At the end of the last post on Verbum Domini, I asked, “How to convince them {people today} that reality is actually found in Scripture? How to convince people that nature is not simply cruel and purposeless and that winning is not found in the one who dies with the most toys? Benedict to my mind is making all of the right connections, but how can Scripture be brought to life for those for whom it means nothing or for those who know nothing of it?” Many of the suggestions that are made (see the comments for Verbum Domini (2)) focus on clearing away the modern debris from the study of the Bible, which is often seen as the domain of the biblical scholar, – the creation of the debris that is, not clearing it away – and returning to a simpler, perhaps more naïve, reading of the Bible. In some ways I agree with this stance. Ben F. Meyer wrote, “Professional interpreters appear to differ markedly from common-sense readers and, on technical aspects of interpretation (use of linguistic, philological, historical resources), they do. In other respects, however, e.g., encounter with the text, report on encounter, critique of truth and value, the superiority of the professionals is random and unreliable” (Critical Realism and the New Testament, 28). So, there is no question for me that technically excellent biblical scholarship can miss the religious point of the text. Yet, I only agree somewhat with the stance that if we only returned to a pre-modern view of the Bible we would be much better off; while the professionals, of which I am one, can miss the point, it is also amazing how much of the Bible has been opened up through biblical scholarship. To cite only two examples: we understand much better Jesus’ Judaism and his place within it and the sorts of churches Paul started in a variety of Greco-Roman cities and the social and cultural background of these churches and cities. These two complexes of historical realities can give genuine insight into specific passages and general realities of the New Testament texts.

It is also the case that there is no way to turn back the clock on historical consciousness, the knowledge that every person is shaped by the age in which he or she exists. We cannot escape the desire and need to know the history of the biblical texts. The biblical authors were shaped by their own historical periods, but so, too, are biblical readers. The Church cannot turn its back on historical understanding, nor can it leave the fields of historical research to skeptics and those who do not believe in the divine character of Scripture. As such it is important for biblical scholars to make clear the historical nature of the text and its context(s). It is also true that the historical reality of Israel and Jesus’ incarnation, at the appropriate time, the right time, the fulfillment of the age,  shapes the Bible as a historical reality which must be understood in context…and yet, the Bible is also the Word of God and within and outside the Church it must be promulgated as such even when accounting for its historical context.

Yet, the questions still lingers, how to create the relationship of love with the Bible? How to create a bridge over centuries and millennia so that readers can enter into relationship with the God who loves us? The Pope writes,

“In all of this, the Church gives voice to her awareness that with Jesus Christ she stands before the definitive word of God: he is “the first and the last” (Rev 1:17). He has given creation and history their definitive meaning; and hence we are called to live in time and in God’s creation within this eschatological rhythm of the word” (29-30).

This powerful phrase, the “eschatological rhythm of the word,” calls us out of only living in a historical time and into the rhythms of eschatology or, we might say, eternity. Historical understanding of the biblical text should not create debris but clear a path to enable us to enter into a relationship with what is eternal, and that is the Word of God, primarily Jesus Christ himself but also the teachings contained in the Bible which call to us no matter in what age we were born. They call me the same way they called my grandparents and my great-grandparents and so through the generations. And many people think it ought to be a simple task to create reverence and love for and understanding of the Scriptures; a snap of the fingers and all swoon under the mesmerizing sway of the Scriptures, but it is not so. Many outside of the Church and many inside of the Church have had “a failed contact” with the Word of God. Last night I spoke with a friend who left the Church years ago, who was raised in and confirmed in the Church, but has not been back for over ten years. He talked about hearing readings in Church and wondering, “who are the Galatians and what does it mean to me?”

