Introduction
If we crack down on the etymology, we see that theology means the study of God. For Christians, the preeminent resource for the study of God is, naturally, the Bible. It should have come as no surprise, then, that the first lecture of my Theology programme was not Introduction to Theology; rather, it was Introduction to the Bible. Pope Paul VI eloquently articulated the connection between theology and the Holy Writ in Dei verbum:
Sacred theology rests on the written word of God, together with sacred tradition, as its primary and perpetual foundation. By scrutinising in the light of faith all truth stored up in the mystery of Christ, theology is most powerfully strengthened and constantly rejuvenated by that word. For the Sacred Scriptures contain the word of God and since they are inspired, really are the word of God; and so, the study of the sacred page is, as it were, the soul of sacred theology (VI, 24).
While the Bible is the most printed and one of the most possessed books, it is not the most easily processed book. Even after decades of professing Christianity, many feel like we have only scratched the surface of divine revelation.
Since the Bible is the source of all theology and the primary resource for theology as a discipline, it is a fitting exercise to confront the difficulties we come up against when reading it. Here are the ones I could think of:
1) Linguistic Deficiencies
Someone who reads Matthew 1:24–25 (“When Joseph woke from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son”) might become perplexed about the word until because their first instinct is to latch on to the most basic sense of the word. If this is the case, they will either evade the topic of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary or become susceptible to Protestant argumentation against the dogma. They might not be able to catch other usages of the word, such as when Jesus says, “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world (Matthew 28:20),” which does not mean that Jesus will stop being with us after the end of time, just that what happens after is not of concern to us.
2) Interpretive Incapacity
A reader who cannot appreciate literary devices like analogies, parallels, metaphors, narrative structure, and polysemy might grasp the literal, but not the typological, moral/tropological, and anagogical substance of the text. For example, in John 6:35–66, when Jesus said that people would have no life unless they fed on His flesh and drank His blood, the Twelve themselves confessed that such speech was hard to listen to and started grumbling like the Jews. Many other disciples turned away and left. This is because their minds only registered the literal aspect of the words: “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” (John 6:52). Literalist readings of the Bible produce simplistic and often dangerous interpretations. This same section might be understood by a weak interpreter as a bizarre, macabre, cannibalistic act, whereas a well-rounded interpreter will understand the text as referring to the Eucharist, “a holy, unbloody sacrifice” (Canon of the Tridentine Rite).
3) Contextual Ignorance
When current events are complex and incomprehensible, it is much harder to make sense of spatio-temporally remote events. Biblical chronology and culture are not explicit, so the symbols and societal norms might not resonate with us. As the course teacher said, a Jew might feel that John the Evangelist is stating the obvious when he writes, “And it was night” (John 13:30).Every Jewish person knows that it is dark after the Sabbath meal. However, John was linking a seemingly obvious religio-cultural fact with Judas’ abandonment of Jesus, the Light of the World, and his departure into eternal darkness from which he would never return. Similarly, when Jesus tasked Mary Magdalene with the annunciation of His resurrection (John 20:17), the significance of His person of choice might not be appreciated by someone who does not understand that credibility was not accorded to the testimony of a woman in first-century Jewish society.
4) Conceptual Reasoning
Not everyone has the ability to process abstract concepts at a high level. In John 18:36–37, when Jesus speaks to Pilate of His kingdom, Pilate fumbles with the idea. Then, when Jesus clarifies His mission “to bear witness to the truth”, Pilate asks Him, “What is truth?” Like Pilate, we might knowingly or unknowingly struggle to define concepts like love, truth, kingdom, and peace in a Christian sense and, as a result, fall prey to worldly adulterations of the same—for example, confusing the perfect, transcendental Love of the Bible with “love is love” (the LGBTQIA+ slogan), self-love, or lust. If that is the case, we run the risk of grossly misinterpreting and misapplying biblical philosophy in incompatible contexts.
5) Inadequate Catechesis
By the same word of Scripture the ministry of the word also, that is, pastoral preaching, catechetics and all Christian instruction, in which the liturgical homily must hold the foremost place, is nourished in a healthy way and flourishes in a holy way. (Dei verbum, VI 24).
Catechesis is not restricted to Sunday School for children and youth, but the usual pattern is for young adults to drop out post-Confirmation. Many churches do not have the resources for ongoing adult catechism, and many lay adults simply do not have the time due to the demands of modern living. Although Dei verbum exhorts the clergy to “hold fast to the Sacred Scriptures through diligent sacred reading and careful study”, good pastors with insufficient homiletic abilities might not be able to enlighten the minds of the faithful on the Word of God. In certain cases, people who yearn to understand the scriptures might not have access to books or experts. In other cases, the lack of effort to self-catechise is also responsible for difficulties when reading the Bible.
6) Scepticism and Arrogance
Suspending our disbelief when reading the Bible, especially the books of the Old Testament, is well-nigh impossible. Instead of confessing, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24), some of us choose the arrogance of the fool in Psalm 53:1 who says, “There is no God.” Instead of tempering our incredulity and conceitedness with a little proverbial wisdom—“Do not lean on your own understanding. Be not wise in your own eyes” (Proverbs 3:5)—we succumb to the tendency to peg the Creation Story, the Great Flood, and even Gospel events like the Resurrection as fables, fiction, and fantasy. As atheism and agnosticism are on the rise, and a scientific temperament is considered more desirable than biblical conviction, we might discredit the factuality of the Creation narrative and favour Darwinian evolution or the Big Bang theory. Even nominal Christians who hear and read the Word could be closeted doubters or non-believers who cordon off their minds to the influence of scripture. So, the words and works of God, which are supposed to be transformative agents, are reduced to fodder for intellectual nitpicking.
7) Religious Trauma
Unfortunately, the Word of God has been distorted historically and currently by groups and individuals with malicious agendas or mental disorders. Slavery, racism, misogyny, war and other forms of discrimination and abuse have been biblically justified at one point or the other. Persons raised by Bible-thumping authority figures or those who have suffered abuse at the hands of Christian priests and ministers might develop an aversion towards the Word of God because they associate it with traumatic life experiences.
Let There Be Light
Wrapping up Dei verbum, Pope Paul VI hopes that “the treasure of revelation, entrusted to the Church, may more and more fill the hearts of men” (VI, 26). Though the above reasons might be stumbling blocks to a great many of us, they can impel rather than deter us to read the Bible, a book that becomes more lucid and more layered with every read.
The first words that proceeded from the Godhead were, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3). Later, the Psalmist compared the Word to light that “imparts understanding to the simple”. (Psalms 119:105). And we all know that light cuts through the darkness.
Finally, it helps to know that the Three-in-One upstairs have reassured us that taking up our Bibles is not a fruitless task:
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:10–11).
What are you still doing here? Go forth and let the light seep in!
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