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Q.
Why are there so many completely different interpretations?
Craig Detweiler
A.
One of the great mysteries is why an omniscient God would entrust
his mission and intentions to such fallible people. Surely, someone
interested in getting things right could do much better. Perhaps
God intended to leave us plenty of room to roam.
I understand why the divisive nature of Christianity can be off-putting.
It is not much fun watching people argue, fi ght, and even kill in the name of
God. While it is good to see what kind of mettle we’re made of, when such
convictions cross over into personal and physical attacks, we are clearly acting
counter to God’s intentions.
Jesus engaged in the reinterpretation process. His subversive core prin-
ciples, known as the Beatitudes, offered a fresh take on preexisting truths and
maxims. On countless occasions he starts a story by saying, “You have heard
it said... but I say to you.” Jesus built an ethics upon the law that had already
been handed down. He continued the rabbinic tradition of inquiry, challeng-
ing his audiences to a new way of thinking/seeing/being.
Perhaps this ongoing battle over the Bible refl ects the heart of God. It
is good to study the scriptures, to get immersed in timeless truths. Surely,
engagement is preferable to indifference. But when the ethics of scripture are
lost amid an argument about their meaning, we have all lost perspective. And
suddenly, we need a fresh interpreter to remind us who we are, and whose
we are.
Jason Boyett
A.
Short answer: because we’re human.
Long answer: because we’re human and we are reading
ancient texts two thousand years removed from their context.
The Bible was not written in a vacuum, nor was it a preassembled holy
book that dropped out of the sky one day. It was written by multiple authors
over centuries and is a product of their culture, history, and perspective. Just
as a fi rst-century Jew would be confused trying to make sense of a modern
newspaper or devotional, it is diffi cult for us to make sense of ancient writings
without familiarity with their context.
But the Bible isn’t just a history book, of course, because believers con-
sider it to be divinely inspired. This gives greater weight to its instructions and
observations but it doesn’t make it any easier to understand. Trying to read
ancient texts with a modern mindset is very diffi cult, which is why different
traditions interpret different passages in different ways.