Bible Study, Community, and Agendas

I have written previously about community and Biblical inspiration and more recently about fear that pushes people away from studying the Bible for themselves. So how about a note on some of the dangers of Bible study?

My attention was called to this topic by this post on Thinking Christian, in which the basis for anti-semitism in the gospels and Paul’s writings is discussed and to some extent despatched. There were two passages in that post that set me to thinking just a bit. The first is:

None of these verses suggest that the whole Jewish nation is responsible for Jesus’ death and none of them promote the idea that Jews should be persecuted. Dowling is clutching at straws here and reading into the text what he clearly wants to see. The texts are so clear, in fact, one wonders whether he has actually studied them with a sceptical view! [emphasis in original]

And this is the second:

Although Dowling’s argument is completely flawed, it is true to say that the Bible has been used by those who wish to promote persecution of the Jews. But this is not the fault of the Bible. It is the result of distorted readings of the text. Unfortunately, ‘the history of the church is about as long as the history of anti-Semitism—if not in the overt acts of Christians, certainly in their guilty silence.’ (Wilson 1984) So the Christian Church has certainly been guilty of perpetuating anti-Semitism by commission or omission. But the actions of the Church must not be equated with the teachings of Scripture.

Now don’t come to any conclusions about Steve Parker’s material without reading it completely. But what interests me here is that he says that it is very clear, even emphatically clear that these texts do not support putting the blame for the death of Jesus on the Jewish people as a whole, and do not support persecution on that basis, and yet, as he acknowledges in the second quote, these texts and others have been used in precisely that way.

So what happened on the way from the first to the second? Generally, some very bad Biblical interpretation, and more specifically application has taken place. The reason for this is that the Bible has been given to us not in a neat, systematic fashion designed to give you direct answers for your moment by moment decisions. Instead, it is presented in people’s experience of God in a range of situations over an extended period of time.

We are always in danger of misapplying scripture simply because we have our own agendas, and we tend to read what we think should be there. I’m always fascinated in my own reading to look at my previous marginal notes and underlining. Different aspects of a passage strike me at different times. There’s no problem with this. We’re human and we can’t keep our attention on everything at every moment. But our human nature also gets us to focus on how the Bible might apply to someone else, or on those aspects that support what we want to do. We can even believe that we are being quite scriptural because we have a Bible verse to quote for every occasion. We might even have reduced it to a simple reference.

In the particular scriptures that caught my attention here, there was probably a very simple process of misapplication. Some Christian in the early, but not too early years of the church was angry at some Jews, perhaps at the Jews, possibly because he simply couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t accept what, to him, was obviously the truth. He wants to force them to believe, and it’s only a short step from forcing people to believe to using force and killing them if they continue to refuse. He looks for justification. “Aha!” he says, “we have it right here in Matthew 27:25. They admit to being guilty of killing Jesus–killing God!”

The text doesn’t actually have to say that. It just has to provide one little wedge of scripture for the action that our hypothetical Christian already wants to take. Very unfortunately, though the specific thought processes are hypothetical, the result is not, and many Christians used the verse in question in precisely that way.

We can easily wonder why there isn’t some kind of footnote or parenthetical remark that God would provide saying, “Don’t take this to mean that all Jews are guilty of the death of Jesus.” That simply wasn’t the issue at the time. I know that there are scholars who believe that this passage was penned precisely with the purpose of placing the blame for the death of Jesus on the Jews rather than the Romans. But even if that was the case, the historical context was a situation in which Christians were distinguishing themselves from Judaism more and more, yet it was still closer to a family fight with many Christians also considering themselves Jews, and thus requiring great care in application in any other situation. It’s quite possible that we should say that Jesus did provide a footnote, in Matthew 5:43-48–“Love your enemies!” Even if this verse did indicate a national guilt, and even if it did allow us to regard the Jewish people as our enemies, we’d still be commanded to love, and love would surely exclude persecution.

I have written about each of these elements before, but I think this brings them into focus:

• Read broadly, considering all aspects of context. The counterpoint may not be right there.
• Read in community, with accountability. There’s a place for standing for your principles no matter what, but there’s also a place for being accountable to others.
• Drop your agenda, and let God provide you with his agenda.
• Always look for the things that correct you rather than for the things that correct others.
• Listen to the Holy Spirit in the present.

As a final note, I believe that God gives us the scriptures as part of the experience of the community because he wants us to experience him in the present as a community. We might want a book of facts and detailed instructions. God wants to provide us with a guide for coming into relationship to him and experiencing him in our daily lives. The greatest antidote to hatred in our lives, I believe, is the regular experience of God’s love. When you constantly experience God’s loving presence, you will find it harder to believe that God is justifying hatred.