“Access to the Gospel is not to be taken for granted. Nothing guarantees it. It is helped or hindered in accord with humanly generated conditions. Millions live without the slightest contact with Church or gospel. Again, many have made failed contact, owing to misunderstanding, deliberate or indeliberate, or to superficiality, vacillation, immersion in anxiety or pleasure (Mark 4:14-19; Matt. 13:19-22; cf. Luke 8:12-14)” (Ben F. Meyer, Reality and Illusion in New Testament Scholarship, x-xi).

Access to the Gospel cannot be taken for granted because it depends to such a large extent on those who bear it and bear witness to it. People want to blame biblical scholars and biblical scholarship, and each can take their fair share of the blame – and I will take mine too – but this is too easy as a solution, as if biblical scholarship were to disappear and access to the truth of the Gospel would suddenly be granted to all who opened its pages. Bad biblical scholarship exists as does good biblical scholarship, and to the extent that bad biblical scholarship blocks “the flow of meaning and extinguish(es) the light of truth” (Meyer, xi) it must be countered with good biblical scholarship, but the problems run deeper in an age that looks not to reality but to virtual reality for answers.  Our culture is out of tune with the Scriptures and the responses to this must be deep and varied, but ultimately the only response that counts is the one that makes it clear that living with the truth of the Bible is transformative and life-changing.  I think most Christians refuse to see themselves as a part of the problem. It is easy to blame others, especially “biblical scholars,” but no theological discipline can outweigh the witness of people living out the Gospel in their daily lives. On the other hand, Christians who do not live their lives according to the Gospel give an equally powerful witness that the Bible is not to be taken seriously.

The task of the Church and its members is far more significant than the work of any theologian in making the Scriptures known and loved, as Verbum Domini here relates:

“Finally, in the Acts of the Apostles, we read that the Spirit descended on the Twelve gathered in prayer with Mary on the day of Pentecost (cf.2:1-4), and impelled them to take up the mission of proclaiming to all peoples the Good News. The word of God is thus expressed in human words thanks to the working of the Holy Spirit. The missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit are inseparable and constitute a single economy of salvation. The same Spirit who acts in the incarnation of the Word in the womb of the Virgin Mary is the Spirit who guides Jesus throughout his mission and is promised to the disciples. The same Spirit who spoke through the prophets sustains and inspires the Church in her task of proclaiming the word of God and in the preaching of the Apostles; finally, it is this Spirit who inspires the authors of sacred Scripture” (33).

If the Scriptures are unbelievable to many perhaps it is because they cannot overcome the unbelievability of its witnesses; if the truth of the Bible was being lived out by those who claim it is the Word of God then no amount of bad biblical scholarship could withstand the power of this reality. The Spirit is no different today and no less present than it was in Jesus’ ministry, or when it fell upon the Twelve, or when the inspired authors penned the writings that comprise the Bible. If people do not see the Spirit in the Scriptures today, could it be that we are to blame? 

John W. Martens 

Follow me on Twitter @johnwmartens

John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn,where he teaches early Christianity and Judaism. He also directs the Master of Arts in Theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. into a Mennonite family that had decided to confront modernity in an urban setting. His post-secondary education began at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, came to an abrupt stop, then started again at Vancouver Community College, where his interest in Judaism and Christianity in the earliest centuries emerged. He then studied at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, with stops at University of Haifa and University of Tubingen. His writing often explores the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman culture and belief, such as in "let the little children come to me: Children and Childhood in Early Christianity" (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), but he is not beyond jumping into the intersection of modernity and ancient religion, as in "The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television" (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Press, 2003). He blogs at  www.biblejunkies.com and at www.americamagazine.org for "The Good Word." You can follow him on Twitter @biblejunkies, where he would be excited to welcome you to his random and obscure interests, which range from the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, to his dog, and 70s punk, pop and rock. When he can, he brings students to Greece, Turkey and Rome to explore the artifacts and landscape of the ancient world. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and has two sons. He is certain that the world will not end until the Vancouver Canucks have won the Stanley Cup, as evidence has emerged from the Revelation of John, 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra which all point in this direction.