But The Bible Says.....

Still Life with Open Bible - Vincent van Gogh, 1885

One of the things I learned early in ministry was to stay away from conversations which began, “But the Bible says...”

Whenever I hear those words, I watch out - a fight (or at the very least an argument) is about to break out, because when it comes to the Bible, everybody (and I mean EVERYBODY) has an opinion. The trouble with opinions is like the trouble with free advice - they’re worth about what you pay for them.

 

One of the most challenging questions I’ve ever heard about the Bible was this:

“What is the method by which you interpret the Bible?”

Now I know that the mere question itself upsets some folk. They’ll try to tell you that  “We let the Bible speak for itself” or “The Bible is the Word of God, it doesn’t need interpretation.”

But the truth is, nobody (and I mean NOBODY) reads the Bible alone. Everybody brings something to the table when it comes to the Holy Scripture. What people bring could be almost anything, but no one comes to the Bible without preconceptions and bias.

1611 Authorized Version - "The King James Bible"

Just look at all the different translations out there. Every one has its own bias, and none is free from interpretation. I mean, how can one possibly avoid interpretation? Anyone translating from ancient common Greek (the language of the New Testament) has to do some interpreting in order to make the text understandable to readers. Which is how it should be.

The problem is not about translating Greek into English (or any other language for that matter). The problem lies with what other things affect interpretation - like one’s view of sin, or salvation, or church, or most of all who one believes Jesus is. All of these colour our attempts to say what the Bible really means.

When people say “But the Bible says...” They’re usually not going to tell you what the Bible says, but what they believe it MEANS! And that’s interpretation. The issue is not about whether a person or group has an interpretation, but about which interpretation they have! It’s not about which Bible translation is the purest, or which is the most faithful to the original text. And it’s not about which Christian group uses which translation and which group really teaches what the Bible says. The issue is the means of interpretation is being used, because everyone uses one, and all methods of interpretation are not equal.

If you and I are to be responsible Christians “rightly dividing the Word of God” (2 Timothy 2.15), then we need to ask what the source of our Bible interpretation is, and where it came from. Because, until we do, we will be at the mercy of all the people who stand ready to tell us in no uncertain terms - and in contradictory terms - “But the Bible says...”

We Orthodox – we Slavs and Byzantines, and yes, we North Americans too - interpret the Holy Scripture through the lens of the Church - looking especially at the Church's Councils, especially the Ecumenical Councils, and the Church Fathers – paying particular attention to those Fathers who wrote homilies and commentaries. 

Our method of interpretation is quite simple: we ask the question

“What do the Fathers say?”

and then we do everything in our power to stick with what they have said through thick and thin, trying never to deviate from the path they have scribed. For the Orthodox, novelty and originality are not virtues, but the first steps to falling way from the Truth we have received.