There’s a funny story about the end of King David’s life—a story we don’t usually read aloud in church. This is from 1 Kings 1:1-4, in the King James Version:
Now king David was old and stricken in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he gat no heat. Wherefore his servants said unto him, Let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin: and let her stand before the king, and let her cherish him, and let her lie in thy bosom, that my lord the king may get heat. So they sought for a fair damsel throughout all the coasts of Israel, and found Abishag a Shunammite, and brought her to the king. And the damsel was very fair, and cherished the king, and ministered to him: but the king knew her not.
Gat no heat? Ouch … I hate it when that happens …
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So, on a more serious note: what does a healthy stance toward the Bible look like to you? Scroll down and tell us about it.
“A text without a context is a pretext” is something I discovered years ago when learning about exegesis and hermeneutics. At present I am reading a book by David Tacey called, “Beyond literal belief – religion as metaphor”. It is great help in getting to who wrote what, where, when, to whom, why, and so what!
I can agree with the statement that the Bible is a part of our heritage and I still take it seriously as such. But, since the “The Enlightenment” and other developments in human society I believe most of us have lost an ability to understand “myth” in the technical sense and unfortunately go searching for “facts” in the Bible. This week I read again about the people of Israel asking Samuel for a king to be appointed so their nation could be like other nations. What a disastrous turn in the history of Israel! Surely we are meant to be different!
Thanks for your funny songs and meaningful reflections
Thank you, Adam,
for humor and humility,
for song and sensibility,
for theology and tikkun.
Keep on!
Thanks, Phil, for you affirming words — and your beautiful blog at wellsofwellness.org. What a treasure!
I think of the bible as the story of a ‘peoples’ relationship with their God. It contains many styles of writing: history, story, myth and exaggeration, prayer. Each reader must figure out the style and let the book speak to you. As you re-read parts it may speak to you differently.
Hi, Katie. I like your emphasis on letting the reading speak to you — and even letting it speak differently at different times. Like all great spiritual literature, the Bible is often so packed with meaning and metaphor that it can speak to us in many different ways. I sometimes get impatient with sermons that claim to unpack the meaning of a passage, as if there were only one.
Since going to seminary as a Quaker, one of my favorite quotes explaining why Quaker Bible reading feels so different is by a critic, the Catholic Monsigneur Reginald Knox, who acknowledges: “The early Quakers were saturated in the bible. But they did not treat it as a document to be worshipped, because they felt they were part of it.” That’s it. He’s said it better than any Quaker. If you discover you are part of an ongoing story, the bible becomes very interesting, but not because it is a static transmission of truth, but because it relates directly to your own experience. Spiritual awakening is a bit like an immersive video game! You wake up to discover you are in the midst of a profound mystery and you begin looking for clues. You discover a journal on the table, the bible, from people who were here in this mystery before. You are interested in the bible in the same way you are interested in the clues around you. Your context (not just the bible writer’s context) brings meaning to the clues.
Thanks, Rob. I’d agree, from my limited experience, that Quaker Bible reading feels quite different.
I like your immersive-video-game analogy. The journal on the table relates directly to our in-game experience; the problem is that we keep treating it as a manual, forgetting that it’s only a journal. For instance, we open the journal and find that it contains a couple of maps — maybe one like the Babylonian Map of the World from 600 B.C. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_Map_of_the_World), and maybe another one like Pomponious Melas made around the time of Christ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cartography#/media/File:Karte_Pomponius_Mela_rotated.jpg). Armed with these correct and complete maps of the world, we set our course…
I, too, love your video-game analogy, Rob! I like the idea that we’re immersed in some kind of a Mystery, and so we constantly try to be aware of everything around us (as well as within us–our emotions, hunches, body sensations, etc.) in order to collect valuable clues. The Bible, that gliding bird on the horizon, the unexpected phone call from a friend–all of it nothing more, perhaps, than a set of interesting clues leading us to what is Real.