Deuteronomy 11:18-21
“You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and fix them as an emblem on your forehead. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise up. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.
For the past few weeks we have been talking about scripture, focusing particularly on the New Testament and stories about Jesus.
There hasn’t always been a written New Testament, of course, and yet how often do we remember to consider that when we are approaching a reading from scripture?
Although there are those who will tell you everything in the Bible comes directly from God’s mouth, straight to a scribe’s pen, the majority of modern scholars accept that the sagas, histories, and biographies that make up both the Old and New Testaments come from ordinary people sharing their best recollections of events they participated in personally, or at least witnessed.
In other words, all these books that make up the Bible, came from ordinary people, sharing what they deeply believed.
There were a number of years after Jesus’ death that all that people “knew” about Jesus came entirely from word of mouth – Jesus stories, shared and re-shared – some from people who had actually been there, many from people who “knew someone” who had been there, and probably a lot of “I heard from someone that someone told them...”
The first of the gospels to be written down, Mark’s, was written about 70 AD, a full 40 years after Jesus’ death. The earliest writing of any kind to be found in the New Testament, was Paul’s letter to the emergent church at Thessalonica -- written about 50 AD – 20 years after Jesus’s crucifixion. The last book, Second Peter, was written possibly as late as 150 AD. Therefore, the various books of the New Testament were written over a 100+ year interval – none of them within the generation that touched on Jesus’ actual life here on earth.
There were also several variations on what collection of books actually made up the New Testament – also known as the Christian Scriptures. When the early church Fathers were compiling the New Testament – somewhere in the very late 300’s -- it made sense to them that the writings specifically about Jesus should be first – since he was the reason for any of this – so the four gospels appear at the beginning of most NTs. And since the book of Revelation purports to be about the end times, it made equal sense to them that it should be placed at the close of this new compilation. And so it has remained ever since in most bibles.
Biblical Literalists, who believe every jot and tittle of the bible was divinely inspired in exactly the way the King James version – first published in 1611 -- presents them, would reject any attempt to re-order anything, but most modern seminaries and universities teach that the bible grew more organically over time from bits and pieces of memories, and eventually, from testimony.
Someone, I think it may have been Marcus Borg, once explained the difference between memory and testimony. Memory is the recollection and repetition of things someone has seen or heard for themselves. Testimony, on the other hand, is what one feels and believes based on the compounded statements and feelings of a community – in this case, the early church.
Much of the New Testament is written as if it is personal memory but it is actually testimony, based on the shared stories – told and re-told from memory -- stories about Jesus and about the church. Told in the most part by people who had never met Jesus in real life.
So what we have here is a collection of stories – some of them true memories, most of them communal version made up of a little of this and a little of that, written over a hundred and fifty year span by people living in different countries or provinces – and this is only the New Testament we’re talking about here, remember, and written in several languages – don’t forget the languages.
Frederick Buechner left us a wonderful example of how languages – particularly in translation – can change what we think we’re hearing or reading.
He uses the phrase “Blessed are the meek,” from the Sermon on the Mount. That of course is the English version. If we were to read this same line in a French translation it would, according to Buechner, read “Heureux sont les debonnaires,” (“Happy are the debonnaires.” ) That doesn’t sound much like ‘Blessed are the meek’ to me.
I only include this to show how little certainty there is in absolute historical accuracy any time we deal with old writings that have gone through many hands over a long span of time.
We end up judging them with our gut feelings as often as not. Does this sound like something the Jesus I think I’ve learned to love over the years would say? Would the Jesus who teaches and heals and feeds and comforts do or say such things? So we end up with our own best guess, the word of experts we trust, and the agreement of our community.
And love. We do our best, approaching each question with love, and we trust that love to get us through.
There hasn’t always been a written New Testament, of course, and yet how often do we remember to consider that when we are approaching a reading from scripture?
Although there are those who will tell you everything in the Bible comes directly from God’s mouth, straight to a scribe’s pen, the majority of modern scholars accept that the sagas, histories, and biographies that make up both the Old and New Testaments come from ordinary people sharing their best recollections of events they participated in personally, or at least witnessed.
In other words, all these books that make up the Bible, came from ordinary people, sharing what they deeply believed.
There were a number of years after Jesus’ death that all that people “knew” about Jesus came entirely from word of mouth – Jesus stories, shared and re-shared – some from people who had actually been there, many from people who “knew someone” who had been there, and probably a lot of “I heard from someone that someone told them...”
The first of the gospels to be written down, Mark’s, was written about 70 AD, a full 40 years after Jesus’ death. The earliest writing of any kind to be found in the New Testament, was Paul’s letter to the emergent church at Thessalonica -- written about 50 AD – 20 years after Jesus’s crucifixion. The last book, Second Peter, was written possibly as late as 150 AD. Therefore, the various books of the New Testament were written over a 100+ year interval – none of them within the generation that touched on Jesus’ actual life here on earth.
There were also several variations on what collection of books actually made up the New Testament – also known as the Christian Scriptures. When the early church Fathers were compiling the New Testament – somewhere in the very late 300’s -- it made sense to them that the writings specifically about Jesus should be first – since he was the reason for any of this – so the four gospels appear at the beginning of most NTs. And since the book of Revelation purports to be about the end times, it made equal sense to them that it should be placed at the close of this new compilation. And so it has remained ever since in most bibles.
Biblical Literalists, who believe every jot and tittle of the bible was divinely inspired in exactly the way the King James version – first published in 1611 -- presents them, would reject any attempt to re-order anything, but most modern seminaries and universities teach that the bible grew more organically over time from bits and pieces of memories, and eventually, from testimony.
Someone, I think it may have been Marcus Borg, once explained the difference between memory and testimony. Memory is the recollection and repetition of things someone has seen or heard for themselves. Testimony, on the other hand, is what one feels and believes based on the compounded statements and feelings of a community – in this case, the early church.
Much of the New Testament is written as if it is personal memory but it is actually testimony, based on the shared stories – told and re-told from memory -- stories about Jesus and about the church. Told in the most part by people who had never met Jesus in real life.
So what we have here is a collection of stories – some of them true memories, most of them communal version made up of a little of this and a little of that, written over a hundred and fifty year span by people living in different countries or provinces – and this is only the New Testament we’re talking about here, remember, and written in several languages – don’t forget the languages.
Frederick Buechner left us a wonderful example of how languages – particularly in translation – can change what we think we’re hearing or reading.
He uses the phrase “Blessed are the meek,” from the Sermon on the Mount. That of course is the English version. If we were to read this same line in a French translation it would, according to Buechner, read “Heureux sont les debonnaires,” (“Happy are the debonnaires.” ) That doesn’t sound much like ‘Blessed are the meek’ to me.
I only include this to show how little certainty there is in absolute historical accuracy any time we deal with old writings that have gone through many hands over a long span of time.
We end up judging them with our gut feelings as often as not. Does this sound like something the Jesus I think I’ve learned to love over the years would say? Would the Jesus who teaches and heals and feeds and comforts do or say such things? So we end up with our own best guess, the word of experts we trust, and the agreement of our community.
And love. We do our best, approaching each question with love, and we trust that love to get us through.
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