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| "Luther hatched the egg that Erasmus laid." Luther and Erasmus are pictured here. That is a quip to explain the Reformation in a few words. |
Part I
The Bible is not a difficult topic to understand, but
modern use and abuse have alienated it from many readers. One clever scholar
wrote a book about the Bible in America and provided a wealth of information,
but used this word – bible – throughout. Many of my students do the same
without thinking, perhaps influenced by that wink to readers who talk about
faith but have none. A bible is just a book, but Shakespeare is also a book, a collection
of plays in most cases, perhaps with sonnets included. No one writes about shakespeare.
MS Word corrected my deliberate mistake, but only with Shakespeare, not with
the Bible.
The Bible has been improved in so many ways in the last
70 years that many can hardly find our way back to the source. One revision was
not enough, so the new versions have multiplied faster than diet books. I
remember getting a four version New Testament in the 1960s, which offered parallel
selections, providing as much clarity as a family argument.
The Bible is the revealed Word of God, and is like Jesus
Christ, having two natures, divine and human, but without error. The Bible is
one Truth, the Book of the Holy Spirit, with all parts in harmony. The spirit
of rationalism, under the banner of improvement, is bound to move from one
imagined contradiction to another. However, faith in Jesus, the Son of God,
leads us from one priceless passage to another.
The Bible is inerrant and infallible. Everyone must
concede (unless they read Luther) that inerrant is a new description for the
Bible.[1]
Infallible was the prominent definition until the term was watered down so much
that the word became a criticism. The tepid theologians began saying, “Infallible
in doctrine, but not in history or geography.” That was like saying, “Your
essay is perfect, except in spelling and grammar.” The inspiration of the
Scriptures was limited by many similar qualifications and amendments, so
plenary was added to the inspiration of the Word of God.
Denomination mergers, which hid the internal conflicts,
were lubricated with this solemn and rather angry declaration – “The Bible did
not float down from heaven. It was written by men.” Some added, to ease the
pain of serious study, “We could have 30 books in the Bible or 100. Humans
decided the number.” I have never discovered a believer who thought the Bible
came down, in finished form, from heaven. Nor did I find an expert naming another
34 books for the canon. The Apocrypha, heavily promoted by the Church of Rome,
never qualified for the canon. The Vatican’s public relations team could little
more than make people wonder what those books were.
The greatest detour in understanding the Bible began with
Medieval philosophy and theology – they were really the same at that time. Augustine
began by spoiling the Egyptians, combining his universal grasp of secular
knowledge with the Scriptures. Toward the end of the era, Aquinas embalmed this
method, which was embraced by Rome. Reading both in Latin means moving from the
peak of erudition to denominational script.
Unfortunately
for many, Luther was urged to earn a doctorate in the Scriptures, which brought
him into constant and daily contact with the Bible. The Erasmus edition of the
Greek New Testament gave the Reformer the original text versus the
accepted and misleading Latin version. There is a reason the Holy Spirit chose
to speak to us in Greek, a language made universal by Alexander the Great’s
conquests, his exportation of Greek culture, and the merchants set up to do business
with the world. Centuries before the Nativity, Greek was planted as the natural
route for the Gospel to move about in the East and West. The mighty Roman
Empire, which grew after Alexander’s, looked up to Greek, which facilitated the
proclamation of the Gospel just as Rome began its decline and fall.
Luther
also learned Hebrew and used his verbal skills, with a team of scholars, to translate
the Old Testament. He completed the Bible he started when he translated the New
Testament from Greek into German at the castle.
[1] In
the Latin version of Luther’s Large Catechism, Holy Baptism, the words used are
the base for infallible and inerrant. But who reads Latin?
