So, the Bible reports what happened with God decades or centuries before anything was written down, and we don't have "authors" who got clever ideas and decided to write about them - so the question of who did the writing seems relatively unimportant. Jesus wrote nothing (except in the sand!). Abraham, Ruth, and Solomon never published anything. Paul dictated to a companion (with the exception of the end of Galatians when he picked up the parchment himself and wrote "See the large letters I am now writing with my own hand!"). The writing of the Bible materials was almost an afterthought, and we are grateful that some flash of insight (provoked by God?) nudged people to get it down in print for posterity. Imagine a world before the internet, before newspapers, before the printing press. In ancient times, very few people could read or write. The printed word was expensive: materials like papyrus had to be imported from Egypt; scribes labored long hours applying ink by hand. Ancient people were a bit suspicious of the written word: Socrates once complained that words on paper get into the hands "not only of those who understand it, but equally of those who have no business with it... When it is ill-treated and unfairly abused... it is unable to defend or help itself." Back then, no one had ever heard of (much less expected) a verbatim transcript of exactly what happened. And yet, since people had no printed record on which to rely, memories were strong. Studies show that in pre-literature cultures, the ability of the average person to remember with great clarity exactly what was said or done would amaze us. So the fact that stories and poems were passed word of mouth for decades and centuries before finding a home on a scroll is no criticism of their reliability. What is a scroll? Papyrus was fashioned into long rolls, maybe 10 inches high but up to 25 feet long (like the famous Isaiah scroll, found among the Dead Sea scrolls). A "book" could only be so long, because the technology was limited, and a scroll had to be manageable. When Jesus stood up in the synagogue of Nazareth to read from Isaiah (Luke 4:16), he lifted a rather heavy object, and it took him a while to unroll it to the proper location for the day's reading! Little wonder Christians were the first people in the world to begin making the codex: a stack of individual pages, stitched together like a book, for they were eager to flip through from one passage to another. Since few could read, most Bible writings were read out loud when people gathered for worship. Israelites thronged into the temple precincts, and heard a priest trumpet in his loudest voice the story of God delivering the people from Egypt. The first Christians huddled in the home of a member, and listened enthralled as a letter from Paul, or the vision of Revelation was read. Perhaps for us to "get" the Bible, we need to hear it spoken out loud, and in the company of others.
James james@mpumc.org
