What does the Bible say about....?

 In discussions about homosexuality people often turn to the Bible for an answer. The big problem with this approach is that it turns the Bible into something which it is not, a sort of religious  encyclopedia. Typical of this approach is the question: "What does the Bible say about....." It seems to suppose that the Bible says something about everything in life. One often even hear preachers comparing the Bible with a manual or a handbook.

 Dangerous:

Attractive as this may sound, it is a dangerous approach. Taken to its logical conclusions it leads to bigger questions. If one could for instance ask the question: "What does the Bible say about the nature of the earth?" you would have to conclude that the earth is flat and rests on pillars. The only reason many Christians don't do that is because we had 500 years of hard scientific proof that convinced us that this is not the case. It took a while to get used to it, but I know of no one that would insist that similar descriptions from the Bible describe the reality of the earth anymore. It would have been nice if the Bible told us that sickness could be caused by germs or a virus, that the earth revolves around the sun, that coca-cola is bad for your teeth etc. That is however not the case. The Bible is simply not an encyclopedia, and to treat it as such is actually a form of disrespect even though it is disguised in a tux and a black tie. This approach tends to read the Bible a a collection of verses written to modern individuals instead as books written to specific people with specific questions in the past. Treating the Bible like this often result either in heresy, hurt or unbelief. 

“the fountainhead of all false biblical interpretation and of all heresy is invariably the isolation and the absolutising of one single passage.” (Oscar Cullmann, The State in the New Testament, 47).

It is therefore better to drop the 'about' part of the question when approaching the Bible and simply ask: What does the Bible say? This is not easy, because our heads burst with questions and our conflicts crave a judge's hammer that will easily settle arguments, preferably in our favor of course.. Let me illustrate the difference:

'Biblical giving':

A few years ago, I heard a preacher give a powerful sermon on giving. He preached about the widow who gave her last two copper coins (Mark.12:41-44) in such a compelling way that at the end of his sermon people were flooding to the front of the church to empty their wallets. Ironically most of the money probably paid for the preachers plain-ticket to the Bahamas. I have also noticed that it is usually not the widows who preach from this passage.  The sermon that resulted from this passage was the result of asking the question:"What does the Bible say about giving in church?"

What is the result when one approaches the same passage not with the question:"What does the Bible say about giving?" but rather with the question "What does the Bible say?" or in this case, what is the author of the gospel trying to say with this passage. The passage gets a whole new meaning. Let us look at the broader context of this passage.

The incident with the widow occurs at the end of a series of conflicts between Jesus and the religious leaders in Jerusalem (Mark. 11:27-12:40) and right before the words of Jesus about the destruction of the temple (Mark. 13). Actually the tension between Jesus and the temple already comes to the surface after His entry into Jerusalem (Mark. 11:1-26). Just preceding the incident where this old widow comes to give her copper coins, the author relates that Jesus said:

"Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation." (Mar 12:38-40)

This widow giving her last coins illustrated the failure of the temple and it's leaders to do what was just. A closer reading of Mark 11:1-26 reveals how the story of the cursed fig tree is intertwined with the cleansing of the temple and the eventual destruction of it. The story of the exploited widow giving her last coins is a most concrete example of the bad fruit of the temple system in the time of Jesus. All of this is simply not seen when someone read the passage of the widow in isolation as an answer the question: "What does the Bible say about giving?".

When read as part of the carefully composed gospel of Mark, asking what the author is trying to say, the passage of the widow giving her coins is not in the first place about giving, but an tale about God taking the side of those who are exploited by religious leaders. What happened however is that this preacher in his expensive suit already knew what he wanted to say about giving. All he needed was a text to give it a legitimate basis. He found his text and he got his money, sadly ignoring the bigger warning the whole passage had in store for him and others like him.

A similar thing happens when people in the debate about "What the Bible says about homosexuality?" usually read Romans 1:24-32 and fail to see how the passage is part of a whole letter, with an agenda they themselves often ignore: equality before God and the unity of the church. Perhaps when I have time, I will write more about that.  For now it is sufficient to say. Don't ask what Paul says about homosexuality in Romans. Simply ask:"What was Paul trying to say?" Taking seriously what Paul is trying to say in the whole letter should keep us busy for a while.