Q

uestion

101

If I don’t believe every word of the Bible is

literally true, how do I know what to consider

in context and what to set aside?

Gary Peluso-Verdend

Who is...

?

Gary Peluso-Verdend

I have never smoked—anything, ever.

A.

This is one of the most important questions anyone or any commu-

nity can bring to the Bible. In Proverbs 1:7 we read, “The fear of the

Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Another beginning of knowl-

edge is the realization that the Bible does not say anything but is one part of a

two-party communication. There is the Bible and there is the interpreter. No

one, and no community, listens without interpreting.

This claim regarding interpretation begs a question regarding we who

interpret: In which circle of interpreters will we stand? While the printing

press (and now iPhones and Kindles) allows us to read the Bible individually,

one should not read the Bible only alone. Everyone who reads the Bible needs

to choose the companions with whom he or she will read—which interpret-

ers, from which centuries, with which theological perspective(s), representing

which communities, from which countries, addressing which audiences?

It is also the case that the Bible contains many different kinds of literature,

including historical narrative, moral codes, visions, poetry, parables, extended

metaphors, and more. No one of these kinds of literature can be interpreted

responsibly without inquiring into the context within which a particular slice

of scripture should be interpreted.

Our circles of interpreters are companions and guides in rendering the

weighty judgments regarding what is the Word of God, or the words of God,

or the words that some community at some time thought God was saying but

that we now consider to be the words of fallible human beings.