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The Bible is a dominant force in our culture today. It is a source of comfort and encouragement for millions and a source of abuse and pain for millions of others. As a former Southern Baptist pastor and university Bible professor and now since 1981, an openly gay pastor, teacher, writer, Internet evangelist, and community activist, I have had to face and deal with the Bible as both a blessing and a curse, a source of healing and a weapon of oppression. Homosexuals are not the only people who are systematically attacked and oppressed by the abusive use of the Bible. Women, children, various racial groups, and other minorities also have suffered under the lash of religious and Bible abuse. My web site on Steps to Recovery from Bible Abuse is written from the point of view of a gay man and is addressed primarily to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people. This is my world and my arena of personal experience and Christian calling. I believe, however, that what I have learned about the Bible and how to use the Bible in positive and healthy ways is of value to all people of faith and not just for homosexuals. Many people who have been oppressed by the Bible and religion have understandably abandoned the Bible and no longer see any practical or spiritual value in the Bible. This holiday season is a good time to take a fresh look at the Bible and discover for yourself how you can be objective about the Bible and use it for spiritual and practical encouragement and help.
Changing the way you see the Bible and what it means can be like finding
a new Bible that finally speaks to you and offers positive spiritual
encouragement and help.
For me, Jesus is the key and guide to a healthy objective use of the
Bible. I have discussed Jesus' use of the Bible in "Jesus and the
Bible" in my site. No two people experience Jesus and the Spirit of
Jesus in exactly the same way, which leads to the kind of diversity and
variety in life and ministry of individual Christians as described by
Paul in Romans 12, I Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4. These three
chapters set forth the principle of diversity within faith and open the
door for individuals to experience Jesus and the Spirit of Jesus in ways
that fit each person of faith.
The words "diversities" and "varieties" used by Paul are the Greek word
"heresy", which can mean both good and bad diversity. Without "heresy",
the church denies the freedom "for which Christ set us free" (Galatians
5:1) and the freedom that the Spirit brings (2 Corinthians 3:17). If
you really follow the teaching of Paul, you "work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling, for God is working through you both to desire
and to accomplish God's will" (Philippians 2:12-13) and thereby
celebrate and enjoy your individuality within the diversity that is
God's gift to all people in Christ.
Biblical literalism and judgmental legalism are blinding and binding
forces that work against discovering the liberating truth in Jesus and
in the Bible as viewed by and through Jesus. The use of certain "proof
texts" like 2 Timothy 3:16 to prove that the Bible is "the word of God"
not only ignores the clear message of John 1:1-14 that Jesus is the word
of God but also uses the same kind of selective, ignorant, and
out-of-context abuse of the Bible that is employed to attack and condemn
oppressed and outcast people.
I have regularly added new material to my web site section on "Hebrew
and Greek" within the larger section on "The Bible and Homosexuality".
If you have not recently looked at the "Hebrew and Greek" material, you
might find helpful information for seeing the Bible in a different more
positive and liberating light.
Whenever you have Bible questions that you think I might be able to
answer for you, please e-mail me and I will try to find and send to you
the information you need. My most recent addition of material about the
history of the Bible and the source of chapter and verse divisions was
the result of questions asked by readers of my site.
Your questions about the Bible can help me to know what new material I
need to add to my site. Please share your questions with me. I can
learn and do learn a lot from you.
Dr. Clyde T. Francisco was a great scholar and teacher who taught me
many of my Bible courses at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in
Louisville, KY. He was my teacher after the Revised Standard Version of
the Bible was published and had been condemned by many fundamentalists
as evil and as a Communist book (because it had a red cover!). Dr.
Francisco said that the reason the average church person had problems
with the Revised Standard Version Bible was because their pastors had
never taught the people that the Bible has a history. He was right.
No version of the Bible looks today as it did originally. Many changes
have been made in the way that biblical materials are packaged. The
original manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible were written on scrolls that
were rolled up and tied with a cord. Even in the time of Jesus,
individuals did not own Bibles. The sacred scrolls were kept in a
special box in the synagogue and taken out for reading by special
teachers and students and for Sabbath services. Changing the form of
the Bible materials from scrolls to stacks of pages came early in the
history of the New Testament. Perhaps the greatest difference in the
original manuscripts and our Bibles today is that both ancient Hebrew
and Greek were often written with no space between the words, without
punctuation, and without any division into chapters and verses.
Bible materials were first divided into chapters in 1238 by Cardinal
Hugo de San Caro of Spain. The division of Bible materials into verses
was done in 1551 by Robert Estienne. No systematic plan was followed in
either chapter or verse divisions, which often seem to be quite
arbitrary. This means that until after the time of Martin Luther
(1483-1546), no verse divisions existed. Luther's translation of the
Bible from Hebrew and Greek into German, containing no verse divisions,
was printed and widely used to fuel the fires of the Reformation.
The ancient manuscripts had no divisions into chapters and verses. Many
of the chapter and verse divisions break apart complete thoughts and
ideas that change the emphasis and thus the exact meaning from the
original. Modern punctuation also serves to mislead the reader into
separating ideas and breaking up the original ideas and emphasis in the
text.
The Gutenberg Bible of 1455 was the first Bible printed from movable
type. This Bible was the Latin version that was revised and translated
by many scholars, including Jerome (AD 347-419), who revised and
translated the New Testament. It contains no verse divisions. It also
contains brief passages that have never been found in any ancient Greek
manuscript. One example is the "Trinity" verse in I John 5:8, "the
Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. And
there are three that bear witness on earth..." This passage has never
been found in any ancient manuscript.
The verse is in the Latin version, however, and when the King James
translators came to it and did not find it in the Greek manuscript that
they were using, they simply translated the Latin into Greek and used
that as their basis for the English translation that is included in the
KJV of the Bible! Other passages, including the last seven verses of
the Book of Revelation, were also missing from the Greek text; so the
scholars also translated them from Latin into Greek and then based the
KJV on their English translation of the Greek that they had created with
no ancient manuscript evidence.
These are only a few of the reasons why you will profit from using a
carefully researched and translated modern language Bible like the "New
American Standard Bible," which I have discussed in my material on "What
Bible to Use" in the section on "Hebrew and Greek."
The Bible does indeed have a history. Learn about it. The three volume
set of The Cambridge History of the Bible tells the details. Also see relevant articles in The
Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible: An Illustrated Encyclopedia : 4
volumes and a supplementary volume: Abingdon Press, 1962 & 1976. This
is the best source I know for learning accurate information about the
Bible.
Remember that the Bible had endured many years of history before Jesus
used it, and he still found valuable spiritual resources in the
Scriptures. God is still able to speak in any way God chooses to speak,
and God speaks to those who are willing to listen. Jesus listened to
God and heard in the Bible things that everybody else had missed. Jesus
saw and demonstrated God's inclusive unconditional love for all people.
The Spirit of Jesus can guide your open minded study of the Bible and
the working of God in your own life.
Learn from every experience and every person that pass through your
life. The Bible has a history, and so do you. How has your personal
history shaped your use of the Bible? What is God trying to say to you
today?
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What The Bible Really Says About Homosexuality Daniel A. Helminiak, Ph.D. John J. McNeill
Robin Scroggs
Other Writings By Dr. Rembert Truluck in This Issue:
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