How to Use the Bible (Part II)

The Creation Process

by Brandon Jubar

"In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm, and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their words." (CCC 109)

The Bible is a collection of written works that were inspired -- not written -- by God. But if God didn't write them, then who did? And how did they do it? Did the authors of the various books of the Bible just sit down one day and start writing off the tops of their heads? Or was there a bit more to it than that?

Understanding the process by which the Bible was written is very important if we want to really understand the messages God is sharing with us. In fact, we can gain a whole new perspective on scripture when we realize how it came to be.

Experiencing Events

When I was growing up, a lot of things happened to my family and me. Some of them were good, some of them were bad -- and not all of them were worth remembering. But many of those events held valuable lessons, and I was better off having experienced them.
So it was with the Israelites and their descendants. Especially during the early part of their history, they had many profound experiences. Some of these were even encounters with God.

Storytelling

To this day, my family still loves to sit around and tell stories. Some of the stories are about events that I experienced growing up, but most of them are about things that happened before my lifetime. Though I didn't personally experience these prior people, places, and events, the stories that are told often make me feel like I really was there!

As the Israelites continued to survive, their own stories were passed on orally from generation to generation. In those days, writing was not really known, so the history and culture of the people were handed down through the spoken word.

Writing It Down

This is where the parallels between my family and the Israelites ends. My family is still sitting around telling the old stories -- and occasionally experiencing some new ones as well.

The Israelites, however, eventually got around to writing their stories down. Unlike a history text though, these stories were not concerned with exact quotes or accurate timelines. The goal of these stories was to take the lessons learned from generations of experience, and document the experiences in a way that emphasized the lesson itself.

Editing and Refining

Biblical scholars and theologians know that most of the books in the Jewish Scriptures were not written by a single author, but rather they were edited by different people over a period of time. Because of this, the final versions usually contained a great deal of the editors' culture and personal bias.

It is also believed that many of the stories we read today were actually created by combining events and stories from the oral tradition, and by using details from different accounts of the same event. Quite often things were added based upon more current religious events or understandings, too.

Deciding What's In

It's a common misconception that the books of the Bible are organized in the order that they were written. For example, the gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John appear before the letters of Paul, which were actually written much earlier. Deciding the order of appearance, as well as deciding which books would be included, was a task left up to the Church.

The list of books that eventually made it into the official Catholic Bible are called the Canon of the Bible. The debate over what would be included went on for hundreds of years. In fact, it wasn't until the sixteenth century that the Catholic Church put forth the official Canon.

When we consider the complexity of the Bible and understand how it came to be, it's easy to see that its passages often contain many layers of meaning. That's why we rely a great deal on the Church for explanation and guidance when it comes to discerning God's Truth in the Sacred Scripture.

Life Applications:

What stories do your family share?
How would you begin documenting a family history?
When was the last time you read a Bible? What did you read and why?

Copyright 2003 by Brandon Jubar
All rights reserved.