informed and influenced the early Christian movement, to try to grasp what animated it, what inspired the Christian community that carried forward their teachings. A critical issue, if not the critical one, is the animating sources of the early Christian movement: why was it so successful in a hostile environment? It began in Jerusalem, the place where Jesus was executed and where his corpse was buried, and it spread throughout the Roman empire. How did this movement take form and gain such a broad and devoted loyalty among peoples of many sorts, even in the face of rejection by the leadership of the Jewish community in Palestine and the concerted persecution of the Roman empire? There were many movements throughout the empire in this period: what made the difference for the Christian movement? Collectively, somehow, ordinary people were induced to abandon the great shrines of their cities and turn to a view of life and social practice that was effectively against the law everywhere. Why? How? This is why New Testament texts are important and interesting; there are no better sources than the records produced and cherished by the early Christians themselves.

Also, the texts, at least for me have a contemporary relevance. My readings of these texts directly bear on my times, my world. As far as I can tell, my readings of the texts are not unlike those of others who read the Bible but these notes reflect my personal journey, my attempts to understand who I am, why I am here, and what I care about. I merely present here some notes on how those various writings seem to me to bear upon the problems common among us. In some places I will note how they have helped me in some of my personal struggles. There is no use in pretending I have been a model Christian; I have failed in multitudinous ways. But I desire to share what I think I have learned from the Bible over a period of what now exceeds fifty years of reading and rereading – usually with pencil in hand.

At the same time, however, I have also been reading the newspapers and living a secular life, which included examining and teaching some of the major ideas in the social sciences. My professional world has entailed trying to understand the multiple intellectual fads to which social scientists have subscribed in the last fifty years. My personal world has entailed confronting the usual problems of family life. Living within different personal and professional worlds, I have regularly turned to the Bible for anchorage, encouragement, wisdom, stability. So this is a kind of testimony of personal discoveries. In fact, for me, certain passages evoke memories of defeat, doubt, fear, success, triumph – the stuff of a private sensibility that one does not expose to others, or at least to many others. This is a kind of superficial distillation of those years of experience, when the texts of the Bible were the sounding board that echoed back to me the private groans, cries, cheers that have made up my private life. So this is an attempt to throw into intersubjective form some elements of my subjective quest for meaning as they were exposed to me through my personal confrontations with life on one hand and with biblical texts on the other.

One reason for doing this is a worry about the trends in our times. Few trends are more worrisome than the uses now (2005-6) being made of biblical terms and images in politics. Politicians deliberately and calculatedly proclaim their devotion to God. Would that it were true! – at least that an authentic appreciation of the biblical texts as they are would be reflected in the discernment and wisdom fitting to the challenges of modern life. The NIV in Psalms 139:20 says, “They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.” {The RSV here says the meaning of the Hebrew text is uncertain.} Even people who know nothing about the Bible or even have no use for it consider the new prominence of religious claims in politics to be cynical, like the Psalmist here. We are all disgusted by the pious use of grand moralistic rhetoric for insidious and self serving ends. As it happens, I find the policies and practices of the current administration (2002+) unwise, even frightening. Who can deny by the fall of 2004 that they have led our country into disaster? Administrations do blunder of course, like us all, but the absence of wisdom in this administration can be attributed to human qualities (arrogance, obstinacy, if not deliberate ignorance) that no one would consider moral, much less “Christian.” This site is to insist that it is possible to appreciate the Bible without subscribing to the social agendas of politicians who invoke the bible and bend their high minded claims to the exigencies of corporate interest.

Another reason for doing this: Many academics seem painfully ignorant of what biblical texts actually say. Anyone who has paid much attention to biblical texts will not find much new here, but for many academics the actual content of many important biblical texts is quite unknown. I suspect that some ignore biblical texts because they are so often misread and misused, or at least quoted for reasons that are transparently ignoble. And we know that people can read in the same text and interpret them in diametrically opposite ways. For me, that would seem good reason for all of us to acquire more precise knowledge, rather than vague impressions, of what biblical texts have to say.

My project is to examine the early texts so as to enable the intelligent person with little prior understanding to appreciate with some specificity what the New Testament texts actually tell us about their life. For reasons to be explained, the writings of Luke (the gospel attributed to him and the Acts of the Apostles) and the writings of Paul (particularly certain ones less often known by the lay public such as Paul’s letters to Titus, Philemon, and the Colossians) will likely be my first focus. To me these works are rich sources of information on the fundamental ideas of the early Christians and the attitudes that guided their solutions to particular social problems, and thus treasure troves of data on the social applications of their particular view of life.

This is a work in process, a kind of diary of biblical reflections that will gradually be filled in as time allows. For the moment, it includes the following;

> A discussion of the fundamental Christian commitment, as formulated in a sentence generally ignored by the Christian public: Christianity in a Single Sentence. [Titus 2: 11-14].

> A note on non-religious living, from a text in the gospel of John (7:40-52).

> Reflections on a promise in the text of Isaiah for the exiles who were driven from their homeland into far away foreign lands: Walking Blind [Isa 42:16].

> A comment on a contested subject, based on my reading and understanding of evolutionary science and biblical texts: Creationism, Evolutionism, Scientism.