Humanity has inherited a wealth of scriptures from ancient times, which are accepted as authoritative to various religions. The scriptures are a record of the experiences of the past generations on the earth. Through the scriptures we can have a glimpse of how our ancestors faced the existential challenges on this earth. An examination of how they lived their life will help us today to live our life better. We have the option to use them, misuse them, ignore them, or even attack them.
Divinizing the Scriptures
When a community finds its scriptures very useful, slowly they might rise to a very high position in the minds of its members. The community might even place their scriptures on the seat of God. Once a scripture gets canonized or divinized like this, it ceases to be useful. It is treated as infallible, and it is believed to have directly originated from God. As a result people stop studying it. It is read only ceremonially, never subjected to critical study. Such an attitude can be counter-productive to the growth and development of a community. People often oppose scientific developments using their scriptures. A couple of centuries ago, people opposed Galileo’s idea of a round earth by quoting scriptures. Similarly today people oppose the scientific idea of evolution by quoting verses from the scriptures.
It also causes problems in human relations. A community that divinizes a certain scripture can develop friction with those who do not divinize it. For example, the Bible is divinized in the Christian community and the Koran is divinized in the Islam community. This can cause frictions in human relations where Christians and Muslims co-exist. Some Christians may try to burn the Koran, and some Muslims may try to burn the Bible.
Demonizing the Scriptures
In revolt against divinizing scriptures arises the approach of demonizing the scriptures. If scriptures make our existence miserable, the sensible way would be to get rid of them from our midst. If people oppose scientific development quoting Bible verses, the best solution would be to get rid of the scriptures. People attacked Galileo because there was a Bible they considered authoritative. People oppose the idea of evolution for the same reason. Doesn’t it mean that Bible is opposed to all human progress? Isn’t it imperative that this Bible be eradicated for the progress of humankind? Let all sensible people in the world unite against the scriptures! Let us burn them all in order to save the humanity! If we let the scriptures survive, humanity may not survive.
Reading the Scriptures
What we have seen above are the two extreme approaches to the scriptures. While some people place it on the throne of God ascribing infallibility to the scriptures, some others want to trash them or even burn them. For example when a lot of people in the south-east part of the US, called Bible belt, elevate Bible to the seat of God, a lot of people in the other parts of the US demonize it. Why do some people want to demonize the Bible? Because they see some people elevate it to the seat of God. Why do they do so? There could be more than one reason. The primary reason seems to be the lack of the right knowledge about the Bible. They get so much excited about the guidance it offers to life that they elevate it to the seat of God.
The right use of the scriptures is to read them with an open mind. Divinizing and demonizing the Bible are both misuse. Those who demonize the scriptures are mostly those who divinize the modernity and human rationality.
The Bible or any other scriptures from the ancient past are invaluable treasures. They provide us with a window to the life of our ancestors who lived on the earth long time ago. They are a means of communication across generations who are separated by millennia. A scripture is like a seed from a mighty tree of civilization that existed on the earth in the long past.
Reading and understanding a scripture from the past is not easy. We need to cross the barriers of language and culture. We need to know the worldview of the people and the exact context in which the scripture was written. When we make an effort to understand the scriptures, they talk to us giving us some guidance in our situation today. Our understanding is still going to depend on our own specific context. It seems that we can never have a fully objective understanding of the scriptures; it is always going to be subjective.
A Recent Example of Biblical Analysis
Recently I happened to listen to a presentation by a retired professor from Kerala on his view of the Bible. He made a content analysis and character study of the Bible. He stated that he was fascinated by one character in the Bible—Jesus. Other than the character of Jesus he couldn’t find anything worthwhile or admirable about the Bible. He did not refer to the context in which the Bible was written. He analyzed the Bible just like a contemporary text. He was eager to point out all kinds errors in the Bible—mainly the scientific, biographical, and biological. Among the many examples, he pointed out that the world could not have been created in BC 4000 as it has been calculated based on the Bible. He also pointed out that Lot’s daughters could not have had children from their unconscious father, for it is a biological impossibility. The strict sexual morality stated in the Bible is senseless and impractical. What he did was a textual or content analysis without any reference to the historical context in which the text originated or transformed over centuries. Much of his thrust was against divinizing the Bible. Although he repeatedly mentioned that Bible is a book and it needs to be read as a book, his approach slanted more toward demonizing the Bible. The only character worth salvaging in the entire Bible was that of Jesus. Coming from a retired professor of English literature, this presentation sounded disappointing.
Conclusion
How would you feel if you accidentally run into a literary work written by your father who passed to the other side of the veil a long time ago? Wouldn’t you feel excited to read it? You will handle it with respect because it was written by your own father. You will read it with all your attention because it offers you a window to the heart of your father. Would you care if you come across something you notice as a mistake in it? In spite of all the mistakes, you will respect it and cherish it because it was a creation of your own father.
I believe that this should be our attitude to the scriptures we have inherited from our ancestors. They are a creation of our forefathers, and we should treat them with respect and love. If we read them with an open mind and with humility, we will be able to learn many precious lessons from them. We wouldn’t disrespect them for any number of mistakes we happen to find in them.
