I imagine that all faiths reject the acceptance of slavery these days and that there are differing understandings of what God affirms as the right relationships between wives and husbands. And do we really believe stories like Noah’s Ark – one boat being big enough to carry examples of all the creatures of the earth?
Of course, apart from some fundamentalists, most people of the three faiths probably see the Bible as containing all sorts of ways of communicating truth: in “stories” that are written as though they are history, in parables that are particular non-historical ways of conveying truth and in other forms of reflection.
A group I’m involved in recently thought it was time to write another section of the Bible, discussing the truth as we believe we know it today.
When clergy take passages of the Bible as the themes for homilies or sermons offered to the congregations of their churches, synagogues or mosques, they bring the Scriptures into new life. They address present-day questions and realties with what was said in the past, inviting people to go more deeply into what we might see and learn.
If we put together what these clerics say, we could indeed create new sections of the Holy Scriptures to offer to the world.
This is not to suggest we are trying to disprove the Bible. After all, there is already a lot of variety in what has been offered by people over many thousands of years. Each generation and culture freshly interprets what has been written as it is placed alongside what is known in all its complexity.
While it is unlikely that anyone will actually write a new section of the Bible, it could be helpful to imagine doing so to see more clearly what sort of book it is and consider how we understand the truth.
We would undoubtedly vary in our answers but maybe that would teach us something.
People down the ages, and from differing faiths and cultures, have claimed that they knew the truth and have encouraged others to believe in what they said and to live by it.
Perhaps, if we selected some early biblical passages and invited Jewish, Christian and Islamic leaders to share their interpretations, we would find that we are closer in our theologies than we had imagined. We might find creative ways to discover new insights about life and faith.
Christmas, celebrating the arrival of the One at the centre of the Christian faith, is a good time to explore more deeply the truth we have received and the truth we bring to the world.
